Dock strike/Toilet paper shortage??

[grsthegreat]

they dont need more people, they just need for them to work a real 8 hour day. the LA DWP is a prime example. i worked on projects whit that batch of useless union waste for many years. they would send out a crew for an 8 hour day, but that 8 hrs included 45 minutes to dress before work and 1 hour to shower and clean prior to going home. the 8 man crew consisted of a backhoe operator who spent 30 minutes removing the steel traffic grids in the morning and reinstalling them at end of day. the rest of day he sat on backhoe and read a book. a few guys in the trench, a guy working tools and vice on truck a a couple of laborers. the laborers only pushed brooms. a trench dude cant touch the broom, and a laborer cant touch a tool. union rules.

as a past member of IBEW local 73 in spokane wash, i had the miserable job of working around the old time FLEAs (old time union electricians). these were real useless waste. i was setting 2" emt pipes on a commercial building on one side of the jobsite and the FLEA worked the other side. i watched how he would drive the manlift over to his tool box and lower himself down and pick out 1 tool, then drive back to use the tool, drive back and pick up another...etc all day long. he hung as i recall 40 feet of pipe in an 8 hour day. i hung 3 rows, 100' long in same time. i cant work like that. never have been able to. all the younger union guys worked like i did. all the old timers worked like the longshoremen.

 

[Jstpssng]

Get a bidet and you might double your time to supply of toilet paper.

When my back is acting up, I often think a bidet would be handy.

 

[WinterDeere]

he hung as i recall 40 feet of pipe in an 8 hour day. i hung 3 rows, 100' long in same time.

I used to install circuit board processing automation equipment in factories in my 20's, and had the unfortunate displeasure of having to do install work in several union shops. Aside from taking 3x - 4x longer to complete each of those jobs, because we couldn't touch anything ourselves, I also got a front-row seat to watch this exact behavior, in nearly every union shop.

It got to where we would charge union shops 3x more for the same work we'd do in non-union shops, just due to wasting so many hours with our guys on-site sitting around and waiting on them.

At least when it comes to skilled labor, unions are there to protect people who shouldn't have jobs, not the good workers who are valued by their employers.

 

[Hay Dude]

Buddy of mine, now in his 50’s, was a union carpenter in his 20’s. On one of his first jobs, he worked as a union carpenter installing windows in a large catholic church. He took it upon himself to deviate slightly from the plans and install a few extra screws in each window to help secure them better.
The worksite union foreman got wind of this and immediately removed him from the church construction site and reassigned him to a city ghetto job in Philly as punishment.

 

[tradosaurus]

Easy to be a go getter in your 20s. Not so easy in your 40s and older.

 

[BackRoad]

Unions are a perfect example of a pendulum which has swung too far. There might have been a need in the past, but it is long past its value.

My first experience with unions was an IBEW - full scale union member being paid to sit on a bucket and watch me install communication wiring for an Automated Call Distribution (ACD) system in Seattle back in the 80's.

He was "earning" 3 times more than me, just to watch me work because it was a union project and I was non-union doing something they were not technically skilled to do.

Sure he was stealing a big pay check...but what kind of self respect could he have?

He was on union welfare.

 

[ultrarunner]

No I'm NOT.
My Grandfather was a Mormon and he and my parents instilled in me ALWAYS have a good supply of necessities, beans, bullets, water, cleaning supplies. I keep a rotating supply as best as I can. Knowing my "critical" needs and stocking up when the price is low is critical.
I'm down to about a 4 month supply of TP, I'm sure the price will go up and down.

Excellent approach and buying in bulk things that will keep at a good price only makes sense.

My farmer grandparents always had preserves and staples and could easily go a winter and be ok… even if the power went out…

Radiant Central heat on a wood/coal basement boiler would keep the house very comfortable and the wedgewood stove was half wood and half electric plus the root cellar was always around 40.

People in a panic about toilet paper is a first world problem .

The farm still had the old outhouse when I was a kid with the Sears catalog inside… just saying.

 

[mrmikey]

Brought back memories when I started many decades ago at a mechanical branch. I was working in the welding shop which was next door to the tire shop. Fella there would take two days to change the tires on a tandem. He once told me, "You don't have to chance the whole tire in one day". They used to sipe the tires which he'd do two a day.

 

[Redbug]

About automation...if a company does not advance with automation we would still be building cars one at a time. A company needs to become more efficient with the times and to make a profit for its stockholders. What would people say if doctors and hospital workers went on strike because some of the procedures became more efficient and did a better job fighting disease?

 

[steve tym]

I've seen this $177,000 per year number a few places, but can't find a source.

Who's asking for 177? I've seen that they want increases from their current top of $39/hr and even with their previous demand that was nowhere near $177k by the end of the contract.

I did no research, that's what my local news reported.