Ok, have a seat...
And never bothered to think that you also eliminated seven possible
customers.
You're blaming the union for your own inability to keep up, five
million sounds like an awful lot, or is it just your lack of keeping
up as you should have been?
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Imagine hardwood blocks. I bring in a 12,000 board-feet truckload of
surfaced kiln-dried Beech. I rip it to width on a 20 hp power-feed rip saw.
Run the rips through a 20 hp moulding machine. Cross-cut the mouldings on a
10 hp hydraulic cross-cut saw that cycles faster than you can watch. My
cost to make the block: $0.78 (If the guys feel like working)
My supplier has a load of logs delivered to his mill from his forest. The
logs are sawn and dried then the boards go into the 100,000 sq-ft dimention
mill where a computer scans every square millimeter of every board. The
computer then determines the best mix of the 3,000 different products to cut
from each board on the fly as the board is flying into the automatic
optimizing saws that yields product from every square millimeter of each
board leaving only knots and sawdust that is used to power and heat the
mill. My cost per delivered block: $0.47 EVERY TIME, ON TIME!!!
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Best chances are that you went to the "bargaining table" with no
intention of bargaining anything, but demanding cuts in wages and
benefits, which seems to be the current fad among those that don't
care. A stable workforce is something you will never have, and you do
not deserve one either.
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Actually, I proposed a raise that was higher than the union hoped for. As
my average employee has been there for over 12 years. But, it's very
difficult to hire people in the inner-city that have any work ethic. The
new ones think they are owed and the union is there to protect them from
loosing their (my) jobs from being drunk, hung-over, not coming to work and
goofing-off. I WON'T micromanage adults to make sure they are working every
second, I can't. And the Steelworker's union's philosophy is just fire them
and constantly go through the expence of training new ones. They just want
the dues!
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A hard fact for you to ruminate over, the shop I last worked in, and
most of the others I have talked to are having a hard time finding
people that can do the work, the old skills have been lost. Well,
guess what? This means I can demand any wage I want, and unless they
want to fall further and further behind, they have no choice but to
pay it, which is all to my liking. I am supposed to be retired, not
having to put up with calls almost daily from shops that can't figure
out how to do something that the apprentice would have been expected
to know thirty years ago. To stop that, and I finally found the magic
number, $30 per hour. I don't mind going to look at a job and giving
advice where I can, but I'll be damned if I'm going to do the job
anymore.
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You have a nitche and skills and a work ethic, today that is rare with the
18-30 age range. I sence you have never been on the other side of the coin
and have "Union Forever" blood in you're veins. I know nothing about how
big-business works but every small business has similar challenges. I'll
send you a pair of MY shoes and MY 30 or so hats for a week or two...then
talk! No, I really don't lay awake nights figuring out ways to screw my
employees, I just sometimes wish that they would meet me half way more
often. The union is not much more than an annoyance but what kills my is
they just don't have to be. There's too much "Something-For-Nothing"
mentality that just goes against my grain. They protect the worst
productive employee and prevent me from providing incentives to the really
good ones...go figure.
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Whose fault is it that the people aren't there anymore? Who decided
that it cost too much to train an apprentice? Who decided that
automated machines that can eliminate anything but a mindless drone
was the way to go? Who decided that people are only an expendable
commodity? High turnover keeps wages low, it also fails to keep
quality standards as they once were when the value of an experienced
employee was recognized. In todays world, not only are the employees
expendable, so is the employer. That is how it should be, justice has
to be blind, and applicable to both sides equally.
Loyalty? Thing of the past, by your own hand.
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I'll go tell that to Violet who has been working for my family for 65 years,
she started when she was 14 for my grandfather and her daughter (30 yrs.) is
my production manager.
You have made a bunch of very wrong assumptions. If I don't automate and
outsource I'll be out of business and then ALL my employees are out. I need
to profitable in order to support my extended employee family, but I can't
be a "Social Service" to slackers hiding behind union skirts. The worst is
that the union prevents me from rewarding good employees and putting the
right people in their most productive job due to seniority thus everyone
suffers. The Steelworkers do NOTHING for my employees at all but God help
us all is their check were ever late. The Unions had their time and were
important but that time is long gone. Now the unions are just the last
vestiges of organized crime and the Mafia. The just tap into a revenue
stream and suck!!! Look at how the Japanese unions work, their goal is to
make their company the best in their industry and everyone benefits. My
goal is to strip down non-profitable operations and people and the remaining
people will have better wages and benies.
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