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Unions Slump on Bad Obama Bet (Corrected misspelled word)
Townhall.com ^ | February 18, 2013 | John Ransom

Posted on 02/18/2013 6:08:42 AM PST by Kaslin

Alarm bells are going off for labor unions around the country.

Four years after electing the most pro-labor president of the last half-decade, it looks like the scheme has backfired.

In 2008 and 2012 labor unions used everything, including a little body English, ballot stuffing and voter intimidation to elect a president who would bring the prestige of presidential backing to recruitment efforts for labor unions.  

Since then not only have labor unions taken historic defeats in former union strongholds, like Wisconsin and Michigan, labor union membership is declining at a rate that will make them a footnote in the annals of history if the steady decline in membership keeps up at the current pace. 

“The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released statistics Jan. 23 that confirm an alarming drop in unionization,” writes Denver Labor attorney Bill Berger in the Denver Business Journal, “especially in private (nongovernmental) workplaces…. BLS statistics show unions lost 400,000 members in America last year. In 2011, 11.8 percent of all workers were union. That dropped to 11.3 percent in 2012.”

“We’re getting destroyed,” said MNBC’s hilariously-named “business” expert and Democrat, pro-union candidate Krystal Ball about labor unions.

And yes, I understand “Krystal Ball” is her real name, but there are cool real names- like Johnny Ransom- and ones that make you sound like a stripper, like, um Krystal Ball.

If you can manage to watch past her eyebrows moving up and down to highlight her sincerity and the drippy, syrupy, plastic rhetoric …well, anyway, you can see the video below. 

OK, so here’s a dumb question: With union membership at a 97-year low, what’s not to love? In my book, anything that can make a liberal lose it like Ms. Ball has above is worth looking at more deeply

Because the Left will only concentrate on the decline in membership, while ignoring why the decline is happening.

Conservatives must continue to take advantage of union weakness. Wherever conservatives have run against unions, conservatives have won.  

And underneath the declining union stats are examples that show that the basic problem with unions is that they don’t play nice with others.  And people are paying attention.  

Getting past union thuggery like Vinny Castaldo, union organizer for Westchester Unit 9200 of the Civil Service Employees Association- a guy who makes his living off of your tax dollars and who wants to get rid of the 2nd Amendment as a favor to Obama by beating people up- there are little questions of conflict-of-interest, self-dealing and the reactionary element when it comes to unions.

One of the most serious financial crises we face is the result of underfunded pension obligations. Union-controlled, civil servant pensions are especially underfunded because politicians took money from unions to get elected and subsequently over-promised benefits, counting on the taxpayer to fill the gap.

“The hole in the pension plans of U.S. labor unions now stands at $369 billion Credit Suisse has calculated with the aid of new reporting standards,” reported CNBC.com last April. “This raises the prospect of higher pension contributions for employers and deteriorating industrial relations….S&P 500 companies’ share of this obligation is estimated at just $43 billion.”

That’s not a scheme that can last. It won’t serve the employees, the employers or the taxpayers or even the union itself. Instead, it has only served to give unions a big black eye, looking like what they really are: a bunch of special pleaders who expect the rest of us to pay for benefits that we can’t afford for our own families.

And that has hurt union members in places like Michigan and Wisconsin.  

Additionally, unions stand in the way of progress on basic governmental reforms such as K-12 education.  The basic problem with public education in this country is the existence of labor unions that can only survive if there is only one provider of education. Every attempt at reform runs into a brick wall of union opposition because it challenges the one-size-fits all public school. The only type of school “reform” that unions support is more money for monolithic public schools, even as the US falls further and further behind other developed nations.

As an added inducement to de-unionize, it’s harder and harder for employers, say for example, in the auto industry, to compete when labor costs are much, much higher.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Consider labor costs. Take-home wages at the U.S. car makers average $28.42 an hour, according to the Center for Automotive Research. That's on par with $26 at Toyota, $24 at Honda and $21 at Hyundai. But include benefits, and the picture changes. Hourly labor costs are $44.20 on average for the non-Detroit producers, in line with most manufacturing jobs, but are $73.21 for Detroit.

This $29 cost gap reflects the way Big Three management and unions have conspired to make themselves uncompetitive -- increasingly so as their market share has collapsed (see the nearby chart). Over the decades the United Auto Workers won pension and health-care benefits far more generous than in almost any other American industry. As a result, for every UAW member working at a U.S. car maker today, three retirees collect benefits; at GM, the ratio is 4.6 to one. 

In short, the math behind failing union membership is the math behind what ails us on Wall Street, Main Street, in DC and state capitols around the country.

How much longer will the rest of us pay for a scheme that doesn’t even benefit the members themselves?

Declining union membership gives conservatives a hint of where they need to go to be successful electorally: Attack the unions for being the prime beneficiaries of government spending, accounting tricks that require taxpayer funding and as the cheerleader for Big Government expansion into every aspect of American life.

Now look at stimulus spending that created no jobs.

Who really benefited?

It’s clearly the people versus the unions.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: biglabor; labor; unions; unionthugs
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To: Mercat

“To discover your secret porn star name, take the name of your child hood pet ...”

Chowser Bay? Crap, I’ll NEVER live that down.


21 posted on 02/18/2013 7:35:28 AM PST by Peet (TurboTax: "So simple even a Secretary of the Treasury can use it!")
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To: Mercat

Fat Cat Starlight


22 posted on 02/18/2013 7:39:14 AM PST by februus
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To: Kaslin

Red states need to persue educational reform as a top priority.


23 posted on 02/18/2013 7:46:00 AM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: Kaslin

-——Who really benefited?——

Not me.
The thief Obama stole the part of my retirement in GM bonds and gave it o the UAW. He should be burning in Hell but so far has managed to survive

A pox on Deetroit and all in the big three


24 posted on 02/18/2013 7:52:46 AM PST by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 .....The fairest Deduction to be reduced is the Standard Deduction)
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To: Ken522; Mercat

I’m Lucky Carolina.......

Sounds more like a pool shark than a porn star


25 posted on 02/18/2013 7:55:57 AM PST by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 .....The fairest Deduction to be reduced is the Standard Deduction)
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To: Kaslin

While the right has had some victories over the Unions in Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana vis-a-vis Right to Work. I’d attribute the decline in membership more to Obamanomics than electoral success of Republicans.

1) Unions priced themselves out of business in most industries. Socialists always run out of other peoples money.

2) Unions have provided incentive and made possible great advancements in automated manufacturing due to labor costs and difficulty in dealing with them.


26 posted on 02/18/2013 7:58:01 AM PST by IamConservative (The soul of my lifes journey is Liberty!)
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To: Mercat

That would make me Jenny Snooker. Or Snooker Jenn.


27 posted on 02/18/2013 9:04:29 AM PST by Ciexyz
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To: Kaslin

“...of the last half-decade...”

Haha, oooo, that must be a big number.


28 posted on 02/18/2013 9:10:03 AM PST by SgtHooper (The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on the list.)
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To: Kaslin

This is an excellent column - - well written and interesting. Also, very optimistic.


29 posted on 02/18/2013 9:11:33 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Mercat

Chloe Nowland or Murphy Bradley?


30 posted on 02/18/2013 10:15:28 AM PST by NEMDF
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To: Buckeye McFrog

The real mystery is why card check was not legislated while the Baraqqis had full control in 09 and 10.


31 posted on 02/18/2013 10:22:12 AM PST by nascarnation (Baraq's economic policy: trickle up poverty)
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To: nascarnation

These names are killing me. Hello there, I’m Tiger Carlisle.


32 posted on 02/18/2013 10:34:02 AM PST by Persevero (Homeschooling for Excellence since 1992)
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