Largest Union Decides to Bolt AFL-CIO

AP ^ | July 24, 2005 | RON FOURNIER

[WOSG]

"Oh sure.. child labor.. factories that could be compared with death camps. "

Dick Durbin, is that you? :-)


Really, death camp analogies are best reserved for ... ahem, real death camps.

[WOSG]

"Get kids off the streets and back into the coal mines and fields where they belong!"


now we spend $8,000 a year to educate kids, and 13 years of that => $100,000 later, many of them have no clue how to work and some can't read too good, er, well.
Ah, the good ol days (that werent so good but built character).

Rename those outdoor berry-picking jobs "alternative environmental work-based education" and you've got yourself
a place for the scamps who are abusing our current educational system. I think if Johnnie realized the alternative was days of hard labor, Johnnie might pay attention alot better in school!

[durasell]

Little Johnnie will learn soon enough. There are a lot of teens out there playing video games today who will be cleaning toilets tomorrow.

[Conservomax]

"and his crowd"

That is, the other 85% of us who aren't in unions some of whom are making 75K a year, in some instances, to hail cabs at airports.

(I live in Boston)

[telebob]

"This is good for Republicans politically, because the Democrats leg-workers will be less focussed on the Dems."

This is an SEIU led revolt. The SEIU is in bed with some of the most radical organizations in America including ANSWER, Code Pink and ACORN. They are leaders in the field of converting their members' money into support for left wing causes and rat politicians.

Don't expect that to change.

[Richard-SIA]

I had the misfortune to work at a company that was blackmailed into "voluntarily" becoming a Union shop.

I can say from my experiences there that the unions are really fronts for organized crime.

Time for them to be RICO'd out of existence!

[EQAndyBuzz]

"Hopefully this is only the first step towards destroying all unions. Once, long ago, unions might have a had a legitimate purpose, but no longer. Good Riddance!"

Unions are only as good as the leaders running them.

[Drago]

How about coal mines?
http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/earlyday.htm

[sphinx]

Most of the problems with unions would be solved with right-to-work. The leadership would have to clean up its act, politically as well as financially, or everyone would leave. It is a captive membership that makes the abuses possible.

[goldstategop]

Yep. The exact reverse of what the labor movement needs to do to grow and thrive. Workers need organization to represent them on the job in dealings with employers and to have their working conditions and pay spelled out and to have a grievance procedure where they get a fair hearing before the employer can discipline or fire the employee. Private sector unions did a good job of bringing fairness to the marketplace - and in helping the middle expand by giving everyone a ticket up the ladder to the American Dream. In contrast, public sector unions extort from the economy and diminish our overall freedoms. The AFL-CIO leadership has no interest in bolstering private sector unions. It would erode their base of captive government employees. To talk about reform by ignoring the obvious is putting the horse before the cart.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[kcvl]

AFL-CIO, which has already been forced to layoff a quarter of its 400-person staff???!!!

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

...the AFL-CIO, which has already been forced to layoff a quarter of its 400-person staff.

These people should have unionized and fought these layoffs. ;-)

[mdmathis6]

I wonder when all the organized crime killings will commence...there is no way that the shadier elements of these unions can allow such a split...neither can the Democrats....look for "calls for investigations" from Dem. congressional officials...look for the 'Pubs' to drag their feet!

[PJ-Comix]

There was never a legitimate purpose.

Um...Actually there was a legit purpose. Maybe you are hung up on the name "unio." But if you substitute "guild" or just "association" such organizations of employees often did help their members. For example, my girlfriend is thinking about forming an association of X-Ray technicians to provide a more centralized method for such technicians to find employment when openings become available.

[bill1952]

The current union movement is aimed at only 1 goal, more public sector employees and higher public sector pay.

If you believe that, I've got land in Florida to sell you.

More public sector employment creation is not fostered by the Democrat mantra of higher taxes on what they call the "rich,"and clamping down on "greedy" business, and that is the party that they overwhelmingly support, with their time and their member's money.

Why do you think that all the major cities are hard core blue?

[bill1952]

The unions never changed one law, but they were great at stealing their member's money and extorting good companies under the guise of that type of kool aid crap.

Comparing them to death camps puts your hyperbole right in Durbin's camp.

Jimmy Hoffa would be proud of you.

[bill1952]

I was a union member long ago and it's WAY past that point.

Where are those steel mills?

[bill1952]

In brief, carpenters in the SEIU and Teamster dockworkers have no common ground with the anarchists who burn down houses or with the greens who want to stop all new home construction as being "urban sprawl."

That is entirely true, but, unfortunately the unions do, especially SEIU.
That is where the real trouble is, and has been, brewing for those unions. - a disconnect between the members and the union "agenda."

[bill1952]

belonged to only one union in my life (Communications Workers of America), against my will, for a couple of years in the 70's. I dislike unions

I belonged to that union 70 -73. Western Electric, King of Prussia, Allendale road plant.

[Col Freeper]

["The real problems in the agency where I worked were created at top. The incompetence was breath taking."]

Yes, I agree with your comment. I should not have neglected to add in my comment that some of management wasn't always necessarily the cream of the crop as well.

Thanks for your response.