Exposing Public Secto Unions

PensionTsunami.com ^ | 6/10/2009 | Ed Ring

[Pru]

Exposing Public Sector Unions Several years ago a consummate Sacramento insider told me “unions run this town,” and subsequent research and observations have confirmed to me the truth of this statement. Slowly, very slowly, this reality, and the disastrous fiscal consequences of this reality, are being recognized. Criticizing unions is still something responsible people do with some reservations, after all, in the 19th and through much of the 20th century, unions played a vital role in securing basic worker’s rights. These contributions should not be dismissed. But unions today, especially in the public sector, are a different beast entirely. In our current anti-capitalist political climate, unions are getting far less criticism than they deserve, particularly because in the case of state, city and county governments, the unchecked power of public sector unions are almost the sole reason we have a fiscal crisis. Here are some points to consider:

[Pru]

Unbelievable. Criminal actually.

[Randy Larsen]

As a member of a public union in in Ca., I hate the fact that MY union dues are used to back politicians I personally refuse to support!

The unions Are the problem, not the workers or at least all the workers.

Public sector unions are “Closed Shop”, which means pay your dues or you don’t have a job. We have no control over where our union dues are spent.

BTW, All unions operate this way!, The only thing they can’t control is our individual votes at the ballot box, but they sure try to!

[Eva]

If the union workers elected different, better officers, changes could be made. As it is, members of public sector unions are the enemy.

If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Unions killed the steel industry, they did a pretty good job of killing the US auto industry and now Obama wants to use the unions to run our health care.

Anyone who likes what the UAW did to GM, will love what the SEIU will do to health care.

Unions are a criminal organization.

[Ken H]

"5,115 retired California government workers receive pensions in excess of $100,000 from CalPERS. They're all listed here."

http://www.californiapensionreform.com/calpers/

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There were more than 38,000 CA state employees who made over $100,000 in 2007. Those salaries are here:

http://b2.caspio.com/dp.asp?AppKey=92721000f5a6h1f9a6j5j3d3f5d5

_________________________________________

You can view the same data for many northern CA cities and counties here. Scroll down to the links under "Salaries":

http://www.sfgate.com/data/

[pcpa]

Unions have killed every industry they have become involved in.

Railroads, Airline, Auto, Steel, Coal, Garment workers and now Government employees.

In every case their demands became more and unreasonable and eventually they killed the very industry thier workers were involved in.

I saw it up close and personal in the coal industry and they worked less, produced less cost more and when the did not get their way were petulant children.

I will never forget 1 mine where the operating costs to mine were $80 per ton and the operator could only sell the coal for $20 per ton. Would the miners take any cut in pay at all - NO. They were told what would happen and the miners did not believe the company would do what they did - CLOSE, and close they did.

This has been repeated in every industry that you can chose where the union is involved. The do not understand the laws of economics have consequences just like the laws of physics.

Just try and ignoring the law of gravity, jump off a building without a parachute, YOU WILL HIT THE GROUND and D*** Hard depending on how high a building you jump from.

Economics works the same way, spend more than you bring in and there is a consequence - YOU GO BROKE.

[genghis]

some facts
ge has 70,000 employees each year 7000 ae fired.
NYc has 70,000 teachers. In a ten year period, 19 were fired. Now with those odds do you think just maybe, nyc teachers don’t give their full effort?
Have you ever seen a stressed out bureacrat??
btw- i teach high school and am grateful for the taxpayers money. i am shocked that they give so much and demand so little.

[Eva]

AFL-CIO unions control politics. SEIU public sector unions have a symbiotic relationship with the Democrat Party to control the public.

I believe that the goal of the SEIU unions is to force a huge tax increase by getting a court to enforce the union contracts. The SEIU is in the process of taking over all the medical unions, not just the nursing home workers and day care workers. Once they get control of our health care, it will be disastrous. It will create an adversarial relationship between the care giver and the patient, much like we have between the teachers union and the parents, with the government sitting as the arbiters.

[Eva]

The difference with the public sector unions is that the public is on the opposite side of the negotiating table with the politicians doing the forced arbitration and signing the contracts. There is a great danger of creating an adversarial relationship between the union workers and the public, especially in the health care unions, which are being taken over by the SEIU.

[Randy Larsen]

I agree with every word you said but please consider one thing. You can only vote for those on the ballot.

I don’t vote for any because they are all corrupt!

[Eva]

Run for a union office, yourself. Start an open dialogue with co-workers about the fact that union officers don’t really represent the workers, they represent a political agenda that benefits politicians. Call for transparency on where the dues are being spent. Demand an audit.