Death of the Falcon and Territory

[Immortality]

Raj/Sheldon,

By the time you yourself join the railways, you will soon change your tune. Drivers make excellent money. They are known as the silvertails of the railways. Why? The union fought for them & their working conditions under the EA. When you are qualified to be a train driver & done your time, you might want to head off to senior management as some do. The railway workforce is already unsustainable but yet the union fights to keep as many jobs as possible. Remember driverless trains? It'll happen here as it will do in Sydney very soon. Then they will want to get rid of their $100K a year drivers (not including o/t, penalties, RDO's etc) & when that happens, your job will go & you will want the union to go into bat for you to support your family. So before you start spouting off the same crap as you did under your old name, start reading up on the railways & start getting your facts about your future employer.

I am qualified to drive EMU's & DMU's but I was never a driver. My role in the railways was to manage people to ensure they did their jobs properly & safely in my sector. Qualified employees make the business & are not a liability. Even when I took the VR, I still saved jobs for those who worked under me so they could put food on the table for their families & keep a roof over their head.

In regards to the local car industry, they were hampered by their parent US companies. If Holden & Ford had an aggressive export program & were given the opportunity properly, the local car making industry wouldn't be where it is today.

I'm sure he will have a long and prosperous working life with the railways as long as he keeps his mouth shut..... but he won't and he'll tell all that will listen (and those that won't) that unions are the death of the Aussie way of life!

 

[Calaber]

Calaber,

The Chinese will swamp the market in the next few years. With all the FTA's we're already swamped with approximately 65 car manufacturers in this country for the percentage pie. I dread to see what happens forward of 2017 & not just for the car industry.

Risky

They may well swamp the market, but will people buy their product? At present, their cars are a long way short of the quality of just about everything. For example, the latest Havals haven't done well in safety and finish, Great Wall and Chery are poor imitations of the real thing. The market leaders are well established and brand loyalty working for them (particularly Toyota). Hyundai and Kia are building strength in the market every year because they offer a good range of well designed and built cars at reasonable prices. Chinese cars may be cheaper but they need to be more than that to gain large scale acceptance.

 

[crew_man]

Calaber,
Crew_man,

I'm sure you have google to look it up. I did mention the Button plan & the GFC. Earlier this morning I couldn't be bothered looking it up as I thought that forum members here would be curious to look it up for themselves.

I am en ex-GMH employee so I am well aware of the forces that were working against Holden, I just find it rich when people on the forum accuse others of neglecting the facts, while they themselves have not cited any.

 

[Jecs]

its funny how some people swear by unions, and other think theyre the death of the country.

ive never been in a union, so ive never been offered its services. but one thing ill admit they are good - little over a month ago i lost my uncle to cancer. hit home for us because me, my brother and sisters were really close to him. i took a week off from work to prepare myself for the funeral. when i returned to work i was told i had to use my time off as annual leave, as uncle/auntie arent covered under grievance under fairwork aus. i was to emotionally exhausted to fight it, so i accepted it. my brother was also told the same thing. except he went to his union rep. long story short he got the week paid under grievance.

some people will say he shouldnt have, others will say why the fk isnt auntie and uncle listed?

 

[Immortality]

Unions have both good and bad points (as do most things in life) but I can live with that fact where as Raj/Sheldon/Amy can't ever get past that point.

 

[crew_man]

its funny how some people swear by unions, and other think theyre the death of the country.

I have no issue with Unions, in the sense that it should be a collective of workers banding together for their own common gain.

What I do have an issue with however, is when Unions become large corporate enterprises, with bosses on 6-figure slaries and a complete corporate structure,, profiting off the fees of their members. When that happens, the only way to maintain profits is to constantly push for more from the employer, which is good in the short term for it's members but will ultimately be detrimental when it is too expensive to conduct business with a unionised workforce.

If a union like this is seen to be doing nothing, members will stop paying their fees, which forces them to act in the pursuit of profits rather than the pursuit of better long term conditions and employment for members.

Then you just need to look at how some unions have actually struck illegal EBA's with employers that do not leave members better off than the award to realise that the system is so easily corrupted.

 

[vc commodore]

BTW, what is the forum rule about 2 accounts?

I made mention of this in another thread to no avail.....Not much more can be said about it

 

[vc commodore]

I have no issue with Unions, in the sense that it should be a collective of workers banding together for their own common gain.

What I do have an issue with however, is when Unions become large corporate enterprises, with bosses on 6-figure slaries and a complete corporate structure,, profiting off the fees of their members. When that happens, the only way to maintain profits is to constantly push for more from the employer, which is good in the short term for it's members but will ultimately be detrimental when it is too expensive to conduct business with a unionised workforce.

If a union like this is seen to be doing nothing, members will stop paying their fees, which forces them to act in the pursuit of profits rather than the pursuit of better long term conditions and employment for members.

Then you just need to look at how some unions have actually struck illegal EBA's with employers that do not leave members better off than the award to realise that the system is so easily corrupted.

Having worked in a place that was heavily "unionised", I found that it actually destroyed that workplace. So much so, it closed its doors, because people were finding petty things to strike about, just so they could go home and piss up (I assume).....I forget how many jobs were lost as a result, but it was enough to put a sour taste in my mouth about unions

 

[Immortality]

Having worked in a place that was heavily "unionised", I found that it actually destroyed that workplace. So much so, it closed its doors, because people were finding petty things to strike about, just so they could go home and piss up (I assume).....I forget how many jobs were lost as a result, but it was enough to put a sour taste in my mouth about unions

Yep and that is wrong plain and simple.

 

[vc commodore]

Yep and that is wrong plain and simple.

Very true.....It was an abattoirs, so the pay was excellent....The only issue I struck was, the work hours....I would work from 10 P.M Sunday night, to 7 A.M Monday morning....Then have to go back to work 7 A.M. Tuesday morning.....So my sleep was screwed up for that little period of time, but it didn't matter....It was a job....

I felt the work conditions were good considering what is involved in the job.....But none the less, the union reps wanted to push for more constantly, so at the end, the management decided to close the doors for good and screw the unions and the rest of the people there....