Mike Thompson: The war on public employee unions

"the remaining 80% of Americans were left to divvy up just 6% of the wealth created since the early 1980s." That's funny, because I can't seem to recall when wealth was "divvied up" in this country. No, I work for the money I earn and don't ask the government or any union to divvy up wealth for me or anyone else. You're acting like there's some magical pot of money, and instead of distributing it equally, evil people are giving so much to certain people while holding it back from everyone else. Rich people earned their money just as middle class people earn theirs. The rich people just made choices in their lives that led to greater wealth. Take a look at the thread I started asking people why they aren't rich. You'll notice that here in America, the vast majority of people readily acknowledge that they have the ability to be rich. Those that are not rich are either taking steps to be rich, or have chosen to prioritize other things in life over material wealth. Wealth in this country belongs to the PEOPLE WHO EARN IT. It does not belong to the government and it does not belong to people who fail to make themselves rich. "Someone please explain how this is all the fault of public unions and how destroying their rights will change this?" It has nothing to do with public unions. Most rich people earned their money in the private sector. Public unions are to blame for completely different things like crappy teachers who are impossible to fire because they have tenure and great teachers who get laid off because they lack seniority. I could list many things I blame them for, but different states have different public unions and not all are bad. I am forced to be in a union at my current job. I like that they negotiated almost free health insurance, but they've also negotiated crap I can do without like me not being able to work more than 7 hours in a day, more than 5 consecutive days, and I hate that raises are done on a "schedule" so individual achievement is meaningless. There is no motivation for some people to do more than the minimum because their performance is irrelevant when they are due for a raise. The union also ensures that crappy employees can not, and will not, be fired. That has been true for every union I've dealt with at my jobs.

Someone ought to really read the Bill of Rights. I'm tired of that word being used to garner sympathy. Give us our rights! What about the right of the taxpayers to have a say in where their tax dollars go? The right of the taxpayer to demand that tax money taken from their check be used to better education rather than make unions richer and more powerful. Powerful enough to lobby government for even more benefits and less acountability to the tax payers.

what Taskr said. I'll add this though: public employee unions are a much worse animal than private unions. I believe that both are bad, but if I don't agree with a private unions' practices, I don't buy their product. I have no choice with public unions. As a taxpayer, the money that the government takes out of my paycheck goes to support public sector employees' salaries. Everyone in America pays for firefighters, police officers, teachers, mail carriers, etc. That's fine as these are services I like. But, many of these occupations have forced unionism--unionism is a condition of their employment. You can't be a teacher in some states without belonging to a union. Once you're in a union, the union collects dues--this is automatically deducted from the union member's paycheck--which comes out of the taxes I pay. Unions have lobbyists to garner more power for themselves, and unions generally lean hard left. I don't lean hard left, but my taxes go into union coffers so they can lobby for causes I disagree with. That's one strike agains unions. Second strike: Unions used to be for negotiation of rights between management (those who sign the checks), and labor (those who do the work). Taxpayer representatives are never at the table for public union negotiations. So when public unions start strong-arming their local governments for more money, more benefits, more PTO, more more more, the government gives in. It's not the government's money, after all. They'll just raise taxes. This means my paycheck gets a bigger chunk removed so it can go into somebody else's paycheck. I don't know about you, but that seems a lot like theft to me. The third strike is that unions always complain about big corporations donating to conservative political campaigns, while saying nothing of big unions donating to liberal campaigns. Hypocrisy never sits well with me.

Public unions should not even exist. Think about it. Persons who love big government and who want the government to "give" them everything, including health care, are the same ones who believe that the government cannot be trusted to pay them fairly? And if they actually do trust the government to pay them fairly, why are unions needed? And as another commenter already pointed out, unions spend millions to get people on the left voted in. Then they sit and "negotiate" with the persons that they put into office? Negotiate? What they get from the politicians on the left is then pay back for votes. And the taxpayers get fleeced. As I said in another discussion recently, had I realized that most government union employees pay very little for their own insurance and pensions, I would have been screaming loudly long, long ago. Of course they are part of the reason why we have so much debt. Of course they are a huge part of the reason why our cities, states and the country are in such bad financial shape. In spite of the fact that we can no longer afford the absurd benefits packages of these union workers, they still clamor that they're not making a "living wage." Give me a break.

...Hi Evan, One of these days all those who think that this is the right thing to do that the left backing unions should be destroyed are going to wake up and find that after "They" come for the public unions the next ones in line will be them. Shocked they will be, they run around shouting praise for what is trying to be done in Wisconsin, never realizing with their warped thinking that it is an attempt to tear into piercs the middle class as we know it. They think they are protected because they are right leaning, but wait just a little while. This intentional assault is only the beginning of a two class system in the United States, rich and poor and guess where the majority will be? Good luck to those who are sleep-walking. Cheers.

It's amazing isn't it? Talk about mindlessness ... to actually argue and fight against one's very own interests and rights is beyond imbecility! It is also all telling when folks become bullies and insult jocks and thereafter believe they've won an otherwise valid "civil" argument ... that too should be embarrassing for them. What can I say, when you don't know that you don't know!