Union vs Non Union My Response

[2BlacknBlue]

Not this cat...

Frankly, I'm surprised people are still wading through the blather that Opus Vimes is trying to foist on everyone.

Hi Kev!

Long time-no talk to! I've been attempting to prepare for the worst if the remaining eligible groups do not organize......got a feeling it's gon' get UGLY!

Anyways, just wanted to give a shout out to ya and hope things are going well for ya!

2BnB

 

[john john]

Some = Group of; together with
Sum = To Add
"Without Utterance" - to remain silent......yet you continued on

Why are you bound by the choices of others?

To have a collective voice by law to discuss job security career mobility and benefits membership dues support resources for effective representation legal concerns economic research fairness and consistency

 

[Kev3188]

Hi Kev!

Long time-no talk to! I've been attempting to prepare for the worst if the remaining eligible groups do not organize......got a feeling it's gon' get UGLY!

Anyways, just wanted to give a shout out to ya and hope things are going well for ya!

2BnB

Definitely been awhile!

All's good here; hope it's the same w/you.

I have a feeling we haven't seen anything yet...

 

[700UW]

Please show us with facts that all parts of the IAM has taken concessions, proof, not just you spewing at the keyboard.

And show us with proof that the IAM has agreed to more outsourcing, as a matter of fact at US Airways, the IAM got more work brought back in and the only reason work was contracted out is that a bankruptcy court abrogated the CBA in court.

And every single penny a union spends is accounted for and is public record and is available on the web for anyone to look at, can you say the same about a company?

Do you actually believe the crap your posting? Its full of wrong information.

Union dues are tax deductable and unions are given a non-profit status.

 

[Vimes]

Please show us with facts that all parts of the IAM has taken concessions, proof, not just you spewing at the keyboard.

And show us with proof that the IAM has agreed to more outsourcing, as a matter of fact at US Airways, the IAM got more work brought back in and the only reason work was contracted out is that a bankruptcy court abrogated the CBA in court.

And every single penny a union spends is accounted for and is public record and is available on the web for anyone to look at, can you say the same about a company?

Do you actually believe the crap your posting? Its full of wrong information.

Union dues are tax deductable and unions are given a non-profit status.

700UW


Do you mean you do not know what your own unions is doing and has done? I did not say all I said (I think) MOST. Why are you not looking for the answers yourself?

Take a class in accounting, yes their expenses are reported under general accounting headings try digging out the actual expense reports. Try looking into just what is being expended by whom and how. Yes every publicly traded company's books are open to the public and available for viewing.

You asked "Do you actually believe the crap your posting? Its full of wrong information." Yes I believe what I say. No it is not full of wrong information, it is simply and frankly the truth.

Unions should not receive non-profit status, they function as little more than Marxist political organizations.

Here are some little tidbits for you from published articles about the 05 meeting in Las Vegas and other meetings

"In a recent article he put up following that fractious Vegas meeting, he wrote: At the recent AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in Las Vegas, one of the other union leaders complained to me in exasperation: You keep running around bringing up this worker sh-t. Well, sorry. I thought thats what we were meeting about. Workers."

Here is another one you should find interesting:

"He sees most of labors value proposition as hopelessly broken. The AFL-CIOs focus on spending more money on public relations and lobbying is horrifyingly wrong, in his mind. Just by spending more on our PR, we are not going to turn the clock back on outsourcing or globalization, Stern says intensely. And we have problems of our own making. For example, there are more people flying on airlines than ever, but we have 12 or 14 airline unions who do not cooperate, which has helped create airlines financial problems. There is no unified plan for portable pensions or healthcare or training. It is a failed strategy of not uniting and not understanding the business realities."

Or there is this little tidbit:

"Hey, we represent lots of outsourced workers, he smiles. Janitors, security officers, healthcare workers, they are all doing outsourced work. To us, the question is whether [the outsourcing] is all about paying less wages and rewarding campaign contributors [in the case of public-sector outsourcing], or about quality and efficiency. He pauses, knowing he is on to a big thought. We cant reward work with a race to the bottom on wages, he says, slowing his pace and deepening his voice for emphasis. That is not the American Dream. "

Of course there is this little snipett:

"If I were heading HR in a large company rather than the heading the countrys largest union, I would outsource a lot more."

This one is a doozy as well:

"The plan that [AFL-CIO leadership] passed in Las Vegas gave more money to politicians. Rather than relying on workers, we are relying on politicians to turn around unions shrinking membership. Thats not very smart. The numbers tell the tale of union decline. Since the AFL and the CIO merged in 1955, union membership has fallen from 35 percent of workers to 12.5 percent of all workers, or 13 million employees. And if you look at the private sector alone, membership is only 8 percent. The most dramatic portion of this decline has happened since 1970, a period when the number of U.S. workers has risen an astounding 42 percent to 123.6 million. "

The above are actual quotes from varying union "bosses" one of which actually SUPPORTS outsourcing.

Dont forget the union boss I personally heard make the statement at a political function "I control the masses" when I heard this I thought it was one of the most evil statements I had ever heard. I still feel the same way.

To have a collective voice by law to discuss job security career mobility and benefits membership dues support resources for effective representation legal concerns economic research fairness and consistency

John John,

Apparently you had difficulty comprehending what I wrote or possibly contemplating it. Either way all you have done is spew union formulated mantas. Which by the way goes along way in substantiating what I have said.

 

[700UW]

Once again you cant backup what you post.

Come on wheres your facts?

I am waiting....

Plus companies are not held to the same accounting standards as are labor unions.

I am done with you since I proved that you are not capable of providing facts.

You showed the board what you are all about.

 

[Dignity]

And every single penny a union spends is accounted for

that is true and you can actually go through the public record after the fact and glance over the expenditures and other financial items..

but on that sole issue.. just because something was accounted for doesn't always mean it is justified, or appears that way..(the expense)

sometimes spending can appear questionable too..and at times in the past with our former independent union, well to be frank, excessive.

My personal opinion is any time members dues are being spent, its a good idea to keep in mind...

they are members dues...being spent.

(know what Im sayin)

 

[Vimes]

Once again you cant backup what you post.

Come on wheres your facts?

I am waiting....

Plus companies are not held to the same accounting standards as are labor unions.

I am done with you since I proved that you are not capable of providing facts.

You showed the board what you are all about.

700UW,

Here are a couple of examples for you.

Aloha agreements ratified by IAM members
AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-C1997-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD Aloha Airlines' mechanics and related workers have ratified concession agreements. The airline said that the concessions for its biggest union group have been ratified while it is still negotiating with the pilots and flight attendants. According to Aloha, the two...
Articles 2005-11-09

US Airways mechanics agree to job cuts; Concessions buy airline time as it converts to a low-cost carrier.(BUSINESS)
Byline: William Glanz, THE WASHINGTON TIMES Another labor union at US Airways Group Inc. yesterday agreed to eliminate thousands of jobs in an attempt to help the airline emerge from its second bankruptcy in two years. Changes approved by the International Association...
Articles 2005-01-22

US Airways mechanics appear to soften stance a bit.
By Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Aug. 6--Mechanics -- staunch holdouts in US Airways' call for a new round of labor concessions -- sounded a defiant tone again yesterday but also seemed to hint that their union was...
Articles 2004-08-06

Union Group at United Airlines Offers $2.5 Billion in Cuts.
Chicago Tribune Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Mar. 26--The union that represents baggage handlers and customer service workers at United Airlines has offered the carrier $2.5 billion in concessions over six years, less than the company is asking for, according to the...
Articles 2003-03-26

While Boeing hits below the belt, union officials say they have to stick to concessions on the Dreamliner work. To stop the loss of even more jobs from outsourcing, they have "won" the dubious right to bid against their low-wage competition. This is a losing strategy.
http://www.socialism.com/fsarticles/vol29n...ing_strike.html


Northwest baggage handlers and ramp workers approve concessions.
June 12 2006



Union Weakness Lets Firms Seek Big Concessions

By KRIS MAHER and TIMOTHY AEPPEL
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 19, 2005; Page A3


Officials of ALPA and the IAM have also reached agreement with USAir on concession contracts for these unions and are recommending acceptance to their membership.
Aug 1995

July 1999: IAM union 'leaders' bargain away contract gains at TWA
These concessions were supposedly necessary to keep the company from going out .... of rank-and-file Machinists who had shown themselves willing to take the ...
www.socialistaction.org/news/199907/iam.html - Cached - Similar -

Middleton told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "It's ugly every way you look at it...Before I sit down at the table and negotiate concessions; I need to know this plant is going to be here. I'm not going to sit down and give stuff up just to have a closing."
http://www.ibew.org/articles/05daily/0511/051114_delphi.htm ONLY PART IAM

The Seattle Times
September 4
Machinists, Boeing meeting at Disney resort in Florida

Freightliner unions OK cuts in pay, benefits: Members of four crafts unions accept the truck-maker's terms, but the survival of its Portland operations is not guaranteed NOT IAM

United Airlines' Machinist Union to Vote on Salary Concessions ...
United Airlines' Machinist Union to Vote on Salary Concessions. ... The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers will vote on whether ...
www.accessmylibrary.com/.../summary_0286-8928707_ITM

Auto Truck Transport has a contract with the IAM Union, also known as the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers. Like many organizations, the guys at the bottom are the ones doing the most amount of work.

Our Districts and Locals put a large amount of effort on recruiting members, but unfortunately have little time to represent them. On the flip side, the International is mainly in charge of “maintaining†it’s ($50,000/mo) member base.

Basically, there is a fine line on how much representing a member can get, due to the amount of politics within the ranks. With this being said;
http://autotruck.wordpress.com/

*******IAM Local 2339N: Nasty aftermath to a Trusteeship This is a real doozy too.

If you have confidence in the report of an investigating committee assigned by the international office of the Machinists union, and there are people with that kind of confidence, you would agree that there were substantial grounds for imposing an international trusteeship over Local 2339N, the union which represents airline stewards in Newark, NJ. However, what followed thereafter is another story: the heavy hand of the IAM overlords at work.

After open hearings, the investigating committee (official title: "trial committee") reported that the local was in disarray: the top officers had resigned, the books were messy, mail not picked up, bills paid late, no newsletter, and more, including the now familiar charge of pornography on computers. (The IAM seems to be keeping a fascinated eagle eye out for pornography. It's not clear whether the trial committee actually verified the charge by a close scrutiny of the computer contents.) And so on October 10, International President R.Thomas Buffenbarger dispatched a trustee to take over. So far, a normal kind of trusteeship. But then things got IAM-normally nasty.

A year ago, in November 2007, Bob Korzuch, an IAM member for 16 years and Local 2339N president back in 2005, had opened what he called a "campaign" website. On November 4, 2008, about three weeks after the trustee showed up, Korzuch formally announced that he was a candidate for international president against Buffenbarger. The ax fell swiftly. On November 24, Korzuch received a short (22 lines) certified letter from Warren L. Mart, IAM General Secretary Treasurer.

Mart informed Korzuch that an IAM auditor had reported that, back then, when Korzuch had been local president, the books revealed a "shortage" of $24,114.72, and that "in order to secure and preserve the remaining assets of the lodge, you are hereby permanently disqualified from holding any office or representing members of the IAM in any capacity…." If Korzuch objected, he could ask for a hearing before a representative appointed by Mart who obviously had already passed sentence.

As an explanation or justification of the swift draconian fall of the guillotine, Mart's letter makes no sense. Korzuch had been defeated for local president back in 2005; no one had detected any old "shortage," whatever it may have been, in those three years. Moreover, he no longer had control over local money, so that peremptory disqualification to "preserve the remaining assets" was an absurdity. There was plenty of time for leisurely due process, charges, trial, and sentence.

But there is another possible explanation: The process of electing IAM international officers begins on January 1, 2009. The IAM obviously had to act promptly if it wanted to stop Korzuch from campaigning for international president against the administration. Only in that context does Mart's letter make sense.
http://www.uniondemocracy.org/UDR/181c-Nas...Local_2339N.htm

The above couple of links, there is MUCH MUCH MORE, to answer you more directly, since you have research issues of your own. This is merely the tip of an iceberg. In the event you are not knowledgeable on the architecture of icebergs you can only see a very small percentage of an iceberg the dangerous part is the part under the water, the part you can not see; however that may be an analogy that is too much for you to infer the insinuated meaning of.

 

[UAL_TECH]

700UW,

Here are a couple of examples for you.

Aloha agreements ratified by IAM members
AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-C1997-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD Aloha Airlines' mechanics and related workers have ratified concession agreements. The airline said that the concessions for its biggest union group have been ratified while it is still negotiating with the pilots and flight attendants. According to Aloha, the two...
Articles 2005-11-09

US Airways mechanics agree to job cuts; Concessions buy airline time as it converts to a low-cost carrier.(BUSINESS)
Byline: William Glanz, THE WASHINGTON TIMES Another labor union at US Airways Group Inc. yesterday agreed to eliminate thousands of jobs in an attempt to help the airline emerge from its second bankruptcy in two years. Changes approved by the International Association...
Articles 2005-01-22

US Airways mechanics appear to soften stance a bit.
By Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Aug. 6--Mechanics -- staunch holdouts in US Airways' call for a new round of labor concessions -- sounded a defiant tone again yesterday but also seemed to hint that their union was...
Articles 2004-08-06

Union Group at United Airlines Offers $2.5 Billion in Cuts.
Chicago Tribune Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Mar. 26--The union that represents baggage handlers and customer service workers at United Airlines has offered the carrier $2.5 billion in concessions over six years, less than the company is asking for, according to the...
Articles 2003-03-26

While Boeing hits below the belt, union officials say they have to stick to concessions on the Dreamliner work. To stop the loss of even more jobs from outsourcing, they have "won" the dubious right to bid against their low-wage competition. This is a losing strategy.
http://www.socialism.com/fsarticles/vol29n...ing_strike.html


Northwest baggage handlers and ramp workers approve concessions.
June 12 2006



Union Weakness Lets Firms Seek Big Concessions

By KRIS MAHER and TIMOTHY AEPPEL
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 19, 2005; Page A3


Officials of ALPA and the IAM have also reached agreement with USAir on concession contracts for these unions and are recommending acceptance to their membership.
Aug 1995

July 1999: IAM union 'leaders' bargain away contract gains at TWA
These concessions were supposedly necessary to keep the company from going out .... of rank-and-file Machinists who had shown themselves willing to take the ...
www.socialistaction.org/news/199907/iam.html - Cached - Similar -

Middleton told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "It's ugly every way you look at it...Before I sit down at the table and negotiate concessions; I need to know this plant is going to be here. I'm not going to sit down and give stuff up just to have a closing."
http://www.ibew.org/articles/05daily/0511/051114_delphi.htm ONLY PART IAM

The Seattle Times
September 4
Machinists, Boeing meeting at Disney resort in Florida

Freightliner unions OK cuts in pay, benefits: Members of four crafts unions accept the truck-maker's terms, but the survival of its Portland operations is not guaranteed NOT IAM

United Airlines' Machinist Union to Vote on Salary Concessions ...
United Airlines' Machinist Union to Vote on Salary Concessions. ... The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers will vote on whether ...
www.accessmylibrary.com/.../summary_0286-8928707_ITM

Auto Truck Transport has a contract with the IAM Union, also known as the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers. Like many organizations, the guys at the bottom are the ones doing the most amount of work.

Our Districts and Locals put a large amount of effort on recruiting members, but unfortunately have little time to represent them. On the flip side, the International is mainly in charge of “maintaining†it’s ($50,000/mo) member base.

Basically, there is a fine line on how much representing a member can get, due to the amount of politics within the ranks. With this being said;
http://autotruck.wordpress.com/

*******IAM Local 2339N: Nasty aftermath to a Trusteeship This is a real doozy too.

If you have confidence in the report of an investigating committee assigned by the international office of the Machinists union, and there are people with that kind of confidence, you would agree that there were substantial grounds for imposing an international trusteeship over Local 2339N, the union which represents airline stewards in Newark, NJ. However, what followed thereafter is another story: the heavy hand of the IAM overlords at work.

After open hearings, the investigating committee (official title: "trial committee") reported that the local was in disarray: the top officers had resigned, the books were messy, mail not picked up, bills paid late, no newsletter, and more, including the now familiar charge of pornography on computers. (The IAM seems to be keeping a fascinated eagle eye out for pornography. It's not clear whether the trial committee actually verified the charge by a close scrutiny of the computer contents.) And so on October 10, International President R.Thomas Buffenbarger dispatched a trustee to take over. So far, a normal kind of trusteeship. But then things got IAM-normally nasty.

A year ago, in November 2007, Bob Korzuch, an IAM member for 16 years and Local 2339N president back in 2005, had opened what he called a "campaign" website. On November 4, 2008, about three weeks after the trustee showed up, Korzuch formally announced that he was a candidate for international president against Buffenbarger. The ax fell swiftly. On November 24, Korzuch received a short (22 lines) certified letter from Warren L. Mart, IAM General Secretary Treasurer.

Mart informed Korzuch that an IAM auditor had reported that, back then, when Korzuch had been local president, the books revealed a "shortage" of $24,114.72, and that "in order to secure and preserve the remaining assets of the lodge, you are hereby permanently disqualified from holding any office or representing members of the IAM in any capacity…." If Korzuch objected, he could ask for a hearing before a representative appointed by Mart who obviously had already passed sentence.

As an explanation or justification of the swift draconian fall of the guillotine, Mart's letter makes no sense. Korzuch had been defeated for local president back in 2005; no one had detected any old "shortage," whatever it may have been, in those three years. Moreover, he no longer had control over local money, so that peremptory disqualification to "preserve the remaining assets" was an absurdity. There was plenty of time for leisurely due process, charges, trial, and sentence.

But there is another possible explanation: The process of electing IAM international officers begins on January 1, 2009. The IAM obviously had to act promptly if it wanted to stop Korzuch from campaigning for international president against the administration. Only in that context does Mart's letter make sense.
http://www.uniondemocracy.org/UDR/181c-Nas...Local_2339N.htm

The above couple of links, there is MUCH MUCH MORE, to answer you more directly, since you have research issues of your own. This is merely the tip of an iceberg. In the event you are not knowledgeable on the architecture of icebergs you can only see a very small percentage of an iceberg the dangerous part is the part under the water, the part you can not see; however that may be an analogy that is too much for you to infer the insinuated meaning of.

One can only regurgitate so much half truths and disinformation...
If 'Da Peeple' are too lazy to look out for their own best interests, it is no longer a concern of mine.
B) xUT

 

[700UW]

The transportation dept is just a portion of the IAM, like I said you said all of the IAM, better go educate yourself on the over 350,000 members the IAM represents in all industries, not just airlines.

Keep trying, and US Airways M&R and Fleet ratified new cbas with getting things back, especially mechanic and related, keep trying!

Can you not find something current?

Oh by the way I guess your head has been buried, since all unions in the airlines and non-union employees have taken concessions since 9/11 to keep the airlines in business. Convenient you forgot that fact.

Like I said, come up with facts and current information, not things that are 6 years old.

By the way, we never voted on concessions in 1995 at US Airways from the mechanic and related and fleet service, at least post something that is true, lol!

 

[john john]

. Which by the way goes along way in substantiating what I have said.

Be of the same opinion with DL choice to turn customer service agents into a Wal-Mart style employment. This is new in the airline industry. And what is the best way for the agents involved to change this long standing career for the better. Send a E-mail ask management to change there mind that sound real affective NOT. It is made clear why you dislike unions YOU CROSSED A PICKET LINE. The if what’s why where’s and how comes speak for themselves

 

[Vimes]

The transportation dept is just a portion of the IAM, like I said you said all of the IAM, better go educate yourself on the over 350,000 members the IAM represents in all industries, not just airlines.

Since you are so knowledgeable why don't you tell us all what percentage of the IAM membership has accepted concessions in the last 2 negotiation cycles? The percentage will shock you.


Like I said, come up with facts and current information, not things that are 6 years old.

Umm, union contracts do not come up everyday. Are you afraid of the recent history of unions? By the way, 6 years is RECENT history while Jack London is LONG AGO history; as is the concept of unions as they exist today.

By the way, we never voted on concessions in 1995 at US Airways from the mechanic and related and fleet service, at least post something that is true, lol!


I do not find this a humorous subject. I am offended by the pandering and fleecing of hundreds of thousands of hard working Americans all the while the union bosses play up to politicians and suffer nothing the membership suffers. I find it offensive that in this day and time there is no forward thinking from the work groups or the unions. There is only a mentality of labor relations that goes by to horse and buggy days. I find it astounding that the concept that upper management/regular employees and shareholders could have the same goals and find mutually acceptable methods of achieving those goals to be a concept some people are so afraid of they would rather stay with what has PROVEN to be a failure (unions in America today).

I dont know maybe the movie Idiocracy is a humorous foretelling, too much Nascar and too much WW whatever its called. There are only certain segments of the population that are pro-union and those segments are rather pocketed within the USA, and the pockets have been growing smaller. Take a note on waning membership over the last 30 + years!

 

[Vimes]

Be of the same opinion with DL choice to turn customer service agents into a Wal-Mart style employment. This is new in the airline industry. And what is the best way for the agents involved to change this long standing career for the better. Send a E-mail ask management to change there mind that sound real affective NOT.

1st of all you seem to have sever reading comprehension problems or your making a lame attempt at being factitious either way, THAT IS NOT WHAT I SAID. There is a world of difference between a proposal that is thought out and genuine effort has been put into vs. an email you send out.


It is made clear why you dislike unions YOU CROSSED A PICKET LINE. The if what’s why where’s and how comes speak for themselves

You are utterly incorrect. I do not dislike unions because I crossed a picket line if that is what you think you have not read anything I have said (written). There is that reading comprehension problem again. Why do I dislike unions....because any person would be and should be offended by the spoon feeding of deification to your face while someone picks your pocket from behind, all the while telling you how to vote for this or how to vote for that or what to think of this or what to think of that. Unions are nothing but childish cliques, out of date grasping for every dues payer they can get cults.

By the way, every single aviation employee (who is union regardless of work group or airline) that went to work while any airline work group at any airline struck in essence "crossed a picket line" not a single one of them wants to admit it though. Although its a hard cold union FACT.

 

[EricLv2Fish]

Well, there are two types of people when it comes to this discussion: Type 1 - Those who need or want to rely on others for protection of their best interests. Type 2 - Those who rely on themselves for their own protection of their best interests. Personally I don't want to have to rely on other people to protect my interests. The freedom to leave a company to work for another is a freedom I've enjoyed for quite sometime. If you enjoy having the freedom to choose, move, or tell the boss NO, then Unions are probably just going to slow down your progress to bigger and better things. Unions serve a purpose to protect those not capable of, or not wanting to protect their own best interest.

I suggest if you want to control your own destiny to get as much education as you can. There is truth in the fact there is strength in numbers when negotiating, and yes Unions do provide numbers...so if you take a non-aggressive approach to your own destiny, or are not capable of taking matters into your own hands then a Unionized workforce is for you. If more people would get as much education as they could it would help eliminate the need for a middle man (Union) to negotiate your future. Futhermore, it would really help our country produce a more talented, forward looking workforce to compete in an ever growing global economy. Let me just say I'm not against Unions. Until our workforce is better educated, there will be a need for Unions. My advice is to be prepared to take care of yourself by getting as much education as you can. Take control of your future.

 

[Dignity]

of course there is also Type 3- those who live in the real world...

I suggest if you want to control your own destiny to get as much education as you can.

while that is excellent advice to anyone, there is also an issue of finances (its not free)

There is truth in the fact there is strength in numbers when negotiating, and yes Unions do provide numbers...so if you take a non-aggressive approach to your own destiny, or are not capable of taking matters into your own hands then a Unionized workforce is for you.

I think you owe a lot of people (the airline industry) an apology after that one..

If more people would get as much education as they could it would help eliminate the need for a middle man (Union) to negotiate your future. Futhermore, it would really help our country produce a more talented, forward looking workforce to compete in an ever growing global economy.

there was a time not so long ago when a college education was a pre-requisite...(and a lot of people have a degree(s)..even though that may be difficult for some to believe!)

Let me just say I'm not against Unions. Until our workforce is better educated, there will be a need for Unions. My advice is to be prepared to take care of yourself by getting as much education as you can.

as further clarification..are you insinuating those who just happen to be in a union or a union member (for whatever reason) are simply "uneducated" or at least the majority are in need of an education?

its one thing to have a personal belief, its quite another to make assumptions everyone else (who may happen to see something a little differently)

does not have an education.

the advice to get yourself an education is a very wise one, but it doesnt mean those who may have secured employment at a unionized company were just lucky to find a job, because they did not receive an adequate education.