Union Files Grievance Over Volunteers Who Filled Sandbags
Lance Burri has this story over at the BBA.
Volunteer firefighters who built sandbag barricades to protect Baraboo from record flooding earlier this month wrongfully did the work of city workers, a union representative argues in a complaint.
A grievance filed with the city says Department of Public Works employees are qualified to perform the work done by volunteer firefighters and should’ve been called on first.
Union workers are demanding pay for overtime they lost out on as a result of volunteers from the Baraboo Fire Department filling sandbags June 7 through June 12. They are arguing the city violated their union contract.
And some folks wonder why people hate unions. Can you imagine how much more damage there would have been if they had waited for the union guys to fill all of the bags?
You gotta be kidding me! So these guys want to do MORE damage to the area citizens by bringing on a grievance that would force more money out of the already-tapped city budget and place it into their pockets for something they didn’t do? WHO CARES who did the work? Let’s just be glad SOMEBODY stepped in. And that SOMEBODY did not even ask for MONEY to do it! Sheesh! Grow up, DPW whiners!
Posted by GAMazy on June 30, 2008 at 0739 hrs
Greedy douche bags.
Posted by Fuzz on June 30, 2008 at 0801 hrs
This is complete and utter BS. As a usually proud union member, I’m completely appalled. This is the kind of thing that just sets my teeth on edge. If this is true (with all due respect, there’s no corroborating evidence on the link), the rank and file membership ought to immediately throw out the moron that filed this grievance.
Unions, just like any other large, entrenched organizations, occasionally make stupid decisions, but this is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard in my life.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 30, 2008 at 0830 hrs
un-effing-believable…
And I thought my opinion of unions couldn’t possibly sink lower than it already was…Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 30, 2008 at 0924 hrs
That union sure has their priorities straight. I bet the municipal workers sit around and bitch about those greedy capitalists like Wal-Mart while on break.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 30, 2008 at 0934 hrs
there are clearly bad unions and bad union leaders.
just like their are bad cops,bad presidents,bad priests,
bad computer gurus,etc.in all walks of life their are good and bad,
this surprises you why?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 30, 2008 at 0942 hrs
unionfacts.org
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 30, 2008 at 0945 hrs
I think the union is justified, after all who is better at sand bagging that public employees
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 30, 2008 at 1013 hrs
Union workers and rules have slowly eliminated thmselves from the market by such shenangians. As the union workforce drops, now mostly government employees and teachers it becomes obvious that in business to day there is little place for them. Business and people move too fast to have such restricive rules.
We must continue to ask the question: “why should government employees get better pay, better pensions, better benefits and better vacations than we do, their employers?Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 30, 2008 at 1020 hrs
This is more likely the idea of a lawyer who is looking for some money. I’m not a fan of unions - but I can’t image anyone in a union that is supporting this.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 30, 2008 at 1035 hrs
The grievance has been withdrawn. I called the City of Baraboo and talked to a chagrined city official, who said it had been withdrawn. I didn’t want to take up a lot of his time, not even being from Wisconsin, much less Baraboo, but I did tell him that this was exactly the kind of thing that leads to such venomous opinions of unions. Not much he could say to that.
And thank you, Bill. That’s an opinion I don’t see much around here.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 30, 2008 at 1132 hrs
Bill at 10 - even if your right and it was a lawyer’s idea, that lawyer still had to find a member of the union willing to put his name on the grievence. Lawyers can’t do anything without clients.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 30, 2008 at 1158 hrs
Your pappy’d still be working in a coalmine if it weren’t for unions.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 30, 2008 at 2009 hrs
And yours would still be working at GM if it weren’t for unions.
Posted by Fuzz on June 30, 2008 at 2012 hrs
Great Job Fuzz!!
Posted by Michael J. Cheaney on June 30, 2008 at 2019 hrs
Yes Fuzz, GM closed their janesville plant because of unions. Exactly.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 30, 2008 at 2040 hrs
1) People still work in coal mines.
2) My pappy was a civil engineer.
Posted by Owen on June 30, 2008 at 2043 hrs
If you are too foolish to see how the unions have crushed the US auto industry into the dust - maybe you need to go up to Baraboo.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 30, 2008 at 2224 hrs
If you are too foolish to see how the unions have crushed the US auto industry into the dust - maybe you need to go up to Baraboo.
Or Kenosha, Janesville, Detroit, Gary IN, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, or Youngstown OH.
And yes some of these are/were Steel making towns, but they were also heavily unionized and all suffered the same fate as the Automakers
Posted by Michael J. Cheaney on July 01, 2008 at 0611 hrs
Unions don’t crush companies, bad management crushes companies, they signed bad contracts.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 01, 2008 at 0803 hrs
Unions don’t crush companies, bad management crushes companies, they signed bad contracts.
Unions sure help though. See Bob the unions KNOW that without workers companies cannot produce product, and when no product is produced companies lose money.
So at contract time unions automatically have the advantage because they can just say: “Fine, you don’t like our demands we’ll just go on strike”
Its legalized extortion.
Posted by Michael J. Cheaney on July 01, 2008 at 0819 hrs
It’s not just the contracts - its the whole union mentality. I remember my first job. I was salaried and we had a union shop. If I needed something tested or had a question - I couldn’t just take 2 minutes and go on the manufacturing floor and ask one of the guys working out there. It had to be a labor request and alloted so much time.
When they would get their time card and if they finished a job early, they could go get a paper and sit in the bathroom and read it until the time on their card was up - and then they would go get a new one and start the next job.
Contracts and wages, and benefits are one thing - but the union mentality is what is killing these companies. Any changes can only be done at contract time. These companies cannot respond to the marketplace at all. They are locked into the same way of doing things until the next contract.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 01, 2008 at 1039 hrs
Bill,
I think everyone has a similar story about unions. I remember in college I was working delivering insulated glass units to a high-rise in Chicago. A typical job like that we’d pull in, unload for 5 minutes and be on our way.
We pulled up to this dock, we were asked if we were union. We were not. We were told “stay in the truck”.
The union slugs then proceeded to take ONE UNIT AT A TIME off our truck, and then with 2 guys to carry each unit (we could carry them just one person) they dollied them over to the freight elevator and up to the floor needed, dropped them off. ONE AT A F’n TIME.
2 hours later our truck was unloaded and we were on our way.
Thank-you unions. Yes, you guys do suck. And you know you suck, but you play the nah-nah-boo-boo finger pointing games that some guy in management is rich, why should you work ANY harder than you have to.
Well you see where that has gotten american labor don’t ya.
Try working with your employer not against them for once. You might see that in addition to better productivity you’ll have a better RELATIONSHIP and guys in the front office might actually give a fuck if they send your job overseas or not.
I’ll be honest. If I had a shop and it went union and I started to deal with the shit that I see unions doing. You bet your ass I’d WANT to move my production off-shore.
So yeah, you union guys might sit and cry foul that there is no way american labor would compete with someone who makes a buck a day overseas, but when you look at the equation as a whole. Logistic’s costs and delays, import/export fees, and all the other factors. A lot more jobs would still be here if American labor unions spent as much time working on their productivity as they did strong-arming for more pay and more benefits for the same or less work.
I can tell you being privy to the conversations of many executives of manufacturing companies that they feel NO compassion for union workers who lose their jobs. Not after years and years of union tactics. If you want your employer to care about you, you might think about working with your employer, not against them.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 01, 2008 at 1114 hrs
Here’s my experience:
Many years ago, I managed a large apartment complex. We had an architect spec a hallway carpeting replacement project. The building was occupied by elderly & disabled residents - a lot of people with limited mobility - either walkers or wheelchairs, or “shuffling feet”. For that reason, the architect specified that at the end of each workday, the section had to be completed - no areas where the carpet was removed & then the replacement carpeting to be installed the next workday. This was about a week long project.
So the company that got the bid had to do things slightly differently. The first day started with the “helpers” coming about 2 hours before the “installers” - the “helpers” carried in the carpeting that was needed for one day & then proceeded to remove the old carpeting. So, when they left, the “installers” had about 2 hours left in their day to install the new carpeting, so that at the end of the day there would be no bare floor areas that would pose a hazard.
Anyway, to make a long story longer, the “helpers” came and started pulling up carpeting. Two hours later the “installers” came & started installing new carpet. About an hour later a union “business representative” showed up and shut the job down because allegedly the act of removing the old carpet was a duty for the “installers”, not the “helpers”.
So, nothing is getting done - I’m sitting there with an area that is torn up and not safe for our residents. The contractor came out & he and the union business rep were “discussing” how to proceed. To do it according to union contract would have resulted in 2 hours per day overtime per “installer”.
Anytime we had a resident fall, it always had to be reported to the property/liability insurance carrier - although they very seldom had to pay on a claim, they did a thorogh investigation which was always very time consuming - at least 2 hours each time.
So, I said to both gentlemen, fine, all I need is names (exact spelling too) and addresses & phone numbers so that the liability carrier knows who to contact in the event of a resident injury - basically I wanted to know who the “decison maker” was. About 15 minutes the business rep came into my office and said that the jobe would proceed and he would deal with the contractor “later”.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 01, 2008 at 1304 hrs
I have heard all of these stories over and over. The fact is that managment does not have to sign those contracts. If they sign contracts that are eventually going to put them out of business then they are really bad managers.
That is why unions are disappearing, many managers have seen what happened and simply do not go along.
The ones that we have to worry about are the elected officals that sell us out, Milwaukee county being the arost. People do not get those goodies in the small counties out state, they do here. Why, cause people just vote for some democrat that works deals with his buddies that put him into office and they walk off with the store.Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 01, 2008 at 1732 hrs
When I was in college, my roommate got a job delivering mail in Denver one summer. On his first day out he finished his route before the end of the full shift and came back to the post office. He was taken aside and told that if he ever again came back before the end of the shift he would have his legs broken. Collective action in practice. (Oh, he got a lot of extra reading done that summer, but never came back to the post office before the end of the shift.)
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 01, 2008 at 1742 hrs
Here is another fine example of unions gone amok.
From ESPN:
The players’ association filed a grievance Tuesday over the release of pitcher Shawn Chacon, saying the team’s decision to terminate his contract was without just cause.
Chacon cleared waivers and was released Monday, five days after a physical altercation with Houston Astros general manager Ed Wade in the clubhouse.
he 30-year-old pitcher was suspended after shoving Wade to the floor before the Astros played Texas last Wednesday. Wade said he had asked Chacon to come into manager Cecil Cooper’s office for a meeting. Chacon refused, and the confrontation ensued.
The Astros said Chacon violated a provision in the UPC that states the player may be terminated if he shall “fail, refuse, or neglect to conform his personal conduct to the standards of good citizenship and good sportsmanship or to keep himself in first-class physical condition or to obey to the club’s training rules.”
The only reason in my opinion that the players union is backing this jackass is because they know that if he doesn’t play, they don’t the pay!
There can not POSSIBLY be any other reason.
Posted by Michael J. Cheaney on July 01, 2008 at 1932 hrs
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