Union Labels

[XLFD]

Why my first experience with unions was negative

In the middle of the eighties, I started one of my first jobs that wasn't agricultural or involved the delivery of newspapers.  I had visited my brother, who was in the Army, out in California for a scheduled six months coinciding with his wife going back to Michigan during the same time.  I was able to find a job with a private firm that offered military support services, signing on as a 'laborer' at the facility's motor pool.

The job entailed policing the area, maintaining the various rooms where mechanics and drivers frequented, washing cars, etc.  The various workers were part of the Teamster's Union, and once I finished the probationary period, I would be joining that union and receive the full benefits thereof.  The job paid a little over $6 per hour and gave me forty hours a week, which wasn't too bad for someone still going to college doing unskilled labor at a time when the minimum wage was $3.35 hour.

Anyhow, after a few weeks of getting this wage, I was notified that I had passed the initial period and would now have to join the Teamsters, which was kind of cool, I got a nice laminated card.  Until I found that their weekly take from my paycheck would amount to $16, and that they would knock my wages back to under $5 per hour, because now I would be able to access the benefits package they offered, which I never wanted and I would never use.  It seems $1.28 of my hourly pay before, offset the lack of benefits I had then.

So I not only received a $50 pay cut per week for getting unionized for this temporary job, I also would lose $16 for this privilege.  And I had no recourse; I sought to have my union representative give me back my benefit-less wage with the resultant loss of benefits, but he would have none of it.  The union worked hard for those bennies, they were not about to give them up for individuals because they chose pay over them.  Seeing the union in action later on would reinforce my original impression.

I worked about half a day for my union dues each week, lost over another day's wages in my reduction of pay for benefits, and had a violent-tempered manic loon representing my interests.  If I could at all help it, I vowed after that to avoid future jobs that would involve joining a union.  It remains one of the strongest biases I have, with all apologies to union sympathizers amongst you.

Unions:  One mind fits all

Since then I have seen very little to change that prejudice.  Unions continue to take money from union members and even those that aren't members, and use that money for purposes beyond what many of their contributors would like to think of.  Last year, you had the Wisconsin protests with the biggest and baddest union members shipped in from all over making the Wisconsin mascot, badgers, look tame in comparison.  Unlike the much-maligned counter-protesters and tea-partiers, their protests were often vulgar and violent.

Enter Michigan into the right-to-work debate this month.  I can commiserate with the union resistance being critical of the lame duck legislature pushing this through with minimal debate, but when you look at the way the unionists have conducted themselves around Lansing (and Madison) in the past, I can understand the reticence to fully deliberate it out in the public square.  Unions are supposed to be for the general worker and should be held to a more higher standard when conducting their protests.  But they often devolve into a mindless mob, more bent on intimidatory and threatening behaviors than they are in promoting an image of actually looking out for the betterment of their workplaces and their communities.

Nothing illustrates this more than what this mob of angry entitlement-state adolescents did to this businessman operating on the street next to the Capital Building in Lansing:

Combine this industrious citizen looking to succeed just like all of us, with the mob on full display at this dismantling of the AFP tent on the grounds of the Capital.  

What do you get?  Clint Tarver, hot dog vendor, had his equipment wrecked by a mob of white thugs who shouted racist epithets at Tarver as they tore down a tent housing his catering equipment.

"They were yelling 'Uncle Tom,' and 'You on the wrong side!'" Tarver said yesterday [12-12-12], recounting the incidents as he described the day's events. "I kept telling them ‘I'm here to sell hot dogs.' That's when they told me I'm on the wrong side. I said 'I'm not on any side.'"

And, yes, Tarver said, they were calling him the "N" word, too.

The day had started peacefully enough. He was catering hot dogs, coffee, and other refreshments for the pro-freedom organization, Americans For Prosperity.

"Everything was going real well," Tarver said, but turned ugly as the morning gave way to noon. "Maybe 11:20, 11:30 they started cutting the tent. I had my catering equipment inside the tent. I had chafing dishes, hot dogs, chili, sauerkraut, mustard, ketchup, the works."

Tarver said as thugs began tearing down the tent, other men -- to whom he had served hot dogs -- came inside and began turning over tables and wrecking his equipment. Tarver said two of the men wore masks -- one a devil's mask and the other a ski mask.

"I gave them hot dogs (earlier) because they had tickets," Tarver said, adding that the masked men were friendly and took the hot dogs, but within a few minutes were destroying his equipment.

"These guys five minutes later were turning over the coffee table. He put his mask back on and next thing I know they was turning over the table," Tarver said.

"The grounds keeper, Matt White, came in and said, 'Come on Clint. They're cutting the tent down, and they're coming in and we have to get out of here.' I crawled out after the tent collapsed.

"I just stood there amazed," Tarver said as he looked at the destruction of his hot dog catering equipment and the mob that circled the chaotic scene -- none of the so-called working men offering to help him pick up the pieces.

When Tarver got out from under the ruined tent he stood among the shambles of his enterprise. The attackers laughed at Tarver, as he tried to salvage what he could of the equipment and inventory. "They said, 'Now eat your hot dogs.'"

"They just kept on going. They weren't men," Tarver said as he described how he divided his attention between picking up the pieces of his business and keeping a wary eye on the throng around him. "They couldn't say it to my face. They just kept on walking and saying things. Stomping on the tent."

Tarver's entrepreneurship is a shining example of American free enterprise, and his restraint in the face of such hostility should be admired by everyone.

On the other side, the violent, socialist, racist goons and their puppeteers should be treated with contempt by society and with terrible, swift justice by the law.

To read more of this assault on Clint Tarver:  http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/12/matthew_davis_michigan_...

[Dave]

If the Union people want to not be referred to as thugs, they really need to not act like thugs. By the way, I don't believe that all Union members are thugs... I'm sure the people that engage in the activities like mentioned above is a minority of the membership. Tearing down tents, destroying this gentleman's hot dog equipment and sucker punching a Fox News reporter at the event isn't going to do the Unions any favors. I did hear that a fund was started to help Mr Tarver replace the equipment repaired/replaced.

[XLFD]

That is correct, they have raised over $33,000 already to help Mr. Tarver re-establish his business, as seen here:  http://www.gofundme.com/SupportClint  

[AQUAMAN]

This was a very violent and brutal attack on an innocent small businessman, just there because he was hired to be an asset and feed the people there. Yes, Sean Hannity interviewed Mr. Tarver yesterday, and he was ok, but very insulted and hurt by the remarks and destruction of his business. It appears the good people of the USA are showing admirable support of Clint to get him set up again in business, very charitable and generous considering he himself stated he lost about $500-750 in equipment and food. Now he has a chance to start a real inside store I hope, and good luck to him.

[XLFD]

Clint Tarver is one of those guys who would probably be out of his element selling his hot dogs in an enclosed building, though he may prefer it this time of year.  Good folks always come out when other good people get in such spots.  It gives you hope, just as much as school shootings bring despair.

[masonco]

The union brought in protesters from other states who obviously were there for violent reasons. Thos guys  had nothing to lose except raise chaos.

[Willy]

Excellent article X.