We still have the PHD's at the UPTE board of directors (sorry I meant
GED's) always wanting to help Director Parney (PHD) run the Laboratory.
Please be aware Sen. Ron Paul (who has "some" good ideas) is proposing a National Right to Work law.
Video,
http://www.righttoworkcommittee.org/rtwash_petition.aspx?pid=dw2
It simply means I would not be fired if I leave a union. But if my coworker could be in a union if they choose.
Why
would I be fired if I choose not to pay union dues? Seems kind of dumb
actually. Even if I opt out i still have to pay the union.
Why?
However
you feel about Ron Paul he is right on this and please keep an eye out
(in our complicated, busy life) for this National Right to Work law.
Please
educate yourself on this because the are the main contributers to Jerry
Brown, etc...not to mention Bart, Numi, Hostess, etc.
29 comments:
Maybe I'm missing something... What specifically about someone having a PhD gives them more qualifications for managing employment and labor rights issues? Or do you mean PhDs to generically refer to those with professional degrees including JDs as well?
I think the point is not if PHD's should be running the Lab but should high school drop outs be running the Lab.
Educated professionals tend to think big picture and care about community. They may emphasize activities that help the environment and education which increases the odds of better health and quality of life for all. GEDs emphasize instant gratification with little concern for others. They may eat a lot of junk food while watching reality tv and view simple tasks like recycling as a burden. The lack of caring by the GEDs is not out of spite but due to lack of education.
That's a shame. Unions should have the strongest and most competent leadership possible to protect the interests of the members. Some larger unions have "gone corporate" in these regards, with well trained professional staff. Sounds like that's what you're looking for in your union... Very smart and highly trained leadership.
There's already a discussion on this blog about managers that do not have PhD's:
http://llnlthetruestory.blogspot.com/2013/05/hey-lanl-and-sandia.html?showComment=1368229152210#c5184911644985578339
The lack of caring by the GEDs is not out of spite but due to lack of education.
July 16, 2013 at 12:34 PM
You are politically incorrect in the extreme, but still correct. Expect to be flamed for your correct opinions.
Seems like there were plenty of MBAs and other professional managers seeking 'instant gratification' that contributed to throwing the financial system into the trash can.
Will Senator Paul also sponsor a 'right to ownership' law that says any stockholder can ask for a refund of their proportional share of the corporation's political donations and lobbyist fees?
I didn't think so.
Fortunately you are not forced to be a shareholder.
Unfortunately you are forced to be in a union or be fired, the reason for the posting.
With some high school drop out running the union and trying to tell the Parnster how to manage the Lab.
Union guys are about extorting government hand-outs, and punching the clock then doing as little work as possible. Contrast that with professionals who are about working hard to get the job done instead of watching the clock.
In a decade or two, automation should start to completely eliminate the need for unskilled labor. To some degree it already has today, look at the self-checkout lines a grocery stores, robots in manufacturing, ect. You will always need some type of technician to troubleshoot the equipment, but those people are going to have to be skilled enough where they can be exempt employees. Ultimately legislation really means nothing, as natural selection will make union’s extinct, at least unions for unskilled labor.
Unions for professionals are another matter. As much as people whine on this blog about the evil LLC management, no one has had enough cojones to form a professional staff union. Bettis Atomic Laboratory, which is a NNSA Naval Reactor Lab (NA-30), managed by Bechtel has gone this route:
http://www.bettisunion.org/index.html
so has thier sister lab Knolls:
http://www.kaplunion.org/
Except for those feeding at the public trough, unions are extinct.
Hopefully we will not see the likes of what the auto workers unions did to degrade the competitiveness of the automotive industry. Agreed that the drive towards automation will help.
I also think we should be careful about labeling people by their education or lack of education in terms of their leadership roles, and what they are capable of. Alfred E. Smith (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Smith) was a great governor of New York State, with very modest upbrining and education and rose up through the ranks of Tammany Hall. But he became a very influential governor (great documentary with sections about him: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/)
While I can't predict the future for the "GED," Maybe we can get tidbits of what he has or has not done, warranting our ire and scrutiny.
I'm never surprised to see very intelligent and very hard working people who do not have college or advanced degrees. I have multiple advanced degrees including a PhD and my best friend only has a high school education, but I consider her to be one of the sharpest, smartest, wisest, and talented people I have ever met. Sure, she can't set up and solve a nonlinear system of PDEs. But her eidetic memory and high IQ makes her incredibly good at what she does for a living.
BART has a unionized workforce that only requires a GED for employment. What more needs to be said?
A GED does not necessarily indicate less than a full high school education, Results may vary by person, but there are certainly legitimate reasons for having a GED with no indication of lesser performance or achievement. In any case, a HS/GED diploma indicates the absolute minimum in educational achievement - no HS/GED recipient should think that his/her way is clear to a meaningful career or livable salary. It isn't. If you think that, you are doomed to failure in life. Again, individual results may vary, but not on average. High School is not enough. Learn a technical trade or get a professional degree. Otherwise you will find yourself dependent on the government for the rest of your life, again, on average.
LLNL could do a lot in this area that benefits the individual and LLNL. LLNL could tailor its new employee orientation into a special module for new employees without university degrees. The orientation could teach the new blue-collar employees how eating right and exercising reduces the obesity in them and their family. They will have better health and the growth will slow in LLNL health care costs. Since most animal abuse/neglect is by uneducated people, the new uneducated employee could also be taught other things like how to care for pets and that animal abuse is illegal. This would help these new employees keep their clearance/job and protect innocent animals. LLNL could be a positive agent for change in this area.
If BART required college education for manning kiosks, doing maintenance, security, repairs, train operators, the compensation you would need to offer would make operating costs skyrocket! Plus those college educated workers wouldn't use any of those college skills.
So why do BART workers expect to be paid as much as a college professor when BART workers are defined above as low skilled? Answer - corrupt union.
UPTE like most modern day unions is going to try to suck our beloved Laboratory (although not what it used to be) dry.
It is truly a parasite and will hide behind helping the Lab "work safer" but in the background is already trying to suck it dry.
It is like giving the controls of an airliner to an infant.
Just a bunch of babies with a union mentality looking any way they can screw the Laboratory.
I see someone wearing a UPTE shirt during the work day and see a follower.
A typical Bart worker makes 120+K per year? I don't think so, even if they did get the 20% they demanded.
We pay low skilled workers more so that they can afford a reasonable living and can raise their kids well and send them off to college perhaps rather that watching them grow up committing crime, selling drugs and prostituting themselves. The benefits from the extra salary support demanded by unions indirectly helps society overall. Greater economic stratification (think GINI coefficient) is associated with greater social instability.
Yes, taxing the producers unfairly to reward the parasites is the only way to go, Lenin.
To the union hating poster: I know this is your way at venting your frustrations and anger for UPTE. The PhDs reading this blog probably don't like unions either though not with the same sense of determination that you show.
What is your solution? That US should become more like China? More capitalistic than the US, weaker enforcement of labor protection laws, weak labor unions? You should move to China. You might be happier there.
We pay low skilled workers more...
July 19, 2013 at 2:21 AM
Who is "we"?? If you think low-skilled workers are paid more in private industry to support your socialist views, you are mistaken.
The minimum wage sets the floor for wages that are in many cases above the labor market wage level. Therefore, "we" pay more. Union collective bargaining can skew labor markets pushing wages upwards too. Again, "we" pay more.
I'm far from a socialist. I understand the concept of externalities and how they are not priced into the wages employers offer. You might want to open up Economics for Complete Morons that you can pick up on Amazon and read up on it.
A financial guy was on Foxnews talking about the Detroit bankruptcy.
His opinion (and mine) is that a lot of these heavily unionized cities are going to start going bankrupt because unions are just too expensive.
He said especially in liberal states like PR of Kalifornia, NY and Illinois.
Why do we pay a union electrician $115 an hour to change light bulbs on the San Mateo bridge?
What is wrong with $30 -40 an hour (which is what I make).
Detroit is just the beginning.
The great Obama/Liberal/Nanny state experiment will be the end of our wonderful country that our courageous veterans have sacrificed for.
And unions are a huge part (not all) of the problem not the solution.
Only about 35% of public workers are unionized (25% if you take out teachers and first responders) and the number is falling, precisely because municipalities and states now recognize that maintaining union benefits is unsustainable. The writing is on the wall...Private workforce union membership is under 7%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Adam Rowen (manager of the Materials Chemistry department) from Sandia National Laboratories does not have a Ph.D
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