Today's Roads

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Permalink Reply by Jessica on December 29, 2008 at 11:42pm

Ha...me and Chicago unions don't get along for various reasons...a couple being...

1) the guys at McCormick trying to strap my PURSE to a pallet when I was helping with a convention...uhm, no. Touch me one more time and see what happens. Also, I think I'm capable of plugging a cord in thanks...I don't need your union electrician to show me how.

2) Vandalism of non-union iron working vehicles. Also, vandalism of the work we did, AND physical violence threats, being spit on...boy, I was SO happy. The cops are too scared to arrest them, cause, ya know, picketing is legal. Never mind the 1K of damage to the truck...it's okay, they're PROTESTING. Screw that...this was at Wrigley Field.

I understand their [unions] purpose (to an extent) but unions + Chicago = ridiculous. Just my experience, that's all.

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Permalink Reply by o0_dan_0o on December 30, 2008 at 4:43am

i had a conversation earlier with a friend of mine who works for hammond's city hall, he was telling me about how a couple of plows ended up sliding around and hit a few parked cars. Then i made some smart remark about how salting a little earlier might have helped that, but he told me that they're rationing salt because morton stopped all the contracts for the forseeable future and they dont have another supplier.
so i guess thats fair.. nobody has a supplier. hmm.. :shrug:

anyway, restaraunt recommendations: selmarie in lincoln square, or the czerwone jablusko (red apple in polish) buffet on milwaukee just north of devon by the superdawg

about unions:
people in unions sometimes get crazy about folks outside of unions doing their work. It's understandable to be a little bit miffed that someone would come into their town and take the food off their plates.
Buy a card, buy a permit and hire a local person. theres a reason they call union halls "locals", its because the people there are from the area where work is being done. There are reasons why there are union made rules associated with work(sparky has to plug you in at mccormick, etc), mainly its because if there werent any tradesman made rules(which are agreed upon via collective bargaining) then the only voice in the workplace is the employer (or client), who can then pay whatever he likes and provide whatever conditions he likes(see: big box retailers). Another reason for these rules is safety, if an unqualified person at mccormick electrocuted himself while plugging something in then the liability would fall on the venue. It sounds silly, but ive worked there (as a carpenter) and theres a whole lot of cords daisy chained around and its collective chaos up until about an hour before showtime, the last thing anyone needs is to have some one absentmindedly plugging something in to somewhere it shouldnt be plugged in.


anyway...

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Permalink Reply by Jessica on December 30, 2008 at 9:11am

The non-union workers are TECHNICALLY local...they are located in Steger. (Builders Iron Works if you'd like to look them up...they make some neato stuff). What was the purpose of coming out and threatening us? Tearing apart the truck (1K of damage)? Spitting on us? Damaging the work we did for Wrigley?

I guess where I come from, vandalism is illegal, miffed or not. :-/ The police should have had them arrested, no matter what the consequences with the 'Teamsters.' Eerggg. Oh well, it happens.

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Permalink Reply by o0_dan_0o on December 30, 2008 at 1:18pm

i never said its right to vandalize. just that its understandable to be "miffed". ive been on the wrong side of pissed off ironworkers before, it wasnt pretty, and there was real potential for things to go bad. When i finally got out of there (with my $200 for the day ) i looked at what i was doing: undercutting them to the benefit of the management of that particular project. i pulled $200 cash(about 60% of the real cost of a union ironworker) out of the pocket of the contractor, no pension credit, no benefit payments, no taxes were paid. The fact that i could do the work (all i needed to do was not be afraid of heights and guide a truss into a pocket 25 times) is immaterial, the point is that i unknowingly acted to undermine the efforts of people who organized to make life better for those who participate in their trade. personally, i don't do that anymore-for those exact reasons.

steger is not local to chicago, not even technically, the cost of living south of route 30 is substantially lower than it is in the city, its practically a different county. my guess is that your employer saves/generates a lot of money by not paying prevailing wage and competitively bidding jobs(but just below the price point of union contractors) in higher paying markets (chicago proper), where the higher pay is a direct result of union influence. Its a pretty common practice and it undermines the welfare of all who participate in that trade.



Jessica said:

The non-union workers are TECHNICALLY local...they are located in Steger. (Builders Iron Works if you'd like to look them up...they make some neato stuff). What was the purpose of coming out and threatening us? Tearing apart the truck (1K of damage)? Spitting on us? Damaging the work we did for Wrigley?

I guess where I come from, vandalism is illegal, miffed or not. :-/ The police should have had them arrested, no matter what the consequences with the 'Teamsters.' Eerggg. Oh well, it happens.

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