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I worked at the LA Zoo in high school for The Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association doing food service. It was a teamsters shop. I was making upwards of 22 dollar

I worked at the LA Zoo in high school for The Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association doing food service. It was a teamsters shop. I was making upwards of 22 dollars an hour when minimum wage was 4.25 back in 1995 at 16 years old. I don't understand how people in lower paying positions are not seeing the value here or not jumping at the opportunity to vote. It is pretty absurd to make the six figure claim when the boss is sitting on a 13 figure bag of money.

monetus 5y ago
Organized crime and corruption are what distract. Just the word teamster sets off a chain reaction of emotions when I've used it. If I had to make a parallel, it would be to political corruption. If they view all politicians as corrupt, why would they want politicians in their workplace? Unions are thrown under a blanket of grift, and not looked at in much granularity.
- bastardoperator 5y ago
  The average workplace is already full of politicians and fiefdoms. Many are actively working against you behind the scenes. Entire departments are devoted to it (HR). If they choose to have a small world view, they can never be helped. As someone living in Los Angeles at the time, many union jobs are well respected (e.g. studio, trade, etc).
ghufran_syed 5y ago
Unions help the well-connected get better paying jobs, at the expense of less well-connected people who would be willing to do the job for less, but still at a rate that makes sense for them. So the question is not “do unions help union members?” (they almost certainly do), it’s “do unions help workers like me?” - maybe the average worker is not confident that they can move to their next job if the industry is unionized?
refurb 5y ago
You were making 5x the minimum wage working in food service? Back in 1995?
- sudosysgen 5y ago
  5x the federal minimum wage doing food service in a unionized job sounds about right.
  - refurb 5y ago
    I worked a skilled union job in the 90’s and only made $16/hr so either OP is exaggerating (calling out OT rate) or was in a rare situation. $22/hr in 1995 was almost the median household income in the US. It's a lot of money for a fast food job.
    - bastardoperator 5y ago
      I was in a rare situation, I eventually came to manage two of the Zoo restaurants and had quite a few staff reporting to me which is where the bump in rate came from. On slow days (less staff) I made about 13 dollars an hour which was still really good at the time. The moral of my story is that I made decent money as a hard working teenager, I took my job very seriously, and I was rewarded in such a way that would have never existed without a union.

monetus 5y ago

Organized crime and corruption are what distract. Just the word teamster sets off a chain reaction of emotions when I've used it. If I had to make a parallel, it would be to political corruption. If they view all politicians as corrupt, why would they want politicians in their workplace? Unions are thrown under a blanket of grift, and not looked at in much granularity.

bastardoperator 5y ago
The average workplace is already full of politicians and fiefdoms. Many are actively working against you behind the scenes. Entire departments are devoted to it (HR). If they choose to have a small world view, they can never be helped. As someone living in Los Angeles at the time, many union jobs are well respected (e.g. studio, trade, etc).

ghufran_syed 5y ago

Unions help the well-connected get better paying jobs, at the expense of less well-connected people who would be willing to do the job for less, but still at a rate that makes sense for them. So the question is not “do unions help union members?” (they almost certainly do), it’s “do unions help workers like me?” - maybe the average worker is not confident that they can move to their next job if the industry is unionized?

refurb 5y ago

You were making 5x the minimum wage working in food service? Back in 1995?

sudosysgen 5y ago
5x the federal minimum wage doing food service in a unionized job sounds about right.
- refurb 5y ago
  I worked a skilled union job in the 90’s and only made $16/hr so either OP is exaggerating (calling out OT rate) or was in a rare situation. $22/hr in 1995 was almost the median household income in the US. It's a lot of money for a fast food job.
  - bastardoperator 5y ago
    I was in a rare situation, I eventually came to manage two of the Zoo restaurants and had quite a few staff reporting to me which is where the bump in rate came from. On slow days (less staff) I made about 13 dollars an hour which was still really good at the time. The moral of my story is that I made decent money as a hard working teenager, I took my job very seriously, and I was rewarded in such a way that would have never existed without a union.