Posted on 04/17/2011 5:29:48 AM PDT by raybbr
Unions are taking hits from all sides. Membership has fallen to 11.8 percent of the workforce — 14.7 million people — with most unionized workers in the public sector.
States like Wisconsin are stripping collective bargaining rights.
Budget deficits have state and municipal leaders pressing public-sector unions for concessions.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy wants $1 billion in union concessions over two years. New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr., normally a pro-labor politician, laid off unionized police officers, municipal employees and teachers when concession talks stalled and the budget gap widened.
And on a picket line in Orange, locked out workers at a beverage distributor are trying to hang on to things most nonunion private workers lost long ago: a company-funded pension plan and generous health benefits.
Over all of this hangs a heavy question. Does it get better for unions when the economy improves, or is this a new era?
“We need wages and benefits more in line with the private sector and more in line with what taxpayers can afford,” said Joseph Brennan, senior vice president of public policy for the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, the state’s largest business organization with about 10,000 member companies.
Dave Molster, who has worked eight years as a delivery driver for Dichello Distributors Inc. in Orange and is a member of Teamsters Local 443, said public, private and international labor groups have shown an outpouring of support since nearly 100 union members were locked out from the 55 Marsh Hill Road facility on March 9.
“Everybody’s coming together. Unions built this country. The companies got too big and now they want everything back,” Molster said.
(Excerpt) Read more at middletownpress.com ...
"Laws have been passed, and are being challenged, in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana that would give workers less ability to organize and by extension, less of a voice on the job, he said."
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The SEIU’s Stephen Learner clearly explained that they want the economy to crash. They want homeless sleeping on the sidewalks, they want people hungry and desperate.
Another indicator is the hunger strike being promoted by Obama’s “spiritual adviser” Jim Wallis. He wants people to pledge to eat on $2 a day UNLESS they’re on food stamps. In which case they pledge to eat on $4 a day.
Its all intended to increase the pressure on society and our wounded system. Naturally they’re ready to provide the salvation of marxism.
If there were no unions, public or private, employers would still need to offer packages sufficient to attract good employees.
———Unions built this country.——
self serving lie.
Union labor is a commodity purchased to leverage the use of capital to make money.
American capitalists built America.
Let's see Obama and his wife eat on $4 a day. Perhaps after the impeachment, treason trial and confinement in a SuperMax(I know it's wishful thinking).
Over paid and under worked and can’t be fired it’s the union way not the American way.Anyone ever see a country build by unions?.
“And on a picket line in Orange, locked out workers at a beverage distributor are trying to hang on to things most nonunion private workers lost long ago: a company-funded pension plan and generous health benefits”
Yeah, good luck with that, Teamster losers. Apparently they don’t recognize that they have no actual job skills and can easily and effortlessly be replaced by the first 100 people who show up. But hey, they don’t care, THEY WANT THOSE FREEBIES, TO HELL WITH THE COMPANY’S FUTURE!
The comments there are outstanding!
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