The Almighty Unions

[.Morticia.]

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.

[Rum]

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

[Gawdzilla Sama]

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.

[.Morticia.]

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

especially education

[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.

[Rum]

Actually Mrs Thatcher wrecked the unions. They have never recovered. We need a bit of blood and guts back in them!

[laklak]

I think they're a great idea, I used to score dope and meet women at the Student's Union.

[Coito ergo sum]

I am fine with unions, mind you - I do not have any issue with a union organizing and having laws allowing for collective bargaining and punishing unfair labor practices. However, when you have public employees, they are usually protected by civil service laws and regulations, and it has traditionally not been the case that they have the right to strike against the public interest.

President Franklin Roosevelt wrote:

All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters.

Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of Government employees. Upon employees in the Federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of Government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable. It is, therefore, with a feeling of gratification that I have noted in the constitution of the National Federation of Federal Employees the provision that "under no circumstances shall this Federation engage in or support strikes against the United States Government."

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/even ... tor-unions

Makes sense.

[Wumbologist]

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.

[Coito ergo sum]

[Bella Fortuna]

I'm torn on unions given that I work with them but grew up in a union household... I think they came into existence for good reason and have done some good but I've never worked in a unionised environment that wasn't bitterly divisive and full of absolutely ridiculous situations thanks to the tortured interpretation of contracts and bizarre awards of governing bodies who are anti-employer. 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.

[Santa_Claus]

I will listen to any Union basher very carefully.

Once they have given there weekends back.

[Rum]

I will listen to any Union basher very carefully.

Once they have given there weekends back.

An excellent post if I may say! None of the hard fought for rights most of us have (here in the UK anyway) would have been given voluntarily to workers out of the goodness of the hearts of industrialists and others. They were hard won, using the only thing that 'labour' used to own - their own labour and the right to withdraw it.

[.Morticia.]

I will listen to any Union basher very carefully.

Once they have given there weekends back.

An excellent post if I may say! None of the hard fought for rights most of us have (here in the UK anyway) would have been given voluntarily to workers out of the goodness of the hearts of industrialists and others. They were hard won, using the only thing that 'labour' used to own - their own labour and the right to withdraw it.

and blood

[Coito ergo sum]

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.