The Almighty Unions

[egbert]

in America are so powerful they run the whole country

Aw, shit - and here I thought it was the Joos! You mean I've been sucking up to the wrong people?
Damn!

[egbert]

In Uknitted Kindom our onions is also vry strong and haz recked evryting!

Why not convert all the union members to Royalty? All that revenue Royals bring in will soon have the country back on its feet.

[egbert]

The unions made a difference of about 50% in my old man's income. We'd have been living in a one bedroom how without the UAW. I know this because we were doing that before he got a job with GM.

Yep, paying union wages was the ruination of the nation. Note how Henry Ford soon went bankrupt after he started paying his workers decent wages so they could afford to buy the cars they built. Big misteak, eh?

[egbert]

In Uknitted Kindom our onions is also vry strong and haz recked evryting!

especially education

Feck yeah, far better to have left it in the hands of the Anglican Bishops. How many decades was it again that they managed to block the introduction of public schools?

[egbert]

in America are so powerful they run the whole country

America is so weak that the unions are able to destroy it

I hearded it here.

I, for one, do not believe they wrecked America.

However, for example, Stephen Lerner, either a current or very recently former official with the SEIU union (one of the largest unions in the country) has openly called for steps to be taken to destabilize the banking system, hurt the stock market, and essentially destroy the financial system to obtain his group's desired political end.



That's not just his view. Listen to the applause and assent of the crowd listening to him. And, he's a not an irrelevant figure in the modern union movement. This is what a lot of them think.

Dunno why he would offer his help to the Wall Street Joos - aren't they doing a pretty good job of wrecking the economy already? What those boys need are bigger bonuses.

[Coito ergo sum]

A CEO, a union worker and a Tea Partier (a member of the emerging right-wing political movement) are at a table with 12 cookies. The CEO takes 11 and says to the Tea Partier: "Keep an eye on that union guy, he wants your cookie."

thought this joke was appropriate...again.

The catch is that it wasn't a "union worker," it was a union boss, and he'd already tried to lay claim to all the cookies, which were products of the CEO's cookie factory that was built with his and his investor's money.

yah...inequality is a great thing isn't it. Oh, yah, you think it is. The CEO and his investors can make the cookies themselves too.

Complete equality would not be a great thing anymore than extreme inequality is. Inequality is often fair, such as when someone who works 50 hours gets paid more than someone who works only 40. It's also fair that someone who gets better results on the job and is a better performer would be compensated more. It's also fair that if a small sole proprietor of a store decides he can afford an assistant, that the assistant make less than the sole proprietor, and that the sole proprietor hire his friend whom he trusts rather than a stranger.

Many unequal things are just fine.

[Coito ergo sum]

in America are so powerful they run the whole country

America is so weak that the unions are able to destroy it

I hearded it here.

I, for one, do not believe they wrecked America.

However, for example, Stephen Lerner, either a current or very recently former official with the SEIU union (one of the largest unions in the country) has openly called for steps to be taken to destabilize the banking system, hurt the stock market, and essentially destroy the financial system to obtain his group's desired political end.



That's not just his view. Listen to the applause and assent of the crowd listening to him. And, he's a not an irrelevant figure in the modern union movement. This is what a lot of them think.

Dunno why he would offer his help to the Wall Street Joos - aren't they doing a pretty good job of wrecking the economy already? What those boys need are bigger bonuses.

What he's talking about is destabilizing the economy to serve his political end. He's not talking about holding back "help." He's talking about affirmatively destroying what's left of the mortgage industry - which would seriously harm millions of people, including children and single mothers. He's talking about destroying the stock market, of which 10s of millions of people have their retirement income invested.

[egbert]

I've grown to loathe unions and in particular union reps. They're simply havens for slackers and whingers, in my day-to-day experience.

And, if you're good at it, chances are you'll get a management job...

[egbert]

I will listen to any Union basher very carefully.

Once they have given there weekends back.

An excellent post if I may say!

Maybe you should read it again - more slowly, this time.

[egbert]

I will listen to any Union basher very carefully.

Once they have given there weekends back.

We are legally entitled to weekends off? News to me.

Only because the churches lobbied for it so the proles could attend.

[egbert]

I will listen to any Union basher very carefully.

Once they have given there weekends back.

You can always spot the unthinking proles who happily recite the doctrine implanted in them - they don't know the difference between "there" and "their."

[Coito ergo sum]

The unions made a difference of about 50% in my old man's income. We'd have been living in a one bedroom how without the UAW. I know this because we were doing that before he got a job with GM.

Yep, paying union wages was the ruination of the nation. Note how Henry Ford soon went bankrupt after he started paying his workers decent wages so they could afford to buy the cars they built. Big misteak, eh?

Has someone suggested that unions were the "ruination" of the nation? Suggesting that unions aren't all-good, and have their place but can often overreach, is not the same thing as calling them the ruination of the nation. Frankly, this is the red herring of the unions - they want to sell the notion that opposing anything they ask for is somehow complete opposition to unions and tantamount to advocacy of child labor.

I recall accidentally crossing a picket line at a supermarket. I wasn't aware of the strike. I probably wouldn't have crossed the picket line to shop there had I known. I stopped off and parked and walked quickly toward the door since I was in a great hurry. I needed one or two things and had to get home. I heard yelling that appeared directed at me, and turned and looked and lo and behold, yes the yelling was directed at me. Did they ask me nicely to hear them out and respect their picket line? No. They cursed at me and yelled at me, and directed slurs at me. I stood there and took it, not responding immediately as it registered what was going on. Since nobody asked me anything, however, I turned and walked into the store. I bought my things from the "scab" and walked back out to more yelling and curses. I immediately yelled back at them and stated that had I known they were on strike I would have respected their picket line, but now that they saw fit to curse me out, I am going to make it a point to patronize the store on a daily basis and buy stuff I don't even need. Then I told them to fuck off. I walked back to my car and took the precaution of checking my tires - and picked up three star nails which had been placed immediately behind my tires - I would have backed over them. I was shocked. And, I made good on my promise to go to that store regularly - thanks to the shit behavior of the striking workers.

Unions love to demand non-union solidarity toward their causes, and as my true story shows, they will take action to enforce that solidarity. I've never had a union person ever give a flying fuck, however, about my salary, my pay raise, or unfair treatment on my job. They always demand, however, that I participate in their business, however.

[redunderthebed]

( i'm an anti-stalinist too )

Me too however i think stalinism doesn't exist its just an insult.


Every person who frothes at the mouth about unions needs to.

Give up every single right they have in the workplace fought for by unions and even the most ingrained basic rights where shed blood for back in the day.

Then come back and see whether they hate unions now.......oh wait its illegal in many cases to do so.

Unions are perfect some of them are downright shit however to tar every union with the same brush is rubbish.

[egbert]

The problem isn't the existence of unions, its the loss of balance they achieved. $30-50 an hour plus benefits is a lot to pay for unskilled labor. The UAW pushed, and got good things for its members, but then they pushed too far and now look where they are.

Yup. In an age when a kilo of Gouda cheese costs $50, imagine some jerk thinking an hour of his labour outta be worth 30 bucks! Outrageous. And what could be better value for money, than paying Bill Clinton $100,000 to give a one hour speech.

[Coito ergo sum]

( i'm an anti-stalinist too )

Me too however i think stalinism doesn't exist its just an insult.


Every person who frothes at the mouth about unions needs to.

Give up every single right they have in the workplace fought for by unions and even the most ingrained basic rights where shed blood for back in the day.

Why? Unions were not the exclusive source of those rights. Unions fought their fights, and others fought their fights. Battles were waged in state and local governments and at the federal level. Victories were won by non-union folks that helped unions, and vice versa. We don't "owe" anything, nor is repayment required in the form of unqualified, unconditional support for ever single thing a union does, says or wants. Having a nuanced approach to unions - recognizing their value and legitimacy while understanding their downsides and limitations - is not "frothing at the mouth."

Unions are perfect some of them are downright shit however to tar every union with the same brush is rubbish.

Who actually has tarred all unions with the same brush, except those who claim that opposition to some demands of some unions is tantamount to rejecting the minimum wage, regulations on child labor and overtime pay laws?

Franklin Roosevelt rejected the notion of public sector unions collectively bargaining for pay and benefits, and striking against the public. Why is it so wrong for the rest of us to agree with him?