How's this one for a Union screwing people at X-Mas time though...
My mother cleans for USWA Local 1138 in Leechburg, PA. This is my father's Steel Worker's local union, and my mother takes care of cleaning their union hall.
It's a relatively piddling job... She did it in the evenings for only about an hour and made a minimal monthly salary but it was a little extra for my mom that she needs.
So, this past year we come to find out the Union's representatives have steadily and slowly been screwing the Union out of $... Taking unnecessary trips to expensive resorts for "meetings". Not sharing rooms with other members but rather everyone getting a single room... Little unchecked crap like this.
This year, they realize that they're going into debt. They restructure some things (None of the reps took a paycut though) and asked my mother to take a 50% paycut yet STILL do the same ammount of work, PLUS they're planning to rent the Union Hall out to the public and expect my mother to take on t hat work without any increase.
So my mother refused and accepted a 50% paycut with also a 50% job description cut.
Fair right?
Well, the one guy... William Ahl, is a trustee and my mother's supervisor. He's one of the doofuses renting the hall out to a group he belongs to that does square dancing or line dancing. Some stupid **** like that.
He demanded my mother start cleaning more... My mother refused and old "Bill" and my dad almost came to blows over it.
Then, this week, my mother was again demanded to do something. Meet with them at 4 p.m. an evening she wasn't supposed to work. She went in, and they fired her... Told her "Your services are no longer needed... But you're not fired".
One guy, who is completely ball-less, was profusely apologizing. Bill Ahl was there and was just snide and rude to my mother.
We've since found out the secretary also went behind my mother's back and is "helping out" by doing some cleaning in her own office to help the Union (She did it to save her own job).
HOw's that for a merry X-Mas?
Needless to say there's a couple mill guys who have gotten wind of my displeasure with them and are now avoiding their usual hangouts.
And Bill Ahl walks approximately 500 feet out of his way to get his coffee now because he works in the same building as my father and is too afraid to go near him even in the building.
It's not so bad if they'd just have said to my mother that after 14 years of working without ever missing one day that they simply couldn't afford to pay her any longer. What's bad is they out and out lied to her, tried forcing her to do work for nothing, and are taking absolutely NO blame for their situation themselves.
Well, that and they're all really 2-faced cowards to boot.
The funny thing is that my mom's getting 6 month of unemployment that is the full price she'd have made every month anyway, so basically the Union goofed itself over in the long run and will be paying out part of that themselves.
Bunch... of.... morons.