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Thread: National Union for Opticians

  1. #51
    Manuf. Lens Surface Treatments
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    Redhot Jumper Because of vertical integration..................

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr_Mitchell View Post
    May
    ................................ That might be fine, I'm not saying it's not, but I am saying that it is absolutely wrong to think that hiring only "properly qualified" opticians (and thus paying them more than a "stylist") will make more money for the business. If that were true, why are the same people bashing LC for making so much money also deriding the "unqualified" opticians LC hires for theoretically preventing LC from making any money?
    Actually they do not make more money, but they can give a professional service, which brings customers back because of the quality service received.

    These people are bashing LC because it is basically practising unfair competition and that is because the largest frame manufacturer owns LC and practises vertical integration which means that Lux and LC takes all the profit from the factory to the delivery, while the retail end stage is conducted by stylist's that are paid less than a qualified optical professional.

    LC is not theoreticall making less money...........they are actually a higher percenatge of mgross profits tha an independent ever can.

  2. #52
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Ryser View Post
    These people are bashing LC because it is basically practising unfair competition and that is because the largest frame manufacturer owns LC and practises vertical integration which means that Lux and LC takes all the profit from the factory to the delivery, while the retail end stage is conducted by stylist's that are paid less than a qualified optical professional.
    But really, it's because we didn't think of it first.;)

  3. #53
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    my response was toung in cheek to the origanal thread. lighten up folks! been a teamster and other unions. rather not!!

  4. #54
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    Redhot Jumper Not needed.......................

    Quote Originally Posted by rdcoach5 View Post
    We are a service health care profession that cannot be outsouced unless they import opticians from China or somewhere. ?
    No outsourcing needed.........the facilities already exist. There are some optical labs in Thailand producing Rx work that has been ordered from and is delivered to European countries.

    There are also some labs in China getting ready to do the same for export into the USA. Just watch and it won't be long you will see the promotions.

  5. #55
    What's up? drk's Avatar
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    Uniforms, uniforms. What's all this fuss about opticians having a national uniform?

  6. #56
    Ophthalmic Optician
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    Drk,

    Nice photo. It's funny, I always thought of you as a guy. (You kind of resemble Rosana Rosan Dana.

    Thanks for putting a face with a name.:bbg:

  7. #57
    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Silver Supporter rdcoach5's Avatar
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    The lab work can be outsourced

    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Ryser View Post
    No outsourcing needed.........the facilities already exist. There are some optical labs in Thailand producing Rx work that has been ordered from and is delivered to European countries.

    There are also some labs in China getting ready to do the same for export into the USA. Just watch and it won't be long you will see the promotions.

    But the dispensing optician can not be outsourced. Not totally , although I know there are on-line websites to order complete glasses. They even offer the patient tips on how to take his own P.D. and seg height. I' m not real worried by this.

  8. #58
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    Of course the dispensing optician can be outsourced. Don't you think those little geniuses that make automated corneal maping machines, automated corneal surgical devices, etc. Can make a machine smart enough to take a P.D., face and head width, and a seg.ht. as well as recommend a seg. type?
    Such a machine might even be better than most of the "optical salespersons" who think they are opticians.

    Chip

    We all know how impressed doctors are with print outs from automatic lensometers, think of how they would react to the automated dispensing machine (oh, I guess we would have to call it an instrument.)

  9. #59
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    Er...yes, you can outsource the machine (and if a machine can measure as well as a person for less money I'm all for it), but...I'm not sure flying to India to use the machine would really save the web customer money, would it?
    The thing about doctors... A doctor would use an auto lensometer because he or she is not concerned with exactly verifying the lens--isn't that the sacred job that only an optician can do correctly anyway? The doctor wants to know what basic Rx the patient's been wearing, that's all, and if an auto lensometer does that then fine.
    It's hilarious, really...Opticians are so necessary, yet doctors should be as good as us at everything we do.
    Is there some rule at Optiboard that every thread has to include some wannabe doctor taking a swipe at ODs and MDs? Just want to know, I don't want to violate any posting guidelines.

  10. #60
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    As an employer and Nevada licensed optician, I promise not to hire any Union member. I will close my business first. The last thing I need is an employee who thinks that he/she has a right to work in my store for a certain amount of money.

    Don't get me wrong. I love my employees and pay them well. Without them, I would be like a chicken with its head cut off. But we reached our employment arrangements in good will and in a free market. I don't need some union boss telling us what to pay, when to take a break, and when to go on strike.

  11. #61
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    Can You Dig It ?!!?!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by victor View Post
    As an employer and Nevada licensed optician, I promise not to hire any Union member. I will close my business first. The last thing I need is an employee who thinks that he/she has a right to work in my store for a certain amount of money.

    Don't get me wrong. I love my employees and pay them well. Without them, I would be like a chicken with its head cut off. But we reached our employment arrangements in good will and in a free market. I don't need some union boss telling us what to pay, when to take a break, and when to go on strike.
    Ditto:cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

  12. #62
    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Silver Supporter rdcoach5's Avatar
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    Read My Posts

    The guy that brings you a small parcel can not bring you a big box because that again is for another union. If you have 16 unions being in charge of an exhibition you can wait sometimes for hours to get what you need, Never trample around a unions territory or they will get very upset.[/quote]

    You are stupid if you equate anything I have said to advocate a union like this.

  13. #63
    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Silver Supporter rdcoach5's Avatar
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    No Union boss , Moron

    I'd be willing to bet you inherited your company, right?

  14. #64
    Master OptiBoarder rbaker's Avatar
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    The labor unions in the contemporary American workplace are the last bastion of the lazy and unskilled worker. While they may initially offer a small advantage in collective bargaining for the mediocre employees the end result is usually a reduction in productivity and the eventual elimination of the negotiated job.

    If you do not realize that you, as an individual worker, are solely responsible for your own wages, benefits and retirement you will end up in public housing eating cat food and spend your final years soaking in your own excrement in some social security nursing home.

    That’s not the American Dream.

  15. #65
    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Gold Supporter DragonLensmanWV's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Johns View Post
    Drk,

    Nice photo. It's funny, I always thought of you as a guy. (You kind of resemble Rosana Rosan Dana.

    Thanks for putting a face with a name.:bbg:
    Of course you know that's the incomparable late Gilda Radner as Emily Latella, one of her other characters besides Roseanne Roseannadana.:D
    DragonlensmanWV N.A.O.L.
    "There is nothing patriotic about hating your government or pretending you can hate your government but love your country."

  16. #66
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    The marketplace will decide

    Clearly both unions and companies have behaved poorly to the excess. But, in the current era of consolidation there is a place for a union to stand up for the little guy when it comes to pensions and health benefits. Some may carry on about the excesses of a union contract, but I seem to remember that a contact requires 2 signatures, the management and the union. To me the real issue is with the management that signed an agreement that the shareholders could not afford.

    I firmly believe employees should be able to negotiate with management for the highest possible wages and benefits. If management is foolish enough to sign an agreement they can not afford then the fault belongs to them and not the guy who asked for the moon. Good management need to learn how to say No. Good management accepts responsibilty for there actions.

    By the way, I have never been a union member. I am a risk taking entrepreneur and I've said no in a union negotiation in the past.

  17. #67
    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Silver Supporter rdcoach5's Avatar
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    How long have you been in practice?

    Just wondered about how your experience colors your perspective.How long in business? Family business? George Bush idiot follower ?

  18. #68
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    Quote Originally Posted by rdcoach5 View Post
    Just wondered about how your experience colors your perspective.How long in business? Family business? George Bush idiot follower ?
    Is this question directed to anyone in particular?

  19. #69
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    Quote Originally Posted by rdcoach5 View Post
    I'd be willing to bet you inherited your company, right?

    I did a quick scan of the member's list, but couldn't find a membe named "moron" as in your header. Misprint? A little uptight ?

  20. #70
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    Michigan is an unlicensed state. I have worked in the industry over 30 years. Ohio is licensed, and they make on average double the salary of Michigan Opticians. They are paying Opticians less and less for more work in this state. Grueling schedules in low income areas.
    If a union membership is able to secure better benefits and raise the cost of operating an Optical, there would be less of them and better jobs.

  21. #71
    Eyes eastward... Uilleann's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rdcoach5 View Post
    ...there would be mandatory years of on-the-job training and after hours education followed by testing. Licensed states already have the basics in place for this...
    *OOF. Just realized this is a decade old thread. Apologies for flogging a deceased equine.*

    Bob, in fairness, no, the licensed states really really do NOT have this in place. Their requirements are ALL over the place. Some licensed states have dramatically different requirements than others. And there are plenty of reports of terrible licensed opticians just as with unlicensed.

    Dispensing licensure in the US is simply to fractured a model to follow. It is what it is.

    While the idea of an international union sounds good on paper, the practicality of bringing it to fruition globally, particularly in today's world, seems unlikely in the extreme - regardless of model. I wish it weren't so, but that's our world.
    Last edited by Uilleann; 09-12-2017 at 11:37 AM. Reason: Realized thread is OOOOOLD.

  22. #72
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    Blue Jumper The goal of unions is to make money for their brass ..........................

    Quote Originally Posted by Uilleann View Post

    While the idea of an international union sounds good on paper, the practicality of bringing it to fruition globally, particularly in today's world, seems unlikely in the extreme - regardless of model. I wish it weren't so, but that's our world.

    The goal of unions is to make money for their brass ..........................

    They have no interest in professional qualifications, they just play politics to push employees salaries up.

    I have had the experience of unions infiltrating my own business some 40 years ago and it is one of the most negative factors one can experience in business, for the owners as well as the employees at the same time.

  23. #73
    Eyes eastward... Uilleann's Avatar
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    Gee Chris, sounds like you were underpaying your employees? Unions are hardly all bad, and their existence has been (and remains) beneficial to millions of workers. Of course, most abusive employers detest them.

    Regardless, you don't have to worry - a national optical union isn't going to be a reality in your lifetime or mine.

  24. #74
    Master OptiBoarder AngeHamm's Avatar
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    Unions are also responsible for outlawing child labor, establishing pay for vacations and maternity, safer work environments, health insurance, competitive salaries, and other little things like that. Simplifying it to "Unions only exist to make money for their brass" is silly.
    I'm Andrew Hamm and I approve this message.

  25. #75
    Eyes eastward... Uilleann's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AngeHamm View Post
    Unions are also responsible for outlawing child labor, establishing pay for vacations and maternity, safer work environments, health insurance, competitive salaries, and other little things like that. Simplifying it to "Unions only exist to make money for their brass" is silly.
    Agree 1,000%!!

    And while I find the concept of a national (or international) optician union intriguing, it will (sadly) never gain enough traction to become reality.

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