Iwork in a lime stone quarry in md, well on Jan 1st the company i work for took over full operations of the pit. We now do all the blasting of rock, crushing and crushing of cement stone at night for the cement plant. Well when our company took over they didnt hire about 6 people for reasons to do with the Union .. we are not union and dont want to be... the 6 they didnt hire tried to get a union formed so they ended up not hiring them. Well since jan 2nd we have had things misteriously get broken... the first week we took over both of our diesel welders the leads got broke off the armature, the 2nd weekend 275 gallons of of Castrol paradene 150 got got a hole knocked in the bottom of the tank and ALL leaked out. The worst happend either late this sunday night or early monday morning. Our old D7 dozer got drove over a 62ft high wall ghost rider style. the killer is whom ever it was over there wasnt smart they did it with snow on the ground and the state police followed the foot prints back to the cement plant. the found a set leading to the dozer and away from it.... Time will tell im sure they will find out who did it. heres some pictures. Its hard to see the damage i took the pictures with my cell phone when we flipped it over with a 330L track hoe today. Damage is- broken hydralic tank, bent rops , bent right hoist cyclinder, locked up motor from being up side down and no oil. the oil ran out the exhaust. we tried to turn it over with a 3/4 rachet ...no go. By looking at the hr meter it ran for almost 3 hrs before the motor locked up from when we last used it.

I'm Sorry if offend someone by my reply, but I think it needs to be said.

First off, I don't condone destruction of equiptment. With the current adminstration view of labor relations what options are open to fired employees of a company strictly because they want a fair wadge and safe working conditions

It sounds like ,t20dozer, is part of management and didn't want the union. Sounded like they eliminated any oposition to their non-union shop by firing those who supported the union. To become a union shop a vote is required.

Were any of these, about six, replaced with less paid workers?

Too bad to see all the damage done to the dozer. I think it does not do the unions any good to have rough stuff attributed to them. I hope the police catch the individuals involved and that the courts punish them. But usually nobody is ever prosecuted for these kinds of things.

Im not bashing the union, I did not have anything to do with the hiring or not hiring of the people who lost there jobs. We voted our union out last jan becuase it was all for the union and none for the employee. And all the guys that work with me voted out the union we just dont want them back. we make more without the union and have BETTER BENEFITS. As far as what the new hires make i couldnt tell you, but that doesnt give the right to destroy equipment. i hope the person that did this goes to jail just MY .02 i hope i havent offened anyone i wasnt trying to make this a heated post.

ian

otterden;2900 wrote:

I'm Sorry if offend someone by my reply, but I think it needs to be said.

what options are open to fired employees of a company strictly because they want a fair wadge and safe working conditions



Come on-nothing excuses this type of behaviour, nothing. Not a single positive reflection can come from this. I would not want to work with, under or supervise the individual(s) responsible. This is not an option. This is revenge for not getting what was wanted, not a means to a constructive end arrived at by two or more rational people.

This type of action is how people get hurt, wages stay frozen and benefits are directed away from employee benifits and new upgrades in an operation.

In regard to fixing this beast, it looks like a job for King of Obsolete.

bernie

There is a lot that we don't know about this stituation. Was it a union shop before the purchase, and they fired the employees before a decertification vote.

What is rational about being fired because you believe in and support your union?

Ian said that the union was voted out in January, was this after the fired employees were replaced?

If they have better benefits... Why kick the union out?

I still don't support the destruction of equiptment!

"otterden" wrote:

There is a lot that we don't know about this stituation. Was it a union shop before the purchase, and they fired the employees before a decertification vote.

What is rational about being fired because you believe in and support your union?

Ian said that the union was voted out in January, was this after the fired employees were replaced?

If they have better benefits... Why kick the union out?

I still don't support the destruction of equiptment!

I work for Florida rock Ind. Our company FLK now none union for 1 year... we got rid of the union in 2006 because they didnt do anything for us, im a equipment OP i casted a vote to vote them out along with the other guys. FRK bought out Essroc materials-Is a union company. they gave the option of any employee of essroc that was working in the quarry section to fill out applications and come aboard with us FRK. my manger told them we dont want the union back we just got rid of union. some didnt get hired. We have been having things get broken up ever since the take over .... its hard to explain frk took everything over except the cement plant which is 100ft away. the cement plant is Still a Union operation and we are not. i hope this clears up the confusion.

Ian

Was it the employees prior to the purchase or the replacements that voted the union out???

What conditions of work changed after the union left?
Safty standards???
Working alone?
Hours?

WHAT?

"otterden" wrote:

Was it the employees prior to the purchase or the replacements that voted the union out???

What conditions of work changed after the union left?
Safty standards???
Working alone?
Hours?

WHAT?

Its was us the employees One year prior to the purchase a whole year before we even knew about the purchase was going to happen. the work conditions didnt change or saftey or even hrs worked. We voted them out for the benefits and pay scale. I paid 40.00 a week for the union, My union pension was 125.00 a month worked for evey yr i was with the union, that was 6 years or 9000.00. This year 2006 we picked up 401k and profit sharing from FRK i got (18.73% - profit sharing) which came out to be 10,676.00 one year of profit sharing gave me more for retirement than 6 years in the union gave me. far as im concerned we are better off as a company with out the union. we have a excellent safty record. We are under Msha. we have no lost time accidents at our location, no S&S violations, no current ciatitions etc , you can go to MSHAS website and look it up. this all happend i think because some were dihard union people and we/I dont want them back and i would fight for that and stand behind my company.

ian

You got $10,676 that leaves about $89,000 to be shared by how many employees? Be Honest!

When I retired I received $95.00 for every year worked. Now lets see, 1700 hours = 1 year, so 30 years at $125. = 3750. or $45,000 a year, not to bad!

For non management, union is still better.

What did the employees give up by not having the union, or a different way to phrase the question, what did the employers gain?