I think they're dead...

[iddee]

I moved to Illinois in 1972 and went on my first union job. I left there in 1982, swearing I would never go to another non-right to work state. I totally hated the union the ten years I was in three different ones. A sorry person who put out 1/2 what I did would not get reprimanded nor asked to speed up. I was the one reprimanded and told to slow down or I would be replaced. I was making him "look bad". The job paid by piecework. Two of the three companies went bankrupt. ""No wonder"".
The third one I left the job to move back south.
If a man won't work, the union is great.

[Ray4852]

Kebee

god bless him. I hope he can see many years of retirement. He earn it. The CSX is a big company. They have trucks, boats and the rail road. CSX is the RR, CSXT is intermotal. I think they are non union. I worked for the RR part of it out of Buffalo NY. In order to be able to retire at age 60. we need 30 years of service with 360 working months. If you don’t have 360 months. You cant retire till you have 360 months. You can get a RR disability with 20 years of service. But you have to see a union lawyer to get it approved with the RR retirement board. It sounds to me he was laid off for a long time because he didn’t have 360 months. That why he worked till 62 with 46 years. It sounds to me he worked with intermotal freight. That freight  comes in from china or we ship our stuff over there by boat. CSX moves it with stack trains around the country. I had to inspect a lot of those trains along with other has-mat trains.

[Ray4852]

Iddee

most of our country is right to work states. Corporate America can screw the worker because they have nobody to fight for them. If you work for a non union company. They take advantage of the employee. They work him to death and force him to work under deplorable working conditions. If he gets hurt, they fire him. Those kind of companies pay you very little and no vacation time off. The human body can only take so much before it breaks down and need repairs. No union you have nothing. If we didn’t have the AFLCIO our country would have all sweat shops. Only thing that matter to them is profits. The workers are the heart of any company. They make it work. Today the upper management part of it brainwashes the workers to want you to be leave your union is bad for you. Most of these people never did a days work in there life. I'm glad I’m out now. I hope the younger workers can come up with a good way to make a good wage. They will need it. The sad thing about it. They don’t stick together.

[Ray]

SOLIDARITY! The Unions made this Country Great. 

[iddee]

Ray, you're right, but they went overboard and now are worse than management.

Ray4852, you're still living in the 1930's or before if you believe all that. Communication these days is so much better that you can find a job in another state within a couple of hours. The non union and the union employers are so near matched in pay and benefits that you would never know the difference by touring the facility. I have worked non union for 40 plus years and union for 10. I'll take non union 3 to 1. I have never been layed off nor out of work on strike with a non union. The head man's office has always been open for negotiating, if you were a reliable employee worth management's time to try to keep.

[Ray4852]

Ray

I heard your state went to right to work now. Is this true.

[Ray4852]

Iddee

I worked for the RR most of my life with a part time job doing commercial refrigeration a few years. What I hear from other people who work in non union shops. They cant get a decent wage. You claim these companies pay good wages because they are non union. Who do you think got those good wages and benefits for the non union shops. The union. Those non union shops pay their people good pay because they don’t want the union to move into there company. Who do you think did all the dirty work by going out on strike and fighting to get better working conditions. union men. You non union men sit around and bad mouth our union because you think we are a bunch of lazy men because we want a union. Iddee I live in the 2016 time, not 1930. what do you know about 1930. how come the gov want to increase the minimum wage to 15 dollars. Because we don’t have any good paying jobs around anymore. The medical field pays good pay. But they have to go to school for years to get it. A lot of nurses in my state are union now. I been retired now for 2 years. I see whats going on out there. I talk to other people too.

[iddee]

NC has always been right to work.
One of the large battery companies, I THINK Everready, went union about 25 years ago. When the employees started to ask what happened to the yearly raises and other benefits, they were told the union didn't allow it. It had to be by contract, every 3 years. They voted it back out. Right to work means choice, not slavery.

What you say there is mostly true, but also somewhat deceptive.  As this.."Because we don’t have any good paying jobs around anymore."  You're right. The companies couldn't stay afloat when the unions went overboard, so they went to non union countries. Now we are forced to send all our money to those non union countries when we buy their products.  I agree, at one time the unions were a great thing. So was the KKK. Then when they were no longer needed, they went to hades.

[lazy shooter]

I'm removing my previous text.

lazy

[iddee]

ray4852, it has been an enjoyable conversation, but we are hijacking the thread and folks aren't going to like it. You make the last union post and I won't reply. We can get back on track and stay with the OP.

EDIT:  Sorry, Lazy, you posted while I was writing, but we still need to get back on track.

[Ray4852]

Iddee

my opinion our companies went over seas to grab the cheap labor. I also believe they left because our unions got to powerful. Gov wanted to weaken the unions by closing up shops here. I believe we will see a lot of our companies come back here when we put in the Donald for president. We have to cut taxes too to bring back our jobs. I think the younger generation will find a way to make a decent wage with out the union. It will work for a while but the companies will go back to there old ways again. Its up to the next generation if they want a union or not. Us old farts will argue here because we have nothing better to do with ourselves. The trump show will be on soon. I can watch that.   

[kebee]

 No Ray he was never layed off and they may have change the age retirement from when you retired, and he was union the hold time. At the port they shiped out any thing that could be loaded in a hopper car on to ships, it was a rotter hopper dump.

Ken

[Ray4852]

I retired two years ago. 10 years ago we had to be 62 with 30 yrs of service. The union fought hard to put it back to 60. I know the retirement board wants to increase the age again because we have more people collecting than paying into it. I don’t think they changed it now under a democrat administration. My wife turns 60 in 5 months. She can collect half of my retirement when she turns 60. I have to look into it. I know the age will go up again in the future. 

[Ray4852]

 I checked with the retirement  board. You had me worried. Its still 60. she can retire when she turns 60. boy I was worried. My blood pressure is back to normal now. 

[apisbees]

BACK TO BEEKEEPING BOYS

Had to combine my 2 hives last Fall due to lower populations.  That went okay but I think I failed to put syrup on early enough and they didn't get enough stored for the winter.  Checked on them a couple of weeks ago when it was in the 40s and they were still managing to stay warm so put on a winter patty in case they decided they needed it. Quick in, quick out.  Had another cold snap after that and when I checked on them this weekend (hit a high of 50) didn't see any movement.  Oh well, typical newbee experience.  Got 3 nucs coming in April and we'll start from scratch.  I'll wait for the weather to warm up a bit then freeze the combs and get everything ready to go. 

What was the cause for the low population in the fall? If the hives were suffering from excessive bee die off, even after combining what makes you think that is will not continue even after combining the 2 week hives.
Mite treatment is great for reducing mite loads for brood raised in the spring. But your winter bees that came from brood that was capped about the middle of August onward till they stopped brood production which was probably mid to the end of October.
Bees can live after having mites feast them as larva. How much it effects the bees as adults is not totally clear. but if it causes bees to die off early due to the damage done as lava, the viruses transfered to the larva and the bees. With a rapid die off of bees in the hive due to mites that had access to the winter bee population, the reduces population that may not have been directly affected by mites feeding on them could still be effected by viruses. Also the the life span of the bee is linked to the amount of physical work that the bee does. As mite infected bees die prematurely Other healthy bees need to do more to try to maintain the hive. This extra work load shorten there life. Eventually there are not enough bees left in the hive to meet all the needs of the hive at that time.
Look at all the factors when the hive perished and the what IFs. IF it hadn't been such a mild winter the bees would have been less active = live longer, consume less honey. IF the weather was not so mild in the first part of Jan the bees would not of started so much brood. Less brood = less work, less honey consumed around the cluster area, less brood that needed to be covered so bees could relocate more to stay on the honey.  IF the cold spell Did not happen or was for a shorer duration, the bees cluster may have not shrunk off the honey.

[Retroguy]

Good point(s) Apis.  I haven't satisfied myself that my initial conclusion was the cause.  Most likely ignorance is a contributing factor too.  You're description of the work load being transferred to the remaining worker bees is somewhat similar to the last 7 years of my career.  LOL
Cut the workforce and put the extra load on the remaining staff.  Anyhoo, I'll continue to ruminate over what went on.

One of my beefs about the present corporate mindset is that I always was part of that crowd that had a little "government work" going on during my lunch hour.  As I explained to a former boss a few years back, "Why do you see so many custom motorcycles and streetrods in the parking lot of a sheetmetal fabricator?  It's because the scrap metal gets turned into useful items."  At Honeywell in Minneapolis the lunch boxes consisted of 24" long metal boxes that carried a thermos, a couple of sandwiches and a project.  Now days even the trash is an asset until proven otherwise.  I've heard of people getting dismissed for grabbing cardboard boxes for moving because that means less cardboard in the baler and less income from the recycler.

After thinking about that last night, I grabbed a piece of aluminum stock I had under my desk and made an OA vaporizer.  Where I worked 20 years ago, I'd have made up the power cables for the glow plugs too.

[riverbee]

as iddee said..............



please..........