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I agree, in general, as a former Teamster working for UPS. I moved out of the union and became a supervisor for UPS. It was hell, where I couldn't penalize an
by cullenking 16y ago
I agree, in general, as a former Teamster working for UPS. I moved out of the union and became a supervisor for UPS. It was hell, where I couldn't penalize any worker for showing up late, for not working, for leaving early. Some workers could not be motivated, period, as 'senior' union employees told them the tricks that made it so they didn't have to work hard. Meanwhile, my trucks were late to pull, meaning I got my ass chewed out, because I regularly had 3/10 employees skip work. The only way I could get things going was to literally bribe them with popsicles (hot warehouse in summer) and energy drinks from my own pocket $$$. The worst was having to give skilled positions to the most senior, rather than the most capable. Made for a nightmare operating environment.
However, my dad is a union employee - he works on elevators. It's a small union, and it doesn't have a bunch of 'no penalization' bullshit, and no seniority promotion clauses. The benefit it offers are a standardized health care package, so he can keep the same healthcare and retirement regardless of employer (there are only a few elevator companies anyway). The union also guarantees overtime. He can still get canned if he starts skipping work, doesn't perform etc, it just takes legitimate documentation to have happen.
There are upsides and downsides, but I believe a well run union is a good thing, but in general unions are not well run and are in actuality, terrible for the private sector.