Biting the Hand that Feeds You

Unions really piss me off. Hubby belongs to one and they piss me off. My mom belongs to one and for some reason I hate them less. But I still think they suck.

Car worker unions REALLY piss me off. Especially lately.

I do believe that at one time in our history unions were necessary. Businesses were treating their employees like dispensable products and unions helped get us better quality treatment. But once the mob got involved they started to become irrelevant. Today they are less relevant to real life than ever before, and are actually harmful to companies and by extension the employees they claim to help.

Lori Stillwagon Roman was on my local radio station this morning as I drove in to work talking about the behavior of the workers she supervised at a GM facility. Her stories were horrifying. To think that these people get paid to behave in ways that would get them fired at any other non-union shop is a testament to the union's practice of defending the worst employees to the detriment of the good employees.

"I had an employee who punched in his time card and then disappeared.The rules were such that I had to spend hours documenting that this man was not in his three foot by three foot work area. I needed witnesses, timed reports, calls over the intercom and a plant wide search all documented in detail. After this absurdity I decided to go my own route; I called the corner bar and paged him and he came to the phone. I gave him a 30 day unpaid disciplinary lay off because he was a “repeat offender”. When he returned he thanked me for the PAID vacation. I scoffed, until he explained: (1) He had tried to get the lay off because it was fishing season; (2) The UAW negotiated with GM Labor Relations Department to give him the time WITH PAY."

Wow...nice deal if you can get it. Goof off and spend time at the local bar (well, I'd be at the mall) and get a 30 day paid vacation. In what world does this make sense???

"One afternoon I was helping oversee the plant while upper management was off site. The workers brought an RV into the loading yard with a female “entertainer” who danced for them and then “entertained” them in the RV. With no other management around, I went to Labor Relations for assistance. As a twenty five year old woman, I was not about to try to break up a crowd of fifty rowdy men. The Labor Relations Rep pulled out the work rules and asked me which of the rules the men were breaking. I read through the rules and none applied directly of course. Who wrote work rules to cover prostitutes at lunch? The only “legal” cause I had was an unauthorized vehicle and person and that blame did not fall on the union workers who were being “entertained” but on the security guards at the gate. Not one person suffered any consequence."

Someone tell me why this was okay and why the union had no problems with this behavior? I think I may have called some of those guys' wives. :)

Is it any wonder that GM is bleeding money? The parasites cared more about getting as much blood from the company as they could with no concern for the overall health of their host. And now that their host is dying they are screaming about pensions and health care.

Guess what leeches? If the host dies there's NO health care. NO pension. And NO job to have protected by the thugs of the union.

As hubby is a member of the union I do see this mentality a lot. Who cares about the overall health of the State of Washington. As long as they get theirs. Our state is facing a $4 BILLION dollar deficit. [I still can't comprehend why Queen Christine was re-elected after squandering the state's finances, but that's another story.]

Oh but don't worry. The Troopers (and other unions) were all bribed...*cough* I mean promised ... big raises if they gave the Queen their support. So they'll get theirs. And the rest of us can suffer with higher taxes (which will eat those raises right up), worse roads, and more regulations. I tried explaining to hubby that the raise he'll get won't really be a raise if it's then spent on higher taxes or worse ... if they are forced to cut positions.

I pray that the Feds smack down the hands of the Auto Companies begging for MY tax dollars. They can sink or swim just like the rest of us as far as I'm concerned.