Posted on 09/11/2012 10:45:53 PM PDT by grundle
“It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.”
That wasn’t Newt Gingrich, or Ron Paul, or Ronald Reagan talking. That was George Meany -- the former president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O -- in 1955. Government unions are unremarkable today, but the labor movement once thought the idea absurd.
The founders of the labor movement viewed unions as a vehicle to get workers more of the profits they help create. Government workers, however, don’t generate profits. They merely negotiate for more tax money. When government unions strike, they strike against taxpayers. F.D.R. considered this “unthinkable and intolerable.”
Government collective bargaining means voters do not have the final say on public policy. Instead their elected representatives must negotiate spending and policy decisions with unions. That is not exactly democratic – a fact that unions once recognized.
George Meany was not alone. Up through the 1950s, unions widely agreed that collective bargaining had no place in government. But starting with Wisconsin in 1959, states began to allow collective bargaining in government. The influx of dues and members quickly changed the union movement’s tune, and collective bargaining in government is now widespread. As a result unions can now insist on laws that serve their interests – at the expense of the common good.
Union contracts make it next to impossible to reward excellent teachers or fire failing ones. Union contracts give government employees gold-plated benefits – at the cost of higher taxes and less spending on other priorities. The alternative to Walker's budget was kicking 200,000 children off Medicaid.
More states should heed the A.F.L.-C.I.O. Executive Council’s 1959 advice: “In terms of accepted collective bargaining procedures, government workers have no right beyond the authority to petition Congress — a right available to every citizen.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It’s shocking to find this type of article in the NYT. What happened? Did the editors fall asleep?
It’s shocking to find this type of article in the NYT. What happened? Did the editors fall asleep?
It’s shocking to find this type of article in the NYT. What happened? Did the editors fall asleep?
saving
Read the comments section and you’ll start to see where our apology to the terrorists who tore down our embassies in Libya and Egypt came from.....
Unions used to be merely Intestinal parasites.. i.e. tapeworm, round worm etc..
BUT they have evolved into VAMPIRES...
Unions were, are now and will always be blood sucking parasites..
Unions are composed of people.. parasitic people..
Gotta read the “BY” line.
James Sherk is the Bradley fellow in labor policy at the Center for Data Analysis at the Heritage Foundation.
Unthinkable! I agree with F.D.R. and Meany!
It is not only unthinkable, it is illegal, and it treason, and anarchy!
“FIRE ALL THE STRIKERS”
Was watching a 9-11 thing on tv tonight with my daughter. There was a part where workers from around the country had gone to NYC to help clear the debris. They were turned away.
One guy said something like “I came because of the red, white and blue - but it’s all about the green”. My young daughter didn’t understand. I told her I seem to recall that the work went to NYC Union jobs. She was disgusted.
*“Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to RULE from day one”
Valerie Jarret co-chair of the Messiah's transition team.
Quoted from the article: “Instead their elected representatives must negotiate spending and policy decisions with unions.”
This statement is nonfactual with regards to negotiating in the federal government.
Federal employees in management positions, appointed - not elected, do the negotiating and whatever the union gets is given to them by their management co-workers.
Federal unions cannot strike, Reagan reenforced this by firing air traffic controllers that did. Because federal unions cannot strike, they have no real power and anything given to them is a true give away without any representation on behalf of the taxpayer.
It’s a real mess. The more liberal the federal workforce becomes, the more liberal the managers are, the more the union gets, the more that join the union, the more money the democrats get via the union, the more the tax payer gets screwed.
If obama gets reelected, do not be surprised if it becomes politically incorrect to obey the no strike law in federal employment.
Thanks to John F. Kennedy we have public service unions. Hence the Democrats continue to be funded by unions and unions repaid by the Democrats as in the GM bailout at the expense of the rest of the country.
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