Empire State pupils enrolled in K-12 public schools fell by more than 121,000 over the last 10 years, schools added 14,746 teachers and 8,655 non-teaching professionals to their payrolls
NRTW President Mark Mix commentary in the Washington Examiner:
July 8, 2010 Near midnight last Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow forced unionism apologists in the U.S. House of Representatives disgracefully amended a “must-pass” war funding bill to include language that is designed to force police officers, firefighters, and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) into “exclusive” union bargaining in every state in the country.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that policies expanding public sector monopoly unionism have played a major role in driving many states to the verge of insolvency.
In 2009, according to respected labor economists Barry Hirsch and David Macpherson, 41 percent of government employees nationwide were subject to a contract negotiated by a union monopoly-bargaining agent.
However, in the 22 states which prohibit forced union dues for government employees and most of which don’t authorize public-sector union monopoly bargaining, fewer than 30 percent of public workers are unionized. Not one of these 22 states was to be found on last month’s Business Insider’s list of the states “most likely to default.”
Business Insider ranked heavily unionized California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Wisconsin as the worst default risks. And the Hirsch-Macpherson data shows that an average of 61 percent of public-sector employees in these nine states were under union monopoly bargaining — 20 percent higher than the typical state.
In these nine worst default-risk states from 1999 to 2009, aggregate private-sector jobs fell by 4.2 percent, but heavily unionized state and local government jobs increased by 9 percent. Since annual state and local government employee compensation costs nationwide come to $1.1 trillion, or half of all state and local government spending, it’s not hard to see that the Big Labor-driven growth in government payrolls is a fiscal catastrophe for states like California, Illinois, and New Jersey.
Yet to Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union, even calling attention to the fact that government payrolls for years have grown while private payrolls have shriveled is tantamount to an “assault on public employees.”
In a Huffington Post commentary bearing that heading, McEntee thundered that the only acceptable solution to the daunting fiscal problems faced by states like California, Illinois, and New Jersey is for elected officials to squeeze even more taxes out of beleaguered private-sector employees and businesses.
But for all his bluster, he can’t keep New Yorkers, for example, from noticing that while the number of Empire State pupils enrolled in K-12 public schools fell by more than 121,000 over the last 10 years, schools added 14,746 teachers and 8,655 non-teaching professionals to their payrolls, all of whom are required to pay union dues or fees to keep their jobs.
But government union bosses are expecting to have the last laugh if fed-up taxpayers and their allies limit themselves to going after just bloated public-sector payrolls and unsustainable public pension plans, rather than root of the problem itself.
Laws empowering government union officials to negotiate the contract terms for all front-line employees at a public agency, even for those employees who want nothing to do with the union, are behind the messes in Sacramento, Springfield and Trenton. And laws that authorize the firing of public servants for refusing to pay union dues or fees to an unwanted union make matters even worse.
Long-term solutions to state budget crises will require addressing the core problems of union monopoly bargaining and forced union dues in the public sector.
Until then, hopefully the Senate will spare police officers, firefighters, and EMTs from forced union “representation” that will make budget matters worse for the numerous states that have already rejected it.
Mark Mix is president of the National Right to Work Committee.
I belong to the Teamsters; not because I want to but, because it is required by the company due to the contract with them. The company can get health care cheaper through the union rather than privately. I do not support the political decisions that the unions fund.
I used to work for a company in the Seattle area that went union (we built roof trusses). After going union I found that my take home pay was less and the health plan wasn’t as good. Six months later the company was sold and the truss plant shut down. Two years later the company was completely out of business. There are trucking companies that have gone out of business due to the heavy hand of the unions. Here’s a few : Pacific Intermountain Express, Consolidated Freightways, Time-DC, West Best. The unions will tell you it was because of poor management. Yes, management that accepted contracts that they could not meet and still stay profitable.
All the unions are owned and run by organized crime, isn’t it becoming more and more obvious that the workers are being exploited and enslaved by both the corporations AND the union bosses? The leaders of both corporations and unions are organized criminals playing the workers for fools. These criminals have murdered, lied, stolen, conned and used every conceivable method to take over the top positions of power, authority, ownership and control in almost every aspect of American business. They appear to be respectable citizens but inside that disguise they are ravening wolves.
NYSUT has ruined schools in NY. Union leaders harass teachers who want to ‘go the extra mile’, lobby for dumbing down what’s taught, push liberal curriculum on students. Sad…
Don’t like unions? Well, then don’t take a job where unions have raised the standard living wage to a point that you can support a family on one income.
Want a job where you’ll need two incomes with latch-key kids? Or where you need two or more jobs just to scrape by?
Would you like your children taught by the person who will take the job for the least pay?
If all the services you need are provided only by the folks that will work for a bowl of rice?
Because that’s where we are headed. The shame is, we don’t remember our history.
Standing in a crowd, hoping to be picked by an employer who has all the rights, while you have none.
Do you really think, if left to their own, big corporate business will do “the right thing”? Or instead, do what’s right for their bottom line? The bosses will always get theirs first, last, and always.
Workers without representation are nothing more than a item on a spread sheet. A cost, or just the replaceable cog in the wheel.
So, while your busy shopping at WalMart, saving one or two dollars, remember that in order to save you those couple of bucks, your fellow AMERICAN’S job was out-sourced to a dirt floored Third-World country’s abject of poverty sweat-shop who labor is the difference between life and starvation.
Enjoy the visual on that, because that’s the future of your children’s children. Unless your the big bosses kid.
[...] PDRTJS_settings_1129571_post_4962 = { "id" : "1129571", "unique_id" : "wp-post-4962", "title" : "When+Big+Labor+Plays+With+Fire%2C+Taxpayers+Get+Burned", "item_id" : "_post_4962", "permalink" : "http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailymiddle.com%2F2010%2F07%2F14%2Fwhen-big-labor-plays-with-fire-taxpayers-get-burned.html" } From: National Right to Work Committee [...]
It seems to me that this argument centers around traditional unions like UAW. The article is specific to the rights of firefighters and police officers to have collective bargining rights with their employers. There is actually nothing in the language of the bill that says that IAFF will be the bargining agent for the firefighters. The bill also specifically limits the ability of a bargining agent to create forced membership in the bargining entity in “right to work” states that already have laws prohibiting that.
I work for a smaller town that believes that it can’t afford the cost of creating a civil service committee and refuses to recognize our local chapter of IAFF. Our fire department employees 151 firefighters/paramedics and 135 of them are members of our local. Right to Work advocates would have you believe that I have the ability to represent myself and negotiate my wage and benefits directly with my employer but it simply isn’t true. I have to accept whatever the city manager offers from year to year or look for employment elsewhere. I have to representation. This bill offers me and my fellow public servants that representation for the first time and I hope that it passes and moves through the system without delay.
Just FYI, some of the things that my union has been able to do for me even without my city recognizing us include:
4-man staffing on firetrucks as a minimum
Increased the level of protective equipment the city is required to supply and created a schedule for testing and replacing that equipment when it is passed its prime.
Funded research into wind-driven fires that has vastly changed the way we fight residential and high-rise fires elevating safety to new levels.
Funded research into the cancer causing agents that we are exposed to during structural fire fighting and gained new benefits for retirees that develop certain types of cancers after their career as firemen.
Funded research into heart disease and the effects of fire fighting on the cardiac system. Discovered that myocardial infarction can occur up to 24 hours after a stress event. This led to many off-duty heart attacks being reclassified as line of duty deaths.
Established scholarship funds for the children of fire-fighters killed in the line of duty.
They provide additional low-cost life-insurance for members so our families will be provided for in the event something happens to us.
Educational seminars provided free of charge to increase awareness of new technology and safety protocols.
I don’t have any experience with “traditional” unions but don’t try to convince me that the International Association of Fire Fighters has anything but my best interests at heart.
Dear Mr. Joe Union,
I believe you were responding to my comment even though you did not bother to admit your target when I asked who you were responding to. I admit that there is another possibility and that is that you did not see my second comment. For the benefit of those who have not had the ability to see your comment, I shall repost it below with my related response.
Joe Union:
So Pilots, Teachers, Airplane Mechanics, Police Officers and Firefighters, ALL of whom are largely unionized are NOT skilled workers in your opinion?
Response:
I did not identify any occupation as low skilled. I merely said I was empathetic to the situation of low skilled union workers. I am sure many of the occupations you mentioned above have skills, but some have inadequate skills.
Joe Union:
I am totally floored.
Response:
It’s about time you have hit the floor.
Joe Union:
Yup. Lazy, unskilled and uneducated, all of them. “Well, guffaw, what’s dis here gun fo’?”
Response:
I think this is your attempt at humor or irony. Please say what you mean in English?
Joe Union:
When was the last time your plane didn’t take off because the crew decided not to show up? Or because the mechanic didn’t know how to fix the plane.
Response:
It is a crew’s job to show up. That is expected. It is a mechanics job to fix an airplane. It is expected. There is nothing special about people performing the jobs they are getting paid to do. Do you propose a tip jar for the mechanics and flight crews in order to show up and not trash the plane they have a responsibility for? Maybe you want to give them a medal for showing up?
Joe Union:
Your child came home because there were no teachers at school?
Response:
Are you saying that teachers perform their jobs by showing up? They better be doing a hell of a lot more than that. You are breaking my heart.
Joe Union:
Your house burned to the ground because the Fire Department was a no-show?
Response:
Again you seem to think that showing up is the job requirement and that union members have done something special by doing so. If that is the standard, then unions and there members are extortionists to threaten not to show up. I always showed up for my job because it was my responsibility and I needed to take care of my family. It’s simple, but you forgot about your responsibility and now think you are something special by showing up at the place where you have a responsibility to be.
Joe Union:
A cop refused to file a report because he had better things to do?
Response:
You just do not understand. It is the cop’s responsibility to file a report. If he had better things to do, it better be to protect the citizens of his jurisdiction which may even require some level of self endangerment. That is his job. What is so hard about the concept of accepting professional responsibility that you cannot understand? (It could be the union mentality.)
Joe Union:
These may be blue collar jobs, but they work a damn site harder than suits sitting in corporate offices sipping lattes and taking power lunches.
Response:
A ditch digger is less productive that a backhoe, but works much harder than the backhoe operator. Is it your contention that the ditch digger be paid more than the backhoe operator even though his productivity is substantially less? No one forced people to accept jobs for which they were over qualified. They may work harder than what you call “suits”. My experience has been that as a “suit” I carried my job with me every waking hour. I may not have been perspiring from my workload, but that is not what I was being paid for. I was paid for using my brain in a way that most others could not. I was being paid for judgment that others did not have the ability to exercise. You could not have possibly done my job because you were not able and were not willing to accept the full responsibility for you actions or inactions, nor have your compensation determined according to your talents and contributions as opposed to what number of bureaucratic wage level you were slotted into. It was more than showing up for your shift. It was a commitment to your associates, customers and company that you cannot understand. By the way, I never sipped a latte while on the job but I spent many times taking 10 minute lunches or none at all to keep my commitments.
Joe Union:
Teachers in NY need Master’s degrees, and every last one is a SKILLED job that requires at least a modicum of intelligence to perform.
Response:
It is apparent that you do not even understand the words you use. Modicum means a small amount or minimum. So you have unwittingly admitted that NY teachers need a small amount of intelligence to perform. You are probably right because the public schools in New York are losing students at a high rate while teacher and non-teacher employees are increasing at rates that are inversely proportional to the student load. The teachers in New York may be skilled but if they are, there is little evidence that they are passing their skills on to students. But, they are members of a union that is helping to bankrupt the city.
Joe Union:
It’s absurd to not want to protect your rights as a worker, skilled or otherwise. Not everyone can run their own business, it’s not logistically possible. There are 7 billion people in the world. These arguments of yours…they don’t make sense, doesn’t anybody see that?
Response:
Where did your rights as a worker originate? They do not appear in the Constitution. Are your rights different from what mine were? (I am retired.) Where do these special rights come from? Why are you in need of “rights”? You have no rights that are beyond a temporary contract between your union and the company you seek to force into bankruptcy. If you lose your job, what happens to your “rights”? Poof, they are gone. Whatever rights you think you may have are solely dependent upon the financial success of the company that you hate so much because you have been taught to hate the company. And yet, as a blind sheep you will continue to follow your union masters until they have lost all of your jobs for you. You may be a skilled union member, but your skills do not include the knowledge of acting in your own best interest. You become pawns for union bosses to manipulate for temporary wages and benefits but in the long term, they leave you completely unprotected from the future.
Joe Union:
Unions are a black eye to capitalism because they force businesses and beaurocrats to play fair with some degree of oversight and accountability. And that dog just aint’ gonna hunt in the corporate world, right? So lets make labor into some kinda’ Hoffa mobster stereotype. Ooooohhh, scary big labor’s gonna getcha!!!
Response:
You finally said something I can partially agree with. There has not yet in history been discovered a better system than capitalism to promote the best interests of the population of a country. All of the countries with the highest standards of living are capitalist. However, capitalism does require regulation to make sure no one individual or entity gains too much power to control any sectors of the economy. This means that there can be no monopoly’s except in the rare case where they can be regulated for the benefit of the people. These monopolies are not significant to our economy today. I believe today, the problem lies with corporate management, and to some extent, union management, where they have sufficient control over a company or institution to treat it as if it is operated for their personal benefit. It is necessary to hold corporate and non-profit governance accountable for their performance. This must be done by opening all significant details of compensation and giving shareholders more direct responsibility for setting rates of compensation and other corporate arrangements where a conflict of interest could exist or develop. Obviously, the same must hold true for union management. Both have taken advantage of lack of oversight and their responsibilities to society. I am not proposing a socialist system, just a significant improvement in the distribution of power to those who are the primary interest holders in the entity. I cannot express my response in the nonsensical way you have demonstrated above, but there are a number of things that need to be done that are beyond the scope of a response to a comment herein.
Joe Union:
Look, you can tell yourself whatever you have to if it helps you sleep at night and look yourself in the mirror without recoiling in disgust, but don’t try to sell me on this B.S.
I may be a poor white trash union worker but I’m smart enough to see through this thinly veiled charade of trying to blame all of Americas financial and socio-political woes on “big bad” Labor.
You guys who run these websites trying to legitimize crap like this as some sort of grass-roots cause have really, really got to stop doing this. You’re potentially destroying peoples lives just to try and make a few extra bucks. Doesn’t that make you feel just a little bit dirty? A little bit slimy?
Response:
I cannot begin to unwind the tangled and nonsensical web of thoughts you have attempted to communicate. I do not even know what you mean by certain statements. In an effort at brevity I can only offer the following:
While I am not a particularly attractive person, my mirrored appearance does not disgust me. Nor am I trying to sell you on any BS. I have no dog in this argument other than what I believe is best for our country. I am most serious about that. I have no desire to blame anyone. But, blame and the acceptance of responsibility are very close in concept. If parties to a problem do not accept responsibility, the problems are unlikely to be resolved.
I do not understand why you choose to be identified as poor white trash. The only economic description you have made of yourself is poor. I highly recommend additional education and smarter work practices. The fact that you are white is meaningless to the discussion and if it is a matter of pride to you, remember that you had nothing to do with it. No person should refer to themselves as trash. That amounts to giving up before you even start. In a sense, we are all potentially trash when brought into this world. The distinguishing factor is whether or not we are wanted.
I do not run a website and I have no interest in making money because I am retired and I am comfortable. I am not trying to destroy anyone’s life because I do not want to do such a terrible thing. Accordingly, I do not feel dirty or slimy because I am clean and my motives are what make life better for our children and their children.
I have nowhere near the time to enter into a lengthy discourse on this subject now. I will be glad to have an in depth conversation with you should we be able to find the appropriate venue. I just wanted you to be sure to know that a rational person was reading about your distorted view of the truth and found it to be so full of misunderstanding and concern for blame finding that you could not possibly be in a position of understanding the wider truth that your union has hid from you.
I will try to post this as a message but it may be too big. I you receive it, I invite you to write a responding comment.
Just as Joe Union hides his identity, I too will take the coward’s lead (btw i’m Robert Kissick! I love these anti-business pro-union mis-informed zealots. The same protection you choose to use here is exactly the protection you and your Unions are trying to STEAL from good hard working Americans “Employee NOT-free choice act”:
Also known as card check, the legislation would effectively abolish secret ballots in unionization elections. It provides that once a majority of employees had filled out sign-up cards circulated by union organizers, the employer would have to recognize and bargain with the union.
And if the two sides didn’t reach agreement in a short term, federal arbitrators would impose one. Wages, fringe benefits and work rules would all be imposed by the federal government.
It’s not difficult to see why union leaders want this. Union membership has fallen from more than 30% of the private-sector work force in the 1950s to about 8% today. Union leaders would like to see that go up.
So would most Democratic politicians, since some portion of union dues — unions try to conceal how much — goes directly or indirectly to support Democratic candidates. The unions and the Democrats want to put up a tollgate on as much of the private sector as they can, to extract money from consumers of goods and services.
They have already set up such tollgates on much of the public sector.
In the 1950s, very few public-sector workers were union members. Today, nearly half of all union members are public-sector employees. In many states and central cities — think California and New York City — public-sector unions channel vast flows of money, all of it from taxpayers, to themselves and to Democratic politicians.
The unions use that money to promote some public policies that are not obviously in the interests of public-sector employees — restrictive trade regulations, for example, which appeal to nostalgic union leaders who would like to see millions of unionized autoworkers and steelworkers once again.
In the previous Congress, the unions got the Democratic House to pass the card- check proposal and got every Democratic senator not only to vote for it but to co-sponsor it as well. But the votes of all Democrats plus that of Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter were not enough then to overcome a Senate filibuster.
This year, there is little doubt that Speaker Nancy Pelosi could again jam card check through the House. But moderate Democrats from districts where unions are unpopular have gotten her to spare them a vote until and unless the measure gets through the Senate.
There, its prospects are not so good, now that there is no longer a Republican president to veto it. Card-check supporters have a list of 15 Democratic senators who have expressed some manner of unease about the issue.
Does Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, up for re-election in 2010, really want to pass a law strongly opposed by her state’s biggest business, Wal-Mart, long a target of union organizers?
Do Democratic senators from right-to-work states where employees can’t be required to join unions want to go along?
As for Specter, union leaders have publicly said they’ll support him if he backs card check. His public response has been to hail the importance of the secret ballot and the undesirability of mandatory arbitration.
Politicians can read numbers. Pollster Scott Rasmussen reported last week that 61% of Americans think it’s fair to require a secret ballot vote if workers want a union. Only 18% disagree. Congressional Democrats used to believe that themselves — in the course of a trade debate in 2001, they urged that Mexico hold secret-ballot unionization elections.
Rasmussen also reported an interesting difference between current union members and nonmembers. Union members by 47% to 18% think most workers want to join a labor union. But nonmembers believe by 56% to 14% that most workers don’t.
Are nonunion members deluded? Why don’t they want the supposedly higher wages and job protections unions purport to give them? Maybe it’s because the adversarial unionism promoted by the Wagner Act of 1935 is out of date.
It made some sense when employers used time-and-motion study to speed up assembly lines and squeeze the last quantum of energy out of workers and could lay off workers at will.
But today’s employees have unemployment compensation and are protected by various anti-discrimination laws. There is a whole raft of employment law that didn’t exist in 1935, and corporate human resources departments are disciplined by that law.
As the Detroit automakers’ troubles show, the adversarial work rules insisted on by the United Auto Workers — a relatively enlightened union in this area — made them unable to compete on quality or cost with foreign automakers who employ cooperative management techniques and treat their workers as intelligent partners rather than as dumb animals, the way the time-and-motion study managers did in the 1930s.
Card check would give coercive union organizers the chance to impose on large swaths of the private-sector economy the burdens the UAW imposed on the Detroit automakers. It would set up tollgates to channel the money of consumers as well as taxpayers to the Democratic Party. You can see how that would be good for union leaders and Democrats. But good for America?
Remember what this is all about. Its about having One BIG UNION FOR FIRST RESPONDER’S. JUST THINK ABOUT WHAT THAT IS GOING TO DO. IF YOU DO NOT DONATE TO THE UNION, WILL THE FIRE AT HOME OR THE JOB BE PUT OUT? IF IN A ACCIDENT AND THEY STATED THAT YOU DID NOT DONATE WILL THEY HURRY OR SLOW DOWN. IF IN A WAR WITH A UNION PAYING MEMBER WILL ANY ONE CARE ABOUT YOUR SIDE… IF YOU HAVE NO MONEY TO DONATE TO THE UNION FOR WHICH THE POLICE WORK WILL THEY EVEN PAY ANY MIND TO YOU…WILL ALL FIRST RESPONDER’S BE CONTROLLED BY ONE BIG BOSS AND WILL HE ANSWER TO THE PREZ. OR LABOUR SECT. OR WHO? THEN TO WHO WILL LOCAL AREA BOSSES HAVE CONTROLLING THEM? I THINK IT WILL LEAD TO OUT-SOURCE OF FIRST RESPONDER’S SO LOCAL GOVERNMENT CAN KEEP CONTROL. CONTROL OF POLICE,FIRE,EMT’s,THIS IS GOING TO UP TAXES IN ALL AREA’S AND IS GOING TO CONTROL NUMBER’S OF POLICE. IS THIS GOING TO MAKE COMPANIES OF FIRST RESPONDER’S,THEN UNIONISM AND WE ARE RIGHT BACK HERE WHERE WE STARTED. FIRST RESPONDER’S, UNDER CONTROL FROM ONE SOURCE OTHER THEN THE CITIES THEY WORK FOR IS CRAZY. WHO KNOWS BETTER THEN THE CITIES WHERE THESE FIRST RESPONDER’S WORK. CRIME BOSSES PAY OFF BIG DONATIONS TO UNION–WILL THERE DOPE PEDALLER’S GET PROTECTED FROM POLICE? WILL THE BIG DONATIONS THAT THE SURPREME COURT OKed WILL THEY HELP CONTROL POLICE AND THE LAWS THAT CONTROL THESE CRIMES AND PEOPLE? THIS IS GOING BACKWARD TOWARDS TOTALITARIANISM AND THE PROBLEMS THAT COME WITH THAT STATE OF CONTROL. LETS NOT GO BACKWARDS TO TOTAL CONTROL OF PEOPLE.LETS MOVE FORWARD WITH LOCAL CONTROL AND THE PEOPLE WHO WILL BE HELPED FROM THESE FIRST RESPONDER’S …… ANY ONE ELSE SHOULD TAKE CARE OF THERE AREA AND LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE’S AREA TO THEM….
Sorry for the typo. The word “sitation” should be “situation”.
I think Clint’s comment #39 using his words very economically to get to the point expresses the history and current sitation with unions about as well as can be stated. Good comment. Great writing!
Unions were created to provide a survivable wage and safe working environment. It was to stop abuse in the workplace and destitution outside the workplace…
But now unions expect enough compensation to finance the entire ‘American dream’, which is a blank check for conspicuous consumption.
The unions long ago lost any moral compass they had in favor of a Ponzi scheme that funnels union member dues through union leadership to bought and paid for politicians.
Have you noticed that those replies above can be separated into the thoughful responses regarding right to work responses and the crude, vulgar and witless responses of the pro unionists? I am from Indiana and the first step our wonderful govenor did when assuming office six years ago was to abolish the state employees union. Indiana had an unbalanced budget for 16 years under Democratic Leadership (?). Mitch Daniels, our Republican Govenor balanced our buget in less than two years. In order to balance our federal budget, one of our must priorities is the disband SEIU and their ilk. Then we can get serious. The American people are discovering the Federal, State and Municipal employees are non productive overhead with some varying degree of necessity. This is not exactly a nessary evil but close.
The unions have become economic extortionist. Members are paid disproportionately higher than the general population. Joe Union has commented that pensions and health benefits would not exist without the unions. Health insurance is available throughout the private sector, and would someone explain to me WHY PENSIONS EXIST? Why aren’t union members responsible for saving for their retirement LIKE ALL OTHER AMERICANS? The only people who deserve pensions are military and perhaps police officers and firefighters. The real problem is there are no safegaurds against the vagaries of human nature that permit unethical profiteering in the union model. Since union wages and benefits now exceed the NORM throughout American society in all fairness they deserve some constraints. Joe Union mentions there wouldn’t be any good paying jobs left without the unions, but fails to acknowledge that ‘good pay’ has an unrealistic and unsustainable basis;such a position is unaccountable idealism or self-serving denial. The perspective is therefore irresponsible and doesn’t deserve the respect it seems to constantly demand.
Most Unions are managed by a bunch of thugs who put beat-downs on people who opposed them and their corrupt agendas. No Union is too big to fail, all they will cause are riots when we run out of money. All EU Countries are now moving in the opposite of Obama, as proved in the G-8 and G-20 Summits. The Idiot in Chief still thinks he can spend our way out of a recession, while the interest rates are reaching 1 Trillion Dollars.
This administrations could not run a fast food business, much less a country, all their cronies in crime are clueless. If we wanted to become like Venezuela or China, we would move there where crime in Government is allowed.
To Joe Union, comment 20 & 29, typical response from the average union “Joe”. I lived in northeast Ohio the heart of steel and associated industries. A new assemby plant was even opened by GMAC. I lived for almost 50 years in that union oriented area before moving away. I know of an employee of the GMAC plant being shot and killed during a union organized walkout taking every single employee out of work for a long time.
Yes, the union DID protect the worker, threatened to lose their job if they did NOT join the union.
Oh, I forgot, periodically, quite regularly at contract time the strikes took place with thousands losing work by having to strike. Oh, yes, those who chose to stay at work were threatened by those who were striking. Our family business was often vivited so that we honored the drivers who were UAW their “time off” and we didn’t hire “scabs” as they referred to those who just were looking for employment in order to support their families. Gosh, were the union folks abused by those independents who sought to work. Gotta join our Union, man!
By the way, the UPWU has just lost $4 billion dollars so that is a mistake???? The unions have taken the original idea of the term union as represented by its original founder, Samuel Gompers, and destroyed everything he stood for and intended for unions. Please do NOT insult the intelligence of those who have made comments regarding unions. You really have NO IDEA of what a union represents, no way!
The word is OBJECTIVE when you research what the unions represent. Don’t take all the garbage you listen to at work to heart, it is merely the word of those who know nothing about the true purpose of a union.
Trust your employer does not go broke getting all these benefits you demand at the threat of strikes, cussing and ather actions which are considered as unlawful. I saw it every day so please just go have a beer and let your family suffer worrying whether you will even make it home safely from the watering hole, possibly your SECOND home!
Joe Union wrote (post #19): “All those folks in the Detroit auto industry who lost their jobs, all union. The only ones who profited from that debacle were the execs.” Yep Joe, the UNION execs. You undoubtedly are a union exec the way you word things. The common union grunts are fellas like “shocked”, “whatever” and “allen” who seem to be barely literate.
Joe Union wrote (post #19): “Corporate Lobbyists are pushing for more and more change to labor law, and money has a very influencing affect on politicians.”
Very true Joe, but you conveniently leave out the fact that each union is a corporation. Many UNIONS also give BIG MONEY to politicians. Each union has LOBBYISTS working the halls of Congress and the White House. It is not JUST business corporations who are lobbying, it is also BIG LABOR who are giving money in the form of campaign donations and other incentives to influence legislation! .
Joe Union wrote (post #20) “And Junie, “forced” unionism isn’t about people who don’t want to amount to anything. It’s about protecting workers rights.
“Everyone” becomes a union member if they “choose” that job, nobody is forcing anybody.”.
I grew up in Ohio which was at the time a Union rules state. When I went to work in a hand tool factory I was forced to join The Machinists union. I still have my little union dues book.
When I got written up for “deliberately making scrap”, I went to the union steward and asked him to go to bat for me, because the steel they gave me to use was defective. The union steward didn’t want to fight it because it would have stirred up trouble between them and management. I asked him wasn’t that the purpose of the union? He didn’t want to answer. So I paid dues each month to get no representation. I was very green and didn’t know what I know now.
I eventually decided to go to college, and during 2 summers I needed to earn money to continue my education. I HAD TO join the Teamsters for one summer job. They took out dues AND retirement fund payments. I could have used that money to add to my education fund. The same thing the next summer when I worked the railroad on a summer track crew. Again I had no choice. They withheld union dues and retirement. I didn’t get refunds of the retirement funds.
Every job in Ohio seemed to be a union job. You either worked union, or you didn’t work!
Joe Union wrote (post #20) “That’s one of the major issues driving a wedge into our country and dividing its citizens. The disparity in income, the haves and have-nots. It’s uncontrollable greed and it’s repugnant” Written like a true communist provocateur! You play the “class warfare” card skillfully. But the greed I see is the greed of the Union bigwigs. They push wages for the workers higher and higher so they can raise union dues, until the business can no longer bear the burden of the higher wages, and the business ships the jobs offshore or just folds up. Union bigwigs have a lot of uncontrollable greed, and the workers pay with their jobs.
I was a Postal Worker who was in the Union (APWU). Then after having been Hit by Unisured Motorist in front of work- less then 500 Feet from wear I worked on the Floor(COMING TO WORK WHEN I WAS HIT). It was crazy, the Unions, who takes in. Countless Income from Employee’s, Would Help me, a Hardship case,I could only get $10.00 Dollars from them. but I would Have to repay it by the next pay period… I guess they take in almost 134 Million Dollars in one Year from union paying Dues. Would Help Me with $10.00 Dollars.(Check with your Union for Hardship case’s You may see things for what they are.) I had been Paying Dues for over 5 Years when this had Happened. Need less to say I came back to work and Quit the Union soon as Possible which was the 1 Year Rule which stated I had to send a Certified Letter to Union headquarters and Then wait to see if they got it then hope they ok it with in two weeks or I had to wait till the Next year to do It again. They refused the First year and Now I had to wait till the Next Year and what a year it was. I still payed dues but I was Called a SCAD cause I wanted to Quit the Union. It stated in the by laws that It was suppose to be Kept Secert: but all the local union officer’s started calling me a SCAB (remember I was Still paying union dues) Then I started getting trouble from supervisor’s and the like. I findly got fired and they can kiss my behind quarters. Remember what you pay them, remember everyone else is paying that to. HOW MUCH MONEY DOES YOUR UNION TAKE IN PER YEAR WHERE YOU WORK…. YOU CAN ONLY ANSWER FOR YOURSELF AND YOUR WORK PLACE. BUT AT THE POSTAL SERVICE APWU IT WAS 134 MILLION DOLLARS IN ONE YEAR. WHAT’S YOUR UNION GETTING PER YEAR? THAT’S WHO OWN EVERYTHING IN AMERICA NOW IS THE UNION’S NOT PEOPLE… JUST START GETTING BLACK BALLED AND YOU WILL SEE HOW MUCH THE UNION WILL PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS.. (ha-HA-ha)…I THINK ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN BLACK-BALLED WILL TELL THE SAME STORY OR CLOSE TO IT. UNION’S SHOULD ONLY BE LOCAL AND IF THEY TRY TO GO NATIONAL THEY SHOULD BE OUTLAWED… TO BIG IS TO BIG. (PEOPLE OWN AMERICA THAT’S THE BEST ONE I HEARD)….HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA….TO FUNNY PEOPLE TO FUNNY….
Joe Union is nothing more than what the union THUGS want. A sheep that follows and can’t think for themselves. I resent the fact that I as a tax payer must go along with whatever the union GOONS want for there lazy government union workers. The best thing that could happen is all states do away with any and all unions. They have done nothing but brake the coffers of states with there pensions and high pay.
”WE DON’T NEED THE UNIONS ANY LONGER. THERE NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF GOONS AND THUGS THAT STEAL FROM EVERY PAYING MEMBER. Joe union, wise up and get a real job.
To Joe Union:
Your comment #29 seems to be directed to a particular comment to which you are responding. If this is correct, can you please share with us what comment, if any, to which you may be referring, otherwise it seems to be undirected and of little value because it does not address any particular points of disagreement. Without reference, it is no more than a personal rant against something you do not like.
I BELONGED TO 144B , AND OUR CORRUPT LEADERSHIP LOST MOST OF OUR MONEY FOR US ON POLITICAL AFFAIRS. THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE POSTED POSITIVE COMMENTS ABOUT HOW GOOD THEY HAVE IT BEING IN THE UNION ARE RIGHT, THEY ARE ALSO RIGHT WHEN THEY SAY THINGS ARE GETTING BETTER FOR THEM. THEIR HOURLY WAGE WILL INCREASE, THEIR BENEFITS WILL GET BETTER BECAUSE THEY ARE NOW BEING SUBSIDIZED BY THE GOVERNMENT. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, EXCUSE ME , THAT IS NOW THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY, FOR THERE IS NO LONGER A DEMOCRATIC PARTY, IS SUBSIDIZING THE UNIONS TO BUY THEIR VOTES . THE UNIONS WOULD BE BANKRUPT WITHOUT THESE GOVERNMENT MONIES , SO I CAN UNDERSTAND WHY THE UNION MEMBERSHIP HAS BECOME TOTALLY SUBSERVIENT TO THE ADMINISTRATION , AND HAS NO CHOICE BUT TO DO WHAT THEY ARE TOLD. THEY HAVE BEEN CLEVERLY TRAPPED AND ARE NO LONGER FREE TO VOTE AS THE PATRIOTS THEY ONCE WERE. MANY UNION MEMBERS KNOW IN THEIR HEARTS THAT THEIR COUNTRY AND FREEDOMS ARE BEING TAKEN AWAY FROM THEM AND THAT THEY ARE BEING USED AS PAWNS TO HELP CHANGE A ONCE GREAT COUNTRY ,WHICH MANY OF THEIR FATHERS AND GRANDFATHERS DIED TO PRESERVE, INTO A MARXIST ,SOCIALIST FORM OF GOVERNMENT. IT IS UNDERSTANDABLE THAT WHEN THEIR LIVELIHOODS ARE AT STAKE , THEY MUST CONVINCE THEMSELVES THAT “THEIR CAUSE , IT IS JUST “. THE INSTINCT FOR SELF PRESERVATION IS STRONG IN ALL OF US, AND HAS ALWAYS ALLOWED FOR GREAT SELF DECEPTION.
THE MONEY , HOWEVER , WHICH IS SUCH A WINDFALL FOR THE UNIONS , IS COMING FROM THE MANY OTHER AMERICAN WORKERS WHO DO NOT HAVE IT SO GOOD. THIS MONEY IS GOING TO RUN OUT , FOR THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO ARE PAYING FOR ALL THE OTHERS IS DECREASING AT A VERY RAPID RATE. AS MARGARET THATCHER ONCE SAID” THE REAL PROBLEM WITH SOCIALISM IS THAT AFTER A WHILE YOU RUN OUT OF OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY ” . MANY OF THE PEOPLE ADVISING THE PRESIDENT HAVE STATED THEY WANT A ONE WORLD SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT AND THEY ARE GOING TO REDISTRIBUTE THE WEALTH , TAKE FROM THE RICH AND GIVE TO THE POORER BRETHREN TO MAKE THINGS MORE EQUAL. THEY WILL START BY TAKING WEALTH FROM THE TOP 10% . IF YOU MAKE $30,000.00 A YR. YOU ARE IN THE TOP 7% OF WAGE EARNERS IN THE WORLD. THINGS WILL LOOK GOOD FOR A WHILE BUT YOU WILL NOT REMAIN HAPPY FOR VERY LONG. YOU MAY LATER CHANGE YOUR MIND ABOUT WHERE YOUR COUNTRY IS GOING , YOU MAY EVEN WANT TO GO BACK TO WHAT YOU HAD, BUT AS IN VENEZUELA , IT WILL BE TOO LATE. REMEMBER ,WHEN YOU GIVE UP FREEDOM FOR SECURITY YOU WILL HAVE NEITHER.
So Pilots, Teachers, Airplane Mechanics, Police Officers and Firefighters, ALL of whom are largely unionized are NOT skilled workers in your opinion?
I am totally floored.
Yup. Lazy, unskilled and uneducated, all of them. “Well, guffaw, what’s dis here gun fo’?”
When was the last time your plane didn’t take off because the crew decided not to show up? Or because the mechanic didn’t know how to fix the plane.
Your child came home because there were no teachers at school?
Your house burned to the ground because the Fire Department was a no-show?
A cop refused to file a report because he had better things to do?
These may be blue collar jobs, but they work a damn site harder than suits sitting in corporate offices sipping lattes and taking power lunches.
Teachers in NY need Master’s degrees, and every last one is a SKILLED job that requires at least a modicum of intelligence to perform.
It’s absurd to not want to protect your rights as a worker, skilled or otherwise. Not everyone can run their own business, it’s not logistically possible. There are 7 billion people in the world. These arguments of yours…they don’t make sense, doesn’t anybody see that?
Unions are a black eye to capitalism because they force businesses and beaurocrats to play fair with some degree of oversight and accountability. And that dog just aint’ gonna hunt in the corporate world, right? So lets make labor into some kinda’ Hoffa mobster stereotype. Ooooohhh, scary big labor’s gonna getcha!!!
Look, you can tell yourself whatever you have to if it helps you sleep at night and look yourself in the mirror without recoiling in disgust, but don’t try to sell me on this B.S.
I may be a poor white trash union worker but I’m smart enough to see through this thinly veiled charade of trying to blame all of Americas financial and socio-political woes on “big bad” Labor.
You guys who run these websites trying to legitimize crap like this as some sort of grass-roots cause have really, really got to stop doing this. You’re potentially destroying peoples lives just to try and make a few extra bucks. Doesn’t that make you feel just a little bit dirty? A little bit slimy?
What about all the pedophiles that the states have to pay because its too expensive to fire them.? I’ve worked in the union and as a supervisorand theirs too many people that depend on the union to keep their job. The UAWbankrupted GM with their outrageous demands,like paying full wages and benefits to layed off workers. The Unions have outlived their usefulness. They are running all the good jobs overseas.
Unions are the complete opposite of American exceptional ism. Just look at the teachers union for proof. Out of about 170 countries we are now 97th if I remember correctly and if i am wrong its only by a few points, but we spend as much as anyone in the world per child.
Jo Union, I don’t see how you can type all that drool with your head stuffed up the union bosses a…… How do you find the keyboard. The facts are in the article and anyone stupid enough to believe any of what you are saying deserves to be deported to Europe, I’d take 1 illegal Mexican for 3 union workers and get more accomplished, and I’m trying to get the illegals out of this country. Get the picture Jo Union? Union workers = lazy. Illegal = hardworking. Can we ship the illegals and the unions to Mexico.
Just to keep things on the up and up here. I own a small plumbing business and have had to work along side of union workers at times, and I have hired in the past before the economy went to shit illegals. Before someone jumps on the band wagon and wants to give me crap about hiring illegals at anytime. When I hired them they were the only ones looking for a job and I payed them just like I would any American.
Union workers are lazy and over paid. Why are they that way? Because they can get away with it at our expense.
To Joe Union, et al-
Add up CEO pay and it’s a negligible factor in the $ billions of states’ financial default situation the Examiner article is about. In the private sector, today’s insatiable union demands (as in the case of GM) prevent or limit adjustment to business conditions, making businesses uncompetitive, forcing them elsewhere, or killing them altogether. In the public sector, government has been allowed to keep overspending and scaring/begging the voters to pay for it. But voters are waking up. Unions today seem to operate on perverse principles under the ruse of “workers rights”. These are: an assumption that “the pie” is any size they imagine it to be; a fundamental envy of what the guy next door has; and denial of their own corruption while disparaging their employers. And we haven’t considered the performance issues in the union workplace. For the concerned citizen, it is becoming clear that unions and their largesse-enabling state laws are unsustainable. They are pushing states into insolvency, and citizens into economic hardship. Union workers should prepare themselves for the inevitable reckoning.
I live in Illinois and during my lifetime I have seen so much wasteful spending. Highway and bridge building is the best example of waste. Unions are the biggest economic problem in this country. They cause already questionable lawmakers to make decisions that are not in the best interest of the people. It makes me sick to see union workers; who really do have limited intelligence, making more than someone who has a bachelors degree. Just a thought. How much stimulus money went to non union companies?
I really have mixed opinions concerning the value of unions because I think that to look at unions from the macro point of view and their benefit to society, there is no question that they cost jobs, productivity, economic security and a static workforce that cannot keep up with its competition. However, when viewed from the micro point of view that they provided higher wages and some protections a worker whose economic value is personally limited, because of inability or self imposed limitations they can seem like a pretty good idea. Many of us that are, or have been, in professional or managerial positions where we have had to count on our own contribution to a company or other entity to provide value are generally paid much more because our economic value to the particular entity to which we sell our skills and thinking ability is in need of such talent and will pay more to avoid losing us to a competitor. However, an assembly line worker, who is easily replaced by another, has little leverage because his economic value is limited. This type of person feels he needs the protection of a union because he does. It provides him security that many of us non union people have had to rely on our own talents to provide.
The problem is that the union cannot evade the laws of economics indefinitely because the higher wage and benefits paid due to union intervention in the workplace will eventually cause companies to leave the US in search of lower wages in order to compete. This is far less likely to happen to non-union professional or managerial jobs because other countries cannot provide such talented people in anywhere near the same number that the US can. That is why so many other countries send their youth to be educated in US colleges.
So, we will always be saddled with the inefficiencies of union workers until they price themselves out of the market in their Faustian exchange for short-term security and temporary higher wages. This is a fact of life. Work will always flow eventually to those who are willing to work for less providing that can supply labor of satisfactory quality.
I am compelled to be empathetic to the plight of the low skilled union worker because he cannot, or will not, keep up with the level of competition that he requires protection from. It is a bit sad but the future for all union workers is that of the dinosaur that could not change to adapt to a changing world.
For Allen and “Whatever”,
If you want to be controlled and not think for yourselves, fine. But, why do you think that others, who desire to think for themselves, should be controlled?
You did not interact with the article, which makes me think that you read it with an intellectual chip on your shoulders, rather than wanting to learn if there just might be some merit in what the author wrote.
And one of you, in writing, was able only to deal in expletives. If that is the best that you can do in communicating, why would anyone want to subscribe to your ideas?
For Allen: goddamn LEFT wing assholes
And Junie, “forced” unionism isn’t about people who don’t want to amount to anything. It’s about protecting workers rights.
“Everyone” becomes a union member if they “choose” that job, nobody is forcing anybody.
Union jobs are some of the only decent jobs left in this great country of ours because sites like this keep pushing to abolish unions.
That’s one of the major issues driving a wedge into our country and dividing its citizens. The disparity in income, the haves and have-nots. It’s uncontrollable greed and it’s repugnant.
It’s more than just disinformation you guys are spewing here. You are trying to convince uninformed American citizens that having a wokers rights protected by a union is a bad thing. All those folks in the Detroit auto industry who lost their jobs, all union. The only ones who profited from that debacle were the execs.
So don’t buy it, folk’s. It’s just more lies from people who want to make more money by paying you less. I live in NYC and you won’t find a single cop or firefighter who isn’t relieved they have a union looking out for their best interests. NOT the unions best interests, but the workers.
In NYC under Bloomberg the cops would be making $20,000 a year in a city where if you make $100,000 a year, you still need a room-mate to make ends meet.
This “big labor” scare they are trying to brow beat everyone with is a myth. If it weren’t for unions, there wouldn’t be any pensions, no health-care, no cost of living increases. All to pay for one persons extra yacht and condo in the Caymans.
And that guy stealing from you isn’t the owner, he’s another employee who was hired just like you. CEO, CFO, President, just another employee. Not really fair that they decide they want to make 350 times as much as the average worker, instead of a measly 300 times.
Well, unions helps mitigate those instances. They still happen, but the unions make it more difficult. Corporate Lobbyists are pushing for more and more change to labor law, and money has a very influencing affect on politicians. But there are still some unions fighting for workers rights.
So don’t buy into it folks. This “big labor” scare is just about putting more money in their own pockets. Period. If we don’t support the rights of our workers, there won’t be any more worker’s rights to support.
I WANT to right to choose as to whether or not i wish to belong to a union. I have belonged to them in the past and they are no damned good! In grievances, they always side with the fing companies and gibe you the shaft while taking your money and using it to fund crooked politicians who vote for their schemes.
The unions have had their place in history, I’ll give them that, but they are NOT NEEDED ANYMORE in every damned work place! There are situations where a “good” union can actually make improvements for workers subjected to crappy working conditions by bad employers, but those ARE IN THE MINORITY! F the unions!
Unions bankrupted General Motors and Chrysler, drove our major industry overseas, has been the main reason we have UNEDUCATED children in our schools – teachers just can’t be fired, and, now, want an even bigger piece of the pie so they can bankrupt ever state in the union! Just look at NY, NJ, CA, MI! Union workers may believe that it is a good thing for THEM, but, they are killing their own golden goose and the country along with it!
The unions are all crooked gangsters and Zionist-Bolshevik-Communist traitors. They don’t give a shit about America and its workers.
The American government is nothing but Zionist-Bolsheviks-Communist traitors and they arn’t worth a shit. All they care about is getting rich at the expense of the Citizens of the United States.
The large conglamorat corporations are also destroying the United States and are in league with the two above asshole groups. These Global Corporations are Non-Government Organizations and have no patriotisim for any country especially The United States because they are actually on an equal footing with coountries as it is set up in the new Zionist-Bolshevik-Communist Government.
The only thing that we Americans is get our weapons and form a ten million march on Washington DC and take hold of the government and send all of the traitors to China, Venezuela, and Cuba or inprison them all and decide their fate. We should abolish the Government as it is now and abolish both parties, they are receiving more patriotism than The United States. We must get rid of the United Nations, the World Monetary fund, the World Bank, The Federal Reserve Crooks, and the Stoick Exchange which is just an instrument used by the Zionist-Bolshevik-Communist to control world business.
The time is now and we must start to take our country back from the Zionist-Bolshevik-Traitors. People, we are fighting for our existence; we are fighting for the American way of life. We must not fail because God wants America to be the bastion of Christianity and so freedom.
There are enough labor laws now-a-days to keep most businesses honest. We needed them at one time, but they are no longer needed. All they do now is invoke more problems on people who don’t know any better. I have worked for both, union and non union companies; I preferred the non union companies. There are much less unions in the private sector then in government. I fail to understand why unions have anything to do with the goverment because they shouldn’t. What’s next, unionize the military?
These people know as well as we do what has happened to Greece and soon to follow with at least Spain and Italy, yet they proceed as though it’s not true.They are certainly being unfair to their members and to themselves. To any sane person, this is unbelievable.
I have worked for several different unions and the leadership was always crooks and very questionalbe people. They even joked about their intimitating behavior at meetings. When living in CA it was if you want to work here then you will join the union and keep your mouth shut about what we do with your money, i.e support all liberal causes. There is no doubt that greedy unions have priced their workers out of jobs.
My first (and LAST EVER) experience with a union cost me a bundle in property damages while I was a student and part-time worker. I was not yet eligible to join yet when the union went on strike. I was obliged to cross lines and work or lose my job as a checkout at a grocery store chain. The union goons trashed my car on three separate occaisions; tires cut, windows smashed, and management had a good laugh. my $200 VW beetle now cost me close to $500 in damages. This was 1972.I was between a rock and a rock. I had seen some of the uppity-ups at a pre-strike meeting before all this. Bunch of greasy-looking wise guys getting out of limos with bodyguards(????). That’s what my dues were going to pay for? No dice. So I took another job for a good chunk less but was much happier. And I wondered why food cost so much then… and now.
I would like to know why, since Nancy, Obrack, Reid, and the rest of the corrupt gang in Washington DO NOT go by any rules, constitution, nor any other law of America, why do we have to do they push, and I mean push on us. Obrack Obama isn’t even eligible to make commands and no one is doing anything about it, I say IMPEACH HIM and in a hurry, that would take his head high smiling face off the TV for a couple days. Come on people in power lets get to it, you certainly have a ton of proven reasons.
Has anyone wondered where and why we do not have textiles, steel mills, and the like here in the US as we once did? Unions were once good to have, but have really overstepped their bounds and only create more for the wealthy. Look at General Motors and study the labor union there.
Today all of the unions must be destoryed remove from there part in this gorvement hussien obama likes it. Because he can stay in power this way
& control how this great nation is moved rom a free nation to one under his dictorship.
I ask when we see about 400K men who have guts & guns get fed up with this crap. Then take this contury back I am not sure there’s anyone left who has the will is there?
I know it’s time for America to pray like never before. I say pray America pray don’t stop let all of us stand & see Gods Hand at work.
Then work as hard as never before to remove all of these God the God of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob hatters. Who hate our constituion hate what this nation was built on. Hate all we have done for other nations then go all over the world. Saying how sorry we are get them out now.
Unions are run by crooks. Union workers are over-paid for their work, and when they can’t be fired for doing lousy work, it spirals down from there. Why should the taxpayers be robbed, so some left-wing Evita Peron wannabe can buy their votes with our money, and bankrupt the whole system like they’re doing in Greece?
Ever been to the Brooklyn docks? Abandoned. Put out of business by the unions.
It’s laughable when posters write it’s the corporations fault. Nobody put a gun to your head and made you buy anything from a corporation. You have a choice. Unions? No choice.
I don’t understand why we have to put up with this godless bunch.
I believe we have no choice but remove them today. What ever it takes we must do it now if we let barck hussien obama stay in. A long with his communists zars as well his marxists socilast bunch. Like pelosi reid & all of the others we’re in so much trouble we will never get this great nation back.
I must say God the God of Abraham,Iass, Jacob please show us Mercy now. For give our sins lift this great nation up one more time through Christ Jesus Your Son.
We must stop what is taking place with work force see what all of brack hussien obams zars did to Venzuela they put hugo chaves in as a doctor this is just what hussien wants we must stop this today
The unions are the ones who drove all manufacturing jos overseas.
We have a constitution with the 10th amendment, so we dont need an additional level of goverence.
Personally I feel that the the best job is one in which you are your own boss. This is a due to the freedom given by our founding fathers in the Constitution and one which so many have fought and died. Forced union membership is not freedom and is obviously championed by people who never expect to amount to anything in their own right. This is so very sad.
I think we should abolish all unions, they have out served there original purpose!!
goddamn right wing assholes
Union jobs are the only good jobs left in the country. You want ANY health care you HAVE to be in a union. I work for EXELON -S&P500 company. As a union guy I have better health care than the managers.
Right to work is BS. Should be right to be SCREWED.
you guys are nuts, more like right to steal from hard working americans, I hate it when you greedy bastards try to frame things as being good for the people you are trying to screw… Hope unionism comes back big time and messes with you corporate losers who just enrich themselves on the backs of hard working Americans.