New Process Gear workers overwhelmingly say "no'' to concessions

[iiggii]

Ive been union all my life and will till i die.dont agree with it all like we have to represent the screw  up the same way you do the good guy ,whatever its all you got.I have worked on the bargaining side even worked for the union a while ,and did 2 years as management.And went back to my bros in the end where i started,If you give in they wont stop so dont.A lot of people fought and died to have unions.my 2 cents iiggii.

[Princess Butt]

Now that I look back, my annual compensation swings as much as 50% per year over the past 10 years. Some years I make half as much as other years. It's the same with all the upper management where I work, and we do it to insulate the lower echelon from feeling the effects of the swings in the business cycle.

I wonder how many of those in charge of the banks, auto industry, or the union management can stand proudly and say this. My guess? It would be an empty soapbox.

BnEUC

[Deye76]

Unless your speaking of those at the inter-national level, some local union officers are paid their classification rate, plus a stipen and do take concessions (based on the classification rate) when the rank and file do. I was a vice-president of my local a few years ago, and believe me, I put in 14-16hr days and that little monthly stipen didn't begin to come close to the thousands in overtime I lost. A large percentage of the rank and file made more than me. But I didn't do it for the money.  What was most important, was cultivating and maintaining good relationships with management, to keep all of us working. It's all about balance.

[Jeffd]

This is part of the Dems (Obama's) grand plan Unionize the whole country in all industries, redistribute the wealth, massive unemployment 20-30%, Get over 50% on Government assistance...it will assure that only one party will ever be in control forever.

[texaskatfish]

Dissolve all unions. No, no, no.  Unions also have management and they can ruin a union just like management of a business.  There are some good and strong unions and some not so strong and upstanding.

Without a union the business would just tell there labor force they would be getting a pay cut like it or not.

The union is a majority rules situation.  Vote on a contract and majority rules.  Without the union the CEO of the company says cut there pay and the labor force takes the cut.  Unions bring fairness to the bargaining table.

Banks and other lending organizations went belly up.  Not because of unions but because of bad management.  ENRON went belly up, but not because of a union.

In a sense our government is like union.  We vote for people to represent us, like a union.

Yes I am a Union member, 39 years.

I'm done.

MrClean hopefully you and many others will find this interesting and dangerous! We need to STOP THIS!!

At our Sunday SPIN meeting - the attachment below was mentioned. PLEASE READ this and let everyone know before it's too late!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"If this law passes, it will be virtually irrevocable (inasmuch the Unions are a private enterprise and cannot be told they cannot conduct business). This law will probably come about before we could possibly march to Washington, within the next 45 days at most I am guessing. It is IMPERATIVE we apply as much pressure as possible!

Be sure to grab the file attachment!"

EFCA7 BLAST 1 18 2009.pdf

The body text contained in the document can be mass-emailed out to the same business demographics, and even strengthen our efforts inside this first demographic segment Group.


More here:
http://spin-1.ning.com/forum/topics/the-efca-explained-further

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[Dresser]

I used to work at a union plant. We gave back some wages to keep the plant from closing. The company saved money for a year or so and closed it anyway.  In my opinion there has to be gauruntee's in place. They also have to have some serious teeth in them.

[hojo52]

I have family and friends that work at the Syracuse plant. The union has given concessions to the point if more was given back workers would struggle to exist. Magna layed off 1400 employees after the last contract concessions(after they promissed everyone wouldkeep jobs). They offered older employees a buyout package to leave the company.No matter what the union voted this time ,the company would have made the same decision. When Magna bought company yrs ago they made it known then they would leave. Magna only wanted concessions this time so they could close and pay employees a lower rate of unemployment. Magna had their way no matter how the vote went. Except now in the press it  looks like the union and employees caused the closure.NOT TRUE

[Skullfork]

I've said this before ...wages are far from being the main reason companies are closing, but it's the first thing they want to blame in order to drum up sympathy from the public against the Unions when they do close and move offshore ...where they don't have to match Social Security taxes, pay Unemployment, pay Disability Claims, pay Medical, deal with retiree's, deal with the EPA, and more. Lower wages are just a bonus when they move offshore.

I work for a UAW plant and over the last several contracts a two-tier wage system, then a three-tier wage system and now over the last 4 years a wage freeze was implemented along with many other concessions ...and they're still using the threat of moving the business to China if we don't take yet more concessions.  It doesn't matter how much we give up now because they'll just keep coming back for more in the future, and more after that.  

Unions were/are the equlaizers that gave workers better wages, improved working conditions and create a better way of life for most Americans. It's because of Unions we have a middle-class. And for those of you who don't work for or like to bash the Unions ...it's because of Unions that ALL workers enjoy the rights and better wages that they do.  

[Faast Ed]

The economy is screwed. More companies are going to close, paycuts or not.  

Paycuts might buy the company more time (just incase that magical new customer comes through), but if a company is hurting, gonna take more than some paycuts to make it stay open forever.

[MrClean]

Magna only wanted concessions this time so they could close and pay employees a lower rate of unemployment

Magna does not pay unemployment.  The state does.  Magna pays a percentage of the wage to the state as an unemployment tax.

Wisconsin pays unemployment based on your quarterly income.  You get laid off you go back a year and look at your quarters.  The quarter with the most income is the one your weekly payment is based on.  I suspect this is the same in every state.

[Kleetus]

Wow! This is truly a touchy subject. Personally, I have taken 2 10% pay cuts plus my benefits dropped to about half which totals up to 27% cut.  Afterwhich my employer filed for bankruptcy and restructured but after 1.5 years they emerged a smarter, leaner and smaller company. Painful? Yes, but I'd rather take concessions and have a job than no job. I have worked for union companies and nonunion alike and there are advantages to both which I won't bother going into. But, I would like to say that I really feel your pain. This fiasco has caused me to focus more on my household finances and spend smarter. Good luck with your job search.
Kleetus

[mark61]

[quote author=MrClean link=topic=5573.msg57434#msg57434 date=1234112853
Magna does not pay unemployment.  The state does.  Magna pays a percentage of the wage to the state as an unemployment tax.
[/quote]

It is my understanding the company DOES have to pay along with the employee into the UC fund. Once when I was having a problem with  a small compnay I worked for they kept sending me home part way thru the day. Finally I went to the Job Service Unemployment offece to discuss it with them. The STATE counciler there told me "this company tryes this BS all the time to get out of paying the UC."

mark61