"Richard K." > wrote in message
...
> "Michael OConnor" > wrote in message
> ...
>>
>>> That story lacked important details, but more information is coming
>>> out by the
>>> minute.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...tage_n_2059651...
>>> Looks like the Mafia, which controls unions back East, is behind
>>> turning away non-union crews in NJ.
>>>
>>
>> I have a buddy who works in one of the tall buildings in NYC. Showed
>> up for his first day of work with a box that had his office stuff in
>> there, stapler, pens, desk calendar, pictures, coffee mug, that kind
>> of stuff that you show up with your first day on the job. He was
>> stopped at the door and was told he could not carry that box into the
>> building, that he had to fill out a work order and a Union person
>> would carry the box up to his office for him. He said it was about
>> eight hours later, near the end of his first day of work, that the
>> work order finally got processed and the Union worker showed up at his
>> office with his box, when if he had carried it himself it would have
>> taken five minutes instead of eight hours.
>>
>> But I think my favorite Union story came from Philadelphia a few years
>> back, when they were constructing a new skyscraper and it was to be
>> state of the art and green friendly. Among the amenities was one of
>> those organic toilet systems where the waste is not flushed but
>> recycled somehow. The problem was the Unions in Philadelphia had
>> contracts that required them to build toilets and drainage for all
>> buildings, but this company did not require it. The Unions sued this
>> company in court and won, so this company had to pay all this extra
>> money for a waste drainage system they would never even use.
>
>
> Your stories point out some very stupid things. But there are also a lot
> of anecdotes that could be told of what working conditions in the US were
> like before unions... child labor, sweat shops, no workers comp, low
> wages, getting fired without cause, workers beaten and killed for trying
> to unionize and protect their rights, etc. Before unions, things were
> pretty awful for a lot of workers.
>
My father was forced to join a union but when he was off work with a bad
back, a cheque came in the mail every 2 weeks that helped out considerably!
Graham