Can someone explain how this works?

[progressoid]

I know someone who is a committed 20+ year Union member (of a certain delivery company).

Via facebook, I just found out he's also a rabid RWer. Borderline teabagger.

How the hell does that work? :shrug:

[HopeHoops]

1. Delivery trucks usually have automatic transmissions now.

You don't have to be all that bright to drive one.

[progressoid]

10. Well, I don't want to cast asparagus

so I keep my keyboard silent on this one.

:eyes:

[HopeHoops]

13. I just love that term - "cast asparagus". Such a "moran" phrase.

:evilgrin:

They do come up with some good ones, don't they?

[Brickbat]

2. Many union members aren't involved in their unions and aren't aware of what the union can give them.

Some of them don't even necessarily want to be part of the union. It's frustrating.

[pinto]

4. Good point.

:hi:

[progressoid]

7. The weird thing is he even held some sort of position in the Union for a while

Not really high up or anything but still... :wtf:

[Brickbat]

11. Oh, so he's a complete and utter dumbass, then.

That's about the best explanation I can offer. :)

[progressoid]

17. Yeah,

that's definitely a possibility.

[pinto]

3. Go figure.

Ronald Reagan was a union member, at one time, as well. :shrug:

[Recursion]

18. A union leader, for that matter

Edmund Morris's bio (Dutch, incredibly good book) says he was almost a fellow-traveler in the 30s, and that he ended up protecting a lot of people's careers during the witch hunts (that is, the blackballing would have been worse without him).

[slackmaster]

5. Magnets

[Edweird]

9. Fucking magnets. How do they work?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

6. Union dues.

Taxes!!!!!!!

[KansDem]

8. My wife works with two anti-union colleagues.

She's in the KNEA(Kansas). Two of her colleagues refuse to join as they are self-confessed anti-union zealots.

Now, when the KNEA does negotiate with the college administration for raises, step-ups, and other considerations, these two parasites don't mind receiving the benefits of their successes.

I don't understand it either...

[Recursion]

24. The tragedy of the commons

An individual's share of the communal loss at losing union protection is often less than their individual gain. Bob won't lose his job protection right away if he goes to an open shop, but he'll be able to take overtime regardless of seniority.

[Edweird]

12. It happens. Same thing in my trade.

[Kweli4Real]

14. Because teapartiers ...

are very good at being all about "me" ... He supports the union because of what it does for him. If he could figure out how to get the benefits of the union while denying the rest of you parasitic liberals, he would in a heartbeat.

But until then, "Shop the Union Label ..."

[phantom power]

15. This is how it happens:

The vector worked, and works, like this:

(a) (Rush Limbaugh) teaches his millions of followers that everything the president says is a priori a lie;

b) The mainstream media that acts as if anything his millions of followers believe is a priori deserving of respect as heartland folk wisdom (note the cover article lionizing Limbaugh in this week's Newsweek);

(c) The president unilaterally renders himself constitutionally incapable of breaking the chain between (a) and (b), such that, (d), the assumption that Obama raised taxes when he really lowered them becomes hegemonic for a majority of the electorate, and even a large plurality of Democrats.

Q.E.D.: Governing has become impossible.


When one side breaks the social contract, and the other side makes a virtue of never calling them out on it, the liar always wins. When it becomes "uncivil" to call out liars, lying becomes free.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-11-06/obamas-tax-cut-how-rush-limbaugh-misled-the-country/?cid=hp:mainpromo2

[Recursion]

22. Well, also, union leadership fell down on the job and left people with a bad impression

Everything from selling out to management to out-and-out corruption; I could (unfortunately) see a worker deciding unions weren't the best way to go.

Even when the union is doing what it should, every seemingly absurd thing does have a rational explanation, but that doesn't mean they don't seem absurd when you're facing them (eg "why can't I go ahead and make 25 widgets today if I have time?", "why does Bob make more than me when I get more done?", etc.) Especially if you're young and not (yet) well-connected, being in a union shop can be incredibly frustrating (but just try the alternative...).

[ctaylors6]

23. their positions on other issues may override their union positions

I remember working on a campaign in Michigan in an area where many people were big-time hunters. Their NRA memberships had them campaigning for the Repubs even though they were union members at car factories, where the union leadership was of course very strong.

I also came across a number of union members who were catholic and strongly anti-choice. That issue overrode the union issue for them.

[Recursion]

25. And, not to put too fine a point on it, racism and anti-LGBT bigotry find their home...

...in the anti-union party. And as the anglonormative, heteronormative worldview collapses, they get really upset.

This wasn't an issue for the Democratic party back in the 50s when many labor unions were explicitly racist and pretty much everybody was anti-LGBT. These were a lot of the people Nixon and even more Reagan were able to peel off from our coalition (we have more or less responded by peeling off non-racist but anti-union people).

On edit: I have no idea if that applies to the OP's friend, and wasn't implying that.

[Recursion]

16. Because it's a frightening and disorienting world

and the power structures he knew as a younger man and a child have been obliterated over the past few decades.

[Bigmack]

19. Stupid. Fucking. People. nt

[Iggo]

20. delete

[Stevenmarc]

21. He stopped short and a heavy object fell on his head

[progressoid]

26. ...

Oh, wait. Not this kind of stop short.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxGRE2wpjsY

[kctim]

27. Higher priorities