The Law of Supply and Demand At Work

[Thomas Rogers]

Q, please reread my comment, I didn't say unions created the 5 day work week, just the opposite.



I was trying to point out, like I think you were, that it probably isn't unions that prevent us from going back to a 6 or 7 day work week; and conversely I was attempting to point that out by saying it wasn't unions in the first place that created the 5 day work week.



TJR

 

[Thomas Rogers]

No problem Q.



Oh, BTW, my current company FORCES everyone to take this Friday as a vacation day, and they shut-down totally the week between Christmas and New Years and assign "floating holidays" to all those days.



I thought the concept of "floating holiday" was so that individuals, many of various ethnic and religious backgrounds, could decide when to take them and therefore the employer could better cater to diverse needs. To ASSIGN when they are, and make them between Christmas and New Years kinda makes them FIXED holidays, doesn't it!



Actually, I am not complaining because I would take off this Friday and that week of the year anyway, but that's not really the point.



The point is, where is my union rep when I need him?



TJR

 

[John Mastrocco]

TJ,

Apparently your company defines floating holiday as one that does not fall on a specific fixed day/date, but can vary from year to year.



"Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday, Saturday, Friday..." (Appolonia Corleone)



Q,

That example had nothing to do with the number of days in a work week but was more about a boss threatening to fire someone if they don't want to work whenever the boss deems they work, needed or not, or whatever kind of other demands they decide are required. In fact, I beleive TJ gave an example where he was disciplined by refusing to work on a Sunday.

Unions brought that kind of employment abuse to the forefront and laws were passed that protected the hourly wage earner from it. Of course, salaried have never enjoyed those types of protections and it looks like, from TJ's example, that management attitude is still alive and well for salaried workers. But how long would it be before hourly workers lose protection from being fired for whimsical reasons if the unions completely disappear? Who will be their advocate?

The unions may have lost influence, and this power, which I agree became too great up until the last couple of decades. But they are far from powerless and still carry quite a bit of sway with the politicians from both parties. I personally hope a balance is reached before they completely disappear. They can still serve a useful function if they become more localized and the massive national organizations are stripped of most of their power.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

>> Apparently your company defines floating holiday as one that does not fall on a specific fixed day/date, but can vary from year to year.



Actually, they are always the same time of the year and very predictable...they aren't floating in my opinion. Floating should have one def: floating in that the employee gets to pick when to take the time, not the company.



If the company decides, then they are company holidays.



TJR

 

[Gavin Allan]

The worst thing about unions is that the chief officers take all the pension money and squander it or steal it, and the hardworking guy at the plant gets screwed out of his pension. (Of course, I guess this saves the company (read Enron) from doing it, they let the union steal the pensions and get the bad rap.)



If they could get organized crime out of the unions, they might be better.

 

[Tom Schindler]

What unions have done that? You got proof?





Tom

 

[John Mastrocco]

Tom,

The teamsters have been accused of doing that in the past - Jimmy Hoffa was notorious for it. I'm not aware of any union accused of raiding the pension fund in the last two decades at least, but it was a problem when the first big unions came into power. (It also may have a lot to do with the fact that organized crime has changed and become smaller and weaker over the last three decades as well.)



Gavin,

Today it's the corporation that is 'restructuring' the pension plans and raiding them as they do so as well as underfunding them to begin with. Read the papers and you will see plenty of examples of that. And it's all being done legally.



Q,

Be glad you work for a company like that, they are few and far between. If you have that kind of job, don't leave it as you will be sorely disappointed, unless your profession is in extrememly high demand of course.

Most employers fall somewhere between yours and the 'totalitarian.' But my question was about how long it would be before it returned to the totalitarian. Employers aren't treating employees as well as they do out of the kindness of their hearts, (which, once again, overall isn't as well as you seem to believe.) They do it because of checks and balances and controls that come in many forms - legal, employee driven and otherwise. If those checks and controls go away you can bet your last dollar so will the 'employee friendly' employer.

With very few exceptions businesses only care about one thing - making money. Don't ever fool yourself into thinking they care about the employee as they only do so as much as they have to in order to make more money.



TJ,

I was actually making a joke. I guess it fell very flat.