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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bearcatbob who wrote (86035)	11/23/2000 4:31:29 PM
From: TH	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

I wish that what you are saying was true in more places. I have not just had a single experience with the union problem. I can say with a great deal of confidence that I have not found a single example where the union added value to the whole. Not one. Its all about protecting the union. Please note, I did not judge the members of the Union, there are lots of great people. If you got the message of my example, the very same people pre-union had been market leaders in quality(price too I might add, but after two stages of wage increase that too was under some pressure). After the union it became us and them. It should be added that our company built this modern plant in a field in the middle of no-where. Our wages before the union were more than double the going hourly rate in the area. You could work at Wal-Mart for $4 bucks or you could work for us for $8.5 In this area of the country in the late 80's this was an excellent wage. Too bad it was not enough after the union from the North got finished with them. It cost the workers a lot. We finally told them that we were putting less work in their plant. We just built a new plant 70 miles away, changed the ownership on paper so it would be more difficult for the union to migrate and started putting new programs there. Those workers never went union and actually have a wage (after profit-sharing) that was higher than the last increase the union shop is getting. Also the quality at that new plant is very high. Last time I checked (as I am with a new company now) they were in the top five. The old plant with the union. Well what happened to them is not so good. Its no problem, we make the ceiling high so facilities that have these problems can become great warehouses. We spent lots of R&D dollars to make a new type of capital that DOES NOT require concrete foundations. This way we get some flatbeds and haul it to some other place. The workers can be trained in weeks, and you know why that is. I am in the minority at my current position, as most are afraid of the union. I want to bust them up or move our Northern plant. You see our union has had several members arrested for threatening our managers with physical violence. We had several of them fired as they had a punch-in punch out scheme where we were paying them for not working. These are the kind of people you have to deal with. We pay them, we give them benefits, we give them a pension, and they threaten to beat people up or to produce poor quality. I know what I have seen with my own eyes. I can tell you many other stories. My favorite is when the local union tried to punish me and sent a pregnant women to do tear down at a trade show. A single women. That is about as good as the millwright who told me he didn't have a screwdriver. On double-time I went and got him one myself. I know about unions, and there is not one good thing about them. Not one. We will win. TH