THE TRUTH ABOUT COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

boblonsberry.com ^ | 04/01/11 | Bob Lonsberry

[shortstop]

Let’s talk collective bargaining.

Let’s set the record straight about what is happening in Ohio and Wisconsin and Indiana and in a few other vestiges of what used to be America.

We have to because the evening news isn’t. As a national controversy seems to rage between government-employee unions and the states that employ them, it’s interesting that the evening news has never actually told us what the fight is about.

So let’s do it right now.

The news says “collective bargaining.”

But collective bargaining about what?

Ripping you off.

Let’s take Ohio as the most recent example. In that state, legislation has gone forward which would strip public-employee unions of the power to collectively bargain for health insurance and retirement.

That’s enough to put union members in the streets with signs.

Ohio will be lucky if they don’t shut down the state Capitol.But let’s look at what this means.

Unions will still be able to collectively bargain for wages and work conditions. Unions can still represent workers in negotiations that have to do with how much people get paid and how long their work days and what their workplace is like.

They can still negotiate for steel-toed boots and a uniform allowance and sick days and how big the raise will be and what the seniority system will be and who can be laid off when. All those things are still on the table and subject to union negotiations.All that’s out of their hands is health insurance and retirement.Two things that are bankrupting state after state. For most levels of government, benefits and retirement are the things that bring out the red ink. The annual growth in expense is astounding.And taxpayers take the hit.

So Ohio is going to say, when it comes to figuring out what health benefits will be offered and how much employees will pay, the union is out of it. Ditto for retirement.Which the unions and the evening news are making out to be crimes against nature.But ask yourself this question: Do you know anybody else who works under those conditions?

Anyone at all?

Where the boss tells them how much they will contribute to their health insurance, and whether they’re going to have a pension or a 401K, and what the employer’s contribution will be?

Does that sound familiar?

Like, how things are done where you work?

In the private sector, this is just the way business is done. Your employer offers health insurance, and you contribute a certain amount. You either take it or you leave it. Your employer offers a pension or a 401k, under terms of his choosing. You either take it or you leave it.That’s how the overwhelming majority of Americans work.That’s how you and I work.

So why should government workers have anything different? Why should the people who make a living off the taxpayers have more rights than the taxpayers themselves?

This is not an injustice being imposed on government workers, it is a prudent protection being instituted for taxpayers. In the workers vs. the government scenario on the evening news, we need to realize that it’s actually a workers vs. you scenario – as it’s your money they are clamoring for more of.

These limitations on collective bargaining don’t diminish rights, they limit theft. They seek to restore balance in labor relations that have swung tyrannically to the advantage of the unions.

And they are a good thing.

Instead of being denounced on the evening news, they should be replicated in state capitols. Wisconsin and Ohio and a couple of others are good starts, but they are not nearly enough.

These are tight financial times, and government is a cancer of American prosperity. Labor costs are the largest part of government, and until they are right sized, our future is downsized. We can’t afford what we’re giving, and they can’t justify what they’re asking.

So let’s bring things back to the real world.

Let’s clip the wings of unions, and return them to their original and beneficial role.

But let’s not let them run the government and empty the treasury.

Not anymore.

[econjack]

Personally, I'd put everything on the line. Public unions are not supposed to have the right to strike, but it remains a weapon of use in all collective bargaining sessions. Also, it's almost impossible to fire a public employee. Indeed, if you're holding a smoking gun and there's a dead body at your feet, the gov’t probably still can't fire you. Reagan had it right when he dismantled the air traffic controllers. By definition, public employment involves work that should not be interrupted. If you're unhappy with your public job, quit and find another one, but don't expect me as a tax payer to support your holding the rest of us hostage.

[Travis McGee]

[OCCASparky]

Throw New Hampshire into that mix as well. The Legislature just passed a budget which effectively ends the "collective bargaining" ripoff, and none too soon.

Of course, the union thugs (including the ones they bussed in from out of state) were none too happy about it.

[Red Badger]

The problem with “collective bargaining” is.....it’s “collective”.................

[unbiasedtruth]

There’s also the policy in many public union shops where an employee can accumulate sick days. Say, they work 15 years and have only taken a couple of days off sick. When they retire, they get paid for all those unused sick days at their current rate. How many private employers off such a plan???

I get up to 7 sick days a year (which is pretty good). If I don’t use them all, they don’t roll over. I lose them. That’s the way most private businesses operate. That’s the way public employers should also operate!

I also receive 4 weeks (20 days) paid vacation each year (after 18-years of employment). I can roll over five unused vacation days per year. If at the end of the year I still have 8 days of vacation days left, I lose three. I can’t roll them over, year after year, and accumulate 10, 20, 30 weeks of unused vacation days and get paid for those days at my current rate.

[mbs6]

Rolling back collective bargaining is good, and no doubt it angers the unions. But the issue that has them and their Dem buddies so panicked and willing to subvert the law is that the new law in Wisconsin significantly alters the way public unions get their money. No more will the state be collecting dues for and remitting them to the unions. Now, the unions will have to collect their own dues and they can longer use union dues as a condition of employment. This explains the actions of the fleebaggers. They are afraid that the revolving door of cash between Dem politicians and their union thugs is about to be slammed shut, or at least partially closed.

[Wuli]

ping

[Beagle8U]

Not only can public employees in unions build up sick and vacation days, when they get ready to retire they can cash them in, and work tons of overtime to bump up their last year of work's wage.

Their retirement will be based on that bloated last year wage! It often will double their retirement, all at the ripe old age of 50-55.

Their are teachers in Michigan that retire at 55 with $80, 000.00 a year plus paid insurance for life.

They do have to put in grueling 6 1/2 hr days 180 days a year though.

[Beagle8U]

I forgot to mention, those bloated pentions are tax free too.

[Beagle8U]

* penSions

[rockrr]

I know guys who have accumulated 240+ “sick days” that they will cash in at retirement.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Also, it's almost impossible to fire a public employee.

When the federal government started issuing credit cards to certain employees so that they could make government purchases for items up to $2,500.00 on their own, there was an employee in Florida who was caught making purchases of personal items, like furniture, that amounted to quite a lot of money. Instead of firing her they promoted her. Her new job? Regional supervisor of credit card purchasing!

[econjack]

Aw, man...I didn’t want to hear that...