Voting Jobs Away

It seems that the employees of Olin who work in a plant making centerfire ammunition decided to send their jobs down to Mississippi and out of Illinois. The company apparently gave the union a second chance to vote on contracts, but the workers still said no.

One big issue appears to have been cutting out the fifth week of vacation. Five freakin’ weeks of vacation. Because an entire month at four weeks is just not enough. Most of the workers interviewed don’t seem to care that they are losing their jobs. One expressed a bit of sanity and pointed out that a fifth week of vacation can’t compete with being able to keep his job that he’s held for 11 years. Maybe they could offer him a nice relocation package and a promotion to train the hundreds of new hires in Mississippi. Sanity should be rewarded.

6 thoughts on “Voting Jobs Away”

  1. 5 weeks of vacation? JFC I’m a practicing engineer and I only get 3 weeks total paid time off, sick leave included….

  2. Gotta love the unions. Even in the face of a plant closing, they still believe they’re entitled. Contrary to the brainwashing y’all get from the union leadership, there ARE people out there who can do the job as good or better, and are willing to do it cheaper.

  3. Is that on top of sick time?

    Some companies now just lump it all together. (ie: 2-3 weeks vacation, 1-2 week sick time, 1 week personal days).

    Which equals 4-6 weeks total. But if that’s 5 weeks on top of sick time. That’s pretty crazy.

  4. I guess the workers have been told the company hasn’t the guts to shut the factory down. GM management never had the guts to push UAW hard enough so it could survive, so it’s not like there is no precedence for a corporate management to cower.

    I hope Olin moves. Sorry, chaps, but it was pay you or die, and you just aren’t that important, whatever the steward tells you. With unemployment, you have 99 weeks off. You wanted vacation, you got it.

  5. Back in the 70’s there was at least one steel company in Chattanooga, Tn. that allowed people with enough time on the job, 17 weeks of vacation. If I can do without someone for 17 weeks I can do without them from now on.

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