Have you ever been a member of a Union?

[Ichingcarpenter]

Poll question: Have you ever been a member of a Union?

I was thinking about myself, of course and my nearly 60 years on this planet
and the jobs I have had which were many and the chances I had to join a union
and every chance I did have I did and that includes a lot of 'Southern' jobs.

My first union I was able to join was in Denmark in the 70s as a member of the
County's labor union. The next chance I got was as a carpenter in Texas... yes Texas
as carpenter, the next one was the Teacher's union in Colorado and California.
I even in California helped my neighbor join the pipe fitters union and help him study
and pass his journeyman's test

Never regretted the chance to join they have always helped me professionally
and my family... and man, when we didn't have work the union dues were worth.

I've worked in states in the south where labor organizing was considered
Socialist and got slammed for trying to organize.

I'm getting ready when my papers come through to join another union
'Janitor's union.

What's your story?

[hobbit709]

1. My first job out of high school in 1968 I was a member of UMW.

Since then I never had a union job but that never stopped me from supporting them.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. I'm on my fourth but that over 40 years on the labor market

The UMV time, was that in the south or up north?

[hobbit709]

59. In Ohio

[vssmith]

26. My first job out of HS was in the UMW also on the iron range of Minnesota

[Recursion]

2. ILA and Equity

Equity isn't really a "union" in the way the industrial ones are (or I guess you might say it meets different needs: there are no locals, no halls, and it usually has a 90% unemployment rate). The longshoremen were basically every good and bad stereotype about unions in one local.

[mucifer]

4. I was a member of the California Nurse Association in the '90s I got full health

benefits while working 3 days a week 24 hours a week at Kaiser Oakland Hospital. Pretty damn amazing. I wonder how it is there now.

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. I found California very enlightening on labor

They trained and certified professions way beyond anything I had experienced
in the South, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, drywall etc.

The teacher's union gave me a lot of support when I had problems with my
principal, who later got fired.

[Solly Mack]

5. I'm a former union member/shop steward and the daughter of a union organizer. (my mom)

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. I was a labor organizer in the South working with ACORN

Back in the 80s.... but I was young then.
Acorn back then did a lot on labor rights.

[Solly Mack]

9. Neat!

[Ichingcarpenter]

12. You don't make money being the Squeaky Wheel

You either get grease or the wheel gets removed.

[Solly Mack]

15. Believe me, I know.

[Tunkamerica]

6. iatse for a few years

[Tunkamerica]

83. actually

i don't know what i was thinking last night, i worked with iatse off and on for a few years, but didn't actually join the union because i was only doing it part time.

[Cirque du So-What]

10. 18 years in the USWA

Union steward, contract negotiator, safety representative, organizer.

I sometimes regret leaving that union in order to fulfill my dreams (especially when I was between jobs due to corporate downsizing), but I'm glad I followed through with my desire to work as a professional in my field. I still have strong sympathies for the unions, however, and will never relinquish the memories that are integral to my make-up.

[aikoaiko]

11. I was told to join or find another job.

Amalgamated Meatcutters and Butchers Union

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. And so what happened? n/t

[aikoaiko]

20. I joined and paid my dues, and then quit the job about a year later.

I figured the union needed to collect dues on young, short-timers like me in order to fund the benefits of long-timers and that was just the price of doing business and collecting a paycheck in that supermarket.

[IDemo]

14. CWA for 17 years

[Ichingcarpenter]

19. I know your background from DU

thanks for posting.

Curious on how the poll is doing,
I thought about at least half have never been a member
of any organized labor and it seems to be pointing that way for now.

[IDemo]

29. I heard a discouraging but unsurprising thing on NPR on my drive home yesterday

It may have been on the "All Things Considered" segment, I forget, but the reporter stated that Americans have been steadily losing regard for unions over the past several decades. I received an excellent pay package and medical benefits (which were critical to me). When the office closed, I received two years of tuition assistance which is still paying off, 15 years later. Not for nothing did I walk the picket line, it looks like.

:hi: :patriot:

[Betty88]

70. CWA local 1150 here 12 years

[polichick]

16. Never had the chance, but I've always supported them because...

...they built the middle class and I don't want to live in a country without that.

[malaise]

17. Two

and an association with my very first job.

[TheCowsCameHome]

18. Age 16 until retirement at 60

Four unions, the last continuous membership for 37 years, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

[CTyankee]

21. Actors Equity when I did summer stock back in the 60s. Spouse was a member

of AFSME as a municipal worker until his forced retirement due to layoffs by the city of New Haven in 2009. We are now worried about New Haven seeking bankruptcy to not have to pay for his measly pension...

[Little Star]

22. Just the wife of a union member. Plus other family also. n/t

[blondeatlast]

50. "Just"? Don't belittle it--I remember what my friends' moms did

during the mining and correctional officer strikes here in Arizona. without them, the strikes could not have endured.

[Heddi]

23. SEIU 1199NW. Registered Nurses Union

Husband is in the same union but different hospital.Both are closed shops. Both get considerably higher wages and infinitesimally better working conditions than the non-union hospitals in the area. Good union that puts up a good fight when they need to.

[Ichingcarpenter]

27. Democracy in the Work Place is what the World Needs

I don't know why Americans can't understand that?

Thom Hartman explained that for those that don't understand it.

[blindpig]

24. AFSCME, Teamsters

Solidarity

[Bill McBlueState]

25. I was a member of the Graduate Employee Organization at UMass

while I was a PhD student. UAW Local 2322.

There is a *vast* difference between graduate-student working conditions at UMass and where I'm currently a postdoc. Here, grad students sit in their offices and moan when they're mistreated. There, we organized, rallied, and took care of business.

[catabryna]

28. Never had the chance...

but, it's a proud tradition in my family and I continue to support them. :)

[Ichingcarpenter]

30. Thank you for your honest answer and reply

I normally don't asked for noms but in this case
I do for Wisconsin.

[Sisaruus]

31. I've always been part of management but I've also always been pro-union

Of course, I've also (deliberately) only worked in the public and nonprofit sectors and could not, in good conscience, work in management in the corporate sector.

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[barbtries]

32. in my working life i've never had the opportunity

but i am with you.

[Smarmie Doofus]

33. Threesies. NYC Taxi-Drivers, Teachers, and some kind of weak...

.... health-care workers union in the early 80's.

[erodriguez]

34. UFT 7 years.

[wndycty]

35. Dues paying, card carrying member of the National Education Association!

Since 1999

[GreenEyedLefty]

36. Two - UFCW and now a school secretaries bargaining unit

[tinrobot]

37. MPSC 839 - Animators Union

Disney and Warner Bros are still union as far as I know.

The health insurance was AMAZING.

[mopinko]

38. i was a union apprentice carpenter, and a chicago

restaurant employee. the carpenters union was mostly good, although the females in that business were and still are treated like shit. they could have helped my out a little more, but it was a bad economy. still and all, it was good.
the restaurant workers union in chicago is a mob piggy bank that does absolutely nothing for their workers. they fought for our right to make minimum wages and that's about it. i was promised a raise when i was moved up to a higher station, and never did get it. it was something that should have been a part of the contract in the first place.
all in all, i think you area almost always better off in a union.

[KittyWampus]

39. Grocery workers in college days. Made DOUBLE TIME on Sundays.

[TBF]

40. My dad was union - I painted signs and was on the picket line with him -

but never came across a union in my worklife (my professional jobs were all Virginia, Wash DC, and TX).

Strongly in favor of the unions, all our worker protection law we owe to them.

Edited to add: Talked with my dad yesterday about the situation in Wisconsin (he's retired now, still lives in a little town there) and he reitterated his support for the unions. He always says unions aren't perfect but without them you have nothing. He's against Walker - says that this current thing is just Walker trying to break them.

[Initech]

87. I'm actually thinking of starting one.

I'm an admin professional. I make crap pay, with very few benefits and zero room for advancement. I know there are others like me. How would I go about doing this?

[xmas74]

98. Find the proper one affiliated with your field.

When in doubt, talk to the IWW.

http://www.iww.org/

[PVnRT]

41. UFCW at Kroger's, Teamsters at Columbia House

[Sabriel]

42. Union since 1988

WEAC
CCCTA
TAA
TAUWP (dues, but unfortunately no collective bargaining yet)

[Bluenorthwest]

43. Yes, more than one, and at the same time, not

consecutively. My first or mother Union is AFTRA, the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists. I was 20 when I joined, I think. Still a member of course.

[rug]

44. Yes.

[Ichingcarpenter]

46. I see what you're doing there......

Don't know why this thread doesn't get more nominations though
when really crappy ones do.

[Chris_Texas]

45. Been in two. Both were worthless

In know, in keeping with the current mood, I am supposed to pretend otherwise... But there it is. The unions I was a member of were a joke. They worked tirelessly with management to screw the workers.

If unions actually where all the great things that some like to claim they would not be damn near extinct.

[deacon]

47. Two. n/t

[Reader Rabbit]

48. I'm a third generation union member.

My grandfather was the shop steward at Picatinny Arsenal. He died from complications of benzyne poisoning, but he was in the forefront of the movement to ensure that none of the workers who followed would have to face the same hazards.

[Hotler]

49. Here in Denver.....

13yrs. Ironworkers-shopmans local 507, 5yrs Boilermakers local 101

[blondeatlast]

51. AFSCME and the daughter of an AFSME organizer and granddaughter of a railroad union

organizer!

[xmas74]

97. Former AFSCME here.

Daughter and granddaughter of other unions.

I've been thinking that my place of employment needs it.

[blondeatlast]

52. Five people had the chance to but didn't? Wonder why?

I doubt we'll hear from them, but still.

[Fla_Democrat]

60. Didn't want to take a pay cut

Didn't want to leave my job if the company I had worked for (at the time) for 15 years, didn't "go union"
Didn't want to tell my grandmother to piss off when she asked me to do some work around her house... cause she wasn't paying 'union wages'.
Didn't want to pay someone to tell me who I could work for, and who I couldn't.

1-1 on 1-1, solidarity... brothers.. :rofl:

fwiw.. the union that was trying to start in Tallahasse for carpenters, bombed. I guess for the same reasons.

[Ichingcarpenter]

65. In the South it was a very tough road

I know.... I was there... and the propaganda
and money to destroy any labor organizing was rampant.
Plus the destroying union organizing from within.

[Fla_Democrat]

74. From within, for sure

There was a lot of chatter, radio ads, even flyers.


Things were great till the guy that showed up on the job made two mistakes.

He asked if there were any questions.
He answered them.



:smoke:

[blondeatlast]

66. So--it was all about you. Gotcha. nt

[Fla_Democrat]

73. my bills, my life, so, yes

/golfclap


Aparently it was all about everone as well, since they petered out.

[blondeatlast]

81. I guess I'm just happy you're happy. Bless your heart. nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

53. Yes - including a public employee's union.

[quiller4]

54. I was still in high school the first time I joined a union.

I was a member of the Retail Clerks (now UFCW 367) when I worked at a department store in my junior and senior year of high school. I was a member of SEIU when I worked for the local council of churches and two other local nonprofits. My spouse is a teamster retiree and was a rep for Teamsters 599 and 117. May paternal grandfather was a rep/organizer for the Printers and Pressmen in the 30s and 40s.

[lunatica]

55. Restaurant union when I was a waitress and union in UC Berkeley as

an Admin Assist.

[Brickbat]

56. Newspaper Guild and National Writers Union. Mr. Brickbat is a Teamster (locomotive engineer) and has

been a member of the UBC and the UTU. We are union all the way.

[Swede]

57. BMWED

Most of the men in my family worked for the railroad. Hard,hard work.
My uncle got me a job on a maintainence crew,just out of highschool. Worked there for 3 years. Damn hard work.

http://www.bmwe.org/aboutus.shtm

[lpbk2713]

58. IBEW

Thirty-five years at the time of my retirement.

[Joe the Revelator]

61. My job is not unionized, but I come from a union family...

My dad was a firefighter.

[bluethruandthru]

62. I wish I did.

Some people I work with are in a couple of different unions and they have fared much better than those of us who have no opportunity to join a union. Those of us without union protection have lost a good chunk of our pay and benefits over the last few years.

[fishwax]

63. I'm in a union now

The Graduate Employees Organization, affiliated with AFT and AFL-CIO. This is the first job where I've had an opportunity to join a union, but hopefully won't be the last.

:kick:

[Morning Dew]

64. Teamsters - 1977-1980.

Other than that, I've mostly worked for smaller family owned businesses.

Working a union job was the one time in my working life that I didn't feel I was floating on the tides of my employer's crazy whims and fancies.

I appreciate unions.

[bluescribbler]

67. Worked for IUE for about 4 months.

Company management was piss poor. Couldn't pay their bills. Paychecks were late twice because they would have bounced. Bosses finally decided to lay off all mfg workers and outsource the work. Now it's all but impossible to find a union machinist job here in MA.

[upi402]

68. Union made my life better - hard to get in though

My union was like a private club at the end of the 70's. I tested real high and had all the math, but they were trying to get family in and I wasn't the son of a union member.
They actually told me to get a job non-union so I'd also have work experience if I try to get in again. I did and for 3 years they said NO. By year 4 I was running a service truck then had my own contracting business.

Organizing grabbed me years later. I never blame unionism for the short sightedness of union MEMBERS.

[earth mom]

69. Never had the opportunity but I believe in Unions with all my heart.

Both my grandfathers held union jobs for most of their lives. My hubby has mainly held Union jobs too and has a Union job right now that he will retire from-fingers crossed.

All lucky men. :loveya:

[warren pease]

71. Teamsters Local 287 and Newspaper Guild. n/t

[kentuck]

72. Teamsters and IBEW...

They were both very good to me.

[uppityperson]

75. One, first nursing job. Was told beware, avoid an area of hosp where unionizers were enrolling peopl

"if you have to go there, take someone with you, just walk straight through and don't talk to them." Warning taken and received. So one of the first things I did was go there and sign on.

[GReedDiamond]

76. I was a Teamster in the early-to-mid 70s...

...at a vinyl car top (remember those?) factory in a Chicago area suburb.

In '76, I moved to Los Angeles, and, for a time, was a garment industry union member (sorry, I forget the name of the union, it was over thirty years ago, and I did not stay long on that job, as it sucked and I went on to something better).

Now, there is barely a garment industry left in L.A., but I am an independent contractor in what remains of it.

[grahamhgreen]

77. I have always wanted to join a union...

never been asked.

[MilesColtrane]

78. AFM member for 28 years

I've worked under a union negotiated CBA for 19 years now. That's the only reason I have a pension coming.

Management and bosses won't give you anything. You have to stand together and demand it.

[Cleita]

79. One place I worked I was able to join a union.

Unfortunately, for the type of work I do there wasn't a union to join in the past most of the time. I always supported unions though and I won't cross a picket line or use the services of a company that has a strike going on.

[Blue_In_AK]

80. Yes, I was a member of the public employees union

when I was a correctional officer for a year back in the '80s. The rest of my work years were spent as a legal secretary/paralegal, and we had no union. My husband has been a member of the Marine Engineers Benefit Association (MEBA) for decades, and his nice pension is keeping us alive. :)

[AsahinaKimi]

82. Believe it or not, San Francisco has many Unions

Its amazing how many!

[alfredo]

84. NALC

[Raine]

85. No, never had a job where there was a union

but I certainly support them.

[Kermitt Gribble]

86. For 2 years when I was 19.

I was a member of Local 1197 USWA. Still have my union card! Gave me a great appreciation as to how the unions are responsible for working class people being able to earn a comfortable living.

[cloudbase]

88. MEBA

Marine Engineers' Beneficail Association. Joined 1976, retired 2006.

MEBA represents engineering and some deck officers on U.S. flag merchant ships.

[JackBeck]

89. AFTRA when I worked on a soap opera.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

90. Not sure how to answer

I did join the American Association of University Professors when i was teaching. They stand for academic freedom and fair warning for dismissal.

Currently, I'm a member of the No Peanuts movement, which is an international ad hoc group of translators fighting downward pressure on prices.

[LadyHawkAZ]

91. USWA, in their only casino

and oh holy spaghetti monster, were they the most useless union local on the planet. Really. I'm a huge supporter of unions, but I was under the impression that they were supposed to represent their members, not the corporation. Infighting galore at the local, they refused to uphold their own contract rules, grievances were denied without even being read for most while special favors were fought hard for for a chosen few. I was very disappointed in them, had hoped for better representation.

They did manage to keep a lot of layoffs at bay in the last couple years, so I guess they have earned their keep, but in a grievance situation they were and (I hear) still are useless.

[readmoreoften]

92. Three: UAW, CWA/TSEU, IWW.

[old mark]

93. 4 that I can remember-Musicians Union when I was 15, Steelworkers

after high school, Iron Molders (twice) and AFSCME, where I was a Steward.

mark

[Violet_Crumble]

94. I've stuck with my union even though our past RW govt tried to break the bond...

I've been a member of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) for years and when the Howard govt here in Australia tried to emasculate the unions by making it difficult for us to make our contributions (think the attempts to make it difficult for people to donate to Wikileaks and yr along the same lines), I stuck with the union and stayed a member. Back when I was pregnant and a victim of workplace harrassment, the union went above and beyond what I ever dreaned they'd do in trying to support me, and I'm eternally grateful to them for it. Not so grateful that I can spare time to be a union delegate, but very grateful nonetheless...

[H2O Man]

95. Yes, two.

First, in a factory. The union there was not good. There was too much focus on representing lazy people who deserved to get fired. I helped run the campaigns of a few people who were interested in improving the union for the benefit of the good workers.

Second, while I worked in human services. I served as vice president in that job. The union was important in protecting the rights of hard-working men and women.

[demodonkey]

96. Actors Equity, AFTRA, and Screen Actors Guild nt

[underseasurveyor]

99. Tried to get a plant I worked in to go union.

I even made arrangements for a Rep to come in and talk to us. Management threatened our jobs by telling people ' off the record' and 'i'll deny saying this'... but anyone that talks to a Rep will be layed-off.
I tried encouraging people and correcting the massive amount of misinformation about unions but to no avail.
My vehicle was damaged numerous times. Head lights smashed, not quite empty bottles of booze stuffed under a seat, lug nuts loosened. Threats to me personally including being threatened with blanket parties and rape. I finally quit, sold my house and moved back to California. Yea they nicknamed me Norma, spoken with the most sarcasm they could muster. I still have nightmares sometimes.

Jackass employees that were too stupid to realize how much better a union would have made in their pitiful lives.