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> Gee, the general perception of unions is so far removed from
> the reality
> of union history and day-to-day working conditions, let alone
> union-management relations, that it's hardly worth discussing. Union
> craftsworkers, such as carpenters and electricians, have as much as a
> 4-year training apprenticeship, and in their specialties, they're
> unequalled in quality. Few carpenters can frame up a house as
> quickly or
> competently as a union carpenter.
And, the oppsing voice sez:
1) Next time there's a trade show at a major venue,
arrange to go with your company's trade-show people
(who may be just the marketing staff from down
the hall)
Look at the line-ups to get to the loading docks
with your pre-fab booth and your samples and equipment.
Notice how they get longer every time a union break
comes around.
In frustration, try to use your own muscle-power to
move your equipment to the show floor. If you try to
borrow an unused dolly or lift-truck, you'll likely
get a broken wrist for your troubles. If you have
cannily brought your own dollies, or have all your
heavy stuff in self-wheeled containers, you'll find
your way blocked by union-types, who appear from
no-where, or by a management type who would rather
keep peace with the union than with some exhibitor
who will be gone in a week.
Endure similar frustrations when trying to get
services to your booth (electricity, etc.),
including somebody who inspects to make sure you
have not run any extension cords of your own,
even though the ones they eventually get for you
are lower quality and have lived a hard life...
Do not, under any circumstances, get caught changing
a burnt light-bulb, or stapling the upholstery on
the ratty extra chairs they so graciously brought
for you. Those are union-only jobs, and will be
undone, before they are redone by a union body...
if they get done at all.
2) One of the things that encouraged me to get out of
"my" union back at Micom (later bought by Philips)
in Montreal was that the union began doing
"time-and-motion" studies on everybody's job.
The goal was not to find the most efficient way
to do each job. No,
the goal was to "standardize" each job, according
to the movements the worker performed, so that
jobs could be thereby classified and pay-scales set.
Basically, they almost succeeded in getting box-stuffers
and circuit-board stuffers (before automation) paid
as well as technicians. In practice, that meant that
the technicians got no raise when the next contract
came into effect, while assembly-line people and
people in packaging and shipping were made very
happy indeed. We lost a lot of techs in the next
few months. It was forbidden for technicians to
work there if they were not unionized. The only
escape was to win one of the limited number of
staff jobs in engineering or customer support (the
latter being my exit).
The foolishness was corrected, but not until the
four-year contract had run its course.
Remember the Arnold Schwartzenegger movie "Pumping Iron"?
The scene where Arnie has come to America and gotten
a warehouse job to keep himself fed while he trains
for the Universe (or was it Olympia?) contest, and
he's getting his chops busted by union workers who are
angry that he's showing them up by working too hard?
That scene was taken from life. I was no Arnold as
a youngster, but I was eager and hard-working, and
was taken aside more than once by old union hands
in a couple of my summer jobs, who didn't want me
making them look lazy. That was in warehouses (Canfor,
if anybody has heard of it) and in a pulp mill.
My brother hit the same kind of thing when he worked
in the mines.
As well, both of us lost a lot of income by being
forced to wait on "elligibility lists", so that
we could work a few shifts. The union actively
prevented the company from selectively employing
the workers who demonstrated the greatest ability
and willingness. Seniority ruled. No exceptions.
If that kind of thing makes its way into tech writing,
I'll have to find a new career. I'm just brushing the
underside of 50, and I don't think I could stand to
work the next fifteen or twenty years with my skin
crawling every day...
/kevin
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