Antique tractors at Wisconsin protest

[Duffster]

This is union busting.

The union can carry on. How is it busted?

How is it a bad thinng for people to have a choice to join or not? Not that they will really have a choice.

 

[jbooth]

I have no problem with the poorly named "right to work" issue. KS. is a right to work state. Having said that, the people who don't belong are generally the same ones who drink coffee when the coffee fund is paid up and it is free, but carry their coffee in a thermos when it is not. They are also the same ones who whine about government programs while drawing social security, medicare, and taking advantage of every government program that is available. Not a problem, I had no problem fighting for other people's rights and wages. This applied to the ones who were not elgible to belong to a trade union also. The non elgible generally got a percentage better than the union guys just as a lesson to the union.

 

[beenthere]

..........
That having been said, the idea that the workers, union or otherwise, are somehow responsible for the fiscal mismanagement of the state government is ludicrous. There has never been a company, state or nation, go belly up broke because of the workers. Never. So if you're going to address a budget problem by dope slapping personnel, where should you start? Union busting and the like to fix these budget and deficit problems is like taking nitro and thinking you're curing heart disease. Feels good for a little while, but you're still sick...

Whether called "union busting" or not, the apparent fact is that the public employee unions have been collecting dues from ALL employees under the closed shop rules that have been in affect for 40+ years in WI. These dues monies are used to contribute to the campaigns of the Dems and liberal public board members who then make the very contracts with the public employees unions. So it is almost a closed loop for spending tax monies and allowing poor employees to stay on the public payroll.

The present WI bill just signed is to change from closed shop to employees having their choice to support unions with dues, and they will vote every year for the union to represent them. So for unions, feeding at the public trough isn't going to continue. They will no longer (until a new election possibly changes in favor of closed shop) have the big bucks to get their liberals elected and will need to spend their energy winning over the public employees to accept their union to represent them. For the unions, they know that future times will be tough.
And the move may be catching on across this country, as our state budgets have become far in debt, partly because of the closed shop rules.

 

[BeeferMan]

Whether called "union busting" or not, the apparent fact is that the public employee unions have been collecting dues from ALL employees under the closed shop rules that have been in affect for 40+ years in WI. These dues monies are used to contribute to the campaigns of the Dems and liberal public board members who then make the very contracts with the public employees unions. So it is almost a closed loop for spending tax monies and allowing poor employees to stay on the public payroll.

The present WI bill just signed is to change from closed shop to employees having their choice to support unions with dues, and they will vote every year for the union to represent them. So for unions, feeding at the public trough isn't going to continue. They will no longer (until a new election possibly changes in favor of closed shop) have the big bucks to get their liberals elected and will need to spend their energy winning over the public employees to accept their union to represent them. For the unions, they know that future times will be tough.
And the move may be catching on across this country, as our state budgets have become far in debt, partly because of the closed shop rules.

If you included all of my quote in post #26 you'd see that in the first paragraph I'm basically agreeing with you - I don't think public sector unions should be allowed to so strongly influence the election of the people they negotiate with.

However I must point out that not all union contributions got to "Dems and libs". And that union contributions are no different than the upper management of a public corporation using corporate money to support "Reps and righties".

And, regardless of that, I still fully stand by the second paragraph of that post which you did quote. :thumbsup:

 

[sweep]

The Republicans are racing us towards the bottom.. and this is coming from a guy who was a Limbaugh ditto head conservative for years and voted Republican since 1980.

I work in employee benefits and have seen a change for the worse in this country over the last 10 years. Never have I seen employers treat employees as expendibles as they have over the last 10 years and I have been in the business since 1981..and it's getting worse every year. What I see anymore is the owners/key employees doing well while the rank and file just get by.

Employers cried out for years that employees are not trained enough in their profession but yet over the last 10 years when the employee does obtain the advanced degree, technical certification etc in record numbers their job was still outsourced and offshored. American workers are the most productive of any country and yet we still get screwed.

US corporations are sitting on a record $2 trillion in cash and yet many employees are doing the job of 2 employees because the corporations know they can in this weak economic environment. I see this and hear it every day from employees working 12-14 hour days on salary or hourly.

In the early 1970ç—´ the top 2% had around 26% of the wealth of the country. Today it's 84% and the rest of the employees have seen stagnant wages for a decade. There is something wrong with this picture.. we are becoming a two class society.

I realize there have been terrible abuses in unions over the years but what Walker did was to go way beyond what was needed.

Take the Bible thumpers and the gun groups out of the Republican party and all you have left is the greed heads.

I'm trying not to be anti business here but just telling you what I have seen. It's not good. BTW The wife and I run 3 different business.

 

[beenthere]

sweep
Your arguments and conclusions just don't add up.