Through my father, I have experience with unions and some of their shortfalls. Communication is certainly one of them. I'm a pretty young kid looking to put something together for keeping people up-to-speed on ALL the topics that concern union members: news, legal action, local directories. I've started a site called UAW Union and want to basically collect as much information as I can and organize it in a way that no one has to read a novel to understand the actions that need to be taken. Please give me comments to let me know what I can do better!

klmgb

There is an official UAW website, yours looks easy to navigate and not to cluttered, loaded fast w/o a lot of fancy graphics. After doing a little moving around I see that the website is more for the Toledo chapters than anything else, might want to put something like that on homepage.

On another note, my Dad retired from GM about 15 years ago, started out with Fisher Body, went to Chevy and then everything turned to GM. I remember him going on strikes that would last 3-4-5 months at a time and we would walk miles to the union hall to pick up his strike pay.

Just alittle reminiscing

Markos

Thanks for the feedback! I think my biggest problem with the directory is to get stuff in there. I am trying to reference the existing directories on the web, but don't want to just take anything someone is writing.

My dad actually wasn't in the UAW - he was in SPEEA with Boeing in Seattle and took up a few leadership positions. I always had insight into the machinists union strikes through him; they have it way worse with the sorts of strikes it sounds like your dad was a part of.

Anyway, thanks again for the comments.

Fr_Chuck

My dad was a big Union person with the UTU, and I remember the barrels with wood buring to stay warm, carring sandwiches to the members on the various picket lines.

And I remember the Union standing up for its workers and not letting any of them be unfairly treated.

I would say that if the site you linked us to, is not an "official" web site you do need to get thier permission to be using thier name and info about them.
Also if it is not an official site and not authorised by them, it should also state that also.

Part of the touble with many of the Unions is that they are made up of so many smaller groups each with various contracts and agreements, And also today many of the younger members do not see the need for the union like they used to, since conditions are not near as bad now either and there are alot more federal laws for protection of workers.

Alot of communion issues often lies in the fact that the workers are not taking the time to look and find the info that is available to them.

CaptainForest

I disgaree Fr Chuck. On one's own website, one can write about anything.

I wrote about the Toronto Blue Jays. Did I get their premission, NO. There is an article in the paper today about one of the ridings here in Ontario. Did Belinda and Buzz (the people the article was written about) give their premission for the article? I don't know.

You can write informatio/article on ANYTHING without the person's permission.

You can not write lies about a person. That is another story.

CaptainForest

Unions are the source of the devil. Well, I don't belive in the devil, but I think you get my point.

Unions NO LONGER serve any purpose other than to whine about money.

Yes, 50 years ago unions were very important as they negotiated minimum wages, maximum work hours, safety conditions.

However, today, government controls all that. They set a max 40 hr work week. They set min wag at $8/hr. They set certain safety conditions. They set up a disability fund. They set up a pension fund.

So really, in most cases, unions are only after more money.

klmgb

Writing your own commentary about something is one thing, linking to another site from yours is something totally different and, I believe, is bandwith stealing, is it not? And isn't that illegal?

CaptainForest

Ummmmm, how is it bandwith stealing? I call it free advertising.

On your site, you give links to other sites. You are promoting other people's website.

There is nothing illegal with that.

There are no claims or promises being made. Just, here is this information X on this website link Y

klmgb

If the site you are linking to does not agree with your message it may not want the advertising. Most people would think that all websites linked together have a common message. Not necessarily the case.

CaptainForest

That is true. Not all websites have the same message.

But then that goes back to the commentary statement.

If I write a newspaper article about a politican. I then say, her website is http://www.belinda.ca/ . I am just referecning something from her website. I am allowed to do that.

I write a history essay for school. I reference books all the time. I do not contact the author or publisher of each book and ask them "Can I reference your book"?