Union Dues, Taxes, and Less Than Minimum Wage?Follow

Mini-rant and question time:

Recently got a job that's paying me $7.79/hour. That's pretty terrible, but whatever. The minimum wage here in Colorado is $7.25/hour. Thing is, after taxes and my union dues, I'm currently making around $6.04/hour. Now, I talked to a union representative for my store's union, and they told me that the union has nothing set up to keep people from falling below minimum wage with their dues and taxes.

Where I'm from, North Carolina, unions are illegal, so the whole union thing is new to me. Shouldn't there be some sort of protection to keep people from falling below the minimum wage threshold? Working 30 hours a week, I'm getting $180 a paycheck, or $720 a month... which was tolerable when I was 16 and not paying rent/living in a rather expensive city.

Just seems a little strange to me. Anyone care to provide me with some insight?

I ... haven't made less than $11 an hour in the last decade, so I don't know what to tell you.

Essentially Unions are organized crime controlled communism, so the "leadership" gets fat off kickbacks and skimming, while the Proletariat newbie workers starve to death and seethe in resentment, which then gets masterfully redirected away from the union leadership towards any outside target.

I'm in a union. I had no choice in the matter. The money that goes towards them is a small fraction of my income, and in the grand scheme of things isn't going to hurt me in the slightest, but I still resent every penny those bastards recieve. To put it in perspective, the union once sent me a letter from an attourney threatening to sue me over $0.53 that they forgot to withdraw from my paycheck as part of the direct withdrawl process that I have no imput or control over. I sent them a bill for the postage stamp along with the check, but they never paid it. If I had the financial means for it, I would have loved to say "I'll see you in court, here's my countersuit" but that wasn't in the cards.

Unions aren't illegal in NC. It's a right to work state, which means that a union and an employer can't create a 'closed shop.' The union is perfectly legal, but joining one isn't compulsory once you get hired for a company.

Well that's some crap. Er, not that you can't deduct up there, but that they CAN deduct down here. Ah well.



Huh. Was always told that it was illegal to unionize in NC. Maybe that was just the company spreading propaganda. Ah well, not that it matters much anymore. Moving on...

It's not illegal to unionize, but a union can't enforce a closed shop.

Probably also illegal to turn people into Value Meals (Bovinesize)

Option A. Look for a new job with better pay.
Option B. Suck it up and appreciate the fact that you have a job, and are protected by your union.

Option C. I guess you could always go postal and shoot the place up too.