If it was only two out of all that was spouted out. I didn't do so bad.
Conditions are more important to me as the heart of the matter, than wages and benefits, although benefits come in at second.
The no-strike stuff scares me. As workers, the only power in your position at a company is to withhold work. Don't show up for a week. You get fired. Organize 50 or more of your co-workers that want the same standards as you and
threaten to collectively stop working. Suddenly you are in a position to bargain. That's power in the hands of the worker.
In my union we bargain our contract with the companies. They pay us an hourly package and our conditions requested., and we as a membership vote on how to divvy it out. We pay a large amount into our own benefits which are great, and our retirement, which when combined with 401 is damn decent.
Now, if the companies don't like the offer they can decline, and we WILL strike. They will then hire non-union workers for a 3rd of the cost , that don't have the craft skills that we pass down and train for and the quality suffers. The contractors know that saving 2/3rd will actually cost them more in injuries and poor quality than just contracting with us.
We walk a fine line of trying to not ask for too much so we don't tip that symbiosis in favor of non-union. It's a beautiful organism and has worked well for hundreds of years.
We are a family oriented brotherhood, so conditions make sure we are well compensated for our time away from our families over 8 hours, on weekends and holidays if they so need us.
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