hmm. even with all my hours at work I still have more days off s month and more in a roll than most people and when in home I'm home and focused on being at home and not distracted. I'm scheduled off 10 days starting Friday for example. But I will possibly work one or two of them so there is that

Yes they are a uniting of trappers to work for the good of the whole.
And some Trappers organizations do negotiate with govt for subsidies for fur.

Roger that

One more time. Unions have members collude to fix the price of labor.

Sorry bud but there is more to unions that that one thing.
Main one ahead of that is improving working conditions which our trappers union has done for us by allowing more and larger cabins on the lines,changing laws to allow longer check times for trappers safety,extending seasons,using membership dues to provide liability and life insurance for members,,and on and on.
Absolutely a union,with the union benefits..

Don't forget extorting dues from unwilling members and voting against members wishes

Our trappers union is apolitical,we have had success and good working relationships with all stripes of govt and their beurocrats over the years

Are you employed by the government. Unions negotiate with employers.

Yes the union under contract to deliver services negotiated every two years.

At what price?

Thats confidential.
general Managers job is open right now,you could apply and find out.

I bet it is.

I understood what the poster was trying to convey. Some of us non-union guys had little interest in the union. Attack the guy who has a differing opinion because you work(ed) for the union and want to try and justify it to everyone else. My grandfather worked for the railroad for 41 yrs, police officer for 16, and a taxi driver for 7. ALL union jobs. He stated to me back in the early 90's that the union he knew doesn't exist anymore. My son and son in law both work in the union. Make great money and great bennies and work for a great local. They will tell you all the issues with the union.

I personally spent 25yrs working with unions. They normally have twice as many people than needed on the job. This is because 25% are great workers anyone would hire, 25% are good workers as so on and so forth. They know every word of the contract and will use it to their advantage.

Example: I worked in a particular power plant.
7:00 - 7:20 am Morning meeting
7:20- 8:00am Read the paper and bs
8:00am Finally grab job package
8:30-845 Brief job
Can't go to the floor break is at 9:30am
9:30-10:00am break
10:00-10:30am more milling about and bs time
10:30- 11:30am Finally get to the floor for an hour of work. lunch is at 12 so gotta go
12:00-1:00pm lunch break (break is actually 30 mins)
1:30pm Finally on the floor to work
2:30pm off the floor because the guys need time to shower and bs
3:30pm Quitin time. Got about an hour of actual work done.

It was basically the same all over the country. This isn't sour grapes on my part. I made more than most of them with the same or better bennies. I came to work not make excuses. We wonder why our electric and other utilities cost us so much.

I worked with a lot of great guys and very hard working union guys and gals but the majority didn't fall into that ilk. I'm with Yote. Don't want to be associated with an organization that protects those who shouldn't be protected. I'd rather starve

I cannot stand being unproductive. I don't take breaks. I eat my lunch and go back to work. The only thing that irritates me more than doing nothing while at the job is having someone who is on the dole watch me work. I don't do corporate and I sure as haities don't do union.

I got a Foreman maintenance job at a 1000 site vacation property I thought I would use till I died (for the medical insurance,,,,,stuff aint cheap),,,,,,,, Lasted 1 year,,,,,, Maintenance people are lazy
The Superintendent told me "If we get our job done,,,,they wont need us"

Got no problem with unions, except their members are hypocrites. I have done site work for many union members and one democrat senator, Not a one asked for my union card, when informed I was not union, just got an eye roll. I asked the senator why I got the job, She said I had low bid. Other union members around here scab on the weekends. If you are union and buy union, use union contractors, good on you, The rest need to just shut their mouths.

Personal experience after 10 years in the big automotive union here (I left almost 20 years ago). Disclaimer - Unions aren't all bad, there were times I was glad to have them; not all unions are the same; union leadership (especially at the national level) doesn't represent the political will of the floor level membership.

1. Every month, a portion of my union dues went to endorse the NDP (socialist, sjw types). There was widespread belief that conservatives want to eliminate unions and kill and eat the babies of union membership.
2. Every month, a portion of my union dues went to a "social justice" fund that included contributions to animal rights and gun control groups. Union leadership was vocally in favor of taking everybody's guns away. The ones who did hunt were Fudds of the highest order who went on a once a year moose drinking trip and didn't believe that their Pepe's lever action 30-30 would be on the list.
3. Since I was a healthy, CIS, white male, my interests were ALWAYS secondary to the needs of any member in an identifiable victim group (including drug addicts/alcoholics). No matter how legitimate my grievance, if a one armed, 1/100th native, lesbian was fired for cause, the union would sell me as a hostage to the company to get that person their job back.
4. In a low-skill, closed shop environment, the easiest path for the company is to absolutely disregard merit in all decisions related to compensation or promotion. This is a stated goal of this particular union. This creates perverse incentives in the workers and it is reflected in their work.
5. You have the option to insist that your dues are not used for political purposes - the only people I know who did this were outed/doxed and subjected to abuse, threats and damage to personal property.
6. There are some managers who are Richard-Craniums and the union can be helpful in dialing their behavior back. That said, "seniority rules" creates the same type of perverse incentives in management whose goal is no longer to lead or support employees, simply to avoid the extortion of floor level employees when the manager's job is on the line.

Glad I left, I found much greater satisfaction in a management role were we are evaluated on merit. Since upper management are human beings, they have human traits like empathy and understanding towards people who make genuine efforts at their work. I am also glad that in the past, people organized and fought for better working conditions... but this does not seem to be the goal any longer.

I haven't read all 6 pages but have you guys had a good, fact based argument and are now forming a consensus after approaching the subject with open minds?

IBEW is the first and only union I’ve ever been a member. There’s good side and bad, I was raised as a union hater but when I was hired as a powerline trainee we were told that dues would be coming off our checks no mater what, but if some didn’t want to join (religious reasons)it was up to them. But to call union workers lazy and overpaid is BS in my trade. After big storms, we’re the ones doing the work that requires spurs because there no access to a bucket truck. Those guys that turned around and left the customers in the dark for another night are useless to me. For the most part, private sector pays better, but we got more benefits. Google Powerlineman wages and look where Manitoba Hydro is. We’re trying to catch up, but our province just can’t afford it.

there is a lot of truth to this. And unions are very different. When I was an Ironworkrr in local 103 it was get the job done asap and with the most quality as possible. slugs and dope heads got laid off seldom fired but were gone fast none the less. a union factory I worked in before that work got done period.


in this plant there are some serious slugs. But that's a management failure not making them do their job because they don't want to get the push back.. so they go to the guys that will work and " hey can you do me a favor" instead of making the other guys do their job. It gets old after a while. Last time my boss tried it with me he had one of his bossed tagging along. I very clearly asked my boss if he could call his wife and have her meet him in the parking lot so he could get his balls out of her purse and then he could hopefully go and make the guy who's job it was do his job. .

Nothing is perfect.