Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum Coal miners strike - Brookwood

What is this? A center for ants?

Pretty sure Hoggin is always hunting employees is because he is expanding his business.

My non union company set a percentage they'd pay and what we’d pay decades ago and they’ve held true to it. when rates go up they pay their part we pay ours. Pretty fair if you ask me. Also we get raises every year even the down years. They realize if they treat people right then they don’t have anything to worry about. We have had the opportunity to unionize several times and it gets unanimously voted down. Maybe if unions didn’t keep sorry people working and keep their hand out for their “fair share” the company wouldn’t have to be jerks. We just got a random bonus just for kicks and giggles because we’ve had a good year. I pretty much see that companies with unions are harder to deal with. Maybe it’s because if the union. I get treated pretty fairly in my non union place.

Also we get guys they leave the mines like rats jumping off a sinking ship. None of them miss the union after about 3 weeks.

Let me further clarify. I am talking about brook wood mines.

Yes sir I am, because my business has doubled in size or more every year since I started it with 90% retention of employees as of tonight. Your stupid ass is way barking up the wrong tree with that comment. I have 3 companies with just over 100 employees have seen more growth than I ever desired. I’ve fired thieves, sorry ass babies and liars and I’ve had 2 people quit since the day we started that I wanted to stay. If they decided to walk out tomorrow and demand one damn thing from me I’d call the auction company and take my fat ass to the house when the sell was over but not one person working with me could leave tomorrow and get more money or a better job if they were half honest about their skills.

One thing about every discussion about unions. Ain't nobody going to change the other sides mind.

In before the lock down

Easy now I’m nowhere near stupid because I don’t agree with you but you have no idea what I’m talking about I really wished I could show you so you would understand but I can’t but what I said to you about your company is basically what what you are saying to me I have no clue about your company just like you have no clue what I’m talking about you haven’t seen it.

How many jobs have you ever provided
How many times have you refinanced you house to pay taxes on money the government said was profit but you didn’t get to keep a damn penny of. How many times have you told your kids no because payroll and benefits and taxes and insurance and someone else’s vacation comes first
How many times have you done without a paycheck because there wasn’t enough left over to have one.

YOU AND YOUR FRIEND ARE IDIOTS WHO DONT KNOW AND AINT DONE SH!T

Your half right, one of us has absolutely no idea.


I’m done

That's what good companies do. I wouldn't work for a company that was so bad that i had to pay someone else to negotiate fair wages for me. I'd find a company that appreciated my work and rewarded me as an individual instead of giving a lazy employee the same as the good ones.

I have some personal experience with unions. When contract negotiations came due and the employees got coerced by their reps into voting for a bad contract they had only themselves to blame. The employees weren't happy but those reps and union executives were pretty happy driving their new luxury sedans and buying enough man jewelry their sexuality should've been questioned. Kind of odd that the company and the union reps were happy but none of the employees were. I'm sure everything was kosher though because the union was just looking out for the "working man"

I’m just telling my experience in the mines I have been through some ruff times just like everyone else sorry I touched a nerve.

Too many opportunities for work out there to bitch about a job. Especially high risk labor intensive job like a coal miner. Those people need to pick up and move to an area that offers equal or more reward for the risk. People making $20 an hour to flip a burger and $30 an hour to pack a box for shipping in North Alabama where business is booming. Life choices are not damning unless you let them be. As for business owners… you better hope they are rich. Its how a true free enterprise operates. People with money make money and distribute wealth into the economy.

Most “rich investors” and small businesses owners ain’t near as rich as people who’ve never accomplished or risked anything think they are, they just rolled the dice and struggle through the decision taking risk that 90% of the population are afraid to and if you make more good decisions than bad ones and the people you pay get things half ass right you might get to keep your business hoping one day you’ll get real lucky and get back more than you put in. Few small businesses owners ever get a fair return on investment and I bet several on here can attest to that truth

I wonder how a true open market would function in the U.S.? No labor union to collectively bargain for coal miners, no lobbyists to negotiate subsidies for farmers, no minimum wage, no tariffs, nothing to impede the free market. I would assume that a fair price for an hour of a coal miner’s labor and for a bushel of a farmer’s corn would soon be reached. Interesting concept.

What’s are the 3 major sticking points that resulted in the strike. Just curious at this point.

BlackRock Fund Advisors has invested just under $160 million dollars in Warrior Met Coal alone. Total equity was $34 billion dollars in 2020 according to the source I consulted.

I believe that qualifies them as "rich investors" who will certainly be influential in the negotiations with Brookwood coal miners.

That's no guess. You can look it up for yourself if you don't believe me.

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The rich investors only have their name and reputation on the line with their other rich friends and business acquaintances. They get the money they invest from banks. The bank is taking the risk, not the guy that lives in a 4 million dollar house and has another 500k house at the bank. These rich investors, yeah they’re taking a chance, but if they lose, they still win. They still got millions in salary, got millions in bonuses, and had a chance to exercise millions in stock options on top of the salary and bonus. The anger from the employees is directed at the fact that the employees actually doing the work have the most to lose. I’ve never, not once , after working for 3 publicly traded companies and 2 private equity firms have seen 1 , not 1 , person in an Exec level position screw up and make HUGE asshat mistakes that cost other people their ability to provide for their families actually LOSE anything. Now, I’ve never worked for a small business where Joe Blue Shirt started his own, or inherited it from his Maw and Paw, so I’m only speaking from what I’ve seen with companies tied to Wall Street and private equity. So.....yeah unions probably suck....but....these guys complaining kinda do make a valid point.