Public sector unions continue to grow as a percentage of organized labor, and their sole function is to keep taxes high.
The propoganda flag is popping up on this one. Can’t buy into this argument.
There was a big fire in NY in a sewing factory. Several women died in the fire which was due to an electrical short. They unionized folks and promised them all good things.
What my granddaughter wasn't taught. That it's darn hard to find a "Made in America" tag.
In most cases, the original intent of the labor unions were fine. In any economic system there are those that will maximize their profits without considering the moral impact. For example, horrid working conditions, child labor, forced overtime without compensation, and worse.
But, greed and jealousy still rule the day. As the unions won their concessions, they continued to press and as a result, they became the immoral leaders—pressing the corporations (who were still focused on profit) to make THEM rich, at the workers’ expense.
If you look at most human issues, the problems of greed and jealousy will screw up everything.
I really challenge anybody to give me one good reason why any PUBLIC EMPLOYEE sould be ALLOWED to join ANY labor union.
Just one.
>>> Were Labor Unions Ever Necessary?
Do some research on pre-union conditions in the coal mining areas of Appalachia. Carnegie had his own company police, and the miners had debts to the company stores.
The early agenda of labor unions was workplace safety. Yes they were necessary.
Without unions, there would be no fat-cat union bosses silly.
Nothing in this article says anything about the situations that caused unions to come into existance in the first place. The deplorable working conditions, the slave type ownership of workers by companies, the child labor rules, etc.
Have unions become monsters? Absolutely. Were they an important step towards fair and safe working conditions. You bet your bottom dollar they were.
We're all wallowing in the budget deficit in Cal and a big issue is the public employee pension. The cops and fire fighters (I am a retired peace office) can retire at age 51 with 90% of their salary for life.
I can list example after example of how unions screwed up the operations of various departments. When a union can bribe governors and state legislators the people who must negotiate and approve their contracts, what's the point? Many department directors became figureheads to unions whose officials had direct access to the governor's office and some who could actually walk onto the floor of the Assembly and state senate. I submit corrections and education as exhibits 1 and 2.
It's my opinion that unions brought good changes in places like coal mines 80-90 years ago, but by the time public employees got collective bargaining rights, the major battles were already over and we had passed the point of their necessity.
Labor unions were NEVER necessary, and were always monopolistic organizations designed to simply increase their wages at the expense of other workers.
The ONLY thing that can better a people’s or an overall economy’s situation is increased PRODUCTIVITY. If a village grows 100 potatos, its 100 inhabitants have “income” of 1 potato each. If they can, through more work, better technology, etc... grow 1000 potatos, then their “income” will rise to 10 potatos
Forming into politically powerful groups to take potatos from others does not increase the supply of potatos. It may make a few better off, but at the expense of others.
This is the first part in a series of stories that will look into the sordid history of unions. For instance, how many people are aware that when labor unions first sprung up in America they were in cahoots with Stalin/USSR even to the point where the labor bosses were in sit down meetings in Moscow?
As far as bad working conditions go, these things would have been naturally corrected. One could argue that Unions did little to fix this, i.e. Detroit. People went from having bad jobs to no jobs in 90 years.
How is it that the Canadian economy does so well when Canadian unions are so strong?
Nationalized unions were never necessary, and should have been outlawed when there were politicians with backbone enough to do it. If employees of any particular workplace want to exercise their right of collective bargaining, apart from interference from national unions and commies, so be it. They can exercise their right, and management can exercise its rights. Unions are counter productive and corrupt, and when joined at the hip with an all powerful government, like our corrupt caliphate, it becomes an absolute evil. Public service unions and national unions, especially those that have been given ownership by our dictating caliph, are nothing but communist usurpers of liberty.
Pretty much everything this government has done or supported since 1913 is unnecessary and mostly evil.
Yes: I said it...thank God for Unions
1) Overtime Pay...
2) Curt Flood Challenging baseballs reserve clause
3) paid vacation
4) paid holidays
5) workers compensated for injuries due to faulty factory owed equipment.
Are Unions corrupt: YES
Have they gotten greedy: yes—that’s you baseball
Do they serve a purpose today: probably not
But at the time, they were necessary especially from some of the horror stories my grandfather told me about the work environment before unions...
I don't have time to find a direct link, but here's this info as referenced by Beck:
Liberation Theology and the Political Perversion of Christianity." Scroll down in the transcript.
Ax yourself: why in the world would teachers need to be unionized? What it is about their jobs, their workplaces, their work environments that require them to COLLECTIVELY bargain with management?
What in the world?
Good question.
Unions love to paint the picture that they are the only thing standing between the worker and Armageddon. But their side of the story is the only one being told in most of our left-wing media.
Having spend 11 of my working years in a closed-shop union position, I can say with honesty that the union itself was a major obstacle for employers, and not for the benefit of productive workers. They continually stood behind the deadbeats and lazy, while mocking the productive workers (”you’re killing the job, man”). They insisted that everybody should earn the same money, regardless of their value to the employer or to the customer.
They tried to use gang-style intimidation to get more money for less work, regardless of the outcome for the company. And if the union “leadership” didn’t like a supervisor or manager, they instructed union members to “go after” that person, filing countless nuisance grievances and slowing productivity deliberately to make that manager look bad.
The union was a thorn in my side, and I, being the bullheaded type, chose to be a thorn in their side as well. I can count a couple of instances where things got physical between me and a union “brother” or two. Fortunately, I had many more friends than enemies and the union could never get a full gang-style movement against me.
The highlight of my union years when when I ran for steward for the sole purpose of antagonizing the vice president of the union with whom I worked at the time. I had quite an ad campaign, and might have won if I hadn’t backed down near election day. I didn’t want the position, and I ultimately voted for someone else, but it was fun getting his feathers in a bunch. Oh, my motto was “It’s time for a change”. Seems that change approach is sometimes successful.
Unions are communism.
The only reason for labor unions is/was to promote socialism/communism!