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From: ignatz@ihuxx.UUCP (Dave Ihnat, Chicago, IL)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics
Subject: Re: Unions, onions, and other things to cry about
Message-ID: <716@ihuxx.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 12-Apr-84 19:58:41 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxx.716
Posted: Thu Apr 12 19:58:41 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 13-Apr-84 21:03:59 EST
References: <2679@rabbit.UUCP>, <712@ihuxx.UUCP> <843@ihuxq.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
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Re: Ken Perlow's response to MY response to the Union thing

Hi, Ken and all.

Ah, well, I apologize, but I have indeed worked in a non-union
factory...and at a union job.  There's no problem naming names,
either.

When I was a young whippersnapper in high school--summer, 1970--they
were building the Zion nuclear power plant in Zion, just north of my
then-hometown of Waukegan, IL.  Dad knew the head of the IBEW local,
who arranged for me to interview with the major electrical contractor 
at the plant for a summer construction job.  Being a clean-cut, enthusiastic,
hard-working type (and them knowing that Don had sent me), I got the
job, as a material handler at the then-unbelievable rate of
$4.00/hr.  For those not in the know, this meant that I was lower
on the totem pole than an apprentice--suitable for fetching &
carrying, running & hauling.  But I had to join the union, and pay a
respectable portion of my salary as dues.  AND...I was introduced to
what has since turned out to be the normal union-fostered attitude.
First, after two days on the job, my partner and I were taken aside by
a few of the journeymen and told to SLOW DOWN--we were working too
fast.  This might reflect on their work, and heaven forbid that they
work faster.  (Anyone in any union who tries to deny that this is common
is lying.  I was there, and I've seen it too often since.)  I saw a
wildcat strike when a Commonwealth Edison engineer, who was trying to
explain a connection in a generator to a Union electrician who was
very slow to understand--I was led to believe, from later
conversation in the shack, that it may have been something more
in the way of deliberate misunderstanding to razz the ComEd guy--actually
had the temerity (stupidity, if he knew he was dealing with a Union
man) to TOUCH two cables and LAY THEM WHERE THEY BELONGED!!  Immediately
everyone there walked off, some wiggling their hips and yelling
'wobble!' to others who hadn't seen the incident, but nevertheless
immediately walked off, too.  ("Wobble" is a reference to the
Wobblies, the old Workers of the World movement.)  I didn't know just
what was going on, but I figured after my warning that I'd better
walk, too.  This led to two days of picketing, where I learned what it
was like to be on strike.  (I also learned not to play craps,
especially with one particular old American Indian fellow.)

The same summer, I also saw the extreme lengths to which the company
had to go to fire a Union employee who was cheating them.  One
welder--different union--was brassing in several days a week (you collected a
brass disk with your number on it at starting time, and turned it in
when you left), then leaving for Arlington Park in one of the Company
trucks!  He made the races, then got back in time to brass out.  They
had to eventually get two union reps and a company rep to shadow him to
and from the park for several days.  What happened?  He was fired, and
I was told that he spent two weeks going to the union hall before they
got him another job.  And so on...I've several other stories, similar
to this one, just from that summer.

In the summers of 1971 (between HS Jr. and Sr. years), and 1972 (after
HS grad, before college), I worked at the local manufacturing plant
for Signode Steel.  Totally non-union--the workers themselves threw
union organizers out.  I worked in hard, dirty jobs: drill press, band
saws, heat treatment, and finishing--sandblasting, fileing, grinding,
burring, etc.  The pay was less than 4.00/hr, but I had incentive
pay.  That is, each job had a timestudy rate associated with it, and
if I beat the rate, I got a per-piece bonus.  Yes, I worked hard--when
I went home at night, I was dirty, sweaty, and often had splinters in
my hands (my fault--I'd sometimes skip wearing leather gloves because
they were awkward.)  But I always was able to almost double my rates,
and earned more money than I had at the union job--and felt less
guilty about it.  The company constantly harped on safety, provided
all the safety devices I could imagine--ear plugs, goggles, leather
aprons, gloves, thumbs, etc.; sold steel-toed shoes to those who
needed them at very low rates; etc.  They provided two coffee breaks,
a reasonable lunch break in a rather decent cafeteria, and so on.  For
full-time employees, there were benefits packages, although I have to
admit that I didn't pay attention to them.

So why don't I still work there?  I'll admit it--I didn't like the
work.  But reasonable pay was tendered for reasonable work,
considering the unskilled nature of my job.  (There were also jobs
requiring skills, such as screw and gear machines)  This factory,
however, provided the amenities it did because if they didn't, the
Union would have been in in a minute--and how productivity would
suffer!

As to bus drivers holding lives in their hands, bushwah!  The
dishwasher at a restaurant, by that analogy, holds hundreds of lives

cleaner in their water instead of detergent.  Likewise, a garbage
collector, since they drive such a big, heavy truck.  It's an
unskilled job, requiring at most two months training.  (And that's
being conservative.)  You have to hire someone with at least the
responsibility to drive carefully, true--but that's a requirement that
anyone should have to meet in any job.

Dignity?  Yes, I'll buy the need for dignity.  But I won't buy arrogant
ripoffs.  You have to EARN respect and dignity, not strike for it.  To
earn it, you have to provide honest, reasonable services for your
wages and benefits.  I still maintain--Unions have abused their power,
and encourage their members to provide too little inferior work for
excessive pay and benefits.  The day that union representation becomes
widespread in the data processing profession--no, not the consultants,
program developers, or the systems types, but the operators and
data-entry types--you'll feel it, but it'll be too late.  There are
some union shops already:   I was told by a friend, who works for
a large firm, of the time that he had to waste HIS lunch hour, because
he needed a tape mounted, and the unionized operator wouldn't mount it
while on his lunch break, and threatened a wildcat strike if Marc
mounted his own tape.  While I know and trust my friend, and believe
him, you don't, and therefore don't have to.  But it's a quite typical
union response...expect it when they get in.  No, I haven't changed my
mind about unions.  They've blown their credibility.

			Dave Ihnat
			ihuxx!ignatz