Does anyone know about mandatory overtime, unions and questionable ethics.?

Question

I know somebody who has been on mandatory overtime for over 3 months. It is 12 hours a day. 6 days a week. The person just went on vacation and got very sick as a result of all the mandatory overtime. They just got back to find out that they had been scheduled once again for yet another week of madness. Why? They are moving someone over to relieve another couple of people who have had this mandatory labor for 6 months. There is a union. This is extreme abuse. What can be done to help this situation?

Answer 1

Apparently, a majority of your brothers and sisters like the OT since it (mandatory overtime) hasn't been an issue at contract negotiations.

The company likes it because they don't have to hire additional employees who would create more benefit (health, life, pension/401(k), etc.) expense.

In addition, OT only costs the Company the "half-time" premium, since they would be paying a new employee the straight time portion.

Mandatory OT means that the company has more business than it can handle and that's a good thing, isn't it?

Answer 2

The unions, are a socialist experiment gone haywire. The pay you receive makes these jobs seem very appealing. Unfortunately these abuses you are speaking about are very common. I have a friend that has dealt with this on occasions in his union, now he's a union rep.. He says there is not much that can be done, see he's a middle man between the union workers and the business workers, or "white hats", as he calls them. Since the union rep. is the spokesman for the workers, as you can imagine, you can't make everybody happy. He has poor retirement benifits, these ungodly hours you are speaking of. Heaven forbid you get hurt on the job let alone at home, because of workmans comp, poor health insurance and the company not desiring their bills to go up. See the workers are expendable but that money has to keep coming in. All this was said, say this all the things I just mentioned, that are pitiful where he works, were not negotiated to the benifit of the workers for the following reasons. The majority of workers that decided how the benifits would stand, were more worried about the amounts of drugs or alchohol they could have in their sytems, AT WORK , without jeopardizing their jobs. See most were young, and the last thing on their minds was retirement or health, see your invincible at a young age . Don't even get me started on set pay. One guy bust his tail 40 - 60 hrs a week and Joe Blow "works" 10 - 15 hrs a week, but is there the same amount of time as the first guy. Both their titles are the same, both their hourly rates are the same. Where is the incentive for Joe Blow to work, he's protected by the union so he can't get fired and if he don't get the same hours as the first guy he'll file a "grievance". The socialist protacol of everybody paid, everybody pays the same will not and cannot work, because we all have different drives and work ethics. Unions, are the reason so many companies are leaving this great nation. Take a look at the companies that have already left, you'll probably notice an overwhelming majority are union.

Answer 3

Depends on the job and what one does.

EDS/SABRE does similar...
3 or 4 day weeks at 12hours per day.
I liked it because it allowed me to do another job that was daytime but was a oncall repair sideline.

It meant those 3-4 days were dead for anything else.

What I hated was that any hours over 40 had to be lied about.
Or rather any real hours over 40 had to be put on next weeks timesheet... which meant that eventually my final check there was about 6 hours extra.

I never got OT pay for >40 work..
And I wil never ever do that kind of pay again.
If I do get fortunate enough to go pack it will be required that I either get OT or put me on 40+ salary only.

I wont lie on timesheets anymore.

This was questionable ethics for sure...
I was not in the mode at the time to fight it...so I bit the bullet and accepted it, till I left for better jobs.

I now make double what EDS/Sabre paid me so Im not bitter.

But if I do go back, I will likely not honor any effort to lie about my hours.

Answer 4

Just keep on working and collect all that Union overtime! Guess they would complain and file a grievence if they didn't have the work either?

Answer 5

locate out what community, and Union you belong to. it will will say on your card. additionally your organization ought to have a union rep who works there, via fact somebody extra the union on your organization. as quickly as you hit upon out the community, and union you belong too, and can't locate your worker rep, call the community direct. they are going to show you how to.