UNION VS. NON-UNION, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

[AQUAMAN]

NEW JERSEY: It appears that an emergency work crew stationed in Alabama went to NJ to help in the recent storm crisis of Hurricane Sandy. When these rescuers tried to enter and work in NJ they were promptly and legally turned back as they "were not IBEW union workers/members", (Intnl. Brotherhood of Electrical Workers). Do we dare ask? How in the Hell can this happen? Esp. since millions of people on the east coast are without power, homes, food, and need immediate help. This plainly is the strong arm of the IBEW flexing it's unethical and immoral muscles. However, since the media and others picked up on this rather quickly, the President of said union quickly covered their tracks, and denied that such status should apply. Basically, he stated what every decent caring ungreedy person would think, that being that when such an emergency exists, they allow anyone that can help do so. So, then wth is wrong with the system and the union thugs that sent this message and went to great lengths to see that "non-union types" were not good enough to pitch in and help those emergency victims? Are the unions in the country overzealous and overreaching in their code of conduct? Are they really so necessary and warranted in every sector of the economy? Are these the people that really care about their fellow citizens when a crisis presents itself, whether nationally, or locally? I ask you, can you understand such a viscous and greedy mode by any union to qualify for emergency help in this situation? This is why I think most unions nowadays overstep their authority, or do they? If this is legal, which is what you must believe, given the circumstances that occurred, then why would anyone in their right mind keep endorsing and encouraging the Unions to continue and prosper? This particular event just disturbs me, and it should you too, unless you put union rules over human life!

[AQUAMAN]

Good News, this Alabama team was let in to help in NYC, and have resumed immediate and extremely crucial rescue efforts for relief to those that are in peril. I guess the union there isn't as biased in it's choices for help and life saving efforts, thank GOD! IBEW, your org. sucks, and should be ashamed of it's existence. And should warrant expedient expulsion from all the unions in general, imho.

[XLFD]

This story may have been initially misreported, but there is a big effort by the usual union-friendly sites in the mainstream media and web (Daily Kos, Huff Post, etc.) to defray further damage to the union label, whose public approval are at record lows, out by posting several articles saying what a good job the union workers are doing.  There is some truth and fiction about the article, and this snopes report article  tells what was fact, if you are inclined to believe Snopes reports..

[Willy]

This gives some explanation of what happened. The electrical workers never made it to New Jersey. They were at a staging area in Virgina and returned to Alabama because they did not sign union papers, therefore they were not allowed to work.

[Jane]

This makes me very angry. Unions once had a place to help workers get fair pay and treatment in the workplace. Now that people are educated with 12+ years of schooling they don't need enforcers to get them better working conditions and pay raises, they are perfectly capable of banding together as a small group of workers and requesting there needs b e met by upper management, doing it on a grassroots level, the unions are like a goliath only out for there own self.

The unions are why companies like the auto manufacturers are going broke. They want more and more, and eventually tak so much that the companies realize they can make more profit in China or Taiwan than here and so abandon the US workers because the workers got to greedy. I think any company doesn't mind paying workers fairly, but when the unions are gouging the employer  why should the employer stick around.

[Dave]

I think I pretty much agree with what you said. There was a time when unions were very much an important necessity... that time is long gone though. As you say, most unions now are more about just making sure they bring in money, anyway they can, regardless of if it helps the workers or not. There are still some unions that are actually respectful of their place in the world which tend to be the unions that represent firemen, policemen and emergency workers... they are not out making demands then end up driving the price of product up to the point that its just not affordable to produce the product in the USA anymore.

[AQUAMAN]

Yeah, I didn't dot all the i's and cross all the t's alright, but you guys get the gist of my point. That of forcing an issue of signing union agreements before being able to give relief and much needed help, after that long trek north by caring people, isn't right, nor humane given the emergency conditions that exist. I spell Union with a big YOU first, everyone else last!