Labor Unions

[chas007]

Are you a member of a labor union?


In other words do you work for a union or non-union company?


Or... Do you work for a union company but you are not in the union?

Or are you unemployed?

 

[JackFTwist]

I am in a non unionized vocation.

I would join if it were organized, but it is about the last profession that ever will be.

I have been a member of the IWW for a while as an at larger union member.

 

[tdguru]

Major league union town....

DGA-Directors Guild
IBEW-International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
IATSE-International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employees
NABET-National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians
WGA-Writers Guild

And thats for my staff job

 

[Missec]

Are you a member of a labor union?
In other words do you work for a union or non-union company?
Or... Do you work for a union company but you are not in the union?
Or are you unemployed?

Or your work for yourselves?

Cause I do. If I had a union, then they would tell me that my hours are too long. Like today for instant. I started this morning at 11:00 am (December 11) its now 430am (December 12th). I just now got done with every thing that I had to do today.

But as far as unions I would vote yes, while working for another company. I was a shop Stwert at Walt Disney World, and for the State of Indiana.

 

[drhladnjak]

I've worked both union and non-union jobs.

In fact, the only union position I worked (teaching assistant at a very famous university) actually went from non-union to union while I was in it. The biggest change for me when the union came in was that my pay went up substantially. Basically, for years the university had been paying teaching assistants who were undergrads about $10.50/hour (~$210/week) while paying teaching assistants who were graduate students about $1500/month (~$400/week plus most of their tuition which at the time was something like $4000/year). The problem was that despite the different status and pay structure we both did the exact same job with the exact same responsibilities. In the end, an "equal pay for equal work" fight happened and the union got us paid about the same (we didn't have degrees like grad students and some leeway was allowed for education level determining pay) on a monthly (non-hourly) basis, although we still had to pay our own tuition.

There were also some changes to the working conditions like prohibiting the university from hiring a TA then firing them due to low enrollment after the semester had started (it being too late at that point to find another teaching job elsewhere in the university).

My current job is non-union. Frankly, I'm not sure what we'd really get if we were union. We generally have good working conditions, a relatively fair merit-based compensation system and these days there are plenty of other places to go work with better pay if somebody doesn't like the way things are.

 

[The_Reaper]

I'm a member of a union, since I'm a public employee.

However, in general....

I tend to disagree with unions in a lot of places.

 

[antdak]

I'm currently in a union, I have worked union and non-union jobs, for the most part I could not tell a differance! The last job I had was non-union, but it should have been, low pay and no benifits! But every time union got mentioned in the company its was quickly squashed! Now I have a differnt job and belong to the SEIU. So far I do not have a complant with them, we just ratified a 5 year contract, and every one seems happy with it!!

 

[chas007]

Or your work for yourselves?

Good post!


Yeah if you work for yourself (self-employed) vote no, I should have put that in the poll with the "no" option but the time ran out for editing.

 

[maturecolo]

I worked for 20 years for the phone company and was always union, CWA (Communications Workers of America). I retired Jan 2000. The biggest benefit that I have is my Health Insurance. When I was working and now retired, I have never paid any monthly premium. I do pay $20 per doctor office visit and $50 for a 3-month prescription. My partner is also on my policy at no charge.

 

[drhladnjak]

Hopefully that will last maturecolo. Tons of companies are currently finding ways to wriggle out of the commitments they made to retirees for pensions and health insurance. Even the unions haven't been able to save retirees in the airline and auto manufacturing industries these days because the money just isn't there.