Posted on 10/12/2012 8:44:47 PM PDT by indianrightwinger
GOP must find a way to "talk" to the rank and file union members in the political sense. Our economic policy arguments are sound. But, they don't win majority of the votes with this group of people. I am part of the high tech industry in Silicon Valley, CA. As different as you can think of from a Railroad union member I met on an American Airlines flight recently from Louisiana. After an hour long conversation, it hit me how "detached" the GOP "sounds" when they speak to this critical group of people. These people are 80% in our camp. But, our union bashing message repulses them. Our party MUST find a way to appeal to a greater proportion of the union rank-and-file members with economic betterment and long-term security message. Grabbing this block through empathy (not pandering to them) will cement a long-term majority for the party.
Thoughts?
The union bosses aren’t looking over their shoulders when they vote. I’ll bet we get more of their votes than you realize.
35-40%. My point is, we could be getting 50% or more with the right tone and empathy to this group of people.
How about if we convince them to throw off their thieving slave-masters and become freemen? (decertify)
I think we bash the union system for good reason. I don’t know how we get past the core problems that unions bring (less productivity, higher cost, etc).
You can reform the union system through legislation that gives more power to “rank and file”. That should be the argument to make. De-centralizing power from union bosses to the workers. Also, pound the message of economic growth = economic security into all union rank-and-file heads. Currently, they think economic security comes from their bosses being hard on their businesses. Not true as we all know.
Crafting an appealing policy and then a message around it is what we need to do as a party for this voter population.
My thoughts? LOL! Empathy IS pandering. Black is black white is white. Lipstick does not make a pig a peacock. The unions have outlived their usefulness. They need to GO AWAY. We don't need them. They need us.
The high tech industry particularly in SIlicon Valley prides itsefl in being nonunionized. They do it by offering incredibly good salaries and benefits. The down side is that all those crazed youngsters (20 and 30 somethings) are more than willing to work 80 to 100 hours a week in the hope that their company will be the next Apple. There is a lot of worker abuse in SIlicon Valley (but hey that’s okay because if you are willing to put up with it that’s on you). As one gets older, SIlicon Valley employers can be brutal ( oh you don’t relate to our younge staff....etc etc). Moreover, when you settle down and have a family those ridiculous hours don’t look as exciting. Steve Jobs barely knew his family. That is not that unusual for the valley.
I am glad that I learned how to say ‘no’ in a way that never got me fired. I encouraged my children not to go into high tech
The high tech industry particularly in SIlicon Valley prides itsefl in being nonunionized. They do it by offering incredibly good salaries and benefits. The down side is that all those crazed youngsters (20 and 30 somethings) are more than willing to work 80 to 100 hours a week in the hope that their company will be the next Apple. There is a lot of worker abuse in SIlicon Valley (but hey that’s okay because if you are willing to put up with it that’s on you). As one gets older, SIlicon Valley employers can be brutal ( oh you don’t relate to our younge staff....etc etc). Moreover, when you settle down and have a family those ridiculous hours don’t look as exciting. Steve Jobs barely knew his family. That is not that unusual for the valley.
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Unions are not needed to resolve “worker abuse”.
BTW what the hell is worker abuse these days? Does little johnny have to work a ten hour day or refrain from a martini at lunch?
Give me a break and BREAK UNION CONTROL.
Well said and I agree completely.
Unions are nothing more than an organized crime outfit blessed by the government. Big Labor is an evil redistributionist extortion racket. The roots of unionism, socialism and communism are intertwined. I'd like to see a brave, unapologetic Conservative movement to forcefully apply RICO laws to rid America of the scourge of unionism.
bambi didn't bail out the car manufacturing industry, he bailed out unions.
Unions are on my $hit list.
Screw them and their narrative. I will not coddle their statist and classist bullsquat.
So maybe the GOP should see Big Labor not as a monolith but as many diverse organizations with unique problems. Problems that might be the consequences of Democrat government policy. If Romney has found common ground with the coal miners how many other opportunities exist in a pool of about 16 million workers?
There is no way that Marxists can come together with consitutionalists. One has to be defeated for the other to exist.
There should not be government unions. It is a conflict of interest. As you can see, they are more concerned about filling their pockets and pushing Marxism than they are in educating American children. They are breaking the States.
Soft and targeted approaches that appeal to union members as individuals and nibbles at the edges on specific issues is best. Fundamentally though, in economic terms, modern American labor unions are agents of destruction for whatever industry or line of work they establish themselves in, especially with the rise of global competition. Moreover, the ideological assumptions of unionism are inherently left-wing and organizing methods rely on forced membership and compulsion as to fellow workers and collective action against employers and the public at large.
Unions suck.
Over paid labor is NOT the middle class...the middle class creates value and/or wealth, over priced labor adds cost and buys lots and lots of trinkets.
Today's unions garner huge amounts of money from their members and spend much of it on buying and supporting friendly politicians.
Did I mention that unions suck?
Notice that NOWHERE did I call for unions in Silicon Valley. I am NOT in favor of any union period.
The abuse...well I have personally either experienced or witnessed the following....yelling curse words at a person less than an inch from their face; a boss physically slapping an employee; deriding employees in front of the entire company. I could go on but I won’t.
They are disconnected because they don't realize -- as many over age 50 democrats do not realize -- how thoroughly radicalized the leadership of their party and unions are. I saw this first hand, and I can tell you that most of the leadership even in supposedly "conservative" unions are nothing more or less than a bunch of commies. They openly reveal this in the service unions; NEA (to which my wife still is forced to belong) SEIU, AFSCME, etc. In these unions of white collar and government workers they make no secret of the fact that they believe in and want to bring about socialism. That's their full-throated agenda.
In the trade unions it's hidden, but the people at the top are still the same. All you can really do is put them on display, because when you try to tell rank-and-file union people that their dues are funding the long-term overthrow of the United States, they just don't believe you.
The next best thing Republicans can do is stop pandering to people who hate their guts. They should explain courageously and unapologetically that capitalism/free market economics hurts people, causes people to lose their jobs, and will always disproportionately reward some people at the expense of others. Sometimes the people being rewarded deserve it, and sometimes they don't, but the remedy isn't stealing things from other people just because they have money and you don't. Or because your union rep has convinced you that stealing isn't stealing if it's done in the name of the government. Yes, capitalism sucks sometimes. In order for there to be prosperity people must lose their jobs. But it's 100 times better than any alternative.
There aren't any guarantees in this life; if you want guarantees go to church.
GM wasn't "saved." What was saved was a bunch of reckless, greedy executives and a bunch of reckless, greedy UAW bosses who bargained in bad faith for decades knowing full well that the government would never let one of the largest companies in the country go under, and that taxpayers would ultimately be stuck for the bill. As thanks, GM's CEO has announced that the future of the company "is China." Yet Paul Ryan cannot afford to point out what a dismal failure the GM bailout was (and how it's going to get worse, not better as time goes by) because we can't afford to lose Ohio. None of that would be necessary if we made people understand that no business survives forever, half die within five years, and your job is not a lifetime appointment. Sounds harsh, but it's life, and the life you get under free market economics is a lot better than the world the unions want to create, which invariably end in torture, oppression, and murder.
There is nothing you can say to hard core union greedheads to bring them in from the dark side.
They are old enough to understand the choices and they have made theirs.
Think of the Wisconsin teachers strike as an example.
These people didn’t care about the students, they didn’t care if they bankrupted the state, they didn’t care if they screwed their friends and neighbors. All they cared about was their own greed.
The same thinking is what destroyed GM and many other good companies and what is driving cities and towns into bankruptcy every day.
Ayn Rand summed it up nicely:
“In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.”
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