Unions turn town hall meeting into a confrontation

Minneapolis Conservative Examiner ^ | February 20, 2012 | Gary Gross

[Parmenio]

When John Pederson, Steve Gottwalt and King Banaian scheduled Friday night's town hall meeting at St. Cloud's Public Library, they had no way of knowing that public employee unions were planning on disrupting it. Things didn't get ugly immediately but it didn't take long before things got out of control. The first question of the night was directed at Dr. Banaian, the economist, not Rep. Banaian, the Minnesota House member. Here's the statement and question: "Study after study has shown that right-to-work lowers wages for all workers. Is this true?" Banaian said that there are many studies on the subject but no conclusive evidence in either direction, in the minds of labor economists. After that, the meeting went downhill fast.

[Parmenio]

In a way, I hope the union thugs keep doing this kind of thing. It's offensive to most Minnesotans, and hopefully it will drive voter support for the proposed amendment. In November it looks like we are going to have amendments on the ballot on right-to-work, marriage, and voter ID, so get the word out!

[Mamzelle]

Any videos?

[upchuck]

Last two paragraphs of the article:

The unions quickly turned the event into an us vs. them confrontation. They came armed with the predictable chanting points. They came intent on using each of those chanting points. They didn't come to discuss. They came to start a full-fledged confrontation.

They succeeded in that last point, though it's safe to say that they didn't change anyone's mind on the issues they cared most about.

[G Larry]

Union dues lower worker’s wages and make company costs non-competative.
Additionally, union rules create huge inefficiencies in the workforce, which further inflates company costs.

[wita]

...and collective bargaining by public service employees is bargaining within the pockets of those whose taxes pay the bills for a state. Essentially taxation without representation. If I am being fleeced I need a direct say in the matter. IOW’s a few state union workers are not going to outgun the public.

When times were good, bureaucrats, the state, or both chose to give away the store, to the public service unions, and now when times are tough, the promises of old are not going to hold, collective bargaining needs to go before the bankruptcy.

[coloradan]

Repealing the $1,000,000/hr minimum wage law lowers wages for all workers. The question is, how many people actually had jobs while that minimum wage law was in effect?

[traditional1]

""Study after study has shown that right-to-work lowers wages for all workers. Is this true?"

The CORRECT answser is:

"No...what the Studies show is that Closed Shop (FORCED Unionization) in the Public Sector has raised costs to Un-Sustainable levels and funneled money to Democrats from Union Dues. Un-productive and ineffective Union Members cannot be dismissed, once they have been in place for Tenure-requirements, and we are stuck then paying inflated wages and benefits forever. The Extortion of public monies, coupled with the money-laundering of Dues to politicians of the Socialist-persuasion, have driven our States to the verge of Bankruptcy. Today, the Federal Government, staffed by Union's 100's of Millions of dollars-bought self-serving Democrats, is funneling NATIONALLY the tax monies to favored States. We cannot allow Unions to over-burden the Public, and produce NOTHING but over-staffed, over-paid, over-priced parasites anymore".

[Buckeye McFrog]

Anyone who has not already done so needs to read Rules for Radicals as quickly as possible. It is the clearest, most concise guide to what we're up against.