Posted on 07/24/2005 5:27:37 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
Child labor was cracked down on years before the unions came to power. It was the voters that stopped it. Not some union thugs.
I wonder if some of these unions want to go back to the roots of what unionization is all about and forget the political nonsense? There are plenty of union people who strongly disagree with the Democrat Party's goal of bringing European-style secular socialism to America.
Have they considered not murdering their members?
I wonder if some of this split might have to do with Sweeney being a socialist.
Oh sure.. child labor.. factories that could be compared with death camps.
Sure the power of the unions were never needed.
And George Washington was a puppet of France.
Well, I am not ready to say all unions are bad. I think what you have here is the pendulum effect. Before unions (many years ago) employers were notorious for abusing workers and taking advantage of them to the nth degree. But, as unions became ever more powerful, it is in fact many of them that are now sticking it to employers as bad or worse as the employers ever did before unions existed. It may be to the point where they are destroying the goose that laid the golden egg.
I am not sure I would go that far. Do some research on how employees were treated before unions. It is unfortunate that unions have in many cases become as corrupt as employers ever were.
Get kids off the streets and back into the coal mines and fields where they belong!
When I had the opportunity to go into management I jumped at the chance. I was glad to get out after seeing the changes that had occurred: The people I respected fired when they complained about the gross corruption of the top cats, the takeover of the political arm by hard lefties and the steady drop in competence of just the day to day nuts and bolts work.
When even the friggin' unpaid trustees have credit cards and expense accounts, you know a union has become just a collection of bottom feeders.
Or at least into the fast-food restaurants at minimum-wage jobs, where they could develop the skills and discipline needed to succeed in the business world, if the minimum wage didn't keep rising and illegal immigrants weren't pushing them out of the entry-level job market.
I say send them to Third World Countries to hunt out land mines with a pointy stick!
""Anything that sidetracks us from our goals ... is not healthy," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., chairman of the House campaign committee."
Look, a Democrat politican saying this act is going to sidetrack them from their goals. These union members are slaves to the democrats. It's time to break the chains, keep your money and tell the demonrats to go to hell.
Holtz
JeffersonRepublic.com
"Today will be remembered as a rebirth of union strength in America,"
I agree with this statement. First, competition always makes you better. Now there are two coalitions competing.
Second, the old union agenda was driven by the public employees union which always wanted more taxes (more money to pay public employees) and more govt. programs (more public employees to be in the union).
Problem is, more taxes and more govt. regulations tend to kill private sector jobs which is really bad for unions working in the private sector.
Unions that work for the private sector employee may have a shot at growing and even being beneficial.
The current union movement is aimed at only 1 goal, more public sector employees and higher public sector pay.
I think Michael Moore should make a movie about this.
Tomorrow's union break-up announcements are the start of the Great Split between public and private unions.
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."
"Gerald McEntee, president of a government employees' union with more than 1 million members, accused his boycotting colleagues of aiding labor's political foes. "The only people who happy about this are President Bush and his crowd," he said."
Until the leadership of Unions come to their senses (unlikely) and begin cease to be nothing more than Dem. lapdogs and mouthpieces they will continue to see this abandonement.
I 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, but I also understand there was a time and place when many workers were treated like chattel. Whether or not we like today's version of the union, unions once had a part to play in the humanizing of the workplace.
I applauded President Reagan's action to fire the Federal Aircraft Controllers who went on strike. I wonder if you did, or would have?
As a matter of fact, I also applauded President Reagan's decision to fire the air traffic controllers when they arrogantly and illegally went on strike.
I've had about 10 careers; only one involved working for a state government. In my experience, the majority of lower level government workers were not much different from those I worked with in the private sector. In my state, it was quite possible to fire a worker, although there were certainly people who should have been fired who weren't. The real problems in the agency where I worked were created at top. The incompetence was breath taking.
I don't think it destroys unions. I go with
"Others said competition might be good for the labor movement."
AFL-CIO was following a failed strategy of becoming an arm of the Democrats and putting political agendas ahead of interests of workers.
The unions that split off will be more successful, while AFLCIO continues its decline.
This is good for Republicans politically, because the Democrats leg-workers will be less focussed on the Dems.
JMHO, I'm speculating.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.