Many AT&T Employees Working Without Contracts > There are plenty of people looking for work...

There are plenty of people looking for work...

When the average person on the street can explain the proper use of an ohm meter in trouble isolation and how to properly operate a TDR or RFL then the union workers will get nervous.

If the average person on the street had the same training they could do that. The union guy is no more qualified to do the job than an equivalently trained non-union guy.

Which takes years.

As a retired AT&T manager I can tell you that my crew was union and they were expected to do the work. And they did.

Being a "slacker" has nothing to do with being union or nonunion. Same thing with exemplary employees.

Working in a union environment means there are work rules down in writing. It means that you don't have to worry about losing your job to the boss' brother in law. It does NOT mean not losing your job because of job performance issues. I have disciplined and fired poor performers. Having union representation means that I had to document the employee's progressive discipline. If I do that and discipline is necessary I can do it and the union can not stop me. If I am sloppy in my documentation the union can sometimes help the employee. The one and only time I lost a grievance over poor documentation the union privately told the emplyee to get his $#1+ together because I wouldn't be so sloppy ever again.
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Living happily ever after... But it IS a long way to the beach!

reply to Homer J
The training to do the job well takes years.

There's nothing inherent to the job that means you have to be union to do it. It's just that those who think the company can dump all its workers and replace them overnight are horribly horribly wrong.

reply to spg
There are many laws that grant non-union workers these same protections. Companies need to provide reason for firing or laying someone off. They must go through a disciplinary process similar to what a union may require. My wife fired her employee last year, she had to go through a several month process of writing the employee up and show an ongoing problem to terminate her.

You will have to do your own research on the laws. I can only speak of the companies I have worked for and they all cite federal law as a reason they can not simply fire someone for no reason. They can lay you off for lack of work or fire you for disciplinary reasons. They must show proof of these issues and issue appropriate warnings.

I do believe the government needs to stay out of lives, but have enough laws to protect the average joe. There is a fine balance there.
You may need to go check my posts, never said we need a nanny state. People need to have personal responsibility for their own actions.