Yes, we need protection...

 

The only protection we need is from ourselves

 

unions are a good deal if you are young . in 25 years you will have a pension. some teamster unions are better than others do your home work. you get all the crap runs in crap areas when you first start but as you get seniority you get to pick the better runs . it takes a few years but time goes by fast. i was a teamster for 25 years retired at 44 years old. still have to work but now only part time. i work for a non union company and they treat there drivers very good . but there retirement package is no bargin so you need to look in to that. and they pay by the run or mile as were teamsters pay by the hour + ot. the more reliable you are the better of you will be in a union or non union job in the end .

 

Keep your nose out of other people's business.

Again, be like America pre WWII and do your job to the best of your ability. It isn't your place to judge anyone's performance. You can always haze the slackers, right? :roll: Plus, how would another person's performance affect yours? That sounds very odd to me. I don't base my level of work on what my coworkers do.

Not quite sure what you're saying. Without defense lawyers, there is no right to trial. Straight to jail with you. Same for union reps. Straight to the papers looking for a new job for you!

Same in non-union companies.

Prices for goods have steadily increased yet union membership has dropped every year for quite a while. Please clarify your position.

Yes and no. I worked for a non-union construction company hauling gravel and made within 5% of the local union shop.

See above.

Maybe. My dad is in the plumbers union and now gets 4 weeks a year after 15 years on the job. My friend at the Post Office gets 5 weeks after 6 years.

American companies will NEVER adopt Japanese business models. NEVER. And it's very sad to me. There is far too much divide between the rich and the not so rich. Even doctors and other similar careers (who do really well for themselves in America) have incomes that cannot compare to company CEOs. It's ridiculous. Firefighters and LEOs for example should be paid at least as much as doctors. It's appalling.

 

[quote="ColinThere is far too much divide between the rich and the not so rich. Firefighters and LEOs for example should be paid at least as much as doctors. It's appalling.[/quote]

Colin - I know you're an educated guy, but you must have missed out on many economics classes.

Every private sector job in a free market economy like ours is paid EXACTLY what it is worth.

The pay level for every job is at the point where demand for the work meets the supply of acceptable labor to do that work.

The only exception I'm aware of is the dock workers who have an absolute monopoly (enforced by thuggish & illegal intimidation & violence) on US ports. The pricetag for those 6-figure forklift drivers is an embedded cost on to the products that we receive from oversees.

BTW - If you think any corporation is making too much, you need to purchase some stock shares and partake of the "massive profits" :lol: that you presume are flooding in. The NYSE doesn't exclude ANYONE, even truck drivers! :P

 

I think that the "free market economy" is no longer. There is too much corporate welfare and too many oligolpolies to say that we are in a free market. Merger after merger is approved by the FTC. I fully understand that market drives prices/wages and I also think it is complete bee ess. What does Pepsi own besides a soft drink manufacturer? How many car brands does Ford own? Why is that okay for one company to be in control of the same product? Last year, hard drive manufacturers Seagate and Maxtor merged, leaving us with one less company to choose from. This happens over and over.

Back in 1990, I paid $250 for a Sony 5 disc cd changer. No optical outputs, but a simple remote. Today I can buy a new Sony 5 disc changer with optical output that plays cd-r/rw (extra features, those are) for $99. Imported electronics are cheaper than ever despite thug forklift drivers handling the containers. I pooh pooh on your higher prices comment.

If you're referring to cars, that's different. Every model year, cars have more and more technology in them than the previous year. More economical engines, better parts, safety features, etc. It makes sense that more features would cost more the next model year.

 

I wouldn't exactly say every private sector job is paid exactly what it's worth. If that were the case they wouldn't have minimum wage laws. They wouldn't have overtime laws either nor many other labor laws. We do not have a true free market economy.

 

Wow Mi-Rookie, that's a rare opinion in these parts up here,everyone is entitled to there opinion, ,without a union I would not enjoy the wages, lifestyle, benefits, pension and security of my company driver job.

I do a run that pay x hours and I can do the run as quick as I want as long as I make my window. A lazy, overpaid, union worker can take 4 hours longer everyday if he wants, hit every stop along the way. We still make the same amount for the run to the penny. How is that person somehow belittling my hard work. He can do his run the way he wants and I can do mine the way I want. His effort has no effect on mine.

If the same guy misses windows, he is fired, period, happens all the time. (without good reason, and after a few warnings)

Manufacturing companies that hire transportation companies do not care if their employees are union or not and their bid selection does not have different criteria for either type of company. They bid per mile, if my unionized company wins the bid we bid cheaper than another company, period.

Difference is I am paid well and my company simply makes less overall profit by sharing with the driver, as opposed to a company that pays it's people peanuts and bids within pennies per mile on the same lanes as my company.

All that is great I guess, but apart from the wages, my personal favorite is I bid on my run by seniority. Doesn't matter the guy below me brings management. Try the fruit baskets, chocolate trays, and foot massages, whatever, they do the job I do not want. And I do the job the guys above me didn't want. Refreshingly simple, I love it.

 

I don't think you'll ever see unions in a trucking company again. You need the signatures of at least a certain percentage of the drivers before you can form a union. If you did succeed, drivers wages would probably go up and hours of driving would go down. Then your customers would go to another trucking company for a cheaper rate and that would be the end of your union company. Not like the old days when there was only a hand full of different types of businesses that you could mobilize. Much different today.

My guess is that in my lifetime unions will be gone for good.

 

Mythology is mythology, and it's often taught as Economics in university.

I agree with the driver who wrote, "We don't have a free market economy." That is one of those knee-jerk phrases designed to get a knee-jerk reaction.

They also say this is a "free" country. But I won't go there!

About Walmart, as I see it, they sell SOME goods cheaply, SOME goods at the same price as the competition, and SOME goods higher than we realize.

The goods they sell at a real discount SOMETIMES they get from American manufacturers on a special deal where they don't actually pay the manufacturer until months later, so Walmart can leverage their own costs. The manufacturer is so happy to get nationwide distribution, he bends over backwards to make Walmart happy.

That's one scenario.

Other goods that Walmart sells are imported from China, and they may be assembled by workers in prison, or workers in work camps, who are housed in barracks (i.e. multi-level boxes just big enough to sleep in). Those workers have no expenses and no salaries to speak of. It's a form of modern slavery.

Restoring unions is ONE FACET of a whole new approach to life in America, and thoughtful people need to EXIT THE TWO MAJOR PARTIES in droves.