Happy Labor Day

[alysheba88]

Remember all those that fought and died for basic worker rights that we now take for granted.

[Ocala Mike]

Surprised not to hear (yet) about how Labor Day is just another celebration of the Union of Socialist Americans (that's the good old USA to you yahoos).

Once upon a time in this country, a working man could be proud to say he belonged to a union, could count on a steady job in manufacturing, and could make a livable wage. Today, that same guy is facing right-to-work laws, layoffs, wage stagnation, and underemployment.

Happy Labor Day!

[bigrun]

Originally Posted by Ocala Mike

Surprised not to hear (yet) about how Labor Day is just another celebration of the Union of Socialist Americans (that's the good old USA to you yahoos).

Once upon a time in this country, a working man could be proud to say he belonged to a union, could count on a steady job in manufacturing, and could make a livable wage. Today, that same guy is facing right-to-work laws, layoffs, wage stagnation, and underemployment.

Happy Labor Day!

Once known as the backbone of American, he has, like the Indians, all but disappeared...

Happy Labor Day to all you working men and women........

[Breakage]

Yep big Happy Labor day to those 40% of the unions not working but currently getting paid anyway.

[Breakage]

Facing right to work laws-how hilarous.

YEa god forbid anyone should want a job and not be forced to join a labor movement.


MOst Americans don't even know that some states require you to join a labor union to work some jobs.

Imagine if they actually knew this **** existed.

[mfactor]

Unions....honest days pay for a honest days work....lmfao...

[alysheba88]

Last I checked not every worker is in a union

Not that I am saying they are bad

In ideal world they would never be necessary

They are much less necessary now thanks to the commonly accepted practices that blood had to be spilled for

[bigrun]

Originally Posted by Breakage

Yep big Happy Labor day to those 40% of the unions not working but currently getting paid anyway.

Aint America great!!!

[Breakage]

IT is sick. In order for my wife to teach in a public school in PA she has to join a union.

Same union of course perpetuates poor teachers and by doing so indirectly punishes achievers like my wife.



My favorite is the ad campaign against Ballys and Ceasars in AC by the UAW,
that's right folks-the craps dealers are really making cars.


BTW 40% of the City of Philly weekly payroll currently goes to union members not working. What is the number for the car companies? 60%?

[bigrun]

Originally Posted by Breakage

IT is sick. In order for my wife to teach in a public school in PA she has to join a union.

Same union of course perpetuates poor teachers and by doing so indirectly punishes achievers like my wife.



My favorite is the ad campaign against Ballys and Ceasars in AC by the UAW,
that's right folks-the craps dealers are really making cars.


BTW 40% of the City of Philly weekly payroll currently goes to union members not working. What is the number for the car companies? 60%?

Unemployment compensation.....another American Dream.....

[jimmy6]

[QUOTE

Same union of course perpetuates poor teachers and by doing so indirectly punishes achievers like my wife.



I would say your wife is a saint

[petespocketfull]

happy labor day and ill get it ready for 2012- happy fema camp slave labor day.


worked for a union for less than a month. found it to be a complete joke so i quit and got my contractors license and my life turned for the better by leaps and bounds.

[alysheba88]

I know better than to suggest taking a look at labor history 100 years ago

Because many here are not intellectually curious. Would rather live life of lies and be dictacted to by Beck and Rush

Easier that way

[Breakage]

Gallup poll says Americans dislike labor more than ever.

Seems maybe actually putting 2+2 =failed Detroit finally got home after a half century.

[Ocala Mike]

It shouldn't even be a holiday here in Florida. I got "forced out" of a civil service job down here a few years back because I tried to organize 50 or so people who were asked to work in a "sick" building full of mold, dirt, and germs. It seems that the government entity I had the misfortune to be working for had steered a lease to the owner of the building who was in their "good ol' boy" network.

Not long after I left, incidentally, the lease was terminated and the people got to work in a healthier environment. I like to think that I had something to do with the move, although it happened after I left.

As far as labor relations go, Florida is a giant plantation where labor is cheap, unorganized, and tremendously exploited (which is why it's such a popular state for companies to move to).

Union is a four-letter word down here, and the worst part of it is that they have the working people themselves believing it! Waiting for Michael Moore's new flick, which, I'm sure is anticipation not shared by the "keepers of the flame" on this list.


Ocala Mike

[Breakage]

Money pit: The UAW’s gold-plated golf course
By Michelle Malkin • December 16, 2008 06:58 PM

President Bush and the Democrats are happily hammering out the final details of the UAW bailout. The union fatcats are laughing all the way to the…golf course. Their gold-plated golf course. Oh, wait, President Bush forgot to mention it.

And while everyone’s blabbering about “concessions,” here’s a question: If the auto CEOs have to give up their jets, what about the UAW brass and their posh resort?

Here:

Black Lake Golf Course

“Owned and operated by the United Auto Workers union, Black Lake is a public course that provides UAW members and retirees substantial discounts from the regular greens fees. But even at regular rates of up to $95 per round, Black Lake is worth the price. Tee time reservations are accepted up to 14 days in advance for UAW members, and three days in advance for public play.”
More:

Black Lake Golf Club is the newest addition to the UAW’s Walter and May Reuther Family Education Center, situated on 1,000 heavily forested acres along the southeast side of Black Lake, one of Michigan’s largest inland lakes near Onaway, Michigan.

Black Lake Golf Club complements the Center’s recreational facilities, which now include a beautiful gym with two full-sized basketball courts, an Olympic-size indoor pool, and exercise and weight room, table-tennis and pool tables, a sauna, beaches, walking and bike trails, softball and soccer fields and a boat launch ramp.

The UAW selected one of golf’s most acclaimed course architects, Rees Jones, to design an environmentally responsible, championship caliber course. It was a challenge eagerly embraced by Jones, Golf World Magazine’s “Architect of the Year” in 1995.
Like everything else we’re subsidizing, it’s a money pit:

Down a lonely country road far from the interstate hangs a banner at the UAW’s golf course: “Public welcome.” But a review of the golf course and adjacent education center’s financial statements indicate that not enough people have been visiting.

The UAW International’s golf course and education center operations on 1,000 acres near Onaway have together lost $23 million over the past five years, independent audits obtained by the Free Press show. Both are run as for-profit corporations, according to paperwork filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, and the UAW has been propping them up with loans.

“There’s a lot of debate over what to do,” said Arthur Wheaton, a union expert from Cornell University. “They’ve been having trouble there trying to get enough people to go through there to justify the expense,” he added.

…While the UAW International has a huge reserve of money, the union filed financial records with the federal government stating that it spent about $2.7 million more than it took in during 2007 — the third time over the past five years that the union spending exceeded receipts, records show.

“All you have to do is look at the membership trends and realize that there was a golden age when they could easily support the education center,” said Hal Stack, director of the Labor Studies Center at Wayne State University.

“It could be that either things turn around or they sell it,” he added.

From a peak of 1.5 million members in the 1970s, the UAW ranks have dropped to just 465,000 regular members, according to its most recent federal filings.

In 2007 the UAW had receipts — union dues, fees and other income — of $327.6 million and it spent $330.3 million. While losing members, the UAW International, since at least 2000, has been able to hold fairly steady in the amount of money it brings in and spends, according to federal records. It has $1.2 billion in net assets.

Gregg Shotwell, a UAW activist, is not troubled to learn that the education center is losing money. “When you are educating and training union members, that’s the business of the union. That’s never a loss,” Shotwell said.

But the golf course is a different story to Shotwell. “We should be running a union — not a country club,” he said.
The DC Examiner lambastes the UAW and its enablers: Make UAW Sell its Championship Golf Course Before a Bailout

[Breakage]

The UAW International’s golf course and education center operations on 1,000 acres near Onaway have together lost $23 million over the past five years, independent audits obtained by the Free Press show. Both are run as for-profit corporations, according to paperwork filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, and the UAW has been propping them up with loans.

[Ocala Mike]

Just to clarify, Breakage, they couldn't fire me, I quit! Got sick of coming in off field assignments to find that my boss had ransacked my desk and investigated my computer to make sure I didn't have any inflammatory stuff that might cause my fellow workers to stop and think about the **** they were putting up with. Anyway, my pension from 25 years with ANOTHER government entity was MORE than I was making down here doing basically the same stuff, so I didn't need the bs.

Talk about free speech, why don't you? It doesn't exist at the workplace, I can assure you.

Now who are these other two people that "lost" civil service jobs? They must have been conservative wingnuts drummed out by unions, right?


Ocala Mike

[bullring]

Not only do I belong to a union, I belong to a public sector union.

[alysheba88]

Originally Posted by bullring

Not only do I belong to a union, I belong to a public sector union.

scumbag

[Ocala Mike]

Probably AFSCME-affiliated, right? I invited one of the local reps to the workplace to speak to the workers, and that's when the feces really hit the fan for me.

By the way, they're very, very weak down here in the Sunshine State.


Ocala Mike

[rock]

I certainly understand the anti - union sentiment in this thread, but I recently watched some stories on how the movies studios treated actors before unions. Absolute abuse, the treatment of their biggest stars like Judy Garland and Bette Davis was deplorable.

Also, baseball owners were not exactly reasonable people either, though obviously these days it has gone too far the other way.

[Breakage]

Talk about free speech, why don't you? It doesn't exist at the workplace, I can assure you.

Most people's workplaces are still private property why should it exist?



Nobody will deny that collective bargaining at one time significantly improved working conditions for most Americans.

Unfortunately it like the rest of the social bull**** has long since past it's time and is now nothing but a burden to the world-

unions like government only devolve. The worst attributes perpetuate and the best die.

[Ralph the Cat]

Originally Posted by Breakage

IT is sick. In order for my wife to teach in a public school in PA she has to join a union.

Same union of course perpetuates poor teachers and by doing so indirectly punishes achievers like my wife.

Well, Id have to say out here in western PA, teachers/adminstration tend to have it good... As long as the salaries are good, most dont mind the union bs... North Central PA is bad, salaries start at around 30k and only top at 60k...