Posted on 07/07/2015 1:56:51 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
My father was a sixth-grade teacher active in his teacher union’s leadership. He instilled in me the value of unions. They helped our nation lead and prosper. Unions got laws passed limiting child labor, ensuring safe working conditions and compensating workers with a defined workweek and overtime pay.
The strong, positive legacy of unions, runs counter to news the Supreme Court will hear a case next term that “could wipe out public-sector unions,” according to a recent report in Slate. I can’t help but wonder, however, if the dissolution of public sector unions would be such a bad thing. For all the good they have done, unions’ immense political and fundraising power is corrupting politicians who simply do their bidding without regard to national interest or financial consequences.
Here are some examples that should give pause about the power of public-sector unions.
1. Federal employees unions fought and successfully resisted government leadership efforts to thwart or mitigate cyberattacks. Those in government responsible for our cybersecurity sought to require cybersecurity measures common in the corporate world. After a security breach in 2011 stemming from federal employees accessing personal email accounts on government-owned computers, the government sought to impose countervailing measures by curtailing that access.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) promptly filed a grievance with a federal arbitrator, claiming that any change in access to private email must first be collectively bargained with the union. The arbitrator sided with the AFGE, as did the Democratic majority on the Federal Labor Relations Authority in July 2014, after a lengthy appeals process. In his dissent, the Republican member of the FLRA, Patrick Pizzella, noted that the decision rendered quick cybersecurity action impossible if agencies must collectively bargain it.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
I have been asked many times since the dropping of the Act 10 bomb on public employees what might have been done differently. Many thousands of union members and supporters ringed the Capitol and raised their voices. I spent many hours there and it felt hopeful. Then it was over.
We didn’t raise the political costs to the level sufficient to give our enemies pause (yes, in a war there are enemies). As I left the last Wisconsin Uprising rally, I wondered, why did electric power continue to state buildings during that time (same with the steam heat) and why did school sessions continue and buses roll? It seemed like a major battle had raged and our side had held back.
It seems to me, when faced with an existential crisis, that the full array of tactics and bold measures must be considered, and, after due consideration, be deployed incrementally or simultaneously as resources and circumstances dictate. . . . There was room to organize all manner of slowdowns, sit-downs, and gumming up of the public sector. Even after the passage of Act 10, there could have been an ongoing campaign of guerrilla labor action behind management’s lines. This is the era of asymmetrical warfare, of hacking, of fragile networks of communication. Business as usual can be disrupted.".... Labor Watch July 2015: Scott Walker vs. the Unions, Part 2: Unintended consequences: Wisconsin goes Right to Work, and Walker seeks a promotion
I’d rather see Congress legislate than have the Court do it. I guess it would all depend on how “Justice” Kennedy feels about it. He’s running the Country now.
More on Scott Walker and his battles with the unions in Wisconsin.
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
I hear you but it’s in front of the Court.
There needs to be two sides to the negotiation. But the public sector unions more often than not can elect the person they’ll be dealing with. If that politician doesn’t give them what they want he’s out of office in the next cycle. If he does his career is golden and he goes from one office to the next, a completely owned politician. There is nobody to represent the interests of the tax payers. Public sector unions should be banned.
They should abolish them.
The tax-paying citizens of the US need to limit the power of the Supreme Court, first.
Elimination of judical review, the first, and most odious, act of judicial activism, would be a good start.
Unions are like lethal parasites; eventually the host dies.
There is no other situation that I can think of where workers are allowed to vote for and donate to their bosses who decide their raises and employment status. Public sector unions are inherently a gross conflict of interest and should be abolished.
bookmarked
There should be NO public sector unions, at all!!
Limit? I’d prefer it that they be left with no power at all, especially the power to force people to join.
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