In this installment I'd like to discuss Labor Unions. I will wait for certain people's hackles to rise on that one. As far as I'm concerned, there are only two Unions that are worthwhile still: Teacher's Unions and Police Unions. Why those two? Because those are the two professions that are still grossly underpaid for the shit they have to deal with on a daily basis. You want Teachers to teach your children? Then how about paying them a decent wage so they can actually work on teaching those children. Or how about doing away with tenure so that those sucky teachers who don't even bother anymore can be replaced by teachers that actually teach. Trust me, I had my share of Teachers who "phoned it in" basically. You expect Cops to protect your ass yet you still only want to pay them 50+ K a year to do so. These folks Unions really try to get their people a good deal without strikes and without costing the State (whichever State that may be) a ton of cash. The other Unions on the other hand......we can honestly do without. What prompted this was the Jackasses at BART threatening to go on strike again. I remember the first BART strike. I was commuting from Walnut Creek to SSF then and when the trains weren't running, there ended up being so much more traffic trying to cross the Bay Bridge in the Morning that it was more of a nightmare than usual. God that sucked!!!! The folks on strike? The Station Agents. First off, for those that don't know what BART is, it's the Bay Area Rapid Transit system...basically the San Francisco Bay Area's version of a Subway. Like the Metro for those that live in the DC area. The Station Agents are the lazy asses that sit behind a glass cube and basically say the same things: "The Bathrooms are over there". "No I don't have change, you will have to go find some change somewhere." "The next train is on the schedule over there on the wall." "Look at the map and it will tell you the best route to take." And various other non-helpful statements like that. Back in 1998 they made about 50K a year to do this. Of course they made that money because they were part of the Union and part of their salary went towards Dues. Still, they got great benefits and a decent salary for a job a trained monkey could do. You sit on a damn stool for Christsake! Behind a glass cube and talk to people via a Microphone. Recently these same pricks were threatening to go on strike. But in the age of the Blog and Comment sections on electronic versions of news articles, the public's downright Outrage at the thought of those with "a stable job, with decent pay and great benefits" threatening to walk off their jobs because they want MORE....in this economy affected the quick outcome of not striking. I remember back in 98 when the strike first happened. When the Agents came back from their strike they were greeted with derision and hatred. There were reports of passengers walking up to the Agents and saying "I wish you would die." Basically these greedy assholes are threatening the livelihoods of a large number of people in the Bay Area who depend on their trains to get them to work in a timely fashion. Without the trains running, folks would be late for work, or not make it there (some folks don't have a car) and could possibly be fired. Unions are also the biggest contributor to the fall of the Big 3 US Automakers.....the other contributor was making piece of shit cars no one wanted, but I digress. An UAW worker makes about 70-100 dollars an hour....but the moron only takes home about 30-40 dollars an hours salary. The rest goes to the Union for Dues. Maybe that's why they were cranking out shitty cars. They were spending so much money on payroll, there was no money left for research of any kind. Back home, especially in SF, there's a union for everything. San Francisco could be a huge cargo port if it wanted to be, but the Longshoreman's Union put a stop to that. They insisted that every cargo ship coming into port needed to be offloaded by hand. Oakland said screw that and built huge cranes.....lots of them....to the point that Oakland is a hugely busy cargo port. The one that gets me is there's a union for Hotel workers. Really? Is that really necessary? You clean hotel rooms....not saying it's a horrible job but it's not worth 25 bucks an hour!!!! It's not worth having a Union over. Grocery workers back home have a Union. Cashiers....yes the folks that scan your groceries over a red laser....make about 30+ K a year. To pass your groceries over a scanner!!!! For skilled labor, i.e. Carpenters, Electricians, Plumbers, etc I can see a Union, if only for the training that said Unions insist on. Constant training. What I think is wrong is the rates these guys get paid. It's absolutely ridiculous. Unions really don't have a place in our society today. There are so many regulatory commissions out thee right now that keep the American Worker safe and sound. Make them go away and I bet things might get better.....
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