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Would You Cross... - laidman - 03-10-2006

Well, with the striking teachers going on, where do your loyalties lie. I know I wouldn't, only because I have respect for the strikers, fighting for what the deserve. That and my Dad(very big union guy)who would kick my ass if I were to cross....lol


Would You Cross... - Flofocus - 03-10-2006

The company I work for had a strike a few years ago. I crossed, but not without some of the guys trying to stop me.

I got so f***in mad. You make more than me, your asking for more, but you wont let me go into work and make my hard earned money? I dont freakin think so. I had to shove and express my feelings to get threw.

These things REALLY piss me off. Especially when the managers of these guys are already making anywhere between 10-20% less than what they make and get no overtime. What makes them think they can stop me or any other manager from making some money. Must be nice to picket and get strike pay. They bitch about money, then go on a 2-3 week vacation. HOLY s***, YOU GUYS MUST NEED MONEY IF YOUR PICKITING. :rolleyes:

And before the union lovers come in.....I love my job, I'm not part of any union. If I hated my job, I'd find another one, not cry about it. I was part of the same union before I got promoted, and HATED their rules. On of the reason why my company SUCKS at customer service is because of their union. I remeber I ALMOST got fired for doing overtime. I was incharge of the wholesale accounts and was way behind in my work due to being overloaded. I decided that I would come in on the week-end and get caught up (some of my customers pay up to 150K/monthly for service). I did all my contracts and orders, had them issued to be signed and all. Felt pretty proud of myself to get all that done in such short time. My manager came in on Monday, ran the weekly reprts, saw that I was working on the week-end, got an offical letter in my permanent union file saying I broke some rule.

She said that if I was that overloaded with work, I should of asked my fellow co-workers to help out. I did, they were all busy playing solitaire. Guess who protects them? Yup, you got it, thats same fawkin union.




Would You Cross... - Oscar The Grouch - 03-10-2006

Yes they deserve a 90+k salary. Yes they deserve to have kids pay another 5% on tuition. Yes students deserve to pay the some of the highest tuition costs in Canada.

They are teachers and all, but I'd still cross.


Would You Cross... - meford4u - 03-10-2006

I think my answer is self explanatory and no need to get up in arms boys and flos.


Would You Cross... - darkpuppet - 03-10-2006

I think the union is being retarded... what they're asking for.

smaller class sizes = less student workload (even though TAs do most of the work)
Less class time per week = less workload

to heck with quality of learning, they just want to keep their 12% raise and do less work, and demand more from the schools to 'improve' the learning experience.

Last time I checked, learning in university was the same regardless if there were 6 people in class or 200+ people in class.

When you ask someone why they're striking they say, "because we want to negotiate".. and that they're striking, "because we've been talking all year".. yet they pick the most disruptive time of the year to do it.

And it's not the student's choice, it's the union choice. The people who are being affected the most are the people who are paying money to go to university.. ask any student.. they'd rather have double the class size and half the tuition rather than the opposite... so this strike is really purely about the union.

I've seen a safeways go out of business because the union voted 3 times with ample warning that the store would close if the employees wouldn't take a $1/hr paycut. Mind you, they were the highest paid grocery store employees in all of Canada, with stock boys starting at $14/hr.

I've seen Opseu strike for over a month to guarantee jobs.. and when I joined them the summer after as a coop, they laid off 300 employees and would eventually close the MTO office in Thunder Bay and move operations to Sudbury.

The cafeteria workers at my university who made crappier food than mcdonalds, but made 3 times my salary went on strike for a month, and when nobody missed them, brought in the mill unions.. and they brought their kids, physically assaulted cars and people crossing the pickets, and prevented me from making my phone interview with IBM.

And then you have the CAW.. striking for more money and more job security (in the past)... they weren't striking for the opportunity to make better cars.

And the TTC goes on strike for more money.. so now we pay higher fares and the government still has to bail them out.

North american unions are all about making money. People want money now, and that's about it. To heck with building viable businesses. I honestly don't see too many unionized companies that haven't been bailed out by the government, and that frustrates me. They want more money from a non-viable business. wonderful. I'm glad the taxpayers get to pay for it.

I can't deny that unions did a lot to improve the workplace in the past, but the truth is that like most organizations, unions are in it for the money, not the employee, and people who are not even associated with the unions are the ones paying for it.

This school strike is just stupid. The ones suffering the most are the students who have no part of the union. The student union should take legal action to sue the union and government.


Would You Cross... - Flofocus - 03-10-2006

darkpuppet,Mar 9 2006, 11:31 AM Wrote:This school strike is just stupid.  The ones suffering the most are the students who have no part of the union.  The student union should take legal action to sue the union and government.
[right][snapback]174083[/snapback][/right]

*thumbsup*


Would You Cross... - Euro Ford Fan - 03-10-2006

Hell yes I would cross. Back in 2002 when the high school teachers were on strike they blocked the road that lead to my parents house. I sat there in my truck for 10 minutes before I gave up and when there was an opening drove over their little wooden road blocks. They didn't have the right to block a public road only the entrance to the school. Morons. :lol:

Like I said before the only people that loose out here are the student, who I hope are smart enough to ask for their money back for the days they loose.



Would You Cross... - laidman - 03-10-2006

Flofocus,Mar 9 2006, 10:46 AM Wrote:
darkpuppet,Mar 9 2006, 11:31 AM Wrote:This school strike is just stupid.  The ones suffering the most are the students who have no part of the union.  The student union should take legal action to sue the union and government.
[right][snapback]174083[/snapback][/right]

*thumbsup*
[right][snapback]174085[/snapback][/right]


Hell yeah, Because you know if this lasts longer than the semester, they will not re-imburse the students for the monies that have been already paid. Teachers, ust like police, and other emergency people should not be allowed to strike.


Would You Cross... - Oscar The Grouch - 03-10-2006

Flofocus,Mar 9 2006, 11:46 AM Wrote:
darkpuppet,Mar 9 2006, 11:31 AM Wrote:This school strike is just stupid.  The ones suffering the most are the students who have no part of the union.  The student union should take legal action to sue the union and government.
[right][snapback]174083[/snapback][/right]

*thumbsup*
[right][snapback]174085[/snapback][/right]

Agree 100%.


Would You Cross... - habmann - 03-10-2006

laidman,Mar 9 2006, 11:07 AM Wrote:
Flofocus,Mar 9 2006, 10:46 AM Wrote:
darkpuppet,Mar 9 2006, 11:31 AM Wrote:This school strike is just stupid.  The ones suffering the most are the students who have no part of the union.  The student union should take legal action to sue the union and government.
[right][snapback]174083[/snapback][/right]

*thumbsup*
[right][snapback]174085[/snapback][/right]


Hell yeah, Because you know if this lasts longer than the semester, they will not re-imburse the students for the monies that have been already paid. Teachers, ust like police, and other emergency people should not be allowed to strike.
[right][snapback]174089[/snapback][/right]

I agree 100%

And as for crossing the picket lines i went to my school yesterday around noon. No picketers. I don't know if its every college but at Mohawk they're only picketing between 8-10 and 3:30-5:30. Can you get any lazier? Like really unless you're gonna picket the whole day what's the point.

Unfortunately in college there are not TA's Darkpuppet. But i think it would be a great idea. Personally if you wanna do less work, take the proposed 12% pay increase and put that towards shrinking the class sizes. I feel no sympathy for the teachers, not in this strike, prolly not ever. Show me any other profession where you get 2 months off in the summer(high school, grade school) or 4 months in the case of college teachers, then you get every major holiday off, 2 weeks at christmas. I wish i could find a career like that. And really the average college teachers is in the classroom an average of 15-16 hrs a week? But yet the still make a full time wage. Again show me a job where i only have to work less 50% of the time and I still make full time money. Teachers have it great, if they didn't people wouldn't leave the private sector to become teachers.



Would You Cross... - habmann - 03-10-2006

laidman,Mar 9 2006, 09:42 AM Wrote:Well, with the striking teachers going on, where do your loyalties lie.  I know I wouldn't, only because I have respect for the strikers, fighting for what the deserve. 
[right][snapback]174075[/snapback][/right]

What is it that you think the teachers deserve here? Tell me how the teachers are being unfairly treated? Cuz i can't think of a single reason that they should be out there.

I think the only thing the teachers deserve is a swift kick in the ass. Boot all their asses back into the classrooms where they belong. Stop screwing around with my life. And stop claiming this is for the students. This isn't about the students, so stop saying it is. I'm a student, I've got no complaints about class sizes. I don't think my education suffers because of the current class sizes. This is just another attempt by the teachers to make what is already a cushy job even cushier.


Would You Cross... - Flofocus - 03-10-2006

habmann,Mar 9 2006, 02:17 PM Wrote:This is just another attempt by the teachers to make what is already a cushy job even cushier.
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Isn't that what unions ARE FOR? :ph34r:



Would You Cross... - meford4u - 03-10-2006

this subject has been placed on ignore by user meford4u.

Have a nice day

And I am telling my union rep about this


Would You Cross... - ZTWsquared - 03-10-2006

laidman,Mar 9 2006, 10:42 AM Wrote:I know I wouldn't, only because I have respect for the strikers, fighting for what the deserve.[right][snapback]174075[/snapback][/right]
Picket lines are a valid form of expression during a strike -- and I support the rights of union members to picket as a form of expression.

But that's it ... they have no right to put up a physical barrier ... they have no right to intimidate, they have no right to assault others or harm their property and they have no right to deny access to public property or to property that belongs to someone else.

If I had business on the other side of the picket line, I most certainly would cross - with a genuine smile on my face and with good humour, and with no disrespect intended -- and I fully expect that I would be allowed to cross the line unimpeded in the same spirit.

My rights are no less valuable and no less important than any union members, striking or not. Being on strike should not be a license to violate the law or to become anti-social asshats -- and that too often is the case.

Meford and Laidman, you have my full support to choose not to cross a line -- and I respectfully maintain my right to cross it, if I so choose.


Would You Cross... - NOS2Go4Me - 03-10-2006

I'd cross it in a heartbeat - whether it was to write a final, hand in an assignment or to retrieve my hat.

By saying I wouldn't cross a picket line would mean that I support organized temper tantrums. Which I don't. So I most earnestly will.

I think there was a strike in 97 when I was going to set an appointment for my G2 exit roadtest. I drove up to the line... and some chowderhead walked up to me and said "Where do you think you're going?"

"To go book my road test"

"You know there's noone in there but managers"

"Are you going to compensate me for my loss of ability to write my exam and cost to get an extension when my G2 expires?"

"No."

"Good - move or you'll get run over"

And he did.

These strikes are indeed engineered to hit the common, non-unionized folk the hardest, and considering that we're paying their paycheque in one way or another (taxes, tuition, buying a new car, etc), you would think that they would be a little more mindful. But they aren't.

Their unionized coworkers and symapthizers express "Solidarity" and therefore they don't publicly bitch when there's a strike. Maybe unions have a rule (unwritten rule?) that they can't decry a strike by another union. Don't know, don't care.

If I have to be somewhere, regardless of the reason, and that "somewhere" is the other side of a picket line... I'm getting there. Whether it's pleasantly or otherwise is up to the "person" wielding the picket sign.


Would You Cross... - NefCanuck - 03-10-2006

Okay, I'm probably gonna say enough in this message to piss everybody off, but like my dad used to say "Do the job right, or don't do it at all"

Now I preface this as well with the proviso that I am unionized, OPSEU in fact and am in fact the union steward for my place of employment.

My position is that this strike did not need to happen, but that both sides dug in their heels and decided that the kids in school were only useful as pawns to bolster their respective arguements.

My solution? Binding arbitration and binding on both sides. Sadly I've seen instances where the government doesn't like the results of the arbitrators decision and does whatever it wants.

None of that, in exchange for giving up the right to strike, the teachers must be given an iron-clad guarantee that the decision of the arbitrator will be honoured regardless. If it results in increased costs? Too damn bad, fund it whatever it takes.

NefCanuck


Would You Cross... - laidman - 03-10-2006

My only thing that I agree with the strike is that if they feel that they are being short changed or something they have the right to do so. Only because there is a union, thats why I would not cross, ONLY out of respect of the union thats it. Their reasons are on the edge of BS, Back in elementary school the teachers had a strike. Lasted quite a while, we as the students fell behind, then again in highschool, we fell behind. All of us got short changed because they wanted more for doing less. I didn't agree with the strike then and I definitley don't now. All students are our future, and it seems that they are forgetting that. Why doesn't anyone think of the students anymore..


Would You Cross... - FocusGuy7476 - 03-10-2006

i don't know the entire story about this teacher's strike. my views on union's are pretty one sided, so the union is only using this strike to gain publicity from the media.

the teachers are teaching in a post secondary school, the student want to the be there and are paying good money to be there. the teachers should be there to benefits the students (customers) in the a place of higher learning.


Would You Cross... - meford4u - 03-10-2006

you cross, you get the five finger discount.

And I would be happy to accomodate any of you if you did.

You want more of my opinion? I'll give you a fistfull of reasons why you shouldn't cross a picket line.


Would You Cross... - Flofocus - 03-10-2006

meford4u,Mar 9 2006, 08:29 PM Wrote:you cross, you get the five finger discount.

And I would be happy to accomodate any of you if you did.

You want more of my opinion?  I'll give you a fistfull of reasons why you shouldn't cross a picket line.
[right][snapback]174214[/snapback][/right]

:lol:

And you seriously wonder why people hate these things.

:lol:

Id have you arrested and charged so bubba could show you a few fistfulls of reasons of his own. ;) :lol: