Are truckers no longer in unions?

Not a can of worms but it is some what controversial. I'm amazed this topic is in it's 5 th page and there hasn't been any punches thrown!

 

Another crushing blow to unions .

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/unions-expect-right-to-1345928.html

 

I was in the transport Union in australia, cause i worked for australia post, riding motorbikes all day, I originally joined because I asked around people I respect and they said it was a good idea. And it was, the company I worked for cut coverage to work, where if you get in an accident on the way to work, well unlucky, however the union covers that, so when I broke my arm, I was making close to my normal wage while being off work. However I get the feeling unions are very different here in America.
I know my union went to battle for this girl at my work who got fired for some reason then they fought for her to get her job back and she did. She then screwed them over by screwing up again the same way, they cut her loose. They were more trying to work with auspost then fight them unless it was needed. All they ever really fought for were things that annoyed all of us, like we got payrise's through the union, and we could use the union to complain about the rain coats we were given (they were terrible, I used to rant constantly about why we kept getting them and the contract hadnt been severed with the company, cause by defination a raincoat should keep out the rain...). they provided us essentially with backup whenever you had to deal with management. Management wasnt afraid of them as long as management was doing the right thing.

 

Here's what happens when you organize a UNION at your company. I'll break it down real simple since you don't seem to understand how simple economics work.

When a union is in place, the company will have to pay 2-3x more pay to the drivers. Where is that money going to come from? Trees? The company will have to increase their rates, so much that nobody will want to do business with them. The shippers will goto another company that is non-union and give that other company all the loads.

So you'll be on a nice union job where you get .80 cents a mile as a company driver, and be getting no miles, since all the customers went somewhere else.

Think about this, if you own a house, and have a pipe that breaks and need to call a plumber to fix it. There's 2 nearby businesses that will give you quotes. One is a union company and they charge $100 an hour labor, and the other non-union plumbing company charges only $40 an hour. Which one will you pick to do business with? Use your freakin head.

 

UNIONS used to be a good thing. Then they got GREEDY and LAZY.

The UAW wouldn't even take a 1% pay cut during the recession, when most people were getting laid off and taking 40% pay cuts. GREED GREED GREED.

 

= Power is in numbers.

 

Well you may be way a head to get the union plumber to make the repair because they have a 5 year apprenticeship program which pretty much insures they know what they are doing. I will admit there are good non union plumbers out there too. Just a little harder to come by. As far as the Auto Workers you are probably too young to remember when a good many of those guys spent more time on lay off than working and that was before subpay was put in the contract. Most of the labor unions fought for what they have today. It wasn't just handed to them. In my opinion a lot of people are jealous of what they have accomplished. I may be greedy in so much as taking all the overtime i am offered,but i am not lazy,and the people i work for will back me up 100% on both counts. Some people just lump all union members into 1 category and think 1 size fits all. Not true!

 

The vast majority of plumbers know that crap doesn't run uphill and payday is every second Friday.

 

At one time i was an apprentice plumber and the pipe fitters would always tell us just pitch it toward the lake and we used to get paid on Wed. but the Bad Apples would not show up on Thur. that came to an end. Switched payday to Fri.