I agree.

and that was going to be my point...if your compensation (I was thinking hourly rate, but it would also include benefits) was significantly higher than others in your field, your company was merely substituting increased wages (or benefits) in lieu of "paid vacations"...

tomato/tomahto.

I am an operator (49er) My package pays, 8 paid holidays, 5 weeks paid vacation. and around $7 per hour towards retirement. also I have no out of pocket for a 80/20 ins. policy with dental and eye.
My package is negotiated every three years.
A very good friend does the same thing for a different company and the same union. His retirement and health care is about the same as what I get but he does not get paid holidays or paid vacation time. For not receiving paid vac or holidays he makes $4 to $6 per hour more on his check. One other differance is that I have company seniority and he does not.

It all boils down to what your group negotiates for.

Oh I almost forgot, Our great governor Tampon Tim has also given us the SST (sick and safe time) that adds 48hrs per year that can be used for almost anything and the office cant stop you.

KS is a right to work state. Its his choice to belong to the union.

You can doubt it all you want, just means you don't know. Being a union member in many trades only guarantees you pay dues. Many construction trades do not guarantee employment year round. No paid time off here, no work, no pay, exactly like it reads, and has been stated by others.

Unions won't allow a non union worker in.

Probably the same as women up there, lotta dudes willing to do anything to take your spot, pretty cut throat. If I can't "knock the dust down" without some loud mouth dirt boss asking why, I make the decision for them. You don't have a union you have a temp agency. 302 don't care about you?

No, that money was paid and already earned in the past. A guy opts for a smaller paycheck in order to put money into a fund for later.

My core crew consists of 5 guys with different support guys going in and out. If we took five weeks of vacation a year we wouldn't get any work done. We'd have to hire 20 25 percent more guys to compensate and some days wouldn't have enough help and others too many.

Wages meaning take home are in the 50's. The total package is in the 80's.

Yeah, I misread your post, that’s why I deleted it.

Every state is different based on cost of living. Here in WI we have I believe 3 different scales.

One thing I’ve learned from this post is all unions are different, lol. I’m in CWA and I guess it depends on the company you’re with. I get 33 paid days a year off. I have paid sick time off. I have paid short term and long term benefits time off. I make serious good pay for this area for the work I actually do. The company has a pension and 401K with a percentage of company match. We have 1.5 and 2x pay as well.

I am a union carpenter and graduated my 4 year apprenticeship in 1991. We do not get any paid holidays, sick days, or vacations. Our moto is 8 hours of work for 8 hours of pay. I have to travel a lot for work. The union contractors have left my area. I actually install commercial flooring and am the last union floor installer in our local. The immigrant workers have taken over around here. They typically work for cash and no benefits.

For the most part, I hate unions. They are destroying this country. Most every politician in Alaska, well every Democrat politician, is supported by unions. Our local borough assembly is majority union funded. The local school board is union supported. Teacher union obviously! All these po.iticians vote for laws and budgets that put government money, which is taxpayer money, back into a union. Unions control this country!

I couldn't agree more...I worked ibew 1547 for 7 yrs at Alaska comm..largest ibew employer in the state.
I had 2 black and white grievances.....both about covid leave and travel quarantine policies made by the company. Foreman lied shop stewards didn't care.. their policy was if you went outta state for 3 days or morw...you had to quarantine for a week regardless of vaccine or negative test..their policy...i complied then 2 coworkers went on their florida vacas...got back in state on a Saturdayand went right to work the following Monday. .local Bm didn't even know how to file a grievance...I called the main hall in Anchorage...they didn't care. No brotherhood no equality 2 weeks of no pay forced by company.
Unions suck and really arent needed...they are nothing but political fat cats. I left them and went back into electrical side..i was a 15 yr jman at the time. I drank the kool-aid and became a shop steward..went to big steward training event in Anchorage at captain cook. What a ego stroke show that was...didn't learn anything about what a steward was and it was just a million dollar convention...listened to political grandstanding...Trump bashing etc. The food was good and got to hang out with a buddy in Anchorage in the evenings. If the union was so awesome why doesn't Alaska have decent wages?..jman scale is still below Seattle's scale. So I had enough and left...took my masters test..called an EA license here and started my own shop..Freedom Electric...free from the union bs and freedom to do things my way. It's been great...making good money doing lots of small jobs.
The local wireman contract in Alaska doesn't offer paid vaca or paid holidays...Alaska Comm did offer those. Some wireman local contracts have that in their contract. I work for myself so I get all the perks I want and make waay more than union scale and benefits.
I will never vote union or be a union shop. they truly did not care for me. It has always been a good ol boy club here. Even the process of being a signatory shop is truly signing your life to them and in tlreturn you get these so called great benefits. And the propaganda is outta this world...pure Democrat trash...vote for biden vote for abortion...vote for camela. They really don't care and I believe people are waking up to the fact that they really push the woke demoncrat agenda.
The teachers union here is pushing a legislative bill that will severely hurt homeschooling.
It's a pork barrel bill as well..funded by teachers union.

When the admin people for the local get paid vaca and holidays and the people paying for those paid vacas and holidays Don't ...you might be in a union that contradicts the fair wages and equality mantra.

Not how it really works.

How does it work? Honest question - I don't really know.

I don't miss working for the union.I would work around 4 months a year working nuclear shutdowns from New Hampshire to Texas.Great pay rate.Would stop off in Massachusetts on the way home and get their unemployment rate.Worked great when I could get work working both as a carpenter and millwright.When they forced me to pick just one I could not get enough work and had to change careers.

The electricians I hired and ran for years made good money and didn't get paid vacation. They worked enough OT it didn't really matter but they were such work aholics that they never really took time off but when they did it wasn't paid. They didn't really see it as not getting paid for vacation and losing money. They saw it more as losing money by not working Saturday for 1.5 and Sunday for 2.0 time.

The guy that drove himself to the hospital b/c he was having a heart attack didn't get paid until he drove himself back to work later that day after getting splits. Those kind of hard working people lol.

Some of your guys view on Union workers is a little skewed. Not any one group of people all act the same way.