As a person with a couple pro-union bones in my body I find these numbers sad. Google tells me that 10.3% of the workforce is union while only 6.2% of privately employed workers are union. So a large chunk of the nations union members are teachers, law enforcement, public servants, state universities employees & other government workers. I find it obvious they would get paid more than people doing similar jobs for private companies because the governments pretty much spends whatever they want. But considering the cost of living is so much cheaper in Right-to-Work states compared to states where you are forced to join a union to get a job in bigger organizations I had hoped the average pay would be higher for the union jobs? Too bad.
The lesson I take away from this & from personal observations from being a former union member & from being a supervisor of union members: If you are an average or below average worker try the hardest to get one of the few remaining union jobs to get lost in the shuffle of good & bad workers & then hold on to that job for as long as you can. The good-for-nothing worker will get paid more than they are worth while the exceptional work will get paid less than what he is worth. Collective bargaining at it’s finest.
That does not include pension benefits. The number one reason companies hate unions is not that they cannot hire or fire employees, they can, but they HATE paying into the pension plan. This is money they cannot control or use as leverage to borrow more money. As long as you stay with one union your pension is portable. Change companies take your pension with you. Whenever I talked to some of the US oil field worker who are for the most part vehemently anti-union I would ask them about their pension, they would say, “You mean my 401k?”
It’s really disgusting to be working on a marine construction job where licensed tugboat captains (maritime union or non-union) get $50 to $60 an hour with no overtime, but the operating engineers union temp hire laborers and college interns get $65 an hour plus lots of overtime after 8 hours.
Occasionally, I get on a job where state or federal funding triggers the Bacon Davis Act , or the state’s “little Bacon Davis Act” prevailing wage requirements. It gives me about a 50% wage bump.
However, boat operating companies seem to have a million and one different scams to avoid paying prevailing wage. I only recall one time where a complaint to the public agency funding the job resulted in prevailing wages being paid to boat crews.
Anyone can with an 8th grade education can be a $144,000 a year longshoremen. No licensing and no skills required when they have 17 men to do a 5 man job.
All you have to do to be come a longshoremen is be born into, or marry into, the right family.
When the industry transitioned to containerized cargo the amount of labor required decreased significantly. The unions negotiated for severance pay and the like in return for reduced gangs, for example the ILA negotiated The Mechanization and Modernization Agreement
The book The Box by Marc Levinson has a lot on the unions response to reduction in labor caused by containerization.
From that book:
Years of bargaining by two very different unions leaders made the longshore industry a rare exception, in which employers that profited from automation were forced to share the benefits with the individuals whose work was automated away.
They can consider themselves lucky. I don’t see the mariners’ unions being able to do the same for their members with autonomous vessels on the horizon.
The only pension I had was with a non-union company. Thankfully laws were passed after the Enron fiasco that allowed me to move that money elsewhere far from that company’s control. But I read scores of news articles about union pensions being bailed out & reduced. Some states might go bankrupt & need federal bailouts due to union/state pension mismanagement. One of the large unions (also being discussed on this thread) will likely file bankruptcy in the next week & we don’t know how it is going to effect their pensioners.
A company or union controlled pension is great, more the merrier. But I would consider a company/union controlled pension less safe than Social Security which will also be in the red within 15 years. As a GenX’er, I rather have the higher salary so I can save or invest the money myself. Too many pensions have failed for my liking.
If you are wondering what was the root cause of the looming bankruptcy.
From the article:
“But in Portland it was a jury of six women and two men, not a judge, who ruled for ICTSI Oregon and set the award amount. And ILWU leaders had displayed unusual defiance, repeatedly threatening to harm the company’s business.”
“…union members drove trucks slowly, parked vehicles to block containers and reported bogus mechanical problems.”
“Union dockworkers make an average $171,000 a year plus free healthcare. Clerks average $194,000, and foremen, or “walking bosses,” $282,000. Their paychecks dwarf those of many white-collar managers in the global economy, let alone other transportation workers, including members of…”
Since you quoted from the article and at the same time said “we don’t know how it is going to effect their pensioners”
Union President William Adams told members in a Dec. 5 memo that a bankruptcy would not affect their contracts, working conditions, pensions, savings plans and health benefits.
Unfortunately most of that manning is “casual” labor. The casuals receive no benefits at all and only receive the hourly rate that was negotiated in the contract.
For the sake of the pensioners I hope Mr Adams is correct. But also in the article is the president of MM&P who says it will shake the union labor movement to the core. Who knows, as I said.
For me, I don’t trust politicians, CEO’s, the clergy, union officials, lawyers, H.R personnel, military recruiters, people who look up & to their right when talking, those who touch their faces when talking, people who start off by saying, “I’m not going to lie to you” & a few others. If you think there’s a difference between CEO’s, politicians & union officials then you haven’t been paying attention.
There are only so many dollars in marine transport. The longshoremen have been pigging out and eating mariner’s lunch for a long time. They have prevented short sea shipping and driven freight off the water to trucks for decades. The ILWU has never lifted a finger to help mariners.
The IBU guys are underpaid; in many cases less than comparable non-union jobs. IBU is affiliated with ILWU, but skilled, certificated and licensed IBU mariners get wages that are less than half of what the illiterate longshoremen.
Even with paying the court judgment, the longshoremen have gotten, and will continue to get, a lot more money than they deserve.
Yes yes yes. All the union boys love talking about thier pensions, but if they took that amount and invested it themselves they’d have a lot more. AND it wouldn’t disappear if you died!
Yes and since the Sec. of Labor, Sec. of Commerce and Sec. of Treasury are the board of the PBGC I wouldn’t except any help. People’s pensions are of little concern to them, 2 are billionaires and one of those is best known for taking a lot of naps.
Whats ‘underpaid’ and ‘overpaid’ is all relative i suppose. I think in general most IBU contracts with tug companies are at the least competitive with the rest of the industry, if not bordering overpaid for some jobs/positions.
I think the IBU guys in california get a fair wage, but of course this varies from company to company and position.
Not sure how the IBU jobs inland say in washington measure up compared to california either, however i will assume there is a difference.
Thinking of one company in particular, an OS can make around 400 a day if they get a 12 hr shift. Having an AB isn’t required and having one gets you no more money. Thats pretty good money for what it is and hard to beat.
It gives me a bemused smile to think that the pensions certain mariners receive after working for private commerce are in fact paid by taxpayers. Companies paid into the pension system for the union worker. Then, due to mismanagement or malfeasance by the union, the pension funds disappear. The taxpayers, via the PBGC, then refill the pension fund’s coffers, or otherwise pay the pensioners.
But how did the taxpayers (me) get stuck with funding a private system, that the vast majority of them will never see a return from?