Nov 18. 2010: Paving Daytona

[xoxoxoBruce]

Recent increases in unions have been all in white collar, for that very reason.

[BigV]

Unions make things more expensive (kiss of death for businesses).

But there is such a gigantic imbalance of power between me as an individual with labor (regardless of my collar color) to offer and the business, that unions are a necessary counterbalance. If I'm out of work, or if I need/suggest a change in the operation of the business, I'm without any power to *make* stuff happen. This is not as true for the business side. Especially in my state, Washington, which is an "at will" employment state. It works like no fault divorce. If one party wants to end the relationship, it's ended. No reason required.

What always works best is for both business and labor to work for our common cause, since we both need each other. But often shorter term or more individual goals take precedence and the whole suffers. MY welfare as an individual employee is not the business's highest priority--maximizing profit is. Often the short term gain (of profit) comes at the direct expense of my WHOLE operation--"you're fired". This is a blip to the business, but a calamity to me. Granted, this is a high stakes example, but the same thing happens in tiny ways too--on both sides.

Costs of benefits go up, how will it be shared? Profits rise, how will they be shared? (often not at all; wages are an expense). Risk is involved, how will that be shared? We (business and labor) are both in this together, but not always equally. Unions help equalize much of the power differential.

[HungLikeJesus]

Bruce, I found the pictures to be interesting, but your descriptions made it better.

[xoxoxoBruce]

They didn't come with any explanation, I had to figure out what was going on from experience. The only machine I'm not sure of is #2, between the truck and the conveyor, I think I got it right. The Daytona Race Track website has pictures, but they are tiny and no explanation. If you want to see the other nine, PM me your email and I'll forward them.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

This is weird.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Weird?

When I posted that, there were two (2) seperate but identical I'sOTD. I posted that same statement on both threads, one in standard font, one in italic, to see which would go away.

BTW, the italic one disappeared.

I entertain myself like that sometimes.

It was weird.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Ah yes, UT was screwing around with something or other.

[lupin..the..3rd]

NASCAR makes me LOL. Driving in circles? Only turning left? How dull.

Unions are responsible for the modern "amenities" that all workers enjoy today. Things you take for granted, like Five-day work weeks (Saturdays off), were originally Union ideas, as are many of the current worker protection laws.

That said, Unions are obsolete now, what with all the labor laws to protect employees these days. Workers comp, OSHA, Minimum wage, Non-discrimination laws, etc. 100 years ago, we didn't have any of these laws, and people depended on the Unions to provide these worker protections. But that's just not the case any more. IMO Unions don't serve any purpose but to (drastically) inflate the cost of labor. As an example, look at auto workers. The workers at non-union factories, (like the BMW and Mercedes factories here in the US) make more money and have better benefits than their Big-3 Union counterparts. The automakers who employ non-union workers also enjoy lower operating expenses. Lower costs and better employee compensation = a win-win situation. I'll never work for a union - I like the freedom to negotiate my own salary and benefits package, and like the freedom of "at will" employment.

[Lamplighter]

Does that include police unions ?

[tulzscha]

Item number 2 is called, innovatively enough, a "transfer vehicle." It holds material so that if the next truck gets delayed, the paver can still keep going. Stopping means seams, and seams mean badness.This article has a good summation of the problems and the process, and an annotated photograph (towards the bottom).

[HungLikeJesus]

The project cost $20 million? That's more than I paid to get my driveway paved this summer.

[xoxoxoBruce]

@ lupin..the..3rd, I agree NASCAR is too boring for me to watch anymore, since they have gotten so fast they can't race each other, and the main strategy is attrition. However, I do appreciate the engineering it takes to put those cars on the track at those speeds, and the huge balls of the drivers.

You say all these laws to protect workers eliminate the need for unions, but those laws are violated, or misinterpreted every day. Without a union rep to handle it, you have to hire a lawyer to tell you if your complaint is valid, then send letters to the companies HR dept, then go to court, at your expense. Multiply this by millions of suspected violations, and the courts are jammed. As often as not, the employee is wrong, and his/her shop steward will tell them so, putting a stop to it then and there.

I've seen cases where the first or second line management, are trying to circumvent the wishes of the owner/director of the company, and cases where the employee is trying to pull a fast one. Having the union on the spot to settle it quickly, acting like a traffic cop, is to everyone's advantage. 99% of the time the need for union representation is not about money, it's about safety and fairness.

The UAW and the big three, are a whole other world, not representative of most unions. The companies were making vast sums of money and anything they offered the union, the competition was going to agree to anyway so it didn't matter. The nature of the automobile business is uneven which meant frequent layoffs, so the union would accept anything offered to smooth the cycle, but those solutions became ridiculous in practice because the company's low level management didn't know how to implement them.
The foreign manufacturers have implemented better plans, that involve the workers rather than dictating to them. But there are still cases where workers are getting screwed because of personal grievances, with no recourse.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Thanks tulzscha, excellent link.
I can see why it cost $20 million, they had to dismantle everything but the grandstands to do it.

Starting with Turn 3, Musco Sports Lighting will take down light poles, Smith Fence will take down the catch fences from the turns and Cheaha Construction will take down the exterior SAFER barriers around track. At this point there could be up to 100 workers around the Speedway, dropping to about 30 when paving begins.
Lane Construction will construct a dirt wall on the rim road outside all four turns so a bulldozer can climb to the top of the track wall and -- with a specially designed arm -- stabilize paving equipment on the steep-angled banks. Longer skid pad

[Pete Zicato]

Different, but still cool, road laying. I suppose this wouldn't work for Daytona, though.

[BigV]

A reliable generalization is that a business will operate in its own best interest. And given that remaining a going concern and steady profits (the overage from revenue minus expenses) are the most compelling best interests of the business, things that interfere with the progress toward those goals are viewed with a skeptical eye. Things that increase expenses by definition decrease profits. It *may* be the case that some things a business expends money for increase profits MORE than the cost of the expense--employees, for example. But when that equation doesn't resolve in the business' favor, the expense will go--has to go--for the business to survive.

It is true in many case of the example you give that employers who use non union labor enjoy lower costs. It is also true that lower costs and better employee compensation is a win-win, as you put it. But lower costs to not imply better employee compensation. In my long experience, the greatest share of the increase in profitability from the reduction of expenses accrued to the employer, not to me. Just because a business has lower expenses, there's no guarantee that I'll get some of that win in my paycheck.

In fact, why would an employer ever pay more than the barest minimum for labor?

[HungLikeJesus]

Originally Posted by Pete Zicato

Different, but still cool, road laying. I suppose this wouldn't work for Daytona, though.

That must be Indianapolis.