Is labour unions still a good investment for the working class?

Angstrom

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May 8, 2011
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16 years so far. Keeping my fingers crossed! :) (Don't forget that money I contributed when I was 21 is still in that fund earning money).

Don't worry to much old timer, you're getting you're money's worth :) :) :) :)

That union saved you enough money to give you 600000$ in the last 16 years lol

What a bunch of useless unions lol
 

Angstrom

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May 8, 2011
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My employer puts arround 7000 a year into my pension. I'm at arround 140 000 contributed in 16 years overall

I keep this up till 65 I'll be getting 6000$ a month ;)

Bunch of bad unions.
I feel especially bad for my wife as I'll likely be dead and never will enjoy any of it.

I give it to her happily for loving me and giving me 3 lovely children. And putting up with my manliness :) :) :)
 

JLM

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Nov 27, 2008
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Vernon, B.C.
My employer puts arround 7000 a year into my pension. I'm at arround 140 000 contributed in 16 years overall

I keep this up till 65 I'll be getting 6000$ a month ;)

Bunch of bad unions.
I feel especially bad for my wife as I'll likely be dead and never will enjoy any of it.

I give it to her happily for loving me and giving me 3 lovely children. And putting up with my manliness :) :) :)[/QUOTE

We were contributing 5% of our gross pay to the Pension fund and I think the employer was matching it dollar for dollar. When I first started working I contributed less than $200 a year, by the time I retired I was probably contributing over $2000 a year. So I'm doing pretty good, even if I was to kick the bucket next week, my wife will carry on receiving a portion.
 

Angstrom

Hall of Fame Member
May 8, 2011
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My employer puts arround 7000 a year into my pension. I'm at arround 140 000 contributed in 16 years overall

I keep this up till 65 I'll be getting 6000$ a month ;)

Bunch of bad unions.
I feel especially bad for my wife as I'll likely be dead and never will enjoy any of it.

I give it to her happily for loving me and giving me 3 lovely children. And putting up with my manliness :) :) :)[/QUOTE

We were contributing 5% of our gross pay to the Pension fund and I think the employer was matching it dollar for dollar. When I first started working I contributed less than $200 a year, by the time I retired I was probably contributing over $2000 a year. So I'm doing pretty good, even if I was to kick the bucket next week, my wife will carry on receiving a portion.

Did you get a drop off to 60% of pension at 10 or 5 years?
 

JLM

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 27, 2008
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Vernon, B.C.
You're wife may get a drop off to 60% Of original entitlement when you die .

I know some pension are that way

Yep, or less depending on the option we chose at the time of retirement. You can opt for the wife to get 100% BUT it hugely affects the amount of your pension or I think you opt for a minimum of 40% for a maximum monthly pension or anywhere in between. There are many considerations, including the difference in age. I'm 5 years older than the wife. You are better off to keep her portion small and acquire some assets she can sell off. Everyone is different so there are likely no two pensions in the country exactly the same.
 

Liberalman

Senate Member
Mar 18, 2007
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Toronto
I suppose the fairest way is for the size of the profit to be commensurate with the size of the risk. Actually the union I worked under never did protect my A$$, but the drones and parasites that held the rest of us back. The union just tried to make sure we all got the same rate regardless of the production. I was very lucky, I retired three years before our department got shut down and privatized. If the parasites had been sent packing years earlier I don't think that would have happened.
It would not happen because the company could have saved money on lower wages and unsafe working conditions
 

coldstream

on dbl secret probation
Oct 19, 2005
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Chillliwack, BC
Look to the Maquilladora Free Trade Zones in Mexico, where labour organizing is brutally and muderously suppressed.. as to where we would go without unions. 18 hour days, subsistence wages, child labour, dangerous and unhealthy working conditions, zero security, pensions or benefits.. the hiring of only young women (who are much more pliable than young men), who are immediately fired when they get pregnant. Look at the teeming slums around these zones to see what it will do to society as a whole.

Business is utterly AMORAL and exploitive in dealing with employees if not constrained by the law and organized labour. Free Trade is the reason that the Union movement is in decline.. as companies move their operations to areas where there are no unions.. freed now from having to support their consumer markets with their payrolls.
 
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Tecumsehsbones

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Mar 18, 2013
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Look to the Maquilladora Free Trade Zones in Mexico, where labour organizing is brutally and muderously suppressed.. as to where we would go without unions. 18 hour days, subsistence wages, child labour, dangerous and unhealthy working conditions, zero security, pensions or benefits.. the hiring of only young women (who are much more pliable than young men), who are immediately fired when they get pregnant. Look at the teeming slums around these zones to see what it will do to society as a whole.
You say that like it's a BAD thing!