What are everyone's thoughts on a Union Shop? Pros and cons?

This post generated 500+ comments in about 4 hours….

Top comments include:

• “I would never work in a Union shop again. I don't believe in everyone making the same, worst to best. I don't want someone else negotiating my wages and benefits. If I have an issue with management , I don't want some jackass trying to resolve it for me, I will take care of myself. I also don't want to be told that I can't go to work because we are on strike( many times for some bs issue that doesn't involve me). That being said, some of the trade unions are not bad. They provide training, oversee apprenticeships, actually police their members, and are worth the dues paid. But that usually depends on the local.”

• “worked for one, jumping into an established union is hell, its 50 year old men arguing high-school politics, and if you weren’t there the day the agreement was signed you will absolutely not receive the same benefits, when raises are based purely on time spent there and not skill you have no ground to push for a raise without pissing off the old men, and you have to pay union dues to receive benefits that barely beat a non union shop, ill never work for one again unless I'm there the day the agreement is signed”

• “Maybe if it's an actual machinist union. I'm in one now but it's mostly comprised of unskilled labor so I can't exactly leverage my position as much as I'd like. Good protections, if you need that....and they can't just ask you to work whenever.”

• “It’s the only way to be… it’s just like any other job except you have a written agreement that your employer follows. If your employer doesn’t follow the contract you can be made whole for any and all losses.

  You know how much money you’re going to make because it’s in the contract, you know what insurance and retirement you’ll have because it’s in the contract…

  None of this employer looking for cheaper insurance and switching it around every year bullshit.

  You can be paid more or above the contract if you hustle. The contract is only the minimum that the employer has to pay you.

  They have real apprenticeships that are governed by L&I and you can prove you are a journeyman worker after completing the program and can leave that employer and go to any other union shop (of the same craft)and be paid journeyman wage.”

• “I just got laid off from a union shop because of low seniority, while the guy who scrapped $60,000 worth of parts still has a job there. That should tell you all you need to know about it.”

• “Unions keep bad employees employed”

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Good idea of the day

Does your shop offer a bonus for designing something that saves them big money???

Top comments include:

• “I worked for one steel mill and after I made the invention, I took it up to the office where they asked to see it and I told them ok but not the whole finished piece until we come to an agreement. So after showing them the unfinished part, they told me that I worked for them and used their machine to make it so they owed me nothing. I immediately took the part and destroyed completely. Idiots would have saved over a quarter million per year.”

• “A cashier at Sears invented the push button quick release ratchet. Offered it to Sears, they said “No thanks”. Stole the idea. He sued them and I think they kept it in court until he was dead. Similar story with two speed windshield wipers.”

• “The company I worked for told us that any product or process improvement we developed while employed there belongs to the company. Imagine that.”

• “I worked for a shop that promoted "cost savings ideas" I compiled a complete research folder, showing the amount of particular parts we made, with my resources, and how my idea could save the company a serious chunk of money every year. I got everything together and showed it to the big guy. He said that it looks great, Buy sorry, we no longer have the cost savings program anymore. I think that he heard what I was doing to prepare, and shot me down before I entered his office. A week later, my idea,

  an Aluminum sub plate, was attached to one of the mills in the shop.”

• “There are decisions and ideas that are done at the workplace throughout the workday that make or save money for the employer. I am old school I guess as I believe that is what a good employee is just supposed to do. It can be as simple as a keystroke on a computer to an elaborate engineering idea or a process change on the shop floor. You are there to make money for the employer.”

• “While working for an exhaust manufacturing industry in the maintenance dept I came up with a cost saving for the pipe bending mandrel. The mandrel would wear and get jammed in the pipe. The mandrel would be replaced with a new one and the old one would be thrown out. I came up with machining the mandrel down and pressing on a sleeve taking it back to size. Saved the company over $250,000 a year. My reward "That's what we pay you for, lucky you've still got a job here." That was the last time I gave them any of my ideas.”

• “The company I worked for usually took steps to reward exceptional thinking. However, being a job shop, thinking shit up was our job and it is what we were getting paid for in the 1st place.”

• “I've received $1.00 hr. raise on the spot a few different times for doing this.”

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