GUILTY AND PROUD OF IT!

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There is a big uproar over the salaries of federal workers being higher than the salaries of similarly employed people in the private sector.

Just to let you know, I’ve been employed by a municipality for almost fourteen years.

When I started we were union, but our contract frankly sucked. The next contract sucked also. That’s when I decided to run for a position as bargaining unit committeeman. I spent about 9 years in car sales. There was nothing at the table I wouldn’t be prepared for. Fortunately I won and three years later it was my turn. It wasn’t easy but we got some concessions and built some respect from management. We weren’t going to lay down anymore. We fought and started the road to pay parity for the ladies in the secretary pool. Benefits that helped working families in regards to use of sick time and personal days. Protection of seniority and the jobs of our members in general. Three years later we built on that foundation to further see that our female members were treated equally and more benefits. We of course made concessions that helped management more effectively manage. The one thing that most of my members remember though is that when I started, our wages were in the lower half of the bargaining units in my local. When I left they were near the top. My members were making close to $7 or more this year than in 1999.

I took my share of abuse from management and suck asses in the workforce. I had my share of crank calls and threats. I had my hours messed with when fighting grievances.

I don’t regret fighting and getting a better deal for my Brothers and Sisters. I absolutely will not apologize for the gains we won. Anyone that has a problem with that can kiss my ass.

About Post Author

Carol Bell

Carol is a graduate of the University of Alabama. Her passion is journalism and it shows. Carol is our unpaid, but very efficient, administrative secretary.
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Bee
14 years ago

Huzzah!!!! Truth101, you’re my hero this week 🙂

14 years ago

Unions have their problems like any organization and they can shoot themselves in the feet sometimes. But . . .

I was an active member of the Newspaper Guild once upon a time, and while I sometimes had my differences with them, all-in-all, they did far more good than harm. Everything Stimpson says is true. A top-notch investigative female reporter would get paid half as much as her male counterpart sitting at the next desk who wrote sappy human interest stories or chased fire engines. Worst of all, while writing disapproving articles and editorials about discrimination, they were the worst offenders.

I joined very early on and was promoted to manager of the library/research department (please don’t say morgue) one year later. With a staff of 22 and being the “head,” I was essentially management. It could have been sticky but I got a lot of support from the union, probably because the library was often referred to as the nut ward – which was a fair description.

But the time came when I got so pissed at them that I severed my connection. I am still, however, an avid supporter of unions. If it weren’t for them, the middle class and the small guy would be screwed up the ass. Corporate management complains that there’s no company loyalty anymore but one has to ask if there is corporate loyalty to the employee. No, because their only loyalty is money for them.

Demeur
14 years ago

Sorry but this is another story of the media (owned buy who?) pitting the middle class against itself. Wages for the middle class went down by $2000 while CEOs got massive bonuses even when companies failed. To top it off companies got tax benefits for moving their operations over seas. So far be it from me to begrudge what a worker makes whether federal or union when what those at the top are making is obscene.

14 years ago

There’s a time for outrageous demands and a time to be realistic.

The ultimate pint is that government, while being unionized, has allowed the private sector to slowly destroy the unions. The only real voice workers have in their conditions. Wages have stagnated and gone down. Our economic success was driven more by easy credit than a strong middle class.

Reply to  Truth101
14 years ago

Unions got demonized, called commies or mob-run, and it influenced people to act against their own interest. Does any part of that last sentence sound familiar?

Admin
14 years ago

Sometimes unions shoot themselves in the foot while trying to hold up management. Examples: Eastern Airlines, PATCO, GM, and etc. While I am not opposed to unions I am opposed to those who make outrageous demands, such as those I have just named. Their demands were so unrealistic it caused them to kill the Golden Goose. End result: Companies crashed and burned and everyone went looking for work….

14 years ago

I was a shop steward and bargaining committee alternate at a newspaper. I wasn’t around when the paper unionized; that was a few years before my arrival. To me, the element of fairness that the union introduced was more important than than money, although the two were obviously related.

Before the union, I was told, new reporters and editors negotiated their individual salaries with the managing editor. If you were a good negotiator or the ME liked you, you got a big salary. The result was that some people in the newsroom were paid dramatically more – like, roughly twice as much – as others holding the same title.

Make no mistake about it – unionization makes a big difference in wages and benefits. The non-union local TV and radio reporters in the city I’m talking about toil for much smaller remuneration than their counterparts at the paper. MUCH smaller. But the big difference is fairness and dignity – in wage scales, and benefits, and not cowering at the possibilty that some A-hole in management will fire you because he doesn’t like the cut of your jib.

14 years ago

Isn’t this difference really a difference between unionized and non-unionized?

If non-unionized workers don’t like the fact that they get a worse deal than unionized workers, they should unionize and get the same for themselves.

14 years ago

I posted about the federal/private sector pay differences, the big eye-opener was the gap in benefits, an average federal worker’s benefit package costs employers about $50,000, whereas in the private sector about $9,500. Federal workers earned about an average of $7,000 more doing a comparable job in the non-public area. I am all for any level of government hiring good people, paying good wages and benefits and by doing so putting competitive pressure on corporations and private business to do the same. It is a swings and roundabouts thing, in years past and surely in years ahead, government workers have lagged behind and will again lag behind private sector wages. But good to very good government pay is essential to keep all other employers honest.

Unions and good union men are a dying breed, only 13% of Americans are represented. That’s a damn shame.

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