Posted on 01/29/2015 9:23:04 AM PST by reaganaut1
The latest figures on union membership from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the long decline has continued to the point where the percentage of Americans in unions is lower now than at any point in the last century.
That decline has not been arrested even by the extraordinarily pro-union actions of the National Labor Relations Board (such as this Arkansas case where two-third of the workers have petitioned for an election to decertify an unwanted union, but the NLRB has gone to court to block that) and union efforts at greasing the rails for election victories, as occurred with Volkswagen management in Chattanooga. Big Labor is obviously addicted to the old-fashioned tactics of dragooning workers into their ranks by hook or by crook, then relying on coercion to keep them there.
Whereas the prospect of union representation seemed very alluring to many workers back in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, the promises of union organizers today largely fall on deaf ears. The Heritage Foundation’s James Sherk was correct in saying, “They’re selling a product that hasn’t changed that much since the 1930s when America’s labor laws were founded. Today’s workers simply aren’t that interested in purchasing what unions have to sell.”
One big reason why many don’t want unionization is that they know much of the money they’ll have to pay in will go to support political candidates and causes they oppose.
It’s crucial to understand that workers do not “join” unions the way Americans join any other sort of organization.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
if they stopped carrying water for the democrat party, and did what they are paid to do - advocate for their members - they wouldn’t be in this mess.
So when US Corps off shore manufacturing jobs now they are pretty much off shoring non union jobs. Great. < /sarc >
People don’t like unions except democrats and well paid union bosses.
Has anyone here ever organized and attended a trade show? As a CNC Machinist I attend the WESTEC shows and once set up a booth at a show in Anaheim.
If you want to see unions in all their thuggish goonery set up a booth at a trade show. Those A-hole are the most crooked useless SOBs you will ever come across. You can’t even wipe your nose without a union worker, his goon supervisor, and goon boss charging you $500.
Not an exaggeration... At a trade show in Florida I was attending a booth with a large aircraft company. We were not allowed to carry our own boxes of sales literature. A union moron was ‘handling’ the box and was required to take his union mandated break and put the box on the ground rather than finish taking it all the way to the our sales tent union goons had set up. It was about 100 yards. A huge rain cloud opened up and it began pouring down rain. One of my colleagues picked up the box and carried it after it had been raining for a few minutes destroying most of the literature. The idiot union bosses came and furiously yelled at all of us and threatened to fine the company for doing what must have been done by a union member.
Maybe it’s just a case of 99% of the bad ones giving the 1% of the good ones a bad names. Unions can go the way of the dinosaurs as far as I am concerned. The death of unions is a good thing.
Is a union necessary if the government forces businesses to do what the union would have demanded?
Until the unions come clean with their tactics and how they are using the dues for their political gains. They deserve what they get. I was in the Teamsters and AFSCME and then the PSCOA all three have reasons to exists but when it comes to the memberships rights to direct their dues it is impossible.
The union thugs are waiting for the illegal alien invaders to sober up and finish coming “out of the shadows” so they can sign them up as union members at the same time that they are filling out the DNC’s voter registration forms.
Indeed. And public employee unions membership has increased. What a racket! They don’t have to worry about the employer losing money so they can demand anything they want.
“All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters.” FDR
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=15445
They're the hardest left of the left.
They cannot be honest. That's why I chuckle about unions somehow becoming entrepreneurial.
You can elect Putin in fair elections, but you'll still have the KGB mindset. Same thing.
Government unions are the only growth area. Private unions are still shrinking. That’s why right to work for government employees in Wisconsin drew national attention and $$$.
They need to address the question of what purpose they serve, and be honest about it.
It is observable elsewhere what happens without them.
There is really no need for “collective bargaining”, other than enriching the union heads.
Actually, collective bargaining can lower costs of negotiation with goodness knows how many individual employees. It depends upon the situation.
On the job safety is no longer an issue.
If you were a hospital worker handling ebola patients or their waste products, I'd bet you wouldn't think this was true. There are lots of jobs, from tree climbers to fishermen, or mining that are still very dangerous and do benefit from new equipment cash-strapped employers are otherwise loath to buy.
I knew someone who was setting up their booth and the workers put a bunch of paint cans right in front of it. Soon after a union fork lift driver ran over the paint cans splattering paint all over the merchandise. It was a very unhappy and expensive situation.
I’d go even further, bring back the spoils system so a Republican President can fire them all. Instead of an independent civil service we have a democrat civil service at all times.
Anything’s better than the “system” that’s in place now.
I had to in-process into a government job in 2010. At the end of the processing business....the union rep for the organization came in to give a ten-minute speech on the union. Thirty of us in the group. At the end, she hands out the sign-up slips...none were given back to her. Zero new members from my group.
A month goes by and I bring up this topic with a guy who’d worked for the organization for ten years. Roughly 1,500 civilian employees within this agency. As far as he knew....probably less than a hundred who were union members and they were from the 1980s period when hired. No one had interest in the union, and none wanted any “assistance” by the union, or wanted to contribute any funds to the union.
Maybe other gov’t agencies are different. Maybe there’s still some willingness to play into this. But I think it’s a dinosaur presently, and dying off slowly. And I should note this....I quit my government job in the summer of 2013...dissatisfaction was primary reason to leave....they can’t fix problems, accept change, or think outside of the box.
“...immigration amnesty...”
...should be called the great Democrat Party Voter Registration Drive for Democrat Government for Eternity.
IMHO
“...using their members’ dues to advance left-wing candidates and causes...”
In other words, using their members dues to advance the cause of international communism.
IMHO
If Tillman is healthy and willing to take a reasonable salary I’d love for the Bears to bring him back.
No doubt! And I bet that will exactly happen.
Yep.
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