"I'm not sure how you think that employees having the same right as corps to get all they can is socialist TK. Why don't you volunteer a pay cut where you work? Take one for the gipper."

Stlhd. I get paid after I complete the work and then only if it is successful. Up until that point I am working on my own dime. Why don't you with out a net if you think your work is so valuable?

Labor unions served a purpose once and now that purpose is long gone. I worked for a construction company one summer while I was in college. The going rate in 1978 for unskilled contstructuion labor was about $3.50 an hour. This shop paid me $10 and hour because of the union. I could not come in before 8 am. At 8 I could load the truck and head to the job site. By the time I got to the jobsite it was time for the first 15 minute break. By union rules I could not skip the break and work. After the break I would work for 1 hour and 45 minutes and then it was time for lunch. After lunch I would work for 1 hour and 45 minutes then it was time for the afternoon 15 minute break. Then it was time to load up the turck and go back to the shop. Unload the truck and punch out no later than 5:00 PM. The shop stewrad and the union rep where after me daily to join the union. I had 90 days to join or quit. I knew I was headed back to school so I just rode it out. This company is no longer in business. Wonder why?

My biggest issue with unions is that they sometimes lower productivity. They also promote unfairness in the workplace as much as fairness.

Lazy employees are protected from discipline, while the hardest working, industrious types are prevented from benifiting from their hard work.

Those two things were apparent to me as a chief steward. I was forced to protect employees that I felt should never have been employed, based on their poor work ethic.

I've never worked in a Union but have worked along side Union people and yeah seniority can make it hard to trim the worthless. My dad was forced into the SPEEA union against his will on their last contract. Until then he was never in a Union either.
The plus that still exists is safety in numbers in an employers market. The flip side of the coin for un-organized labor is that many corp's will walk all over their employees in an employers market. Then the pendulum swings to an employees market, people walk and the execs wonder why. The pendulum might be starting to swing.

I think it is an employees market Re; Areo space workers here. It's the reason Boeing did not leave years ago. You cannot find skilled labor force anywhere in the world like the one the exhists here. Boeing runs the numbers all the time on how much it would costs to shift production and train a new work force. The Boeing unions are making sure that Boeing leaves a worker at a time vs. all at once and they know it. The older workers are just holding on to hit 30/60 or what ever years of service formula they use to retire and then leave for the pension. The area and the younfgers workers will pay the price for the unions BS.

http://komotv.com/stories/39079.htm

The head of Boeing Co.'s commercial airplane operations says the company and the Machinists Union were $1 billion apart when more than 18,000 workers hit the picket lines Sept. 2, according to an internal memo to company executives.

This could be a long one.

Not sure how this fits here..but it does somehow, I hired one of the strikers to fill in here and am impressed with work ethic, and skill level, if he is a fair represention of the group, then I say pay 'em what they want, (I am) and it's worth it.

Stam,

Your right on! Anybody who thinks this is the lazy "B" is a fool. Expect your new worker to point out a bunch of waste and if you listen you should be able to increase profits! They have gotten really good at that over the last few years

Unfortunatly though this dispute is not about wages. If it was they would be talking and I agree Boeing should pay them what they are worth which is a hell of a lot!

did you say you work for boeing, or are you just on the payroll like most of the others.