Mexican Truckers Hitting US Highways Taking Union Jobs?

Originally posted by whatukno
reply to post by Flatfish

 

In all honesty, I usually agree wholeheartedly with most of your opinions and post but this stance you have taken against all unions is just off track.

I tend to be socially liberal and fiscally conservative.

All I know is, I look around Detroit, all I see is dilapidation, sorrow, and despair. The biggest employer round these parts are the big 3, and I don't see the UAW doing anything to help this community out.

When I see jobs evaporate, I have to ask why, when a company like GM can't make a profit, but the Unions won't give an inch, the reason that the company isn't doing well becomes quite clear.

Other unions I have a problem with are Teachers Unions, Police Unions, and Federal Unions, these professions in my opinion should not be unionized, all that does is protect the worst of these people from getting fired.

The unions are not the fault of the failed auto industry, the auto industry and the gov are the ones to blame for their failure. If you don't think the big three are making profits you have your head in the sand. For yrs they have been automating the industry to reduce labor cost and increase profits, building plants in other countries and outsourcing parts that used to be made here. This is not because of UAW cost, this is because of corporate greed and the increasing price of champagne, caviar, yacht docking fees, ski lift passes and Lear jet cost. I live very close and used to work in one of the most expensive zip codes in the country Aspen, Co There are more CEO and corporate owned vacation homes here per capita than most anywhere in the country. I've seen first hand where their profits and bonuses go, these people have Bugatti's, Lambo's and Ferrari's just to go to the local grocery store, in a town that doesn't have a speed limit over 35. Don't blame the guy making a modest living at best for the failure of the auto industry, it's a debate you're guaranteed to lose against someone in the know. No personal attack on you , just saying

Originally posted by Flatfish
reply to post by ldyserenity

 

I live in S. Texas and I hate to say that it's no different here. Just 9 days ago, one of my friends did indeed take a fall while working construction, (building apartment houses) and not only does he have no worker's compensation benefits, he also has been forced to pay all medical bills. He fractured the heel bones in both feet and is expected to be off work for at least 8 wks. This would never be allowed to happen had he been employed through a union.

And to hear some say that it's the company that will take care of it's people while union officials only steal dues and look out for their own best interest.

Yeah I know all too well, My Fiancee is in construction, luckily he has a nice boss who does supply the benefits of workmen's comp, but he only ever got a hernia in the last year, but he's worked many that do not provide it at all. If he had gotten injured and I had to be the only bread winner we would have been screwed, since I am female and naturally could never take home as much pay as he did. Thankfully he's never gotten injured working with those employers. I remember in the north east we had to have a lunch break, we had to have workmen's comp and we had to recieve unemployment no matter if we quit or were laid off or even fired, after a 6 week penalty in certain cases (which you were still paid the week of the 7th you got all the back 6 weeks and the present check all at once.) the diference is, there were unions up there, and even if you didn't actuallly work for a union, you could use their same lawyers, etc also, there was representation for all union and non union workers in some form. The only thing I can tie this to, is the fact that there was unions up there, which forced even non union companies to follow federal law. If that makes any sense to you.

reply to post by ldyserenity


The real difference "up there" is that most of the states in the northeast are what's called "closed shop" states. Here in the south, people have been suckered into voting for what's called "right to work" laws and are known as "right to work" states. The term "right to work" sounds real good at face value but the real effects are those you have described in Florida as well as the one's I'm witnessing here in Texas. People just don't seem to wake up until it's their job that gets taken and they always seem to think; "That could never happen to me."

The real common denominator with regards to the decline in the american economy is Greed and Free Trade, unions have nothing to do with it.

reply to post by mtnshredder


I couldn't agree with you more. There are multitudes of failing cities in this country that do not have the UAW to blame, so what's their excuse? The problems being faced by the big three are of their own making. Had they chosen too, they could have led the world with new alternative fuel autos or hybrids but they chose instead to crawl in bed with their corporate buddies over in the oil industry. Remember the documentary entitled; "Who Killed The Electric Car?" www.youtube.com...

People going around chanting things like "We're No.1" doesn't make it so, sounds good but it just doesn't make it so. You know the old saying; "Lead, Follow or Get The Hell Out of The Way." Apparently, America has chosen to surrender the reigns and get the hell out of the way while the rest of the world leads.

If America doesn't wake up and enact some laws intended to protect our standard of living then we should expect that standard to be lowered to equal that of the emerging nations that our jobs are being outsourced to, plain & simple.

reply to post by chrismarco


So there is a plan that has been in place for sometime now and it envolves mexican drug cartels (and other players like China) to take over the infrastructure of the US. They are taking over police, FBI, construction, hospitals, drug makers, and many political people. Right now they are in the phase of taking money away from the American people to make you either government rich or citizen poor. They will get you hooked on food stamps and unemployment to make it look like they are trying to help all the while stealing as much money as they can from more and more people till there is nothing left for them to take. Once this phase is done it will then be a civil war and many people will die for food and water. The government rich people will be allowed to go into the underground bunkers (or move over seas) and wait it out while the rest of us fight for our lives. Right now to many people still have it "good" for many to notice, and the ones that do they try and keep them from talking or getting a large crowd of people together. The media just makes it seem like nothing is going on and its the same old same old going on each day but its just a lie.

No matter what you think the evidence is all around me of what unions do for a community and do for the worker. I see it in every abandoned building, every closed business, and every empty home. Overpricing employees right out of a job.

I am going to be on the side of Whatukno on this one in regards to how some if not quite a few unions operate and the mentality that permeates within the union workforce.

Lets take for example my current job. First though a little bit of background. I have been in a couple of unions and while the experiences have been relatively different, they still have the same underlying tones and attitudes.

The current job I hold now falls under a public union, which I despise, but the type of work I do falls under government control. I fix radars, radios, navigation systems, etc for the FAA.

I learned my trade via the military. I fell in love with it. I study it, I live it and I absolutely knew I found the work I would love waking up in the morning (or mid-day on a day off to cover a shift) to do. The military though was not where I learned my work ethic at. I learned that from my father. Work hard, play hard but never play at work.

When my time in the military expired I choose to move into the FAA as it best fit my desire to further my experience at what I do. It was a near seamless transition (minus the duplication of Government agencies performing a background check on a service member just exiting the military with a secret clearance; go figure!)

When I first went to work with the FAA and the position I hold is a union position, I was told the following from numerous persons:

"If you work too hard you will work yourself out of a job."
"Slow down, you make us look bad"
"If you get anything above a 70% (at the schools we attend) you are just showing off"
"Everyone gets bonus regardless of what you do"
"Don't do anything that is not in your job description"

Now, I also understand that I am in a government position. The government makes no profit, they only have expenditures that are funded by the taxpayers. The job I do produces nothing except safety, which is bought by the taxpayers.

But this is no excuse for "professionals", we like to give ourselves that title....

Now let me tell you my other experiences with unions. I worked both sides of the UPS game. I was management and I was a package handler. The union side there wasn't too bad. Except if you were getting done early, you were guaranteed a full days worth of pay. So if we loaded all the trucks, we went home but got paid for our whole shift.

Are all unions bad? Nope. Are all as rosy as some of you here have portrayed? Nope. The fact though is a union that is out of hand that uses it strong arm to manipulate a company by holding the workers captive is destructive to business. Most of those unions don't do so for the workers. They do so to garner more power. More members, more money, more power.

Originally posted by TheRedneck
reply to post by whatukno

wanna know why Mexican companies are getting shipping contracts? Trucking Unions.

Er, you haven't driven in a while, have you?

The Teamsters represent very few truckers. The closest thing the transportation industry has is OOIDA, an independent lobbying group for truckers. The reason Mexican truckers are getting the contracts is because they do not have the regulation Americans do. Of course they can run a load cheaper! They drive poor trucks, don't stop for rest breaks, and don't have all the USDOT-required expenses.

Those few companies that do use Teamsters? They are mostly regional, or a few national carriers like UPS. It is terrible what the Teamsters have done to the UPS drivers... they get home every day (drive overnight), make in excess of $100K/year, and are never asked to drive illegally. Me? I got to stay out one to two weeks at a time, had to fudge my log books to keep getting loads, and made about $40K/year. See how bad those Teamsters are?

Incidentally, the Teamsters do not hurt the carriers either.... last I heard the unionized carriers were the strongest and largest around.

TheRedneck

Hey Redneck.. I can NOT remember the whole thing because all of this started YEARS ago.. but isnt one of the largest ports for asian ( Chinese ) goods located in Mexico and the superhighway the means to bring the goods into the US? As I recall this was all a move toward a NAU or some nonsense... concerning NAFTA.

reply to post by Advantage

As I recall, the Trans-Continental Highway was a way to allow Mexico to trade directly with Canada without crossing the US (the highway was not to be considered US soil), which would open up an import/export market to Mexico to sell Chinese goods. I believe it was a hedge bet in case the US decided to start levying tariffs on Chinese imports.

NAFTA specifically prohibits tariffs between Mexico, Canada, and the USA.

Luckily, the project was not simply abandoned; it was discarded by the states, starting with Oklahoma. The Feds never dropped the project, so I doubt they can reinstate it unless something happens to change the states' minds.

TheRedneck