[VRM]

Roscoe, I have to disagree with you.
In most cases the unions have lost their original raison d'etre, and they now suck the life out of companies and workers. However, when I was at the phone company there were two unions I had to deal with on a regular basis; the IBEW and the CWA. The pole climbers and switch techs are all IBEW, and things are really cushy for them. I used to see a lot of them sitting around playing cards. It was also IBEW guys who threw horse manure on the steps of the Providence RI building where I was running the 411 system 20 hours a day. Fortunately, I had a friend who let me go in the ATT entrance, but all the NET people had to go through the manure. I have no fondness for them.

However, the ladies who work the phones on the 411 systems are all monitored every second that they work. They can be yelled at for taking bathroom breaks that are too long. Their coffee breaks lasted exactly 13 minutes. If they don't process x number of calls per minute they would get a performance review. They also did not make much money, but the benefits were really good. Most of them were single moms or older women who needed some extra income. Most did not have any kind of education. They went on strike for almost 4 months to get 2 minutes added to their break times and to avoid the medical copay. The strike was mostly for the IBEW people, but the CWA could not cross lines if the IBEW votes to stay out. When the strike was over the IBEW guys soaked up a couple of months of overtime getting caught up on work, but the operators had none of that. A lot of them were very pissed off at their union after that for keeping them out for so long. Still, they realised that as long as you did your job properly the union would go to bat for them if they ever had a situation that called for extended sick time or something like that.

I think that their union could do better for them, but in their case it is probably better than nothing.

Personally, I would never join a union - it is too much like socialism that protects the idiots and squashes the good employees. But in a situation like the one I mention where everyone is expected to perform to exactly the same standard than there is a valid reason for one.

Steve