pfft, those union dues could have bought them an Xbox. Suckers.
You know, this takes me back a couple of decades.
There was a point where the for-profit home health agency that was owned by the for-profit hospital, when I was technically employed by both gave end of year fingered bonuses.
No, really, they did! My first year there, I was eligible, and got something like 500 bucks. Mind you, I was only making a dollar over minimum wage, but still.
My fourth year as an employee, we got a turkey. That we had to drive to a distribution center to pick up. And if you were scheduled to work during the one day and five hours of that day, that they were available, oh well.
This was despite being a profitable business still.
Of course, the profits had dropped for the home health branch, so getting raises was limited. You might get a dime an hour raise. And good luck getting scheduled enough hours to qualify for insurance. But hey, the business wasn’t doing well, so we all gotta tighten our belts.
Then, in an amazing turn of events, the head of the home health branch didn’t come to work one day. Nobody could contact him. This went on for about a week, with a missing persons investigation started.
Turns out, he took a vacation! Flew down to some island and didn’t come back. Luckily, he could afford to live there now, since he had moved about a million in funds that he’d embezzled from the company into the kind of banks on islands that did not care about the funds actually belonging to the person holding the account.
Now, you might think that the next admin would not only fix the profit downturn, but go back to the policies that made the home health agency a well respected provider across three counties. Well, you might think this if you were an infant. No, the shitty policies stayed in place, profits went back up, and went higher, but everyone that generated those profits by being literally elbow deep in shit (not always elbow deep, but you’d be amazed how often that was true) saw no improvements in their employment.
And most of those employees had refused to even try to unionize.
a dime an hour raise.
Well goll-ee boss man, thank you for the extra $4 gross per week. That certainly makes me feel appreciated. Maybe I’ll buy most of a coffee or something with it.
Oh, but what about that one guy that sucks at his job and is lazy and they can’t fire him cause unions protect him??? /s
Can you uuuuuuuhhhh say his actual name?
No?
Weird. It’s like that guy doesn’t actually exist except in the imaginations of the parasite class!
Why would I care what my boss says about unions in the first place?
How much went back to the union I’m willing to bet it was a hefty chunck of change
After a quick look at the UAW website…
Not really, probably NONE of this, because profit sharing wouldn’t be part of gross monthly wages. $10-50 to join depending on the specific UAW chapter. Then it depends on the balance of the UAW defense fund. If it is at $850M or higher, 2 hours pay per month or 1.15% of gross monthly wages for salaried workers. If the balance is $650M or less, it’s 2.5 hours a month or 1.44% for salaried workers until the balance is back to $850 million or more. And that Defense Fund is what they use during things like the recent strike to help members while they negotiate with the business.
UAW Union dues, from the UAW Constitution(PDF).
ARTICLE 16
Initiation Fees and DuesSection 1. (a) Each new member will pay an initiation fee, no part of which shall be considered as a Local Union fine, of** not less than ten dollars ($10.00) and not more than fifty dollars ($50.00)** for membership in a Local Union of the International Union. From the initiation fee paid by each member: (i) Five dollars ($5.00) shall be set aside in the Local Union’s new member orientation fund, to be expended with the approval of the Regional Director; and (ii) one dollar ($1.00) will be forwarded to the International Secretary- Treasurer.
Section 2. In order to remain a member in good standing, each member will pay a minimum monthly dues amount to the Financial Secretary of the Local Union as set forth below:
(a) Should the net worth of the International Union Strike and Defense fund reach $850 million, then the minimum monthly dues shall be as follows: (i) for members who work in either the private sector or public sector with a legal right to strike, who have worked a minimum of forty (40) hours in a month, the minimum monthly dues will be an amount equivalent to 2 hours of straight time pay for members paid on an hourly basis, or 1.15% of gross straight time monthly wages for members paid on a salaried basis and for members employed in a non-traditional sector working part-time and paid on an hourly basis; (ii) for members who work in the public sector and are legally prohibited from striking, who have worked a minimum of forty (40) hours in a month, the minimum monthly dues will be an amount equivalent to 1.4 hours of straight time pay for members working full time paid on an hourly basis, or .805% of gross straight time monthly wages for members paid on a salaried basis and for members employed part- time and paid on an hourly basis. Until the time that the net worth of the International Union Strike and Defense Fund reaches $850 million, monthly dues shall be as set forth in subsection (b) below.
(b) Should the net worth of the** International Union Strike and Defense Fund decrease to $650 million**, then the minimum monthly dues shall be as follows until the Strike and Defense Fund reaches $850 million: (i) for members who work in either the private sector or public sector with a legal right to strike, who have worked a minimum of forty (40) hours in a month, the minimum monthly dues will be an amount equivalent to 2.5 hours of straight time pay for members paid on an hourly basis or 1.44% of gross straight time monthly wages for members paid on a salaried basis and for members employed in a non-traditional sector and paid on an hourly basis; (ii) for members who work in the public sector and are legally prohibited from striking, who have worked a minimum of forty (40) hours in a month, the minimum monthly dues will be an amount equivalent to 1.9 hours of straight time pay for members working full time paid on an hourly basis, or 1.095% of gross straight time monthly wages for members paid on a salaried basis and for members employed part-time and paid on an hourly basis.
So for the cost of two hours a month in wages they ensure that people are paid more than enough to make up for that two hours a month vs a non-union job.
Then they go and get them $10K on top of that.
Nice.
I don’t know all the negotiated terms for the UAW agreement obviously, but there are most likely things like maternity/paternity leave, specific requirements for medical benefits coverage, etc. Not to mention other benefits like guaranteed vacation days, sick days, mental health coverage/assistance, that sort of stuff.
Remember that a big part of this strike was because the workers had made concessions during COVID to reduce wages and benefits temporarily, and not even those concessions were not returned after things began to return to normal.
It’s still a significant net positive for the workers, meaning that the union gets the workers more money in their pockets than if there wasn’t a union.
Your argument is therefore invalid
What is this saying?
Even if 99.9% of it went back to the union, you still made money and you’d complain about that? Like… What level of idiot math is this?
Are you the type of person who when given a free slice of cake, yell that you should be getting the whole cake?
Same mentality as “burger flippers don’t deserve $15/hr.” Instead of looking up at the real enemy, it’s easier to punch down. Decades of conditioning and propaganda will do that.
