For TJ: Health Care Proposals
hk wrote:
I doubt it. I frequently go out on organizing calls with union reps, and
the companies and employees we visit are not members of unions.
I hate labor unions. Always have.
Twenty-two years ago my father worked nights in a clutch factory, having
worked his way up over the years from machinist to foreman. The original
owner sold to a larger corporation, and after a while it became time to
negotiate a new contract. The factory had been breaking even or even
losing money on heavy-duty clutches, and the company wanted to start
making light-duty ones where there was more demand. They even went so
far as to move in equipment to start making them.
Even with the new product line, the company would still lose money if
they couldn't cut costs. During the negotiations they said they needed
the workers to take a small pay cut. The union, of course, wouldn't
stand for it. Eventually, the company gave them a take-it-or-leave-it
choice: Take a pay cut or we'll close the plant - and they offered a
severance package if the plant closed. Well, with severance dollar signs
in their eyes, they voted to close the plant. My father, who couldn't
even vote on it because he was a foreman, found himself out of a job at
age 60.
Just try to find a job at 60. It ain't easy to find a job at any age,
much less when you're so near retirement. He lived on unemployment
insurance for a year, then another year on the severance package, and
started collecting Social Security at 62, three years before he planned
to. The depression might have killed him had we not been around to help
him through it. He was never the same again.
The labor union members that decided to throw away their jobs did that
to him. I hate labor unions. Always will.
TJ
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