Cap'n. Bob wrote:
> As I said...unions.....a necessary evil wherein less
> than educated management resides. UPS and FedEx
> are wealthy companies. Both have very strong unions
> for their "drivers".
Unions were created to help protect the worker from
abusive management. But over time, unions can become
abusive themselves.
1) A few years ago I was working a trade show at
Moscone Center in San Francisco. We needed
something sent overnight from our office in Boston.
FedEx, $10, overnight. When it arrived the next
day, we couldn't pick it up. The union (nickname
starts with a "T", and please don't break my legs)
took another half day to deliver it from the loading
dock to our booth, and charged $22 for the service.
On group charged half as much for moving the
package over 100K times as far. The union also was
required to set up and take down our booth. We
took it down ourselves to speed the process, but
still had to pay $150 for the service. Two different
unions, two different managements, two *way*
different... results.
2) The town I lived in built a new middle school.
When it opened, there weren't enough buses to
make three runs for the elementary, middle, and
high schools in a timely manner. It was going to
take a few weeks to get new buses and rearrange
the routes. Until then, the teachers were asked to
work another 15 minutes a day to give the buses
time to make their rounds and get back to the middle
school. They took the town to court, as it violated
their contract. As a salaried employee, I've often
worked extra hours to get a job done. The teachers,
who are salaried, want to be treated with more
respect. But when asked to do what any other
salaried employee is asked, they fought it. And lost
any respect they may have had. The NEA with
2.7 million members has a lot more clout than a
town of 10,000.
Like anything else, there is good management and
bad management; there are good unions and bad
unions.
Cheers,
Kent
'56 100 BN2
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