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Unions' Approval at Lowest Point Since 1981, Poll Finds
CNS News ^ | September 1, 2006 | Randy Hall

Posted on 09/03/2006 4:56:53 PM PDT by takeemout

Unions' Approval at Lowest Point Since 1981, Poll Finds By Randy Hall CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor September 01, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - A new Zogby poll has some unwelcome Labor Day news for union officials: Approval of unions is at its lowest point since 1981, and almost three-quarters of workers in the U.S. say they don't want to belong to a labor union.

"These results help explain the continued decline of union membership and do not bode well for the future of unions," said David Denholm, president of the conservative Public Service Research Foundation (PSRF), which studies labor unions and union influence on public policy.

"Working Americans realize that unionism isn't in their best interests," Denholm told Cybercast News Service.

In conducting the poll for the PSRF, Zogby International interviewed 803 employed persons selected to accurately represent the demographics of the general American population, Denholm said.

When asked, "In general, do you approve of labor unions?" only 55 percent replied affirmatively. When asked, "Would you personally like to be a member of a labor union?" 74 percent said "No."

(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: electionyear; polls; unions
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To: hardworking

Get rid of the unions and the pay for quality teachers goes up. A community that wants a decent education for its kids will pay through the nose by way of property taxes.

Some communities are already hanging on by a thread. This will push them over the edge.


41 posted on 09/03/2006 5:57:26 PM PDT by durasell (!)
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To: cinives

WOW where do you live?


42 posted on 09/03/2006 6:04:17 PM PDT by okstate
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To: anthropos
I agree that most unions have served their purpose, but I do still feel that teacher's unions are important...teachers consist of one of our most vital assets, and are horribly underpaid for their work. Service workers unions, I really don't have enough facts on to make a call yet, but industrial unions are more or less irrelevant now.

what a line of BS.......It's the teachers unions and the civil service unions that are bankrupting NY State. The Taylor law, tribourough amendment and wickes law will be the demise of this state. I don't know where you live but don't ask to loudly, you just may get it.

43 posted on 09/03/2006 6:04:24 PM PDT by The Mayor ( http://albanysinsanity.com/)
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To: durasell
So what do unions have to do with quality education? Seems to me that the teachers get screwed paying dues. Same as government run agencies. Administrative expenses. Unions perform no service to society in terms of production or transfer of knowledge.

Yes, as you can see, I am an ultra Conservative. It's my business background. One who had to engage competition in the private sector to grow a business and employee people.

44 posted on 09/03/2006 6:10:31 PM PDT by Cobra64 (All we get are lame ideas from Republicans and lame criticism from dems about those lame ideas.)
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To: anthropos

Anyone have any figures on how many members of the NEA are actually horribly underpaid teachers, and how many are horribly overpaid administrators, bureaucrats, and other conduits for siphoning membership dues to the DNC et al.?


45 posted on 09/03/2006 6:13:10 PM PDT by Tenniel (Never explain. Your friends don’t need it, and your enemies won’t believe it anyway. – E. Hubbard)
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To: durasell

The problem is that School Boards and City Governments are filled with bureaucrats who don't have a clue about managing money or running a 'business'. The very schools for which they can't seem to be able to find the funds to hire teachers are usually surrounded by businesses who are able to hire and attract people to work. The property taxes collected in most communities are adequate to run the 'business' of the schools; there just aren't any skilled 'money managers' to run the schools.


46 posted on 09/03/2006 6:17:41 PM PDT by hardworking (Sneak up on a Muslim - pray for their conversion to Christianity)
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To: Cobra64

It can smooth out the bumps and humps between districts. Not all of them, but some.

Once you apply a business model to education, you set districts in competition against each other. The rich ones will snatch up the more qualified and effective teachers while the poor ones will take on the scraps.

Poor quality education can impact property values and attractiveness of a town, surburb, etc. for those in their prime earning years, i.e. young couples. So, you end up with a lower tax base, which leads to even less pay for teachers.

Let me say, I beieve this is where we're heading anyway, unions or no unions. It'll just take longer with unions.


47 posted on 09/03/2006 6:18:04 PM PDT by durasell (!)
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To: hardworking

City Governments aren't running a business. They're running a city government. I'd suggest that while the skill set may be similar, the goals are different.

That said, I think you're right. Many city managers seem kind of incompetent.


48 posted on 09/03/2006 6:20:39 PM PDT by durasell (!)
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To: anthropos

Teachers' unions today are the instruments of socialism. They embrace causes that have nothing to do with education, and spend their members' (compulsory) dues to promote them.

They are also conspiring to raise a generation of ahistorical mush-heads, and their performance is the proof.


49 posted on 09/03/2006 6:40:55 PM PDT by The Old Hoosier (Right makes might.)
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To: anthropos
What planet are you from? Did you see 20/20 this weekend with John Stossel? With teacher's unions we get worsening test scores and demands for more money. The New York Teachers Union just got a 15% pay raise. For what? They're not held accountable. Yeah they get reviews but they all pass. I'd sure love to see charter schools and the education funds assigned to the student not the school.
50 posted on 09/03/2006 6:42:58 PM PDT by Plains Drifter (America First, Last, and Always!!!)
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To: Plains Drifter

I just looked up the NYC thing. It was 15% over five years or something. Three percent a year isn't great.

I know for a fact that test scores in some NYC schools are rising, but NYC is a special case. What works in NYC doesn't work for the rest of the country.


51 posted on 09/03/2006 6:46:52 PM PDT by durasell (!)
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To: anthropos
teachers consist of one of our most vital assets, and are horribly underpaid for their work. Service workers unions

What a load of crap.

52 posted on 09/03/2006 6:53:51 PM PDT by xrp (Fox News Channel: MISSING WHITE GIRL NETWORK)
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To: anthropos

If teacher's unions are so useful why after all of these years of existence are teachers "underpaid"? If teachers' unions supported innovative ways to measure teacher performance and actually cared about implementing a culture of excellence, I may actually support them. They don't, so I don't.


53 posted on 09/03/2006 6:54:32 PM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace
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To: durasell

I would go one step further and say, city governments seem to be trying to be as anti-business as possible. The fundamentals are the same as businesses are faced with every day: 1. deliver a product that is quality and on time 2. utilize the best 'raw materials' available 3. hire the best people at a competitive rate 4. Adjust, adjust, adjust as market trends, raw materials and available labor fluctuates. Another way of putting this is to say, cut costs, reduce overhead, examine how to get better 'raw materials' at lower cost. I was on an educational board once and I quickly became thoroughly disgusted. They spent more time trying to decide what color napkins to have at the annual teacher appreciation luncheon than they ever spent talking about facilities, teacher pay etc. Also, they were incapable of evaluating a problem from an economic cost-product perspective. In short, they were complete dolts who would have been eaten alive in the business world. And the children who are forced to attend these pathetic schools are the victims of these silly people. As you can tell, I am not even remotely objective when it comes to this subject.


54 posted on 09/03/2006 6:55:30 PM PDT by hardworking (Sneak up on a Muslim - pray for their conversion to Christianity)
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To: stm

Escambia county is fairly affordable, but if you really want a raise, move to Clay or Duval county (good conservative counties). Starting pay for both is over $35k.


55 posted on 09/03/2006 6:56:58 PM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace

If teachers' unions supported innovative ways to measure teacher performance and actually cared about implementing a culture of excellence,

At the risk of offending, I will say that when I was in college it was the social losers who were majoring in 'education'. I doubt that it has changed and from my long-distance perspective it appears that the crowd has expanded to include the tree-hugger, pot-smoking, socialist drop-outs. Now hit me.


56 posted on 09/03/2006 6:57:49 PM PDT by hardworking (Sneak up on a Muslim - pray for their conversion to Christianity)
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To: anthropos
one mark from a student who complained that he didn't wear a wedding band even though he was married (a personal choice he and his wife of 20-some odd years had made) and the second mark from a student who whined about him having the American flag up in the room (which I always thought was standard in every classroom in the country...least it was in my day, probably yours too). I'm sorry, but I call Bulls--t on this one. For real.
57 posted on 09/03/2006 6:58:00 PM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace
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To: hardworking

There are some of those types, but there are also many caring people (mostly females) who do it for the right reason.


58 posted on 09/03/2006 6:59:40 PM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace
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To: martin_fierro
Now, how can you say that

Perfect picture. Hilarious. My compliments.

59 posted on 09/03/2006 7:08:10 PM PDT by laotzu
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To: hardworking

I'd add that a lot of city governments can't see beyond their own borders. Even small manufacturing facilities can do a brisk international business.


60 posted on 09/03/2006 7:10:33 PM PDT by durasell (!)
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