Let's talk about unions...

[dDUBb]

Good work isn't cheap
And cheap work isn't good.

 

[Fireofficer5]

there is nothing worse than an never been on strike person stating non info about unions. There are infinitely more corrupt
corporations than bad Union officers.

Anyone that thinks collective bargaining is out of style, deserves to get the pennies they deserve.


You know I heard a thing about someone or something that might have happened.

 

[Derphound01]

There are infinitely more corrupt
corporations than bad Union officers.

Gonorrhea is better than herpes. Doesn't mean you ignore gonorrhea though.

 

[dDUBb]

Gonorrhea is better than herpes. Doesn't mean you ignore gonorrhea though.

Thanks for sharing. Speaking from personal experience ?

 

[Grog6]

At least they don't use glass rods anymore. No one wants me to explain that...

 

[Grog6]

I had a job in hs driving a bulldozer at night. We were refilling some old strip mines. Off the books, of course, I might have been 16, lol. It was easier on the equipment to run it 24/7 apparently. I'm sure the only time they were not running was for maintenance. The union guys were getting 150 an hour; we were getting $20 and loving it.

 

[VicRattlehead]

Serious question: how much do you unions typically take?

1.31 rounded up /hr

 

[Derphound01]

Serious question: how much do you unions typically take?

1.31 rounded up /hr

That's one thing that has always annoyed me. Dues are expressed like you're helping the ASPCA or an African school child.

$1.31 an hour equates to +/- $230 a month (depending on the number of workdays in a month). Which where I live equates to the monthly cost of household utilities.

Nobody doing a household budget thinks in terms of "cost per hour".

 

[dDUBb]

That's one thing that has always annoyed me. Dues are expressed like you're helping the ASPCA or an African school child.

Dues typically go back to the parent organization. Often times there are additional "dues" in the form of administration costs and expenses for the training center. The teachers at the training center are paid by the parent organization - which is where part of those dues come back to the local. The rest of the fees take care of the administration staff and the staff at the local office who deal with the dispatches and business end of things. There are other costs associated with the retirement funds and the health and welfare which are typically done by 3rd party. Some times those dues are taken directly from the paycheck and others have a flat rate monthly cost - more often than not, it's not something anybody would notice as a reduction in pay.

 

[Derphound01]

Correct. What I meant by my comment is the "For just a dollar a day..." lines annoys me regardless of what it is going to. I don't calculate my health insurance premium or ST/LT as $5/hour, I calculate it as a monthly cost. (That's also just an example and not my actual premium.)

It's not just unions that do this. There is a non-union trucking company I know of that says if you want SiriusXM in your truck, it's a dollar a day. They lease a sleeper fridge for a couple bucks a day, satellite TV in the sleeper for $5/day and even lease the Bose Ride System seats for something like $15/day. Crap like that adds up, but nobody thinks of the total cost of those things when it is pitched by the daily rate.

 

[dDUBb]

Correct. What I meant by my comment is the "For just a dollar a day..." lines annoys me regardless of what it is going to. I don't calculate my health insurance premium or ST/LT as $5/hour, I calculate it as a monthly cost. (That's also just an example and not my actual premium.)

It's not just unions that do this. There is a non-union trucking company I know of that says if you want SiriusXM in your truck, it's a dollar a day. They lease a sleeper fridge for a couple bucks a day, satellite TV in the sleeper for $5/day and even lease the Bose Ride System seats for something like $15/day. Crap like that adds up, but nobody thinks of the total cost of those things when it is pitched by the daily rate.

I don't give money to "charity" ..

My personal XM subscription is $120 every 3 months for 2 vehicles .. that comes out to about 33 cents per day.

As for health and welfare / retirement pension / etc .. those are seperate from hourly pay and usually employer mandated, meaning they don't show up as income and are non taxable. As for an excess paid into those particular funds and the argument of an employee who takes a lot of days off versus a regular time employee .. the additional amount will be distributed into the pension fund to increase those rates, or added to the FSA spending account; the amounts received would be based on yearly hours.

 

[theterminator93]

At my company, total employer cost is about 28% higher than the benefits the employee directly receives. So if someone's salary is $80k, the company is actually having to fork over over 100k to keep that employee. Payroll taxes, benefits subsidies and more that all add up.

 

[gunn]

I don't give money to "charity" ..

My personal XM subscription is $120 every 3 months for 2 vehicles .. that comes out to about 33 cents per day.

As for health and welfare / retirement pension / etc .. those are seperate from hourly pay and usually employer mandated, meaning they don't show up as income and are non taxable. As for an excess paid into those particular funds and the argument of an employee who takes a lot of days off versus a regular time employee .. the additional amount will be distributed into the pension fund to increase those rates, or added to the FSA spending account; the amounts received would be based on yearly hours.

I'm honestly still amazed that Sirius XM still exists as a business model when streaming over 4G exists.
$40/mo / 2 = $20/mo per car.
In comparison, MintMobile's unlimited is $30/mo and visible (VZW prepaid) is $25/mo
Are you really getting that much value from XM that you cannot get from streaming over the internet?

 

[Derphound01]

I'm honestly still amazed that Sirius XM still exists as a business model when streaming over 4G exists.
$40/mo / 2 = $20/mo per car.
In comparison, MintMobile's unlimited is $30/mo and visible (VZW prepaid) is $25/mo
Are you really getting that much value from XM that you cannot get from streaming over the internet?

Short answer, yes.

Long answer, it's better than streaming for in-car entertainment. There's no buffering, no external hardware, and it works where modern LTE doesn't. It functions identically to a FM radio but with added features and no need to change stations on a trip. I also don't ever have to search the FM dial for sporting events I want to listen to.

Plus you can keep activating the free trials through their SXM Dealer app over and over again if it is built in to your car. They still haven't patched that glitch.

 

[dDUBb]

Are you really getting that much value from XM that you cannot get from streaming over the internet?

Value is a word poor people use to justify expense.

My Comcast bill is almost $300 a month and I barely watch TV.