and this is why the jobs ended up in mehico/chinland/japan/et al

[Fatrat]

With that kind of working conditions, you'd think they would unionize. A union would never allow that to happen.

All three states are "Right to work" states which means the unions are neutered, but I guess 16 hour days and 7 day work weeks will change that.

 

[hammerhead]

And the company thinks the OT and messed up thinking from over worked employees is good? Must all be salary. Being employed there still is a choice.

 

[Casey Jones]

And the company thinks the OT and messed up thinking from over worked employees is good? Must all be salary. Being employed there still is a choice.

It depends on management philosophy.

One school of thought, wants to recruit a dedicated, committed workforce - and keep them there, and keep them enthusiastic, with commiserate or better pay, reasonable conditions and hours. Walmart USED to do this.

The other school of thought, wants hiring to be a revolving door - so they need not worry about low pay, pay raises, vacations, pension demands. Many retail dumps, all fast-food dumps, and...incredibly...American railroads, now all want this.

Railroads want their people leaving after a couple of years to avoid pension liabilities with Railroad Retirement. Management today no longer comes up from the crafts, and so they denigrate the skills necessary. As well, SOME (not all) skills are obsoleted by computer controls. Example: Starting a train moving, used to be a ticklish affair. Baby the throttle until you know the rear end is moving, and then slowly advance it, to prevent wheel slip, while watching the ammeter the whole time.

Now, that's all done by logic modules. I used to joke that on those new GE locomotives, I could just rip the throttle out from IDLE to Notch 8 at a start, and make myself a sandwich while things got rolling. Between computer traction controls and rear-placed Distributed Power, there's zero skill involved.

So...we, that is, labor/crafts/rank-and-file...become disposable. Management behavior, always contemptuous, becomes more so.

 

[Vlad The Impaler]

It's funny as the hospital I used to work for was going woke that is when they cut service workers benefits. But they were adding a person to make sure the staff were schooled in their woke culture as I was leaving. Now I thought the woke people were all for corporations paying fair wages anf good benefits. I guess they are all for taking them away so the Government can decide what they get. Emails were coming itno my vbox about work place equality as they were creating seperate classes of workers. Hypocritical idiots.

 

[Unca Walt]

Honestly, I don't blame them. That's insane to work 4 months without a day off.

Sounds like what MySonTheDoctor had to do for years. (*snork*) He just sent me this pic. Absolutely middle-aged-crazy. Got a big bike, sooper leathers, a GIANT motorhome.

And the crazy shitheads who run hospitals can put him in the same slot as 90% of the rest of the best doctors: GONE.

 

[hammerhead]

It depends on management philosophy.

One school of thought, wants to recruit a dedicated, committed workforce - and keep them there, and keep them enthusiastic, with commiserate or better pay, reasonable conditions and hours. Walmart USED to do this.

The other school of thought, wants hiring to be a revolving door - so they need not worry about low pay, pay raises, vacations, pension demands. Many retail dumps, all fast-food dumps, and...incredibly...American railroads, now all want this.

Railroads want their people leaving after a couple of years to avoid pension liabilities with Railroad Retirement. Management today no longer comes up from the crafts, and so they denigrate the skills necessary. As well, SOME (not all) skills are obsoleted by computer controls. Example: Starting a train moving, used to be a ticklish affair. Baby the throttle until you know the rear end is moving, and then slowly advance it, to prevent wheel slip, while watching the ammeter the whole time.

Now, that's all done by logic modules. I used to joke that on those new GE locomotives, I could just rip the throttle out from IDLE to Notch 8 at a start, and make myself a sandwich while things got rolling. Between computer traction controls and rear-placed Distributed Power, there's zero skill involved.

So...we, that is, labor/crafts/rank-and-file...become disposable. Management behavior, always contemptuous, becomes more so.

Casey,
Thanks for clearing that up for me. i guess I'm still part of that older think. I have seen big companies locally that appreciated the employees only to be handed down to the next generation and become nothing more than soulless corporations. Couldn't understand it until now.

 

[hammerhead]

Sounds like what MySonTheDoctor had to do for years. (*snork*) He just sent me this pic. Absolutely middle-aged-crazy. Got a big bike, sooper leathers, a GIANT motorhome.

And the crazy shitheads who run hospitals can put him in the same slot as 90% of the rest of the best doctors: GONE.

View attachment 228178

Ride on, Scotty.

 

[Casey Jones]

Sounds like what MySonTheDoctor had to do for years. (*snork*) He just sent me this pic. Absolutely middle-aged-crazy. Got a big bike, sooper leathers, a GIANT motorhome.

And the crazy shitheads who run hospitals can put him in the same slot as 90% of the rest of the best doctors: GONE.

View attachment 228178

You know you're old when your son looks...old. Hard-used middle-years.

Not being critical - except for the chrome dome, that could have been me.

 

[Unca Walt]

You know you're old when your son looks...old. Hard-used middle-years.

Not being critical - except for the chrome dome, that could have been me.

Oh, yeah. He's been hard-used. Doctors have the highest divorce, suicide, alcoholism, drug addiction rate of any profession. TINS Look it up yerself. Oh. And again, if there is some lurker out there that still harbors the idea he (and most of the older doctors) were/are greedy, overpaid pricks... fuck you in the mouth for your strong views based on imagined -- and wrong -- information.

Sorry. It is just a horribly sore spot with me. You have no fucking idea how many times his mother and I had to patch him back together after a "hard day at the office". NOBODY who is not associated like I am even knows what goes on during a doctor's 12-hour day. It often deviates from TV doctors. One family wanted Scott to "fix" the guy that swallowed 100 Tylenol. Screamed filth at him when he said there was absolutely nothing that could be done -- the liver was dissovled.

Later on, in another room, the projectile blood vomiting eruption got him.

I'll stop. Sorry. I am just so glad to see a smile on his face, and any tears are from leaving his helmet open while riding.

ONE LAST LATE EDIT: He has saved the lives of thousands of people. He has brought several children back to life with his skills. Anybody here able to match that? Beuller?

 

[Casey Jones]

We all gotta have that getaway.

Sounds like me, when I took a hiatus from railroading in 2013. Went to North Dakota to check out the job scene (little did I know I would have lost my pension) and then to Texas...Dallas, to interview with the BNSF dispatching staff. I had the time and they weren't hurried, so I rode my cycle down there.

Recreation is something that's sorely lacking in middle-aged American life, these days.

 

[Unca Walt]

Casey,
Thanks for clearing that up for me. i guess I'm still part of that older think. I have seen big companies locally that appreciated the employees only to be handed down to the next generation and become nothing more than soulless corporations. Couldn't understand it until now.

Think IBM. Went from family to foreign.

 

[hammerhead]

Think IBM. Went from family to foreign.

That was probably before my time, Unca. I'm thinking Red Lion Inn and Country Curtains. Jack and Jane Fitzpatrick were very generous with their business and offered great benefits.

 

[Unca Walt]

Q: "How much dirt would it take to bury IBM?"

A: "One Aker."

 

[tigerwillow1]

All three states are "Right to work" states which means the unions are neutered, but I guess 16 hour days and 7 day work weeks will change that.

I've always thought "right to work" meant only that workers have the choice if they want to join a union or not. Is there more to it?

 

[Fatrat]

I've always thought "right to work" meant only that workers have the choice if they want to join a union or not. Is there more to it?

Union has less money to fight as less members, also if the union hasn't bought the local politicians, it means the corporations already have them in their pocket. The politicians are always bought, its just who bought them.