[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Union Members (Page 1 of 3)
Posted: 4/26/2008 11:26:54 AM EDT
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What union are you in? Teamsters local 100 here |
 Hey Brother!International Association of Fire Fighters Local 3271 (Past President) Before that: IAFF Local F-37 Before that - United Food & Commerical Workers Local 881
Hey, Schmuck-O: The reason the FD went union here was because after years of issuing "bonuses" (that were non-pensionable) in lieu of raises, when a group of the FF's went to talk to the mayor about working conditions and pay disparity the City refused to discuss them unless we organized. Then they retained a law firm that specifically markets itself as a "union busting" firm. They cry poor (this time crying "broke" and offering a 0% raise) and consistently try to remove what benefits we have while retaining the same $450/hour firm - including many benefits / working conditions that cost the City nothing - simply to find contract points to yield on at negotiation time. The kicker? The City prides itself in being a Democratic town - the party which traditionally relies on organized labor for support.  How's that for irony? Now the Union's biggest job is fighting the political favoritism and the unilateral changes that the chief and the management level officers try to implement that violate the contract and often times are in direct opposition of how they used to behave when they were blue shirts. |
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Reporting for Duty IAFF 1664
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And now, what do the taxpayers of IL get to enjoy? Higher taxes and an entrenched union that will do nothing but suck money off those who pay them. The bonus: bizarre and arcane union rules that will guarantee more union workers, more taxes, higher costs to the city that employs those workers. You're right. Who's the Schmuck-O? Ultimately the taxpayer. You win, the rest lose. |
Got news for you, joe: there's going to be a Fire Department here whether it's unionized or not. We're a municipal protective service; when folks pay taxes and live in a city they kind of expect us to be there and respond when they call. And "suck money". That's an entertaining one. What exactly do you mean by that? We're not like production jobs with quotas. The alarm phone rings, we roll out the door. House fire? Sick infant? Chemical spill? Car accident? Explosion? Little old lady who doesn't know the "chirp" from her detector means low battery? It doesn't matter - the citizens call, and we respond... 24/7/365 - that means holidays, weekends (like today), anniversaries, birthdays. It's a part of the job we accept when we don the uniform, just like the duty to respond whenever called. Despite your expertise on the subject and your negative inferences simply based on our choice of coolective bargaining means, we can't postpone a house fire until after our "union" coffee break. 
As oppposed to having a bunch of guys serving at the whim of petty political appointees with no set rules concerning attendance, pay scales, seniority and vacation accrual or scheduling that apply equally to all employees, not just the Boss's favorite? Oh, yeah - sounds fair to me. "Arcane rules"... please, enlighten the world with your wisdom and describe the "arcane rules" you find in our contract. Maybe the "arcane" application of a defined start time for all employees... Oooh, here's a good "bizarre" one: defining seniority as the time someone's worked at the FD without separating. Yeah, that's certainly unusual.  Could it be done cheaper? Sure. Fire all of us and establish a volunteer department! Of course, finding volunteers willing to handle the over 2800 calls annually might be a little difficult - that's why the City established the paid FD over 80 years ago. Not to mention the fact that back then, people were willing to volunteer to help their community for free. Many VFD's are having to contract with private companies to staff the stations due to the modern "let somebody else handle it" attitude of many "citizens" today. Add in the various education and training standards for Firefighter / Paramedics in Illinois today and I'm sure folks would be willing to volunteer... 8 (40 hour) weeks for Firefighter certification, Another work week for Hazardous Materials Another week for Technical Rescue, 9 months (340 classroom and 720 clinical hours plus 120 hours ambulance ride time) to obtain their Paramedic (after four months - 128 classroom and 30 clinical hours) to get EMT-B), then 20 hours a month for fire training and 10 hours a month for Paramedic continuing education. And respond to an average of 7.6 calls / day. And work a regular job. After all, this would be a volunteer gig, right? So who's going to pay for the classes? Our noble volunteers, right? FFII Academy: $2,800 HazMat: $500 Tech Rescue: $500 EMT-B: $750 EMT-P: $2200 So far, that's an out-of-pocket expense of $6,250, not counting time away from your "day job" to dedicate yourself to the community. I can see lots of folks just jumping at the chance.  And FYI the establishment of our contract with the City didn't compel a tax increase, and neither have any of the raises that have been negotiated over the years. More of a burden has been incurred by the increase in fuels costsw than by our raises. I know I shouldn't challenge your superior knowledge of the subject - after all you've shown that you sure know your stuff. Like the facts that public sector jobs can't be "Union (closed) Shops" in Illinois, and that manpower and staffing levels aren't mandatory subjects of bargaining. 
It's amusing - your hatred of unions allows you to completely ignore my already stated reason why we organized 15 years ago - because the City refused to discuss any issues of pay, working conditions or benefits with the firefighters as a group. They didn't make us an offer which we rejected out of greed or a desire for the "bizarre and arcane"... they refused to discuss the issue, and only sat down to talk with a court order and appointed federal mediator compelling them to. While many businesses have reduced or eliminated unions by empowering their employees, listening to and dealing with their concerns and ideas, and actually caring about their employees as more than mere names on a roster, the world of municipal service remains one of the last bastions of the dictator boss, whose battle cry is "Do as I order, not as I did". Of course, since anything I say will be viewed as a comment from the Obama campaign office as far as you're concerned (as evidenced by your pontificating, rather than discussing facts) I yield to you, joe, just as one defending RKBA would eventually yield to (or abandon attempts to persuade) Sarah Brady's shrill inanities that have no basis in logic, and rely instead on irrefutible feelings about how guns are evil. You win - I'm just a lazy, do-nothing union goon. You win! Feel better? |
Got ya, that was some real crazy talk! 
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Afscme. I'm the president, actually. We started our own dispatchers local. We weren't going to sign with the public works union, because those guys get hosed due to their members never speaking up for what they wanted. We didn't want to go union, but had to about 3 months ago due to all the shit we were taking from the boss. I mean, we were taking a lot of unwarranted shit. We were pretty much the only people in town besides management that weren't union. |
Then stop bitching and get a different job. When you cannot negotiate your own salary, you arent worth the salary. |