Wisconsin protest, a sign of things to come?

[DirtyDawg]

Let's get behind the President and the SEIU to change this nation!

http://www.patriotactionnetwork.com...Video:3245354&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_video

If the unions can just get a little more power, then the unions can stop all the jobs from going over seas and negotiate better wages and pensions for government/state workers!! SEIU!!

It's gonna take stronger unions to get this country back on course!!

Yes, this is all sarcasm.

 

[RickN]

The bottom two are the reason the unions are so pissed, and why they are bringing in out of state protesters and hiring non-union people to protest.

Here's what Governor Walker's Budget Repair Bill that they're so angry about actually does:

- Ask government workers to pay half the cost of their pensions - still less than private employees pay for their pensions

- Ask government workers to pay 12% of their own health insurance premiums - the national average for the private sector is over 20%

- End collective bargaining for government unions for pensions and benefits. Allow bargaining only for raises that are less than inflation.

- End forced union dues, collected by the state. Union dues would become voluntary.

- Union members get to vote yearly on whether to keep their union.

 

[HMFIC]

For all of those who believe that unions are outdated, I offer the following non-union example:

My wife is a SALARIED employee by CONTRACT. A contract means a promise between the employer and the employee and both parties are bound by it. She makes no overtime if she works 60 hours instead of 40, which is most often the case.

When the snowstorm came, the bosses decided to shut down the office. The employees did not make the choice not to come.

Then when the employees returned to work, they were advised that they would not be paid for the days that the BOSSES closed the office.

What this amounts to is one-half of her weekly paycheck. Not enough to go to court over but plenty to dramatically affect our household. Not to mention, in a month she works more hours over 40 than she got in the days the office was closed.

The anti-union folks will say "get a new job" but where are those new jobs? Why don't employers have to follow the rules of the contract? Who enforces that?

In a non-union shop, the practical answer is NO ONE. The employer does exactly as he/she pleases if it's not enough to dispute in court and the little man is at the mercy of the big man.

I'd file a complaint with the Department of Labor at both the State and Federal level. It doesn't cost anything to do so and they are the protectors of issues like these which amount to 'unpaid wages'.

Don't need a union to enforce simple contract law or emplyment and wage law. In most cases, you should be able to recover additional money to cover the cost of an attorney should you need one if they are found to be in willful violation of the law.

Good luck, hope she gets paid for it.

 

[Tinbender75]

Unions have destroyed America! LOL! Not globalization, corruption, NAFTA (see globalization), etc.

I do agree that the UAW was an extreme and overpaid so let them kill themselves if they want but don't make antiorganizing laws. These corporations you all are so quick to defend will sell you down the river and send your job overseas if they can whether you are union or not. Most of what is left here is the service industry. You can't say the unions have deindustrialized us. GM had such a great business model who needs 50 different models of SUVs when the economy is bad and gas prices are rising? I could go on about GM, two words for ya Fiero, Aztek! LOL! Chrysler, please all those POS cars they made! They were lucky to survive at all union or not. Ford humm they had a bump in the road but are fine!!

If you want to believe whatever the TV and the right tells you fine. I don't care for TV and the right and left are on the same team. I shouldn't even be talking about this stupidness. You remember why the Gladiator games were so popular because they distracted the people from government.

 

[itzkwik]

I knew you wouldn't be able to keep your mouth shut,LOL.

 

[repete34]

Unions started out as a relativley good idea, but like everything else, corruption crept in. Now they are useless. They border on ridiculous.

I agree 100%

 

[farmerbyron]

You ain't kidding. As for these .gov-dependent workers, wait until masses of them eventually get pink slips because there's no more money, and no more credit with which to pay them - or their paychecks bounce for the same reason. It's coming.

Govt. checks will never bounce. They own the printing presses. What will happen is a severe case of inflation until the debt returns to sustainable levels. They can only tax so much before the economy goes total "black market" and revenues stop completely. Govts. like the US do not default, they just make the money out of thin air. Who takes it in the shorts in an inflationary environment? That's right, the lower classes. All this spending to support the "little guy" is going to bite him right in the ass. It's all a balancing act.

You're correct - and I'll also submit that unions also breed a certain class of employee who has no fear of losing his/her job, as they know (more with each passing year of employment) that the union will get it back. Humans haven't changed their nature, and if they're allowed to do nothing with no fear of consequences, they'll darned sure do nothing. I know this for a fact, as I'm working in a union shop for the first time in my life, and can only shake my head at the blatant lazy, "who cares?" attitude of some of the "30 year guys" on the shop floor. Granted, there are some go-getters, too, but most of those are the newer hands and not the old timers that have been there so long, and have learned that no matter what they do (or how much they coast), the union will cover their butts. One was actually fired for cause, and rehired because of the union and put back in the exact same position. And he's still a worthless POS, and still does things that are against procedure...but who's going to stop him? He even made the comment before - in front of me - that he "doesn't work for the company - he works for the union". Really? Let that company go tits up and see what the union does for him. Move right on to the next group of money trees, that's what.

Unions have done great things for American workers, but that was generations ago. I think they could be a good thing, but it seems they've been taken over by those who's purpose is no longer representing "the working man", but only acquiring power and money.

^
This.

The reason a company moves production out of country is to reduce costs to be more competitive in the market. It is simple economics, not anything nefarious. Remember that competition is a good thing, it means more abundant, cheaper, better quality goods for everyone. It is what built this country. As it works out now, the unions negotiate their members right out of a job.

 

[dennishoddy]

Unions have considerably less power than corporations.

Corporations are organizations of the powerful. Unions are a collective of the powerless to help them keep from being trampled by the powerful.

If you really believe that a bunch of workers have more stroke in this country than CEO's, they really have you bamboozled.

Michael Brown

Sir, I have followed your posts for years on this forum, but in this case I have to disagree.

# 1 is that I have been a union employee, as well as my dad.
For my dad, he worked in a municipal power plant in Ponca City, and had to put in at least 28 days a month on the job, and on his days off, got called in.
It was a total ditcatorship, and the unionization put them on a regular shift work.

After being drafted into the US Army, I got out and worked for the Teamsters Union as a Truck Driver.
In the truckers strike, I was driving down the road in my semi, and had a vehicle drive up beside me, waving me over.
Keep in mind this was in the 70's. No cell phone, etc.
I pulled over, and saw a guy in the back seat with a shotun in his lap.
A guy walked up and said the Teamsters were on strike and I needed to get off the road.
I got out of my rig, and they took me to a truck stop to get a ride home.
During that strike, several people were shot in Ohio for crossing union lines.

About the same time the American Steel factories in the NE part of the country in Pittsburg, Cleveland, to name a couple, fought the fight to take foundry/steel union workers jobs.
They had the option to cut wages/benefits, etc to save some jobs.
The Japenese and other countries used Computer Tech to make steel much better than the steel from the US.
Flash forward to now. ALL of the steel workers have lost their jobs because the unions rufused to budge.
How stupid is this?
Every heavy industry is now overseas, so they do'nt have to pay union wages.

 

[twoguns?]

I knew I shouldnt have started reading this...But I Did.
Too much ignorance and bias.. Its not The Thing thats to Blame its the misuse.
If employers were fair you wouldnt need Unions....but its nice to have a contract ...kinda like the Constitution...a Set of Rules.
Ive worked Union for many years and let me tell you..if you dont/cant/wont put out...i.e....do your job ..you wont last long.
No life is not fair, but it sure is nice to have a set of Rules to go by.

Sonny Grant Local#124 Sheetmetal Workers

 

[Nraman]

Keep running the work out of this country and watch the tax base shrink. Run everybody else out of a job and watch your tax revenues fall.

Unions have destroyed America! LOL! Not globalization, corruption, NAFTA (see globalization), etc.

Job outsourcing is an economic and national security disaster. We cannot have a country if we are consumers only and we don't produce the majority of our products. The Republicans and their "free" trade BS are the principal force behind it and have managed to convince a lot of conservatives that it makes sense to send our jobs overseas, that it is OK to treat the Chinese as if they are Americans, that the only thing that matters is cheap imports and a strong military. Wrong, it will not work trying to have a military giant guarding a rust bowl.
To have natural wealth and refuse to produce it is nonsense. No nation in the world has oil and refuses to produce it. Just us. I know of no nation in the history of humanity that had a vital resource they could produce and refused to do so. The Democratic Party is under the boot of the extreme Left, extreme environmentalists, watermelons (green on the outside, red on the inside), socialists and commies. They too are destroying us.
EPA, they must be accountable and support the national interest not a political agenda. A perfect environment is useless when the people are starving on a failed economy that handicaps US industry and makes outsourcing sensible.
In China, we have awakened a sleeping dragon and empowered it with our money to become our next enemy.