Over time will always be a "sore subject"
I look at it like this.......a lot of people, before me, fought long and hard to get us the rights we have now. Over Time Pay was one of those rights. It should be a "perk", but because of the high cost to our union employers for health and welfare, it is now cheaper for them to lay off a junior man and work a senior man over time. What we have now is a situation of the "haves and the have nots"! Are the senior men working over time greedy? Yes. Have they earned that right? Yes.
Now before anyone accuses me of protecting my "senior position", I'm #65 on a 118 man board. We have a lay off to #98. I'm in the bottom third on our active seniority roster. I've worked 4 hrs over time this week. The senior man on our board will have 18-20 hrs over time. He also has 34 years, and has "paid his dues". Working conditions today aren't like they were when he started. We rarely get forced over time. The guys that don't want it leave after eight. If we all started refusing over time, the company will force it from the bottom, up. Guys that wanted to leave would then get forced.
This whole situation is a double-edged sword. Our managers know it divides us. What are ya' gonna' do?