Who do unions benefit?

North County Times/The Californian ^ | Tuesday, October 25, 2005 | Ray Haynes, 66th Assemblyman

[Ciexyz]

I feel sympathy for the folks in the private sector who experience great anxiety not knowing how long their company will keep them employed before they use them up, work them to exhaustion and then lay them off in order to hire a younger, healthier, worker with fresh blood. The main benefit of unions is to provide job security, so a worker can reasonably expect to keep the job and not have it jerked away so it can be given to the boss' relative.

Of course, I have seen management getting around the union seniority system by various shenanigans. To that I say, the Good Lord knows what is going on, and what goes around, comes around. I will say no more on that subject.

[A. Pole]

Well said!

[bfree]

There's a lot of ill feeling against union members, almost a jealousy that union members get benefits that others don't. It's something you have to ignore when you're a union member. Goes with the territory.

Just don't go looking for sympathy from those same people when the jobs are downsized or outsourced.

[cherry]

well, I agree with you.....I don't understand the priviledged status of policemen or firemen.....

or teachers....

we have a big crisis in town, and if the peasants don't vote for big property tax increases, well, the police and fire depts will take "big" hits....

no one mentions how these guys can retire at an early age, or that they can come up with a multitude of reasons why they are "dissabled"....

one egrgious example.....a guy who went undercover supposedly got addicted to coccaine as "part" of his job...sure....he happened to be going to night school at the time as well, to be a lawyer, but he had the audacity to claim the stress from the undercover work was too much, and yes, he was granted an early dissability....

[bfree]

Wow, what an example that diatribe is of our failed education system. I'm sure not impressed with your union rant. Go get your wife and laugh, but most people will still think that corrupt thugs like teamsters deserve all the scorn they get. I'd never be jealous of you, reading your post makes that obvious to most people, your language in the post reflects the pseudo tough guy approach all thugs take. Here's hoping you saved money, because the next major failure in the country will be the bankruptcy of public and private pension plans. Taxpayers aren't going to have to fund their own retirement and your's too for to terribly long.

[Willie Green]

The best managed organizations operate in a fashion where employees perceive no benefit to organization.
However, the world is not that harmonious, and in many instances labor organization is necessary for a "balance of power" in negotiating "fair" working conditions and compensation. It's an imperfect system of checks and balances, and abuses occur on both sides of the fence.
C'est la vie.

[SaltyJoe]

Unions are as handy as the 2nd Amendment. In the wrong hands, though, unions can become a weapon against society. So long as unions remain under the control of law abiding citizens, they will always be useful and mutually beneficial for workers and business. "Right to work" laws counter thugs, and unions must always be allowed to compete against other unions. So long as the free market decides prices for not only product, but also the price of labor, the consumer remains highest on the food chain and the consumer decides what's best via purchasing power.

[RockyMtnMan]

Not any more than collusion between government and corporate interests. You can't bitch about unions while simultaneously supporting sweetheart deals between CEO's and Senators. They are two sides of the same coin and diametrically opposing interests.

When a Senator passes a law that the majority of their constituency would never support but a few 'select' individuals want, you have collusion. In that case your only recourse is to remove the offending "representative". The problem is he/she has already benefited from the legislation and secured a seat on a board of directors if unseated in the next election. The cycle begins anew with the next elected "representative".

I'm not saying ALL our representatives do this but it only takes a few to do significant harm to those who are not fairly represented. This is why our government only gets bigger and bigger, too many selfish people taking "their" piece of the pie.

[Texas Eagle]

Who do unions benefit?

That's easy. The people who actually work for the unions. I'm in a somewhat unique situation to know this. My wife has been a teacher for a school district in the Sacramento area for 5 years and is the California Teachers Association. She makes 40,000 a year. My step-son just married a girl my wife introduced to him who has been a secretary for the CTA in Sacramento for less than 5 years and she makes over 75,000 a year.

We know this because we have been pooling our resources to buy houses and property in the areas just outside Sacramento which is booming like crazy.

So I have mixed feelings about Unions. But mostly I despise them.

[newzjunkey]

But Wal-Mart is China's eighth largest trading partner! What's bad about that? (/sarcasm)

[newzjunkey]

Maybe you should come to California if you like unions so much. San Diego's got nice weather all year.

Yes, that's sarcasm. San Diego is on the edge of bankruptcy thanks to public employee union's out-of-control benefits. We'd all love to be able to buy phantom years we didn't work for our retirements, right? They can. We'd all love to earn up to 100% and more of our maximum salary during retirement, right? They can.

California's public employee unions are allowed to raid paychecks of non-union employees under state law to pay for union activities since the unions negotiations may have an impact on the worker's benefits. We just had a Bush-appointed Federal judge accept this fig-leaf when non-union members tried to stop their own money from being used for politics they opposed.

The major state public employee unions have mined over $118 million from union and non-union workers to attack the governor and stop his common sense reforms including requiring unions to ask workers first before stealing money from paychecks for use in political campaigns. The teachers association has taken loans out against future assessed fees over the next three years. Some are paying $1000 in union dues or more.

It might not be so over there in the toking land of Colorodo, but unions are WAY out of control in this state and have far more political power than the voters themselves.

[newzjunkey]

Could he run for Governor?????

The CA Border Police initiative is Assemblymen Haynes' work. They need donations, they need signatures.

[newzjunkey]

Some choose to pay out of pocket for their own benefits. You're not owed health care just because you mop the floors at night. Sorry.