Posted on 12/09/2014 9:25:22 AM PST by MichCapCon
In the debate over whether or not people should be forced to pay money to unions as a condition of employment, opponents of right-to-work laws often claim that workers who exercise their rights under the law are “freeloaders.” That is, that they are taking advantage of benefits from union bargaining while not paying their “fair share.”
The Michigan Education Association, like most unions, supports collectively representing workers whether they are in the association or not because of the leverage it gives them at the bargaining table. Still, no private organization should have to provide benefits to people who aren’t paying for them.
But a look at the MEA’s just-released financial reports shows it is the union that is freeloading off of dues-paying members. According to the organization’s LM-2 form, just 11 percent of total spending goes toward “representational activities.” The majority of spending is for the salaries and benefits of the union’s central staff. The retiree pension and health care costs for the organization also have liabilities totaling about $190 million – and those costs have been skyrocketing.
In other words, the vast majority of what school employees in the state of Michigan pay as union dues go for things other than directly representing them at the bargaining table. The good news is that as contracts expire, those people now have a choice of whether they want to keep spending their money that way.
These folks did not ask for the union legislation. They would not care if it was not there.
Unions exist to benefit the leadership and elect DemocRats. They don’t give a tinker’s damn about their members.
The true freeloaders are the union leadership who get swelling salaries as union membership shrinks.
They tend to go unnoticed.
I am of the opinion that passing a law that requires business and unions to have fully funded their pension requirements BEFORE a dime is spent on any political candidate, PAC, voter drive, registration drive or any other political activity is in order.
>> “They tend to go unnoticed.” <<
.
Except by those that have encountered them close up.
They all have a .45 auto sized lump in their left arm pit area.
.
There used to be a unionized grocery store near me where precisely TWO of the staff of 50+ were designated as “full time” and received benefits.
The others got bupkis, despite paying their dues each week. The contract had been written in a very clever way to state that Sunday was not actually a day for purposes of the contract. Hence they could work part-timers 35+ hours and get away with it. No one made more than a few dimes above minimum wage.
I say “used to be” cause the store eventually failed and has been replaced with a non-union Aldi that starts new employees at twelve bucks an hour.
Good grief... these leftists drive me crazy, especially on this point!
The “freeloading” idea is false from the word “go”, since the unions have *exclusive bargaining rights* with the school board in question. When I was a (note: unwitting and unwilling) teachers’ union member, I couldn’t have negotiated my own salary and benefits if the administration had *wanted* me to; the union had a state-law-recognized monopoly. If the unions whine about “paying for those who don’t pay in”, then maybe they should allow competition.
Summary: the unions “paid” for exclusive bargaining rights by becoming legally obliged to pay for arbitration services, whether someone pays union dues (or the laughably-named “fair share fees”), or not.
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