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- Sunday, January 29, 4:37 AM The United Steelworkers union last night warned of the increasing chance of a strike on Wednesday by refinery workers in one or more locations if there's no progress in contract talks for a new three-year deal. The unions have expressed concern about safety protections for workers.
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They want more safety for themselves. What can be wrong with that
'we want five people doing one person job instead of four.'
whoever said that has to know something about this trade and be able to do by him/herself the same job as four of them doing now
otherwise it was said in vain
That's not the way it works. You define each job carefully and then determine who has the expertise to do it. So if a light bulb burns out at your station, you stop working until the electrician arrives to change the bulb and the carpenter arrives to hold the ladder. Very safe and very unproductive. At least that's the way it was in the steel mills in Chicago before they closed.
My point is not defend this Union.
My point is for people not to judge this Union, without being expert on the issue
I am against very safe and unproductive
I am against very unsafe and productive
I am for owner and worker mutually looking as mush as possible for safe and productive solution
----------------------...
btw.
labor in former CCCP, which was called to be hegemony, ended as being very unsafe and very unproductive at the same time
Those safety demands just may be well-founded. Unions occasionally over-step their perceived bounds, but having lived in a steel town much of my life, I have read of many horrible accidents over the years. Falling in a vat of molten hot steel may not even be the worst way to die in a steel mill. There were many accidents. If you study the Hoover Dam and even the much more recently constructed Bay Bridge Tunnel, you can see how many men went to their deaths on those jobs. Not looking to knock a Republican icon , but when Reagan fired those air tower workers he wasn't my hero. They were aware that the public was in danger and acted on it only to get the boot. They have since been proven correct time and again. We are now much safer thanks to them, although there is much to be done.
I don't blame the unions at all.There have been numerous multi-fatality accidents in refineries over the years .In some cases, neglect is obvious and needs to be given priority. Who would point that out if not for unions?. ( It seems like OSHA has not been very active of late...wonder why?) Besides, if problems are addressed promptly, they can save the company from lawsuits and expenses far greater than the cost of preventive maintenance.
There are two sides to the debate.
So they went on strike? How's that going to protect the public from any danger, perceived, real or fabricated?
Posts like this are the reason that Unions are losing their support.
Yea right. I lived all my life in Columbus, Ohio and google "Buckeye Steel". It was run by president, Samuel P. Bush, who was the grandfather of President George H.W. Bush and great-grandfather of President George W. Bush.
The place was a hell hole, scarry to drive by the place and watch all of the flames from the red hot steel being poured into the molds (you could see inside of it because half of the windows were broken out and never replaced).
A friend of mine was on the Columbus Fire Department and they had an emergency squad assigned full time to the place because they were always taking injured workers to the hospital or the morgue.
As it usually goes, profit over the safety of the workers.
The owners will shutter the mills and buy steel from Pakistan.
And you'll whine about that, too.
We have been buying foreign goods for decades and now you see the result,shuttered industry and high unemployment. At the same time (under W.) they doubled the number of legal immigrants (check statistics)..This created higher unemployment and a lower wage environment. No wonder the middle class is quickly becoming poorer on it's way to extinction...
My 17th, 18th and 19th century ancestors refused to put up with their bosses and when the job was gone (rather summarily, sometimes with a pointy ended stick) they had a Plan B to emmigrate to the empty New World. That model is compromised. There is no New World unless it's Afghanistan where the natives (as in North America) will remonstrate.
And there's no guarantee that the federal government will bail them out as with GM.
In a dilemma? Think hard or close your eyes, wish you were in Kansas and roll the bones.
Believe me, the owners will get the message when a
multi-million-dollar fine is threatened. Unions have served the
country well and some continue to, but sometimes it seems
their timing on threatening work stoppages is really lame. And,
when they are taken over by the Andy Sterns, the Richard Trumkas of the world, pandering to politicians for power and the Muslim Brotherhood for new recruiting areas, they really get a bad name. I call on the membership to reconstruct their image and mission, do the foundational work, then you'll have popular support. I hope to return to a positive image of unions, like I used to have.
We need to get back to the center to avoid stagnation. Those who knock moderation encourage gridlock and in these times, that's the worst scenario.
In this economy we don't have time to posture, we need realism, because everyone is going to take a hit or we'll all be under the bus.
Moderation is no longer an insult, it's a compliment.
Refinery strike averted after new labor deal agreed. The United Steelworkers union last night struck a new labor deal with refiners just hours before the existing contract expired. The agreement averted a strike that could have closed as much as 6% of the U.S.'s refining capacity. The deal now needs ratification by the union's membership.
Hot damn. Now if we can produce some oil and crank 'em up.