Posted on 02/28/2011 6:00:43 AM PST by re_tail20
What we are witnessing in Wisconsin and elsewhere is the death knell of Big Labor. Once upon a time, most Americans could identify the head of the AFL-CIO. He was George Meany, the cigar-chomping ex-plumber who ran the union federation from 1955 to 1979. He was one of the nation's great power brokers, much quoted and wooed by presidents. It's doubtful that as many Americans can name Meany's present successor. (Answer: Richard Trumka, ex-head of the mine workers' union.)
The American labor movement has been in eclipse for decades, but public- sector unions were one of its few remaining bastions. Now, their power too is waning. States and localities face long-term budget squeezes. Labor costs represent roughly half of their spending, notes the Cato Institute's Chris Edwards. Pension and retiree health benefits are underfunded. Teachers' unions are being pressed to weed out poor performers. All these unions are on the defensive. Critics are less Republicans than taxpayers and parents.
It's hard for us to recall now how dominant unions were immediately after World War II. By the mid-1950s, unions represented 36 percent of private-sector workers. Most major industries were organized: railroads, coal, steel, autos, telephones, tires, airlines, trucking. Strikes in crucial industries constantly threatened to hobble the entire economy, though in practice, companies stockpiled steel and coal in advance of contract expirations, and Congress cut short railroad strikes.
Even this understates unions' influence. Most small businesses weren't worth organizing, and large, nonunion firms were so fearful of being organized that many paralleled union demands in their own pay and personnel policies. Wages rose annually, reflecting inflation plus a bit more; fringe benefits (pensions, health insurance, vacations) expanded; seniority prevailed in wages to minimize arbitrary favoritism.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Unions have become obsolete.
Unions drive businesses into bankruptcy.
They did that with the US Steel and textile industries just to name two.
Uniond drive businesses overseas.
Unions do not create jobs, they actually eliminate jobs for Americans.
Union members need to wake up.
Union members dues are being wasted and misspent by their unions.
Union members should hold their unions accountable.
Their only hope was to get Card Check and a bunch of other radical labor law changes crammed thru while Pelosi reigned.
Since it is not looking like there will be strong Democrat majorities again anytime soon, stick a fork in ‘em.
No Freebies, No Peace. That says it all. Think I’ll go to a counter-protest with a sign like that.
Temper-tantrum babies need some serious time out.
Note that every one of the industries listed:
is a highly capital intensive industry. All rely on very expensive assets, and in the case of the first six, those assets are fixed in space; they cannot easily be moved once they are built.
Labor laws changed rapidly as the Great Depression became a bitter memory during the post-WWII period, giving labor some huge advantages over capital and management. Labor was, essentially, able to hold Capital hostage, forcing management to accept unsustainable financial concessions. This created an opening for foreign competition on several (Coal, Steel, Automotive, and Tires), fragmentation and displacement by mechanization (Telephones, Trucking, and Railroads), and dramatic cutbacks in service levels (Airlines).
The industries in which America remains dominant are industries in which Capital is owned by individual workers, like Software; that capital is intellectual capital, which is very difficult to keep consolidated for anything approaching a permanent timeframe.
Labor law changes have made it almost impossible for traditional capital-intensive industries to consolidate and, thereby, achieve economies of scale, at least while remaining within the borders of the United States.
Today the steel industry is either gone or totally different then before. Yet the Steelworkers still exists.
To stay alive and breathing the union remade its self.
Locally, we have few union companies but the most prevalent union seems to be steel workers. They make glass, they make water heaters, they make air conditioner compressors. They tried to engage health care workers but failed
When the dust settles and the last protester is gone, the law will be passed and WI unions will have lost and with that defeat the "Bell will have tolled" for public unions every where.
This outrageous demonstration of arrogance and childish behavior has exposed the public unions to the general public, and most don't like what they see.
This is the beginning of the end for the demonRAT cash cow.
This money won't stop overnight, but once started, it won't be reversed, and the money flow will become a trickle.
Yeah, they've latched on to the biggest fixed, capital-intensive asset of all: government, at state and federal levels. With the connivance of Democrats (and some stupid RINO Republicans) they've set up to where they can hold the taxpayers hostage, with the help of elected representatives.
The worst thing organized labor ever could have done was exert influence in the political system to force government-imposed mandates for things that were once critical elements of a collective bargaining process. Once OSHA was instituted, the need for unions to strive for safe workplaces diminished. Social Security and Medicare diminish the need for pensions and medical coverage for retirees. And once ObamaCare is instituted, companies will no longer have to bend to pressure from unions to provide medical coverage for workers.
In fact, the U.S. government has so completely capitulated to union political pressure that people no longer need unions to advocate for them anymore.
Don’t forget Walter Reuther and the UAW and the largest Local in Dearborn, MI Local 600.
The people who run the unions know this. That's why theyv'e set it up so that people in union workplaces have to pay dues whether they want to or not, and whether they choose to be in the union or not. Their dues are deducted from their paychecks so they become "invisible," just like federal and state taxes.
That is the key to the puzzle.
No money from the feds mean that the large blue states, run by demonRATs will collapse under their own weight.
The laws of economics apply to all and if you can't get {or print} more money, you will fail.
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