I’m distressed by the fact that the narrative currently in vogue, (even among conservatives, and this is horrifying for what it means for the future of the country) seems to run like this,
“Public sector unions are REALLY bad. There are some bad things in private sector unions, too, but they aren’t pure evil like public sector unions. Private sector unions, especially at the turn of the century, were actually pretty good.”
This is pure BS! It is very, very, very scary when, even here on FR, for Pete’s sake, people do not recognize ALL UNIONS AS GOVERNMENT SANCTIONED THEFT OF PRIVATE PROPERTY FOR THE PURPOSE OF BUYING DEMOCRAT VOTES. I expect ignorance of this fact elsewhere, but here on FR??????????????????????
Here’s how the purely evil, anti-American, communistic, welfare-begging private sector unions work…..
I set up a business, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY (my capital and/or cash money).
I pay for the space, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
I pay the taxes using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
I supply the parts and inventory, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
I pay for the insurance, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
I pay the labor, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
I recruit, hire, and advertise, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY.
Oftentimes an entire life’s savings (MY PRIVATE PROPERTY) is at stake.
My future, my standing in the community, my credit, and MY PRIVATE PROPERTY are all at stake.
If I fail, I stand a good chance of being economically crippled for life.
One day, on MY PRIVATE PROPERTY that I own and acquired using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY, one of my employers, who is only in my presence because of the risk of MY PRIVATE PROPERTY, comes to me and says, “Here’s the story, Bub. From this moment forward I am going to begin organizing your other employees to work AGAINST YOUR PRIVATE INTERESTS and do everything in our power to TAKE BY FORCE AS MUCH OF YOUR PRIVATE PROPERTY AS WE CAN GET OUR HANDS ON. We are going to spend a great deal of time and effort ORGANIZING AGAINST YOUR INTERESTS TO DO EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER TO GROW STRONGER AT YOUR EXPENSE, IN ORDER TO TAKE YOUR MONEY. You might as well have your business competitors working here on the shop floor. If you do not agree to our demands, we will go on strike, make your life miserable, harass and threaten and/or MURDER IN COLD BLOOD anybody you may want to hire in our place.”
Now the one and ONLY way that such a thing could EVER take place is for the government to step in and say, “Mr. Employer, if you fire this union man, you are going to jail.” Plainly and simply, no union could ever exist in a free society. Yes, in a free society, you should be able to form and join a union of any type at any time for any purpose whatsoever. AND YOUR EMPLOYER SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIRE YOUR HAPPY ASS IN A HEARTBEAT FOR DOING SO. FREEDOM IS A TWO WAY STREET.
I find this ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Truly. A man strolls onto the PRIVATE PROPERTY of another man and tells him how he will employ his PRIVATE PROPERTY going forward, OR ELSE!, and hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people the world over think that the first man is not only somehow better than sub-human filth, they actually see him as a hero! To me, this is one of the most perverse and mystifying examples of twisted human thinking the world has ever seen. I can’t say it enough; you come onto my PRIVATE PROPERTY, and bargain with me, using the THREAT OF GOVERNMENT SANCTIONED FORCE, about how much of my PRIVATE PROPERTY you will allow me to keep! And this is somehow acceptable?
As I say, even conservatives, (who have escaped the liberal brainwashing that begins when we are still in the womb on guns, race, US history, etc., etc., and do not subscribe to the easy notions that are so readily picked up by the unthinking) seem to fall for this trap. Seem to believe that…“The work place is filled with mean managers and mean bosses who were/are really mean to kids and women and workers and paid them pennies instead of the legitimate millions that they were REALLY worth, making evil white male capitalists even richer, and they enslaved them and coerced them and made them work real hard and were really, really mean. THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for the government stepping in and saving women and children from mean bosses and really mean white capitalist men.”
Needless to say, each and every single word of that narrative is as totally false and ridiculous as the liberal narrative on US history, or bad guns, or evil white men. If you know people who believe that stuff, you cannot help them. Do not waste your breath on them, do not do their research for them; have them read Sowell or Williams or von Hayek, or von Mises, or Friedman, or even Stossel when they write of “sweatshops” either in today’s 3rd world or in America at the turn of the century.
General strike?
Sounds like mass firings are in order. Lots of people need jobs.
They need to also recall the Dem Secretary of State who is now refusing to affix his signature to the law that Scott Walker just signed so that it will stay bottled up.
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It it’s a class war, then Moore will go into hiding.
Public employees make up 15 percent of the work force but lay claim to more than a third of the nation’s $9.3 trillion in pension assets.
People here will fight back because they think their cause is moral.
The gravy train is now out of fuel.
No, it’s not class war, it’s ideological war... between the givers and the takers... and the givers are taking their givings back.
CHAMPION NEWS.NET
Job Stress: Comparing teaching with other occupations (Part 1)
Posted: March 06, 2011
Editor’s note: Back by popular demand and in light of the events in Wisconsin, this series of articles from last year is being reposted for your reading pleasure.
By John Sullivan
It is hardly unusual for employees in any field to complain about stress related to their jobs. Teachers are certainly no exception, but what are actual job stressors and do teachers suffer more than most? This is an important issue because job stress should have a relationship to compensation.
For example, it would be argued that running backs in the NFL deserve high compensation because their average working life in that position is very short. It could be argued that air traffic controllers deserve high compensation because they spend their entire working day with the lives of others in their hands. It is difficult to list or even imagine all job stressors, but an incomplete list follows.
1. Loss of job.
2. Low pay.
3. Uncertain pay.
4. Uncertain working hours.
5.Weekend work.
6. Little vacation time.
7. Work related travel.
8. Safety on the job.
9. Responsibility for employees.
10. Uncertainty of raises.
11. Saving for retirement.
12. Late retirement.
13. Job relocation.
14. Increased regulation and paperwork.
15. Problems with customers.
“Loss of job” is considered the most important stressor and can come about in many ways, including product obsolescence, structural unemployment, job elimination, discharge, etc. How many autoworkers, steelworkers, keypunch operators, tech employees and so on lose their jobs? The numbers are usually announced in the tens of thousands. Due to tenure, union protection, and leverage against parents, teacher job loss is almost nil. I read recently that 46% of employees are afraid of losing their job. I would guess that few of these are teachers.
Low pay would certainly not be a source of job stress for teachers. Teachers are required to work about six hours a day, five days a week, 180 days a year with 15 paid sick days per year that can be accumulated. They may-or may not- work additional hours for no pay. On a monthly basis, the average teacher makes 2-3 times what a private-sector employee makes with similar credentials.
The amount of pay is known, sometimes years in advance. Compare this to a commission-only salesman of business software that works now for an uncertain payoff six months from now or perhaps a trader on the Chicago Exchange who might make $10,000 today and lose $10,000 tomorrow. These are occupations where “uncertain pay” is truly a job stressor!
Most people have jobs that require flexibility re working hours. Construction workers might find out on Friday that they have to work until the job is done. Attorneys might find out that an important case means that they cannot take any time off indefinitely. Pilots may get stuck on the other side of the world due to snow in Chicago. These are certainly job stressors, but not for teachers.
In that vein, it is certainly stressful to realize that your employer considers your weekends off to be optional. How many employees have to change their weekend plans because they have to work? Do Chicago snow-plowing personnel get to enjoy the weekend off during a blizzard? Not if they want to keep their jobs! In contrast, I have never heard of a teacher who was required to work on a weekend.
Typically, in the private sector, one receives a week of vacation after the first year of employment, followed by two weeks after five years, three weeks after ten years, and four weeks after twenty-five years. The private sector of this country works more hours per year than every other developed nation in the world. I know people who haven’t had a week off in ten years. Teachers have about four months off per year beginning immediately. My guess is that “lack of vacation time” is not a stressor for teachers.
Travel, while always a stressor, has become much more so due to increased security at airports. I used to travel moderately in my career, but I certainly wouldn’t want to today. In other words, I would have to receive a lot more compensation to take a job that required travel. Teachers do not have this stressor.
Teachers have some safety concerns in the workplace. Teachers can be assaulted like anyone else and there is always the possibility of accidents. This is a stressor for anyone either on or off the job. However, teachers do not work with machinery or equipment, around hazardous or dangerous materials, come into contact with dangerous people like policemen do, work underground, underwater or high in the air, or have any kind of activity that would be considered inherently dangerous. They do not have to evade tacklers or work for a contractor in Iraq. They do not lose arms or legs on the job. As a job class, teaching must be among the safest.
Up next: Part 2.
Job Stress: Comparing teaching with other occupations (Part 2)
Posted: March 09, 2011
http://www.championnews.net/article.php?sid=3211
John Sullivan has an MBA from NIU and has 20 years of management experience supervising both union and non-union labor. He currently resides in Palatine, Illinois.