Posted on 11/05/2005 9:41:22 AM PST by DogByte6RER
Who do unions benefit?
By: RAY HAYNES
Just why do we have government employee unions? We all know the story of the rise of unionism in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Our country was being run by robber barons, the capitalist exploiters who would abuse children for profit and allow people to die in substandard working conditions while they sat in the lap of luxury.
Unions fought the evil employers, pushed for labor reforms, minimum wages, safe workplaces and, through their tireless effort, made sure that people received a fair day's wage for a fair day's work in a safe work environment. Government employees were hired to enforce these rules and, faced with the prospect of jail time, the evil capitalist reluctantly acceded to the government control.
At least that is how it is taught in the government schools, which are run by the government employee unions.
Even assuming that life was as bad as the unions say it was in the private sector before forced unionism, why did we ever have government employee unions? Was it because the government was an evil employer, putting people to work in an unsafe work environment for unfair wages, or was it just a way for union bosses to extract money from unwilling employees in order for those bosses to corrupt the political system?
I think most people would agree that something is seriously wrong with our current government employee unions here in California. In the Gray Davis years, they overreached, grabbing for exorbitant wage increases and excessive pension benefits, using their forced union dues to give millions of dollars to Gray Davis and the legislative Democrats, in order to force the state, school districts, cities and local governments of all types to unionize and pay their unionized employees wages beyond what the taxpayers could afford.
In 1998, the California government pension system, CalPERS, was $60 billion overfunded. By 2003, the Democrats had increased government pensions so much that taxpayers had to borrow $2.5 billion a year to keep the pension system solvent. During that same time, those unions contributed over $30 million to those Democrat politicians.
The number of state employees, paying these forced union dues, increased 47,000 in these two years. The government employee unions have corrupted the whole system. Now they are spending the money they forcibly extract from their members to trash the governor, spending almost $100 million of the money they steal from these government employees.
But why do they exist? Is a government job so unsafe, so underpaid, that only a union can protect the government employee? Or is the system a sophisticated extortion scheme designed to keep left-wing politicians in power in Sacramento?
This much we know: Government employees make about 25 percent more than their private sector counterparts, and get benefits that are without equal in the private sector. They have ideal working conditions, and legally protected job security. They don't need a union to protect them from an unscrupulous employer.
So, why do these unions really exist?
Ray Haynes represents the 66th Assembly District, which includes portions of Western Riverside County and Northern San Diego County.
Of course, I have seen management getting around the union seniority system by various shenanigans. To that I say, the Good Lord knows what is going on, and what goes around, comes around. I will say no more on that subject.
Well said!
Just don't go looking for sympathy from those same people when the jobs are downsized or outsourced.
or teachers....
we have a big crisis in town, and if the peasants don't vote for big property tax increases, well, the police and fire depts will take "big" hits....
no one mentions how these guys can retire at an early age, or that they can come up with a multitude of reasons why they are "dissabled"....
one egrgious example.....a guy who went undercover supposedly got addicted to coccaine as "part" of his job...sure....he happened to be going to night school at the time as well, to be a lawyer, but he had the audacity to claim the stress from the undercover work was too much, and yes, he was granted an early dissability....
That's easy. The people who actually work for the unions. I'm in a somewhat unique situation to know this. My wife has been a teacher for a school district in the Sacramento area for 5 years and is the California Teachers Association. She makes 40,000 a year. My step-son just married a girl my wife introduced to him who has been a secretary for the CTA in Sacramento for less than 5 years and she makes over 75,000 a year.
We know this because we have been pooling our resources to buy houses and property in the areas just outside Sacramento which is booming like crazy.
So I have mixed feelings about Unions. But mostly I despise them.
But Wal-Mart is China's eighth largest trading partner! What's bad about that? (/sarcasm)
Yes, that's sarcasm. San Diego is on the edge of bankruptcy thanks to public employee union's out-of-control benefits. We'd all love to be able to buy phantom years we didn't work for our retirements, right? They can. We'd all love to earn up to 100% and more of our maximum salary during retirement, right? They can.
California's public employee unions are allowed to raid paychecks of non-union employees under state law to pay for union activities since the unions negotiations may have an impact on the worker's benefits. We just had a Bush-appointed Federal judge accept this fig-leaf when non-union members tried to stop their own money from being used for politics they opposed.
The major state public employee unions have mined over $118 million from union and non-union workers to attack the governor and stop his common sense reforms including requiring unions to ask workers first before stealing money from paychecks for use in political campaigns. The teachers association has taken loans out against future assessed fees over the next three years. Some are paying $1000 in union dues or more.
It might not be so over there in the toking land of Colorodo, but unions are WAY out of control in this state and have far more political power than the voters themselves.
The CA Border Police initiative is Assemblymen Haynes' work. They need donations, they need signatures.
Some choose to pay out of pocket for their own benefits. You're not owed health care just because you mop the floors at night. Sorry.
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