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Public workers facing outrage as budget crises grow
MSNBC ^ | 01/01/2011 | Michael Powell

Posted on 01/01/2011 8:29:26 PM PST by Immerito

FLEMINGTON, N.J. — Ever since Marie Corfield’s confrontation with Gov. Chris Christie this fall over the state’s education cuts became a YouTube classic, she has received a stream of vituperative e-mails and Facebook postings.

“People I don’t even know are calling me horrible names,” said Ms. Corfield, an art teacher who had pleaded the case of struggling teachers. “The mantra is that the problem is the unions, the unions, the unions.”

Across the nation, a rising irritation with public employee unions is palpable, as a wounded economy has blown gaping holes in state, city and town budgets, and revealed that some public pension funds dangle perilously close to bankruptcy. In California, New York, Michigan and New Jersey, states where public unions wield much power and the culture historically tends to be pro-labor, even longtime liberal political leaders have demanded concessions — wage freezes, benefit cuts and tougher work rules.

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; US: New Jersey
KEYWORDS: economy; flemington; newjersey; parasites; unioncorruption; uniongoons; unions; unionslakers; uselessthugs
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1 posted on 01/01/2011 8:29:29 PM PST by Immerito
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To: Immerito

And elsewhere in the news, under the leadership of president Obama and his supporters......


2 posted on 01/01/2011 8:33:24 PM PST by EagleUSA
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To: Immerito

Just think if the media was not so corrupt including ALL of TV including Fox which has Rove on their shilling for Obama - these unions would be hanging from posts.


3 posted on 01/01/2011 8:33:35 PM PST by Frantzie (Slaves do not have freedom only the illusion of freedom & their cable TV to drool at)
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To: Immerito
“People I don’t even know are calling me horrible names,” said Ms. Corfield, an art teacher who had pleaded the case of struggling teachers.

Let me join in, Ms. Corfield. You're a clueless twit.

4 posted on 01/01/2011 8:40:09 PM PST by Huntress (Who the hell are you to tell me what's in my best interests?)
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To: Immerito

Boo effing hoo.

I have no respect for anyone in the “teaching” union.


5 posted on 01/01/2011 8:40:49 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: Immerito
“People I don’t even know are calling me horrible names,” said Ms. Corfield, an art teacher who had pleaded the case of struggling teachers. “The mantra is that the problem is the unions, the unions, the unions.”

Simple question - what are the unions doing to better serve the costumers?

For public employee unions, particularly those in the education realm, what is the union doing to make yyour products better - more children educated to a level that allows them to compete in a global marketplace.

If teacher X can't answer that, then teacher X should rethink where the dues are going and the kind of policies that the union supported elected officials back.

Public employee unions are a problem, plain and simple.

6 posted on 01/01/2011 8:41:07 PM PST by !1776!
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To: Immerito
What part of the Federal, State, and Local governments are BROKE do the PUBLIC workers don't understand?

Who payes their salaries?

These public worker clowns are FOOLS.

7 posted on 01/01/2011 8:42:30 PM PST by VRWC For Truth (Throw the bums out who vote yes on the bailout)
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To: Frantzie

Reagan did it. He busted the air flight controller’s union. Time to do the same to the rest of these unionized government workers. They should have never been allowed to unionize in the first place.


8 posted on 01/01/2011 8:44:03 PM PST by MsLady (If you died tonight, where would you go? Salvation, don't leave earth without it!)
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To: Immerito

“Waiting for Superman” should be required viewing for all Americans.


9 posted on 01/01/2011 8:45:36 PM PST by Ev Reeman
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To: Immerito

I love this one.
Public employees are getting owned

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_itVyZKmrM&feature=related


10 posted on 01/01/2011 8:46:15 PM PST by netmilsmom (Happiness is a choice.)
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To: VRWC For Truth

I have the greatest respect for teachers... but they need to remember who pays for their salaries. And the fact is public workers are now facing hard times like every one else. We need can no longer afford to give them whatever they ask.


11 posted on 01/01/2011 8:46:33 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Immerito

Public employee unions are the barbarian hordes of our time.


12 posted on 01/01/2011 8:47:39 PM PST by Psycho_Bunny (Hail To The Fail-In-Chief)
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To: !1776!

Excellent question. :-)


13 posted on 01/01/2011 8:50:09 PM PST by Immerito (Reading Through the Bible in 90 Days)
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To: Immerito

NJ teachers union last year collected $120 million in dues. FUNDED BY THE TAX PAYERS!!!!


14 posted on 01/01/2011 8:51:32 PM PST by Luigi Vasellini (End the political class.......TERM LIMITS NOW!!!!!!!!!!)
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To: Immerito
I've seen too many people using a very broad brush when blaming public workers for the financial woes of the cities and states. I would be the first to say some of it is justified, but much of it is not. I'm a county employee with the water and sewer division. Non-union, instrumentation (electrical/electronic) technician working high voltage/high current circuits controlled through a SCADA network. I make less than 20$ an hour. To cut costs, we lost 40% of our manpower. We haven't had a pay raise in 4 years. However the number of sewer lift stations, water wells, elevated water tanks, and ground water tanks didn't decrease by 40%. Last week we did initial start-up on another lift station, this brings the total up to 148 lift stations for less than 5 people. Stand-by call outs at all hours of the night and weekend, almost like being in the military again.

The point I'm trying to make is that there are many public/state/city/county employees that work hard for the little that they earn. If you don't think I earn what I work for, open a backed-up lift station at 1:30am and get it working before it overflows (15 minutes or less). I work with some very conscientious people who do understand it's the taxpayers we work for, not the county commissioners. I do get upset when comments are made that 'all public employees' are crooks.

15 posted on 01/01/2011 8:52:05 PM PST by Traveler59 (Truth is a journey, not a destination.)
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To: Immerito
People are calling her horrible names because of her horrible attitude.

What made people despise her is the moment in the video where the Governor is attempting to give a reasoned, multi-part answer to her question and she sneers and cackles rather than listening to his response.

Her condescension, egotism and unjustifiable sense of entitlement were revealed at that moment.

Union employees believe that the reason why taxpayers, employers and customers exist is to provide them with whatever they happen to fancy, in perpetuity, while their job is to do the absolute least amount of work required and to do it at the last possible moment while displaying the worst attitude they can as they do it.

16 posted on 01/01/2011 8:54:27 PM PST by wideawake
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To: !1776!
>If teacher X can't answer that, then teacher X should rethink where the dues are going and the kind of policies that the union supported elected officials back.

You are joking, right?
The teachers know exactly what they are supporting.

The National Education Association's just-retired General Counsel Bob Chanin:

“Despite what some among us would like to believe, it is not because of our creative ideas.
It is not because of the merit of our positions.
It is not because we care about children.
And it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child.

NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power.
And we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year because they believe that we are the unions that can most effectively represent them, the unions that can protect their rights and advance their interests as education employees.”

As legendary New York teachers union leader Albert Shanker said:

“When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2522178/posts

17 posted on 01/01/2011 8:55:23 PM PST by bill1952 (Choice is an illusion created between those with power - and those without)
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To: Immerito
Robert Master, political director for the Communication Workers of America District 1, which represents 40,000 state workers, speaks to that difficulty.

“The subtext of Christie’s message to a lot of people is that ‘you’re paying for benefits you’ll never have,’ ” he says. “Our challenge is how to defend middle-class health and retirement security, not just for our members but for all working families, when over the past 30 years retirement and health care in the private sector have been essentially demolished.”

Another clueless communist that doesn't know wtf is going on.

Maybe we should try and ask Mr Master just WHY retirement and healthcare for "all working families" in the private sector have "been essentially demolished" over the past 30 years.

18 posted on 01/01/2011 8:57:34 PM PST by VeniVidiVici (My baloney has a first name, it's DEMOCRAT; my baloney has a second name, it's PARTY)
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To: Traveler59

“for the little that they earn”

Try telling that to the good people of Bell, California...


19 posted on 01/01/2011 8:57:40 PM PST by Ev Reeman
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To: Ev Reeman

Thanks for the reference, I saw the trailer and will be watching the movie as soon as I get the chance!


20 posted on 01/01/2011 9:01:24 PM PST by JDW11235 (I think I got it now!)
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