Why unions have failed American workers.

[Bob F]

[Ed Pawlowski]

Pendulum is swinging. Unions did a lot of good back in the 1930 but when I started working in the 1960s they would have just taken my money and held me back. I've been involved in negotiations.

Times have changed, not always for the better. When you have to piss in a bottle, something is wrong and unions can do some good.

Wages seem to be rising with good ole supply and demand. Most minimum wages are terrible but getting better.

[gfretwell]

I would rather see a union negotiating than to have politicians legislating. It is tougher tho with someone like Bezos. He can move his warehouse operation a lot faster than moving a factory and the unions couldn't deal with that. OTOH There is some money in there to be had. Amazon can't claim poverty. It does appear it would be better to open with a low ball contract of what you would settle for and work from there. If they can stall you years before you get any contract at all why not get something in the box?. "When you are skinning your customers, you should leave some skin on to heal, so that you can skin them again". It is supposed to be negotiating.

[Ed Pawlowski]

One place I worked the union was a dues taking Joke but in some respects, good for the company. If an employee wanted something special, the reply was "Sorry, I'd like to do more but we have to follow the union contract"

We did do more though. Competition for workers had us pay about $1 an hour more than contract because that was the going rate for unskilled workers at the time.

Negotiations were done over lunch with a rep from union HQ. Once settled, he would tell the owner how the show would go. They wanted to have three meetings bringing with him the negotiating committee from the shop. Quite the show.

[gfretwell]

I grew up in the belly of the union beast. My Mom worked at the Teamster's international in DC. I was surrounded by senior Teamsters officials most of my young life. Bobby K had our phone tapped and shit like that. I am aware of what unions are. I agree they did a lot of good getting us out of the gilded age, then they got greedy. After getting the members decent working conditions they kept pushing for more until management started moving operations to get away from them. I am OK with the pendulum swinging back the other way but done cautiously because those foreigners are ready to fill the void and cut US workers out completely. The American public will always buy the cheapest product. Walmart proved that. IBM called the phenomenon "Market Driven Quality". We even got a hat to replace our "Six Sigma" hats. (About the same time Sony, the Malcolm Baldridge winner, was losing market share to no name Chinese companies).

[Ralph Mowery]

Bill Gates proved that . His Microsoft system sold for $ 50 when the DRI system was $ 150. DRI went under and MS made billions.

The American public is not very bright, but the marketing boys are.

Fellow at work put items up for sale at a local farmers market. His cantalopes were not selling vrey well at 25 cents each, but he sold out when he marked through that and put a big 3 for $ 1.00 on the sign.

I guess people though the big slash through the $ .25 ment a reduction is price.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Well yeah, I get three of them Whatta deal!

Two nuns went to the supermarket and the cucumbers were 3 for $1. The one nun said to the other, "we can always eat one"

[John Brown]

[e-mail] wrote

No they do not, most obviously with Apple phones and Tiffany etc.

Nope, all that proves is that plenty do buy the cheapest product.

[rbowman]

Sister Mary Margaret would beat your knuckles bloody for that...

[Ralph Mowery]

They buy the cheapest common products. For trendy things they will do all sorts of crazy things. Such as camp out overnight to be one of the first to get the Apple phone or Play Station or what ever. Get a pair of shoes with a famous name on them is the same. Even pay 10 time the price for a cup of coffee at places like Starbucks.

[John Brown]

No they don't always with all sorts of stuff like jeans, tshirts, baseball caps etc.

For trendy things they will do

[gfretwell]

Big banana told the little banana "Too bad, they gonna eat you". Redd Foxx

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Many years ago a high school classmate worked part time at a department store. He told me that normally a shirt that was $2 would be put on sale as two for $5.

Had not thought of it until now but that type thinking may have helped him become a multi millionaire today.

[rbowman]

And get a free dose of Hep A with their pumpkin spice latte...

[gfretwell]

You can see that at the grocery store all the time if you look. The "economy" size of some things costs more per unit than the regular size. That is particularly true when there is a sale. You really need to read the shelf tags with the unit cost.