On 11/2/2012 5:09 PM, Michael OConnor wrote:
>
>> 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.

This sounds like a pre Giuliani thing? Unions were uber bad then and
basically had total control of everything and why it is a big reason why
so many hate them.

I am very familiar with how bad unions were in NYC. I can give you a
short example along the lines of what you mentioned. My buddies brother
is VP of marketing for a large electronics manufacturer and they would
exhibit at various shows at the Javitts center. As you described there
was a whole roster of make work union workers who you needed to hire to
carry in your boxes, set up your tables and plug in your extension
cords. In addition he said they needed to bring a literal box of cash to
pay the various union thugs or nothing would get done. He said they (and
others from other companies he knew) were at the point of just giving up
on NYC because it was so tedious and expensive to do anything there.

Then the folks in NYC hired Guiliani. I remember going to the Javitts
center not long after that and there were notices taped up in
conspicuous places advising the number to call in the mayors office if
the old time thugs tried to shake you down.


It isn't that we want to see everyone working at walmart class jobs but
we don't want to be held by the short hairs by unions either.


>
> 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.
>