Unions and Greedy Workers are Killing Buffalo...

[TankLV]

My response to on that "wonderful" thread on another site:

I for one am sick and tired of all this accepted UNION BASHING here.

It's disgusting and SHAMEFUL.

If it weren't for UNIONS, you all wouldn't be living the "good life" you aparently do.
NO healthcare. NO forty hour workweek. NO decent wages for work. NO child labor lawsl. NO workplace safety.

And I could go on.

Las Vegas is perhaps the healthiest and fastest growing region in the COUNTRY and it is STRONGLY and OVERWHELMINGLY UNION. No, Unions aren't the reason for Buffalo's declilne - it's the GREEDY Employeers who refuse to provide a decent wage for the workers product.

This country is at a race TO THE BOTTOM - Buffalo is just an early symptom of the GREED of these bastards...
I am sick and tired of this IGNORANCE and GREED

and another thing while I'm at it:

Unions are causing all the problems in Buffalo - so the companies move to the South. Parting shot: Managers and CEO's make millions in "severance pay" and "bonuses".

Unions and workers - note less unions - are killing the profits of the companies in the South - so - they move to Mexico. One half to One Tenth of the cost of doing business in the USA. Parting Shot: CEO's and Managers make a killing on more bonuses. Even when the company's profits tank.

Next stop: Mexican workers - few unions - are impacting that profit margin again - so - Company moves to - CHINA - NO unions - workers make 10 cents - a WEEK - IF the boss "decides" to pay them at all - after all - no unions anymore so no body to complain to. Funny side effect: No pesky business killing "regulations" either - wonder where all the bad toxic FOOD and TOYS are "suddenly" comming from! (nobody could have expected such a thing would occur!). Parting shot: MULTI-MILLIONS for the Managers and CEO's of the US company - that has also moved it's headquarters off shore to escape paying any taxes - AND they get CORPORATE WELFARE in the form of TAX BREAKS by - HALLIBURTON ring a bell - (bonus points if you can guess which PERSONS PERSONALLY benifit from this sudden "good luck" - hint: they're in the WHITE HOUSE at this minute).

Think we're done? Why no, silly! This is STILL NOT GOOD ENOUGH or NOT ENOUGH PROFIT - which, incidentally, has been at RECORD LEVELS while the worker's wages have remained stagnant since the 1980's - hmmm - who was in the White House then? These companies see these CHINESE as being paid too much - so they now move to India and Vietnam.

While at this very same time, US Worker Productivity is at the highest levels it has ever been - EVER!
See a pattern here?

I know exactly WHO on this forum will REFUSE to see it...!

Oh, and to add insult to injury - guess who gets to pay for their own now unaffordable Health Insurance (NOT health CARE - just the INSURANCE) while at the same time lose any RETIREMENT benefits!

It's all the fault of those DAMN GREEDY WORKERS making a hundred dollars an hour pushing a broom while the welfare queens drive their Cadillacs to the Welfare Office to pick up their checks! (the last one is a blatant LIE spawned by "saint" ronnie

sorry - I snapped - I just couldn't take all the union bashing that goes on in that site and I let them have it with both barrels...

[Dark]

1. You're wrong.

Wages have been declining since the early 70s.

:P

Otherwise I agree.

[Sherman A1]

2. Agreed & Well Said

I am Union & proud to be so. Unions while far from perfect are one of the major factors in keeping us working stiffs still in the game. I could go on and on, but no matter if you are a auto worker, a grocery worker (as am I) or a striking writer, it's still about fair pay and being treated fairly in the work place.

[VotesForWomen]

3. it's certainly not the fault of unions, but unions have some serious, major problems which are

a large part of the reason for their decline, and it's a shame because working people need support now more than ever.

[China_cat]

5. Those problems could be fixed from within if it weren't

for the people who have a vested interest in busting the unions working very hard to convince workers that they can't be fixed and therefore the union should go.

Even at the worst of the Teamsters' problems, the rank and file still managed to get better treatment than employers give today.

[malaise]

4. K & R

For the workers of the world

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

6. Been watching it happen since the 70s

Grew up in a Midwest factory town, a rail hub that made it a center for manufacturing and a place for growth. Farmlands bought up for big plants and housing developments, but still so many fields you could drive through the country for hours. So many jobs that workers swarmed up from the South. Southerners worked at the union plants, Mexicans worked the non-union jobs. I could tell by listening if someone was from Mississippi or Missouri, Texas or Georgia, Arkansas or Tennessee.

Unions organized. Owners began moving shops down South and the job boom went bust. Some Southerners followed the jobs back home but others stayed, as did the Mexicans. Downtown died. Old inner city neighborhoods started getting slummy. Vigilantes slapped stickers on city limit signs that read "Wetback City."

Reagan led the union busters and what union shops were left had trouble negotiating decent contracts. "Take-aways" became standard, and a good contract was marked not by what the workers gained but by what they managed to keep. More plants moved South, and southern plants started moving to Mexico. In return, Mexico sent up heroin. That's the railroad that replaced industry in my hometown, which became a major stop for drugs.

The town did turn around some thanks to housing growth fueled by commuter access to the big city. There are still some factories and a few of them still have unions, but you are more likely to get a job in retail or healthcare - consumption industries as opposed to production.

I don't go back there anymore.

[xchrom]

7. good for you. --

:applause:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

8. I didn't see the thread to which you refer, I'm really stunned that Unions have been attacked

here.

I've been a member of a union for most of the last sixteen years. It's the ONLY reason I have decent health care coverage, decent wages and decent job security.

I thought it was pretty much CW here that this country needs MORE unionization and collective bargaining not less.

Good post!

:kick:

MKJ

[NorthernSpy]

9. I thought you meant ~actual~ buffalo...

And I was like, :wtf:...




But now I realize that you're saying that someone accused unions of killing Buffalo-the-city. And so I'm like, :wtf:...


Because capitalism's own globalization drive is what's killing America's industry, both unionized and un-unionized. Just ask North Carolina.

[earth mom]

10. Anyone who hates Unions is a rethuglican. Simple as That.

:grr: