Poor management that does not encourage productivity does happen when there is little to no incentive, but it seems to be a **mandated condition** in union jobs. So what can be done?? The non-unionized employer just needs to shake up management and establish a good incentive plan and some hard workers float to the top regardless opposition from peers. The unionized employer doesn't stand a chance: forget about shaking up management, and mentioning possible incentives will make the incentive an instant "RIGHT" - if they employees don't get it, they strike. -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Wilson, Bob Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 3:57 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] A Modern Parable (NTC) My 2 cents. This kind of stuff doesn't happen in union jobs only. I started out as a (non-union) drafter in a pretty big place and we had to punch a time clock. A few weeks into the job, I had something I was trying to get out in a hurry. The noon lunch bell rang and everyone in engineering got up and filed out. 2 guys stopped in front of my table and I didn't notice them at first. When I looked up, one said, "We don't do that here." I thought maybe I was so deep into what I was doing I was whistling or belching or something. He said, "We don't work after the bells...or before." And they weren't kidding. The place is like that today and they've been in business since the 40's. Bob Wilson -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Pete Houwen Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 7:37 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] A Modern Parable (NTC) It's not just assembly line. I worked in a union design faciliity Of course, it didn't help that we were working for the government, also. Within hours of starting the job, feeling unproductive since I didn't know any of their procedures, I got the tap on the shoulder and a threat about slowing down to stop making the rest of them look bad. I was allowed to sit over the shoulders of higher level members to tell them how to do their job, but I wasn't allowed to actually do it (or get paid at that level), or even be "promoted", because there were other people in front of me waiting for those dinosaurs to retire. But they were in no hurry - with 8 weeks of vacation and 40 sick days (we were pressured to use them all), they were already "retired". A crew of us spent a month and a half on mandatory 7, 12 hour days with tons of overtime, double and triple, on a "hot job". We had insisted we could get the work done in normal hours, but were told the union "negotiated" the schedule. We did an unofficial survey, found the average was about 2-1/2 hours of actual work in an 8 hour day. Last union job I'll work. --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------