Who supports HEU!

[TheRob]

Stevie, Regs et all,

You go into work Monday and the boss says, "We're rolling back your wages 15% and there is good chance you will lose your job in the next month. Have a nice day." How would you feel?

Cranky from having no subs at Coe-ed.

TR

Solidarity forever.

 

[Skip]

short-sightedness, and ignorance seem to be common traits apparent in those who are crying about the job action. The bottom line is, every one of us, within the private or public sectors owe a lot to those who fought for wages and working conditions/benefits. Fear of the "unions" by employers in the private sector have caused them to keep conditions/benefits and wages competetive with the public sector. If you don't see this, I'm sorry, but you're blind.

It's disapointing to see people who are not directly involved, complaining about the inconveniences. My bet is, as soon as these people find themselves bending over to be screwed by good'ol Gordo, they'll be the ones crying for help. Until then, enjoy working in your own little section of ignorance.

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Spot on, Regs.

For example, how many teachers out there actually contribute extra-curricular services? 5%? 10%?

Bingo. That is part of the problem. Too many of these teachers ABUSE the union and want everything for doing the least. I know that. I see it EVERY fcuking day at my school.

TheRob,

I do understand their frustration but I feel like we are basically puppets in this situation and can do very little about it, one way or the other. Here's something to think about......I'm sorry for bringing up the money issue again, but I have to......

There are a lot of jobs that allow people to make up missed hours(ie. overtime etc.). If they miss some time, they can make it up. Teachers can't. Every fcuking day we miss impacts us immediately AND even long term in the pension department. So that is partially selfish I guess, BUT in the long run, I don't think this will be worth it....just like the last day we(teachers) 'walked out'. For the record, I didn't and went to school that day. Overall, I see more people ABUSING the unions than using them for the right reasons. I feel that unions protect the incompetent(at least in the teaching profession) rather than help/support the competent.

So, I will do what I will be asked to do a little later tonight when I get a phone call. I'm not crazy about it but a fellow colleague phoned me today thinking we might be out for a fcuking week. That would be diabolical and I would certainly have to reconsider my stance on the issue...........


Just an opinion and God bless all the workers......



















P.S. Let's all stand up for the champions - Glasgow Celtic

 

[steve1234]

Hold on while I stop crying, and with my ignorance maybe this is wrong, but.
15% wage loss is still better than ui or ei whatever it's called. And for how long does that last. Skip you will have to answer that one. I have never collected from that system.

The point that pisses me is this, lets shut the province down to show how strong we are, piss on whoever might be hindered by this. Thats whats pissing me off.

I don't disagree with the issue at hand. The govt reneged on a contract, fair and square. Let the union rep dues his job, that is after all where your dues go, and resolve this in a business like manner.

That's my view and I am entitled to it, Skip if you have another childish go at me, I'm hitting the TTP picket line and am not coming back until I stop crying.

 

[BlazeArmy]

Amen Regs.

Where have been told we will have a job for life? That's what the public employee unions seem to think. I have to lay guys off, ask them to take a pay cut, ask guys to work less hours etc. It could happen at any time. Apparently the public employees unions think it's a job for life. I have to tell guys with 3 kids, "Sorry, you can't work anymore.". Be it for not doing there job or we as a company aren't doing very well. Guess What? We as a Province/Country aren't doing very well. I'd like to be able to guarantee my fcuking employees a job for life. Guess what? Out in the real frigging world that can't happen. I'd like to give my employees a raise every year. Can't do that either or I can't fcuking pay the mortgage. What bugs me is that the unions seem to think everyone supports them. I don't. i'd like to be able to make extra money whenever i need to put in overtime or the like but i don't.


This walkout tommorrow if it does happen is going to cause large problems for my company on some permit issues that were to be met on tommorrow. The lockout won't be an excuse because We can't use these things as excuses in the business world. We got a job to do by a certain date and if it gets done at the correct time all is well. If not, guess who the people getting all the shite will be. Won't be the unions or the municpality in question. It will be our company and reputation that take the hit.

I golfed with 2 teachers and a College instructor yesterday afternoon. Not one of them is happy that they are being told not to go to work tommorrow. They much like the Captain dedicate loads of time on extra curricular activities(coaching etc.) on things they will never get paid on. Quite frankly the teachers who dedicate the extra time are the ones who should have job security and make more money. Not the ones who roll into the school at 8am and leave at 3:30pm and then bitch and moan about how tough being a teacher is.

Cranky from the bullsh*t.

Army

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Tentative settlement

The Captain will be at school tomorrow.......

 

[BlazeArmy]

I just heard that. Good. It's still only tentative. Maybe they will vote no on it like last time.

 

[Hands of Stone]

Late Breaking News,

The HEU have settled on a new contract with the Liberal Government, one that puts a cap on the amount of job loss from contracting out, and also includes a wage reduction, but it is done with a reduction of some of the HEU benefits package. There is also a 20 million dollar fund, for severance packages for HEU workers who do loss thier jobs.

Yes, the Protests by Labour has brought the Government back to the table to settle a fair contract for the HEU workers, that is what was wanted all along. The best thing about all this is that, the workers of BC stood up to these Liberal Bully's and said enough is enough, now to get them out in the next election in the fall, but that is a new thread all together.
Mr. Regs, good thing the job action is called off, because I was working on shutting down TTP for a day, we have our ways.

hos back to work for now

 

[cside17]

Capt and Regs are scum!

Too busy, defending healthcare to elaborate!!

Really surprised at the Capt!

Solidarity forever.

Anyone who crosses a picket line is scum, in my eyes!

 

[Dude]

"We're rolling back your wages 15% and there is good chance you will lose your job in the next month. Have a nice day." How would you feel?

TheRob: it happens regularly in the private sector. Here's what we do: deal with it. Nobody came to my wife's rescue after Samsonite laid her off after September 11th, and nobody came to my rescue when business bombed last year to the tune of a 30% loss in revenue. Re-visit personal spending habits, and hit the bricks to find a new job. It's called reality.

The private sector, like it or not, works because it allows the system to cut back and eliminate jobs when tough economic times come calling, and it allows the same employer to hire and spend money like a drunken sailor when the boom hits.

Although I do support the HEU workers, given that their jobs are relatively important and there is clearly a demand for them, I get tired of hearing the same old union rhetoric. Don't try and sell us how hard done by Union workers are, and don't try to sell us that we're living in "3rd world conditions". We aren't. Get real. Go to a third world country, then come back and tell me we have it remotely as bad as they do.

I understand the frustrations, but for Christ's sake, the same shite gets a little tiresome.

 

[Dude]

Cside17- nice work.

At the beginning of this thread, you actually were able to present the case in a reasonable manner, but as this has gone on, you seem to get a little too personal for other whom hold a slightly different opinion than yours. Captain is a breath of fresh air, because he has no trouble in pointing out his Unions SUBSTANTIAL shortcomings. Reg's work, as a a contractor (that's basically what you are, right Regs?) is only as steady and solid as his clientele, the climate, and his own personal efforts.

Present your case- that's fine- but don't get carried away because some hold an opposing opinion to yours. Union workers aren't the only workers in this Province. Just because you're a Union worker doesn't mean you are a more important cog in the wheel.

 

[Stepchild]

HEU supporters, now that you are back to work........can the rest of us continue on with your lives, oops I mean our lives.
That said, good to hear things were solved. No one likes to get screwed (even though it happens every day in the private).

 

[cside17]

Dude, isn't this TTP?

If I helped stir up conversation on here, is that not good? I respect everyone's opinion, including Capt, and Regs! Maybe I was a bit offside with comments, but I was/am in a fight to save my livelyhood(sp).


It's a good thing I am not gay, as getting screwed up the ass( As happened last night by HEU) is not a nice feeling. Today I will turn my emotions against them. As they sold out there skilled workers!


csidewhonowworksfor$4.38/hrless

 

[Bronco]

I've tried to stay out of this for as long as possible, but I can't any longer. I need to preface everything I say here with the fact that I am a staunch anti labour, anti union, whatever the fukc you want to call it. Do I feel some honest hard working people got rooked by the government, absolutely!! Having said that though, when is it enough. Capt. hit the nail on the head. Unions are around TODAY to serve and protect lazy, shitty, dog fukcers (HOS no offense)


There was a time and a place for Unions and the labour movement. It was called the Industrial Revolution. I am not ignorant to the fact that we in the private sector owe a lot of the standards we enjoy to the early work of some labour leaders and the unions they represented. Thank you, now Fukc Off!!! I have zero sympathy for someone who washes dishes and pushes a mop around a hospital and calls himself a "healthcare worker" who got their wage rolled back to 15 bucks an hour. It's probably still 2 or 3 dollars to high for the work and value they produce.

I'm sure I'll get branded a right wing elitist blah blah blah, but arer you fukcing kidding me, 18, 19, 20 bucks an hr to be a cafeteria cashier?? Where does it end?? Oh sorry I forgot the 24 sick days you are entitled to!! Of course, everyone has those pesky 3 week flus, especially on Mondays and Fridays!!!

I'm sorry if I've offended anyone!!

Waiting for the onslaught!!

 

[robj]

Stepchild when you say "the rest of us, or disrupt our lives", what makes your life more important than the unionized worker. Ignorance is all I can say to comments from regs, blaze army, steve 1234,.......

This issue if you care to believe Gordo is not about money. It is about losing jobs. I've heard people say janitiors and laundry shouldn't make $18 an hour. If that is your belief then that is fine but those workers have already lost their jobs in the last Collective Agreement. Which by the way was negotiated by this government. This same agreement gave the HEU the raises they now decided were too much. Gordo says lets negotiate. Big reality check for all you morons out there in the private sector. You can't negotiate legislation. Goin back to Laundry and Janitors. Did you all know that This government who's main argument was it is cheaper to contract out these services are still paying the same amount of money for the services. That's right they are still paying $18 and hour to the contracted out companies only the the contracted companies are pocketing $8 of those dollars an hour and paying their workers $10. So it's not about saving money it is about privatizing and trying to break the union. Which by the way will never happen. The unions have been around a lot longer than any company or government in BC and it will always be that way.

They talk about disrupting the public with cancelled surgeries. Hello the reason surgeries keep getting backlogged is because this fukcing government keeps closing hospitals down.

People are sick of this government and if they had any balls they would call an election right now. We the unions of this province are not going to be intimidated by the government no longer.

The next time you private sector bosses and employes deal with the public ask how many of them are union people. Then you tell me if you are going to tell them I hate unions, we don't want your business here. No you are not because alot of private businesses rely on the union worker to buy things from them. If any of you disagree let me know your company name so I can put it on the next BC FED Hot Edict sheet.

I bet some of you union bashers out there probably had their own education funded by their unionized parents out there. You are sick of strikes than write to your MLA and tell them to stop legislating and tearing up collective agreements that they negotiated to begin with. It's called bargaining in GOOD Faith. How would you like if in the middle of an agreement the union said we think we should get more money. It would not happen. When the Liberals agreed to go to Binding Arbitration and have a mediator decide what the doctors should get they still said no that's too much. If you agree to have a third party decide you can't turn around and say I don't like it, this is all your getting. Can you imagine if a union did that. You'd never hear the end of it, but the union has and never will do that because we believe that if you agree on something like that you have to accept it.

One other thing do not label Unionists as NDPers because I for one do not support a party like the NDP. Remeber the NDP legislated the teachers back to work which was not popular with the Labour Movement.I wonder when you have kids regs, steve 1234, or blaze army if you want them to work for $6 an hour and make it out there.

You should be proud of your accomplishments that you own your own business. You have the right to your opinions, but I wonder when the last time you actually sat down with a trade unionist and asked their side of the story. Keep believing this government and pretty soon your business will be gone because if it's cheap labour you support then one day a company from the states might be bidding on jobs up here that will eliminate your business. There are two sides to each story. Don't just listen to Gordo. Their is a hidden agenda with the Liberals. The unions take concessions when there is down time in the economy you never hear about that. We are protecting what should stay here and if you believe this is about money you need to pull your head out of your arses. If they keep privatizing and we don't keep fighting for our jobs our kids will not have jobs.

If the Liberals want a fight it takes two to tangle and we will not back down any longer. If you have a bitch it is with this government. Contracting out jobs is the same as someone coming to your house and saying move out it is my house now. What are you going to do walk out and give them the keys. No you wouldn't, you would fight for it and that's all we are doing. You think we are bullies look at this government who keeps shutting down schools, hospitals, shelters. That's the real bully.

Anyone can pay off the Provinces deficit and balance the books like this. I can state enough about this issue not being about money. It is about jobs and if you think that a worker who is replaced by a union worker is saving this province money you need to go under the the freedom of information and see that the government is paying the same wages to the contracted companies, so the province is not saving any money.

 

[Stepchild]

Stepchild when you say "the rest of us, or disrupt our lives", what makes your life more important than the unionized worker. Ignorance is all I can say to comments from regs, blaze army, steve 1234,........

Before you rant about your crap, why don't you read my prior quotes......and my profession has been at the cutting end of the gov's ax and paid dearly for it. Where the Fukc where you guys when the non unionized Health Care sector got royally fukced in 2001? THere were thousands of businesses that went bankrupt leaving many families without anything........where were you? Again, I ask where was your support and where is your support for those businesses that still see a reduction in client volume 3 years later. What makes my life so important you ask? I am new in this business, but my father has worked 33 years in the sector that got fukced. He had a 60% decrease in client vol. and has all the same things you union workers had to deal with and more....... Family, morgage, business bill, employee's, etc....He not only supports a family, but also people that work for him. Don't think your problem superceeds anyone else. The gov. fukcs someone over every few years, it just so happened to be someone elses turn.
I symp. with those that lost out, but have no need to support you while I try to make my monthly bills and keep my business alive. I have no union reps to go to battle for me, to shut down other sectors and to provide me with all the perks in a year.......I have to fight to stay alive everyday at the mercy of unionized businesses telling me they are not going to provide services.
Ignorant my fukcing ass, go look in the mirror!

 

[Stepchild]

I am fukcing shaking mad at this situation...........ignorant my ass...........deep breath..............think about the leafs loosing...........ok......a little better.....

 

[Regs]

If they keep privatizing and we don't keep fighting for our jobs our kids will not have jobs.

But mine will

~Regs.

 

[BlazeArmy]

I'm not being ignorant about trade unions. I have a good relationship with the electrical union at our Calgary office. They take the view that the management and union needs to work together to come up with solutions and ideas that help the company. If the union hurts the compnay they are hurting their own members because if things go bad or whatever their members are the ones getting laid off or asked to work less hours etc. You don't have a job for life when you get employeed by the government. Don't treat it as such. The health system is a joke. Everything is costing way too much money and wait time are becoming gross. As for closing down hospitals that was a stupid thing to due, but if it was going to make things more effiecient and cheaper to run in the long term go for it. The Gov't of BC spends 42% of evry dollar it collects on health care and that amount(maybe not percentage but overall amount) has gone up for years in a row. The problem all started when the FEds downloaded the costs of things to the provinces and cut the transfer payments drastically to better their own bottom line. As for the not dealing with unions, that's not the case. We deal with unions on union sites all the time locally. the construction company's would rather deal with us locally as we are always on time and never seem to screw things up. If asomething is wrong we endeavor to deal with it immediately. There is locally only one big union company in our industry as all the other co's that were have gone out of business as they were never very effiecient and in the end couldn't make a go of it. In fact the one big company left made a deal with their unions to reopen a manufacturing facility in the interior where the top wage is $14.00. I'm sure that unions members were really happy. As for going under the freedom on info act and checking those things out i don't have near enough time to do anything like that. It's not about screwing the union, it about trying to get a health system that makes sense financially.

 

[Hands of Stone]

Having said that though, when is it enough. Capt. hit the nail on the head. Unions are around TODAY to serve and protect lazy, shitty, dog fukcers (HOS no offense)


There was a time and a place for Unions and the labour movement. It was called the Industrial Revolution.!

Bronco you are so far off when you say that unions do not have a purpose in society today. It is unions that set the standards for safe working conditions at work, if not, productivity would far outweigh safety, and the number of injured worker would be far greater, and those injured workers would not be covered.
They also are the one thing that is holding together the middle class and what we know of it, the middle class is slowly shrinking and one day will not exist, there will be the 20% Upperclass who share 80% of all the income in this country and then 80% Lowerclass who share the remaining 20% of the income, yes lots of poor people working for low low wages and huge profits for the company's that these workers work for.
Unions are very important in fights for human rights, fights that the government would not care about.

Every private worker out there should thank unions for the levels they have set and continue to fight for, if unions were to be broken up by the government like Thatcher did in the UK in the 80's, you would see the private workers like Mr. Regs have their standard of living drop also, yes Mr. Regs, your kids too.
Perhaps Fastshow could comment on the standard of living for most people in Britain today, after Thatcher had her way with the Unions 20 years ago. Not many people in the "Middle Class" over there buying thier own homes, much like over here, where only the rich will be land owners very soon.

hos