scabs are scabs ...cheap labor that can be replaced quickly and easily

With more scabs?

In the old logging movie Sometimes A Great Notion. The local union loggers were on strike and they hated a local family of independent loggers who kept working. One of the union loggers referred to the family as scabs. Its a movie obviously so its a work of fiction so I can’t say I know how union workers feel about independent workers who continue to work through union strikes.

There was a shootout here back in the 60.s when the union mill workers who were on strike tried to keep the settlers from supplying the paper mill.
The settlers shot the union workers.
Still bad blood between those families on both sides to this day.

Look up bloody Harlan

pro union and anti corporate slob here. Union guys at my work bust their tail and have to put up with a lot of bs from a bunch of management people who only actively work for about 2 hours and spend the rest of the day on the internet

I work in pretty much the exact same environment. Management raises their heads just long enough to make sure the riffraff are busy and then go back to phones. The hardest part of their job is staying awake.

Having said that, I'm no more pro big business than I am pro union. I'm not a fan of either but I went there looking for work and agreed to the pay and job description. It's an imperfect world we live in.

I look down on no man union or not who busts his butt and earns his pay. There are sorry workers everywhere who just want a paycheck not a job. The biggest issue we’ve had in finding help is finding someone with the gumption to work. Second is finding someone who isn’t burnt out from drugs. Third is finding someone who owns a vehicle with a driver’s license. Most people would be amazed of the amount of people who don’t have a driver’s license or vehicle. Not because they can’t afford it. I fully sympathize with that aspect, but because they have no drive in life to do better for themselves. It’s like their only goal from day to day is to wake up breathing.

I've found smaller employers better to work for than corporate America. You're not dealing with multiple layers of management and they recognize your impact of the success or failure of their business. I've worked for some real good ones over the years.

My ol man has run his small business for over 20 years. Underground utility pipeline. I think at his biggest point he probably had 10-12 people working for him. He has scaled back to 7 people now with me included. He works us like pack mules. While we are working like crazy it sucks but it really opens your eyes when you are on a job and you see crews with twice as many people as us getting less than half the work done we are. We’ve even had crews of mexicans tell us we work too fast. Its sad when even the mexicans have gotten Americanized/lazy working for bigger companies.

Darned scabs are getting in the way of immigrant Mexican prosperity.

I've owned a business with employees and I've worked during my life for union (grocery store: UFCW) and nonunion companies.
I only learned one thing during all those decades.
Some people want to work.
Some people don't want to work.
Some people need to work.
Some people don't need to work.
Some people's identity is tied to their work.
Some people's identity isn't tied to their work.

People are individuals and so general statements are always false.

I've had more than a few people as trapping partners, especially when research projects are assigned and it's quite interesting to see how these non-union employees role. The good. The bad. And the UGLY!

Blessings,
Mark

sorry Mark, your reply just made me think of my old partners Tuko, Blonde, and Angel Eyes.

Some say lazy people will find the easiest and most efficient way to get the job done. Most places I worked eventually ran lazy people off. I worked for what was probably the largest union masonry contractor in Alaska back in the early to mid eighties. Busted my hump working for that guy. I'll never forget it. He came up to me one day and said "I'd have you running this job if you knew what the &%$# you were doing!" Highest praise I ever got from an employer. I was just a kid and greener than a pea.

I believe "open shop" unions are a good thing, Closed shop or forced unionizing is where it all goes wrong. Do you know how to tell a union member? You dont have to, they will tell you.

That is rare to find anymore especially in younger guys. Its hard enough keeping them off their phones. Most lazy people that have worked with us seem lazy in the brain as well. Its tough finding anyone with good ol common sense anymore. Some people never learn common sense or book smarts and some people have so much book smarts that they forgot to save room for a little common sense. We were doing a job at a plant called Dongwon. They made parts for Kia cars. There were 2 superintendents on the job. One an older American woman and the other a younger Korean guy. The woman was talking to us one day and said man these Koreans can solve tough math equations in their heads but common sense just alludes them. She proved her point when we were laying 12” water main on site and we had to cross the existing storm drain that was pretty shallow so we couldn’t lay over the top or we would have only had maybe 18” of cover over the waterline. The younger superintendent asks us why we were laying the pipe underneath the storm drain. I responded we obviously can’t lay through the storm pipe or over due to a lack of dirt cover so we have to go under it. He said I see it cross on the plans I just no understand why you do it that way. I responded again with my explanation. He literally walked away saying I no understand! That wasn’t a crack against Korean people just explaining the book smarts vs common sense. Me personally I wouldn’t trade common sense for all the book smarts in the world.

Then you shouldnt make broad statements like " Union workers are a joke ". I don't paint all non union workers with the same brush.

With unskilled and highly paid union labor? Not sure why you say that?

I agree with that I shouldn’t have said all. I should have said all that I have been around.

Ive always thought that labor unions should be treated more like outside companies rather than some special entity. Say the local hospital needs lots of nurses. They contract with Bob's Nurses for X number of nurses for Y amount of money for however long the contract is. If Bob's nurses suck, the company can terminate the contract and hire contract with Larry's Better Nurses. If the company liked a few of Bob's nurses, they could contract individually with the hospital. Likewise if a Bob's nurse thought that the company Bob's Nurses is the one that sucked, the nurse can try to hire in with another company or the hospital.

I think all employees should be contract employees. Maybe a company could exist that provides help to the employees to look at the contracts being offered and look for dangers or compare the contracts to other coontraxts for the same job in other areas.

I don't think an employee being held hostage by an idiot union is a good idea.