Summit maybe not such a great company.
- Thread starter tc1959
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Never acquired a taste for *ss , and never will !Well if you live in one of these states with a non union job all the more reason to be an @sskisser to the boss!
Pucker up!!!!!!!!!!!
Wall Street and unions built this country. Then medical costs started to balloon, which made it harder to continue increasing profits (which is what stock value depends on). So unions and Wall Street started cannibalizing each other, and Wall Street emerged with less missing flesh because .... China.
(Simplified version of the tale. Or for those old enough to remember -- Reader's Digest Condensed Books version.)
(Simplified version of the tale. Or for those old enough to remember -- Reader's Digest Condensed Books version.)
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When I was union and shop steward for probably 5 years I had a sign in our tool shop.
"This place is like a wh*re house.... the better job you do, the more you get F@%$^D.
"This place is like a wh*re house.... the better job you do, the more you get F@%$^D.
This is the issue. Legal and right, or ethically right, are not synonymous. Watching Wall St have laws crafted to allow for unethical trading practices without risk to them is wrong no matter what spin they can put on it, but was legal - f'ng joke is what it really was.
I disagree vehemently - Wall St leeches didn't build sh*t - but they definitely figured out a way to make a buck off the back of those that did build the country with no concern for those that did the work though. Buying politicians to create laws that have made their system of theft legal is their legacy. Scapegoating healthcare costs as the cause of our issues is nothing more than 'drinking the Koolaid' IMO.
I look at what has happened in the area I live and those areas nearby - does anyone believe that the union or workers in the Allentown and Bethlehem areas though it was a good idea to import inferior foreign steel to save contractors money on building/construction projects? Outsourcing destroyed 50,000 jobs in our medium sized area in 25 years. We got left with the tax base, while each of the companies was rewarded for making 'good business' decisions to import their products without tariff. It's the American dream - buy imported products that you used to produce made by kids and companies with no concern for the environment, employees in another land.
Unions didn't build anything. They are like a cancer on the organization. They make businesses bloated and inefficient.....and unable to compete with the rest of the world. The existence of unions incentivizes corporations to move manufacturing to non-union states or outside of the US. Detroit is a great example of the devastating impact of unions.
That sucks real bad to be fired for being sick. Unfortunately, there's usually not much you can do to remedy that. You can try and fight it, but you have to make sure every T is crossed and every I is dotted. Even so, it's a long row to hoe. The HR folks always work to protect the company's interests. NEVER forget that. They should not work directly for the Plant Manager or wherever they are (org charts usually have HR off to the side, I have never seen them right up under the plant manager), but rest assured, they are there to ensure the company officers don't put the company in jeopardy for any reason.
I grew up in a union family (Pops was a GM UAW member forever until he retired). This last strike reminded me of the "big strike" of 1971. I was just a kid, went with him to walk the picket line. He told me they needed the union to negotiate with GM to have better working conditions. And then all this would stop and he could go back to work. Although it was nice having him home all that time. Obviously, I didn't know jack about unions then, so I figured if my dad thought it was a good thing, so did I. I've since changed my views on it, because there are always good and bad things about everything. But unions have their place. Not every job site requires a union. I don't union bash, but I also know there are places that do just fine without them.
Having worked with the IBEW behind me at the nuke plants I worked at, but not having a union at other places, I found it to be similar whether union or not. Actually better at the non-union pharmaceutical plant I worked at. I got a great salary, and benefits that rivaled what a union would likely get for us anyway. Could it have been better? Sure. But considering over the years, the federal labor laws had adopted many of the so-called "good" things unions did in the early days for workers so not having a union wasn't always a bad thing. Plus, the job was very exacting and technical in nature, we were the only plant on earth that made the highly-profitable product we made, company invested a lot to train workers, and it wasn't like they could bring in anyone off the street to take your place and get them up to speed any time soon. This didn't guarantee you couldn't get fired because it was in a right-to-work state, but you really had to be dead to rights on policy or law violation to get hammered and tossed out, and that was usually after a couple of chances to redeem yourself unless is was a flagrant violation. They didn't just go willy nilly firing people for no or flimsy reasons. I retired from there at 57 after nearly 20 years with a pension and a big, fat company-supported 401k and worked my way up to 226 hours of vacation accrual every year (about 5 weeks and 4 days, roughly).
Unfortunately, that kind of job today with those bennies is far and few between. It surely makes a difference when the company even halfway values the worker. It truly is the quality of management that sets the tone for the rest of the workforce, union or not. I consider myself somewhat lucky. Were there better places to work with or without a union? Probably. But there couldn't have been many.
I do hope for tc1959 to come out of this better on the other side. It's disheartening to hear that a company can be so seemingly callous in the treatment of long-time employees. While it is true the worker is the most underappreciated asset a company has, they're also the most valuable asset. Not much we can do to help right the situation. Just hang in there and as long as you're still waking up on the green side of the grass, you'll always have an opportunity to fight for what you deserve.
I grew up in a union family (Pops was a GM UAW member forever until he retired). This last strike reminded me of the "big strike" of 1971. I was just a kid, went with him to walk the picket line. He told me they needed the union to negotiate with GM to have better working conditions. And then all this would stop and he could go back to work. Although it was nice having him home all that time. Obviously, I didn't know jack about unions then, so I figured if my dad thought it was a good thing, so did I. I've since changed my views on it, because there are always good and bad things about everything. But unions have their place. Not every job site requires a union. I don't union bash, but I also know there are places that do just fine without them.
Having worked with the IBEW behind me at the nuke plants I worked at, but not having a union at other places, I found it to be similar whether union or not. Actually better at the non-union pharmaceutical plant I worked at. I got a great salary, and benefits that rivaled what a union would likely get for us anyway. Could it have been better? Sure. But considering over the years, the federal labor laws had adopted many of the so-called "good" things unions did in the early days for workers so not having a union wasn't always a bad thing. Plus, the job was very exacting and technical in nature, we were the only plant on earth that made the highly-profitable product we made, company invested a lot to train workers, and it wasn't like they could bring in anyone off the street to take your place and get them up to speed any time soon. This didn't guarantee you couldn't get fired because it was in a right-to-work state, but you really had to be dead to rights on policy or law violation to get hammered and tossed out, and that was usually after a couple of chances to redeem yourself unless is was a flagrant violation. They didn't just go willy nilly firing people for no or flimsy reasons. I retired from there at 57 after nearly 20 years with a pension and a big, fat company-supported 401k and worked my way up to 226 hours of vacation accrual every year (about 5 weeks and 4 days, roughly).
Unfortunately, that kind of job today with those bennies is far and few between. It surely makes a difference when the company even halfway values the worker. It truly is the quality of management that sets the tone for the rest of the workforce, union or not. I consider myself somewhat lucky. Were there better places to work with or without a union? Probably. But there couldn't have been many.
I do hope for tc1959 to come out of this better on the other side. It's disheartening to hear that a company can be so seemingly callous in the treatment of long-time employees. While it is true the worker is the most underappreciated asset a company has, they're also the most valuable asset. Not much we can do to help right the situation. Just hang in there and as long as you're still waking up on the green side of the grass, you'll always have an opportunity to fight for what you deserve.
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