patrick.net

I hope all 22 states proposing legislation pass their bills to curb union rights. Personally, I have done nothing but watch union employees get off on infractions in the workplace which I thought were deplorable. Plus, year after year request raises from the company for work that could be performed by a 7 year old child. 60K a year for a job which requires little to no education is silly to me, especially when my taxes are paying for it.

This will at a minimum be a good experiment.

You're not so good at 'big picture' things, are you?

I find myself mostly in agreement with David Brooks on this:

Even if you acknowledge the importance of unions in representing middle-class interests, there are strong arguments on Walker’s side. In Wisconsin and elsewhere, state-union relations are structurally out of whack.

That’s because public sector unions and private sector unions are very different creatures. Private sector unions push against the interests of shareholders and management; public sector unions push against the interests of taxpayers. Private sector union members know that their employers could go out of business, so they have an incentive to mitigate their demands; public sector union members work for state monopolies and have no such interest.

Private sector unions confront managers who have an incentive to push back against their demands. Public sector unions face managers who have an incentive to give into them for the sake of their own survival. Most important, public sector unions help choose those they negotiate with. Through gigantic campaign contributions and overall clout, they have enormous influence over who gets elected to bargain with them, especially in state and local races.

As a result of these imbalanced incentive structures, states with public sector unions tend to run into fiscal crises. They tend to have workplaces where personnel decisions are made on the basis of seniority, not merit. There is little relationship between excellence and reward, which leads to resentment among taxpayers who don’t have that luxury.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/opinion/22brooks.html

kentm says

You’re not so good at ‘big picture’ things, are you?

Elaborate my friend....

Clarence 13X says

I hope all 22 states proposing legislation pass their bills to curb union rights. Personally, I have done nothing but watch union employees get off on infractions in the workplace which I thought were deplorable. Plus, year after year request raises from the company for work that could be performed by a 7 year old child. 60K a year for a job which requires little to no education is silly to me, especially when my taxes are paying for it.
This will at a minimum be a good experiment.

I agree with David Brooks too. And my wife has seen this government union corruption first hand when she worked for the county in the past.

California of course is still in the same boat as before, I'm kind of hoping Jerry Brown could fix it... but I doubt it in some ways.

The real problem is bloated union wages and pensions at taxpayer's expense at a time when the taxpayers don't have pensions or the same bloated wages. Since we all know that all of a sudden taxpayers aren't going to get pensions again, and outsourcing and imports will hold down thrie wages, government employees need to have their pensions eliminated and wages reduced to private sector rates. I have not spoken to any of my liberal friends about this, but I suspect that even they see this as an unavoidable and necessary result.

zzyzzx says

Clarence 13X says

I hope all 22 states proposing legislation pass their bills to curb union rights. Personally, I have done nothing but watch union employees get off on infractions in the workplace which I thought were deplorable. Plus, year after year request raises from the company for work that could be performed by a 7 year old child. 60K a year for a job which requires little to no education is silly to me, especially when my taxes are paying for it.

This will at a minimum be a good experiment.

I hope for this too but for very different reasons. If every state where Rethuglicans have proposed these heinous measures destroying worker's rights then the true disdain that the Rethuglican Party has for us commoners will be painfully exposed as the raw truth that it is.

Then it will be time for people to rise up and remove these tyrants from the positions of power they have that have allowed them to squeeze the life out of the middle class and workers. Soon, my friends... Soon...

Every Republican, Conservative, Libertarian (closet Republican), and Teabagger will be revealed for the disgusting vile traitors that they are finally and for all to see.

Clarence .... you hit this one out of the park. Aren't you afraid of being tagged a "Rethuglican?" or worse ... a Teabagger?

simchaland says

I hope for this too but for very different reasons. If every state where Rethuglicans have proposed these heinous measures destroying worker’s rights then the true disdain that the Rethuglican Party has for us commoners will be painfully exposed as the raw truth that it is.
Then it will be time for people to rise up and remove these tyrants from the positions of power they have that have allowed them to squeeze the life out of the middle class and workers. Soon, my friends… Soon…
Every Republican, Conservative, Libertarian (closet Republican), and Teabagger will be revealed for the disgusting vile traitors that they are finally and for all to see.

Is that really you Warlock Charlie? How's the WINNING going for ya?

RayAmerica says

13X

I am conservative on some, progressive on others....generally conservative in the true sense when it comes to the economy, however, I am progressive on social issues as well.

simchaland says

13X

I dont think bigots and religious conservatives care much about any lies being revealed.

Bigots wont place union rights over their social views.
Religious conservatives will never side with gays, abortionist...but will side with gun enthusiasts.

All in all the city union employees are holding up progress in terms of budget cuts so they must go. They lie about their situations and are total braggarts in terms of how much they are getting over on the City, State and Feds.

While they retire to a cush life at 55 off our tax dollars we continue to work past our prime.

shrekgrinch says

The public sector unions are toast because the public sector is going to be forced to contract big time. The two are joined at the hip.

Although I dont want to see the Republican agendas pushed, I agree that the unions are no longer necessary.