Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!watdragon!violet!mdhutton From: mdhutton@violet.waterloo.edu (Mike Hutton) Newsgroups: ont.general Subject: Union bashing Message-ID: <18175@watdragon.waterloo.edu> Date: 14 Nov 89 23:16:58 GMT References: <606@alias.UUCP> <1989Nov11.143948.15365@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> <255DCAC0.7630@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca> <1989Nov14.111855.27329@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu Reply-To: mdhutton@violet.waterloo.edu (Mike Hutton) Distribution: ont Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 43 >I don't think this is true. Often strikes are the result of the management >proposing CHANGES which are bad for the workers. For example, in the Toronto >TTC strike one of the biggest issues was that of the management INTRODUCING >part-time workers. The management wanted to change the existing situation, and >the union wanted it to say the same. This was one of the big strike issues, >and without it I don't think the workers would have gone on strike. The TTC union wanted to ride the gravy train off our tax dollars and fares. In an operation which has obvious need of labour at 2 distinct periods of the day, there is no choice for management but to pay overtime or hire part time. It would be stupid to make-work in the off-rush-hour period. The overtime that WAS worked is incredibly expensive for US (notice the US (you and me) - not some "money grubbing, big corporation only out for its own good..."), and not only that, the management was having terrible problems even getting people to work the overtime. Why not? They have the opportunity to hold the city for ransom. To come to work 8 hours a day, and half of them would only have to work for 2 or 3. Did the union try to come up with a solution? 4 day, 10 hr work weeks? Having part time workers in the union? Of course not, why try to be realistic when you HAVE THE POWER? I'm waiting for the day when a union card becomes more important than a Master's degree for employment (they've probably already passed undergraduate and college degrees). And people wonder why our taxes continue to rise... Why is it that the hardest working people never seem to be on strike? The custodians here at Waterloo are a perfect example of that, and I'd be first in line to give them a pay raise (if I did have anything to do with it). The same unions (TTC, Post Office) are constantly walking out, while most of the people doing all the work end up getting shafted by anti-union feelings and poverty wages. Mike. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Hutton University of Waterloo, Computer Science. mdhutton@violet.waterloo.edu