Unions and Wages [Governor Scott Walker helps top 10%]

New York Times ^ | March 19, 2015 | CRAIG BECKER General Counsel, A.F.L.-C.I.O. Washington

[Cincinatus' Wife]

"......Right-to-work laws make collective bargaining more difficult by requiring that union members pay for the representation of nonmembers. Burdening those who desire union representation does not make economic sense, particularly now when, as researchers at the International Monetary Fund just concluded, the decline in union representation is “a key contributor” to the increasing share of income going to the top 10 percent instead of into workers’ pockets.

That is what the juxtaposition of your two articles demonstrates, and that is what Governor Walker appears to want.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Union bosses don't like it when Americans take their country back.

Union bosses want to keep laundering compulsory union dues into Democratic Party campaign coffers.

[nathanbedford]

To assert that the failure of wages to increase while union membership decreases is to confuse coincidence with causation.

To avoid the trap of post hoc ergo propter hoc one must eliminate other contributing factors. First, it is not clear that the government's numbers on unemployment are honest. The evidence to the contrary is abundant. The government has changed the way it counts even if it renders an honest count.

Second, immigration has flooded the labor market and some qualified observers have argued that all growth (repeat, "all") since the great recession has gone to immigrants, many of them illegal. One might well ask why this AFL-CIO has not taken the lead in opposing a policy which deprives its members of jobs?

The answer is as one poster on this thread is already pointed out, it is all about dues and the triangle trade of a kind of modern slavery: workers are required to pay dues as though they were in involuntary servitude, a percentage of those dues go into the pockets of union leaders, and a percentage goes into the coffers of the Democrat Party which passes laws to protect union leaders, often at the expense of rank-and-file workers and dues payers, as we have noted, concerning Democrats who support illegal immigration.

It is our liberty, Mr. Becker, which is the culprit but it is your union, your henchmen, your political party and your president.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

bttt!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I imagine the union bosses and the Democratic Party machine had already tallied-up the money they planned to get from organizing (and then collecting from - like a protection racket) home healthcare providers and from home childcare providers.

Anyone know how that push to unionize people working at home has been going?

[John Valentine]

It’s hard to know where to begin to comment on this exercise in illogic, but this sentence is as good a place to start as any.

“Right-to-work laws make collective bargaining more difficult by requiring that union members pay for the representation of nonmembers. Burdening those who desire union representation does not make economic sense, particularly now...”

So, then if I understand it, this well paid minion of the AFL-CIO believes that it makes more economic sense to burden those who do NOT desire union representation so that those who do might find their collective bargaining made easier.

I don’t see how one has anything to do with the other.

All I see here is a union minion worried about his personal salary and job security.

And is this yo-yo totally oblivious to the moral dimension of this issue?

Should not those desiring a service be the ones to pay for its provision? Where is the moral argument for coercion of those who are not desirous of union representation?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

It's the socialism - the collective - the "borg is beautiful" thinking being pushed by a "more equal" elite - without shame - as he lies to Americans about how Walker is "taking food out of their children's mouths," when in fact, it has everything to do with HIS loss of using THEIR stolen wages to keep HIS own power.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Brian Calle, Orange County Register:

Gov. Scott Walker's Immigration Plan [3:49 YouTube]

Gov. Scott Walker on Iran, Russia and Keystone XL [5:57 YouTube]

Gov. Scott Walker on Legalizing Marijuana and Same Sex Marriage [2:53 YouTube]

[FlingWingFlyer]

I can’t imagine ANYTHING lower down the food chain than a union thug “lawyer”.

[Calpublican]

“Should not those desiring a service be the ones to pay for its provision? Where is the moral argument for coercion of those who are not desirous of union representation?”

Amen. And why should they support an arm of the Democratic party.

[hawkaw]

I truly wonder that if union dues were going to the GOP instead of the Rats that we would even be having this conversation.

Unions do have an important role to play to protect workers. Actually most union’s elect their leadership and thus, they are not “union bosses” as a lot of folks seem to want to call them.

The problem seems to be that many Unions, or Associations, donate to more left leaning political parties instead of using the dues to fight the employers’ take aways. They also come out and donate staff to support left leaning parties as well. I tend to think Unions should be out of politics all together but in the same breathe I think business should be out of politics as well.

To be frank, I think big corporations have done more to putting the screws to workers through the hiring of illegals, through free trade, through moving manufacturing out of the US and Canada and through getting the government to bail out their banking mistakes.

Maybe there needs to be a rethinking at the highest of levels to allow workers to organize to protect their interests from greedy business people while at the same time ensuring workers and business leaders don’t use their money to influence politians.

Just saying ...