I detest unions, here is a good example why:

**Addrake** · 12-17-09, 08:00 AM

I had to bid on a large 5 year catering contract with the military. I did a FOIA request on the existing vendors price and undercut him by 3 cents.

I won.

Nothing is secret.

**jmw_man** · 12-17-09, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by Consultant

Originally Posted by hawgballs

What's so unserious about it? I think some bidding processes are secret, at least with municipal contracts. I don't know about private......

90% of contracts we bid, before selection I get the purchasing agent to tell me the other bidding firms and where we stack up in the price scale.

Nothing is secret, almost ever.

I didn't mean to be insulting...I was just sure that everybody knew this.

Even "closed" bids are quietly distributed...almost every time.

And that's for "competitive" bids. Imagine situations where the bid is "wired" - the gov't entity has a firm "in mind" (read: pre-selected) - the entity spells out to their "preferred" contractor how exactly they can be guaranteed the contract. That firm doesn't even have to be the cheapest...I've been the wired bid and had the highest price...if the client wants you, the "competitive bid" process is a formality.

Now you are talking about getting insider information from the potential client side, in Dex's case, insider information was retrieved on the vendor side, different story.

Anyhow, why would a client even mention who's bidding on their projects? The price itself is the only thing that matters and even then it's not in the clients best interest to release exactly what they've already been quoted. Now they could play the bidding game where they simply tell their vendors that previous quotes came in super low to try and get them to beat it.

**Consultant** · 12-17-09, 08:40 AM

I'm often motivated to crush specific competitors and will take less money to smash them. If I find out that Company X is bidding, I will always under-cut them.

Death to our enemies!

**~~hawgballs~~** · 12-17-09, 09:30 AM

All of this still fails to prove Dex's theory that the union colluded with and subsidized certain companies to woefully underbid a project, just to punish his non union shop..........

**jmw_man** · 12-17-09, 09:41 AM

Originally Posted by Consultant

I'm often motivated to crush specific competitors and will take less money to smash them. If I find out that Company X is bidding, I will always under-cut them.

Death to our enemies!

Which is normal business to me. Your goal isn't necessarily to crush them but to specifically win the job for yourself so you have work.

I am motivated to do the same thing, why bid higher and waste time doing so when you won't get the job. I am also motivated to prevent other companies from undercutting my bid by not allowing them the knowledge of what company I am bidding for, what purchaser I am using within the company, nor knowledge of the capabilities of my business.

Furthermore, should I be searching for a vendor to do a specific job, I never allow them the knowledge of who is quoting for me. Many of these vendors will outsource parts of or entire jobs to one another depending on their level of work at the time. We will also prevent the vendors from knowing who our clients are should the vendor try to bypass us to get the work directly from our clients.

**dex71** · 12-17-09, 09:52 AM

Originally Posted by hawgballs

All of this still fails to prove Dex's theory that the union colluded with and subsidized certain companies to woefully underbid a project, just to punish his non union shop..........

I don't give a shit about proving anything. I was just telling you what I saw with my own eyes too many times to count. If you don't believe me,fine,it doesn't change what I saw. I'm just telling you that it happens. While you were trading stocks and shit,I was living this every day. When a Union shop comes in,and bids a job for less than the parts would cost (never mind the labor),what the hell do you think is going on? You can keep your fingers in your ears,screaming LALALALALALALALALALALA! all you want,but it doesn't change what I saw.

I suppose you believe that there is no corruption in the unions in your little Utopia of Chicago. That there is no collusion between your gov't and the local unions,and that Chicago is the perfect example of fairness and above the board activity. And you think everyone else is stupid......pull your head out.

**CivilWars** · 12-17-09, 10:14 AM

Yeah, Chicago is the beacon of honor, wasn't someone SELLING a senate seat or some crap not too long ago. Where is your former mayor, or whomever he was anyway?

**~~hawgballs~~** · 12-17-09, 10:36 AM

Originally Posted by dex71

Originally Posted by hawgballs

All of this still fails to prove Dex's theory that the union colluded with and subsidized certain companies to woefully underbid a project, just to punish his non union shop..........

I don't give a shit about proving anything. I was just telling you what I saw with my own eyes too many times to count. If you don't believe me,fine,it doesn't change what I saw. I'm just telling you that it happens. While you were trading stocks and shit,I was living this every day. When a Union shop comes in,and bids a job for less than the parts would cost (never mind the labor),what the hell do you think is going on?

I think your company just got outbid.

Originally Posted by dex71

You can keep your fingers in your ears,screaming LALALALALALALALALALALA! all you want,but it doesn't change what I saw.

Did you actually see the union subsidizing these union shops? Or did you just see that your shop was outbid by the union shop? It sounds like you need someone to blame, which obviously is the union which represents the shops that outbid your shop.

Originally Posted by dex71

I suppose you believe that there is no corruption in the unions in your little Utopia of Chicago. That there is no collusion between your gov't and the local unions,and that Chicago is the perfect example of fairness and above the board activity. And you think everyone else is stupid......pull your head out.

I never said that. See where your suppositions get you? You "supposed" in your silly scenario, and seems you are wrong. Then you "suppose" on your meaningless rant about my city and the unions that provide excellent tradesmen, which again you prove to know "fuck all" about. LOL@U trying to change the subject of your off "theory" on why your shop can't get work............

But I would just LOVE to read your interpretation of "collusion between your gov't and the local unions,and that Chicago is the perfect example of fairness and above the board activity". Please spare no details DEX. Give me a story of how the City of Chicago colluded with the unions to keep out the non-union workers. I don't think you will, nor can, because once again, you are pulling shit out of your ass and naming it truth.

Originally Posted by CivilWars

Yeah, Chicago is the beacon of honor, wasn't someone SELLING a senate seat or some crap not too long ago. Where is your former mayor, or whomever he was anyway?

That invite goes to you as well Civil. You know fuck all of what you are talking about too. Some former GOVERNOR (not mayor) trying to sell a Senate seat does nothing to reflect the honor of the City of Chicago. And trying to tie that to proof that the unions collude with Chicago to keep out non-union shops is one of your weakest arguments as of late.....

Yeah and Texas is really up there on the honor bar, BTW.