Big Labor vs. Taxpayers… Thursday, Sep 1 2011 

Democrats and Economics and Failure and Government and Politics and Socialism and Unions , , 1IDVET 07:53

For anyone like me that thinks big labor is a drain on society as a whole and should be disbanded, then this is a good story for you to read.

Big Labor vs. Taxpayers

By F. Vincent Vernuccio, William Kovacs
For the first time ever, government union members outnumbered those in the private sector in 2009. Until recently, union bosses—not elected representatives—have been in control of the government employee compensation process. Using taxpayer dollars they obtain through mandatory dues, they elect the management they later negotiate with. However, across the country in states such as Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan, taxpayers are fighting back and the tide of Big Labor control is starting to change.

Now there is a new online tool to give taxpayers and policy makers critical information on which states favor Big Labor. The Competitive Enterprise Institute and Crossroads GPS recently launched a “Big Labor versus Taxpayer Index” that analyzes 1,150 labor laws and regulations throughout the country and exposes states that make coddling Big Labor a top priority.These unions are at the forefront of the movement for more expansive and expensive government. They use collected forced dues to lobby for greater pay, lavish benefits and more members. They also have a legal monopoly over public services and, if they strike, can deprive citizens of essential services such as education and safety.

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Wisconsin Governor Reveals Budget…AKA Unions SUCK! Wednesday, Mar 2 2011 

Axis of Idiots and Democrats and Education and Neo-Marxists and Politics and Socialism and Unions , , , , , , , 1IDVET 08:42

I’ve been avoiding this one, just because there is so much coverage of it that my .02 probably wouldn’t add much, if anything to it.

I am against all public sector unions. Private company unions aren’t my problem. If a company wants to put up with that shit, that’s their problem. I can always take my business elsewhere if they are priced too high. Public sector unions on the other hand, give me little to no choice in dealing with them. There are no alternatives to dealing with the government, whether it is state, of federal. I don’t think that I should have to pay ridiculous sums of money for public sector employee’s health and retirement benefits, when they contribute next to nothing, if anything at all.

At any rate, the battle ground for the people vs. the unions has been set. If Gov. Walker holds out and smacks the union in the mouth, then it will be like dominoes in the rest of the country.

Here’s a few people that are covering this:

Walker Unveils Budget Containing Deep Cuts

This happened in New Jersey, under Christie. The teachers were told they could either pay for health insurance and pensions but keep their current workers in their jobs, or stay at their current overpaid rates but face a lot of layoffs.

Big cuts: Scott Walker reveals budget proposal to Wisconsin legislature

1,200 jobs eliminated, funding to public schools reduced, collective bargaining on benefits for public-employee unions nuked, and total spending slashed by 6.7 percent. Is there any governor in America, Daniels and Christie included, more willing than this guy to risk political death in the interests of solvency?

It’s all about the deficit to [David] Brooks. But the damage done by public sector unionism isn’t mainly the producing of deficits. It’s the crippling of government, so that bad teachers can’t be fired and productivity stagnates and virtually everything the government does it does crappier than private industry does it. That’s a big, ongoing problem for Democrats, which is why maybe it doesn’t trouble Brooks. But it should trouble even non-neo liberals. Democrats are the party that needs the government to be good at something other than mailing out checks.

Gov. Walker Delivers Budget Address

Those who thought Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s agenda would be tempered by two weeks of nonstop protests outside his Captiol office couldn’t have been more wrong.

State spending would be reduced, taxes would not increase and the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus would be granted independence from the UW System under the biennial budget introduced by Gov. Walker on Tuesday.

Wisconsin Governor Releases ‘Reform’ Budget as Stalemate Continues

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker unveiled Tuesday the rest of his two-year spending plan that has already gripped the nation’s attention with its explosive proposal to take nearly all collective bargaining rights away from most public workers.

With the union rights proposal stuck in a legislative stalemate thanks to the state Senate’s runaway Democrats, the Republican governor forged ahead with the release of his spending plan that includes major cuts to schools and local governments to help close a projected $3.6 billion budget shortfall.

Video: Wisconsin Dem intervenes to protect GOP senator threatened by mob

You have to see it to believe it. The clip is long and the key moment doesn’t come until 2:50 in, but you won’t be able to look away. The savior here, in the orange union t-shirt and sportsjacket, is Democratic Rep. Brett Hulsey; behind him, with white hair and glasses, is Republican Sen. Glenn Grothman. Watch and try to imagine what might have happened had Hulsey not been there. Even some of the protesters are sufficiently alarmed to start a chant of “peace-ful” to calm the more unruly ones down.
There’s plenty more out there.
Unions suck!

 

Unions Still Suck! Friday, Feb 18 2011 

Axis of Idiots and Comarade Obama and Democrats and Failure and Government and Lies and Neo-Marxists and Obama and Politics and Socialism and Unions , , , , , , , , , 1IDVET 08:58

It’s about time America wakes up to the union bullshit that has been plaguing this country for far too long.

I’ve posted on this before here and here.

Government unions should be outlawed. They work for the people, are paid by the people, and any and all monetary issues should be decided by the people.

The shit has finally hit the fan with this bullshit. I for one am ecstatic over the idea that teacher’s unions are finally going to get the crap kicked out of them by the American tax payer.

Unions are about power. Anything else they say they are about is a lie. Plain and simple.

Here’s a piece from Hot Air:

If anyone thought that unions were paragons of democracy, the display in Madison this week has been instructive.  Their protests have given their Democratic allies in the Wisconsin state senate an excuse to abandon representative democracy rather than abide by the results of an election less than four months earlier, and protesters hold signs comparing newly-elected Republican Scott Walker to dictators such as Hosni Mubarak and Adolf Hitler for the crime of proposing changes in the law which he promised during the election campaign.  The Wall Street Journal argues today that the spectacle in Wisconsin shows that unions are interested in only one thing — power:

The reality is that the unions are trying to trump the will of the voters as overwhelmingly rendered in November when they elected Mr. Walker and a new legislature. As with the strikes against pension or labor reforms that routinely shut down Paris or Athens, the goal is to create enough mayhem that Republicans and voters will give up.

While Republicans now have the votes to pass the bill, on Thursday Big Labor’s Democratic allies walked out of the state senate to block a vote. Under state rules, 20 members of the 33-member senate must be present to hold a vote on an appropriations bill, leaving the 19 Republicans one member short. By the end of the day some Democrats were reported to have fled the state. So who’s really trying to short-circuit democracy?

Unions are treating these reforms as Armageddon because they’ve owned the Wisconsin legislature for years and the changes would reduce their dominance. Under Governor Walker’s proposal, the government also would no longer collect union dues from paychecks and then send that money to the unions. Instead, unions would be responsible for their own collection regimes. The bill would also require unions to be recertified annually by a majority of all members. Imagine that: More accountability inside unions.

More

Michelle Malkin also discusses this issue:

Support Wisconsin: Trumka storms Madison tomorrow; Walker supporters to rally Saturday; a disgusted teacher calls out unions

It’s the National Thug Convergence.

AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka — refresh your memories of his violent rise to power here — announced that he’ll be storming Madison, Wisconsin tomorrow to join all the Hitler/Mubarak-sign toters and teachers ditching their jobs.

The showdown is scheduled for high noon.

Check out Vicki McKenna’s photo gallery for today’s scenes from the mob.

More

Also more at Memeorandum.

 


 

More Union BS, or Unions Suck Part Deux… Wednesday, Feb 16 2011 

Axis of Idiots and Comarade Obama and Democrats and Education and Failure and Government and Lies and Neo-Marxists and Politics and Socialism and Unions , , 1IDVET 17:02

I hate unions. I think they create an atmosphere that is not conducive to competition within the free market system. They are expensive for the employer and they pretty much tie the employer’s hands when it comes to getting rid of the assholes that don’t do their job effectively.

Case in point; teacher’s unions.

How many times have you heard them cry “it’s for the children!” whenever they whine for more money? They use that shit every time they want more money. It’s not for the children. Don’t buy that shit. 80% of the money that states and municipalities throw at schools goes into the teacher’s pockets, either through a bloated bureaucracy, or to their pensions and health care.

How much do teachers pay for their health care? In places like Detroit, or L.A. it’s zero. When those assholes are striking, it’s not for the children, it’s for their own bottom line.
It’s high time that unions were disallowed in public service and especially in schools.

Check this out:

Make sure you look at the other videos in this series at: Kids Aren’t Cars

 

More on Unions… Tuesday, Jun 8 2010 

Axis of Idiots and Democrats and Failure and Government and Neo-Marxists and Politics and RINO and Socialism and Stupid People and Truth and Unions , , , , , , , , , 1IDVET 18:55

For those of you that are idiots, and completely clueless, unions are one of the main reasons that many states, such as California, and New York, among others that employ a huge numbers of employees that are all union members are broke.

These unions actually have the balls to ask for more perks during a financial crisis. They want raises, more for their health insurance, more for their retirement, and this while the rest of the working sector takes it on the chin.

The only way to get out from under these asshole unions is to vote for candidates that actually have the balls to stand up to them. You can pretty much forget about most Democrats, and a couple Republican RINOs, but there are plenty out there that are willing to fight these dirt bags.

Read on:

How to Fight Back against Public Unions: A Primer
By Ed Lasky

We have reached a potential turning point in the relationship of public employee unions and the electorate they ostensibly serve. Over the past year, there has been a steady drumbeat of criticism focused on public unions and the havoc they have wrought on our public finances. Governments — city, country, state, and federal — are drowning in red ink Our taxes are flowing to ever-voracious government workers (whose own ranks are growing steadily while the private payrolls shrink); they are better compensated than private workers in comparable positions.
What is to be done?

We — taxpayers, tea partiers and sympathizers, independents, Republicans, and Democrats — need to come together and forge a blueprint to take back our nation. The inclusion of Democrats was deliberate, despite the fact that many Democrat politicians are in the pockets of public unions. AFSCME, the government employee union, has a political action committee that is the second-largest in the nation, and virtually all of its donations are to Democrats; ditto the teachers’ unions, or as they like to call themselves, “federations” and “associations” — teachers know how to use thesauruses for political purposes. But when liberal newspapers such as the New York Times now report on subway conductors earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and the  Boston Globe takes editorial swipes at public employee unions and their greedy and self-centered leadership, the timing may be ripe for Democrats to come out of the closet and transform themselves from donkeys into fiscal hawks (see Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s efforts in Los Angeles).

When that arbiter of popular culture “Saturday Night Live” makes fun of surly government workers, we may have reached a turning point. Hope springs eternal on the political front, but what can people power do to weaken the grip of public employee unions and restore fiscal sanity to our governments’ budgets?

We are in a communications war where we have a voice.

More

 

Unions Still Suck… Thursday, Jun 3 2010 

Axis of Idiots and Democrats and Education and Politics and Socialism and Unions , , 1IDVET 20:13

And the Governor of New Jersey sure knows how to put it succinctly.

H/T Ace

 

Unions and Democrats, Again… Tuesday, May 25 2010 

Congress and Failure and Government and Politics and Socialism and Stupid People and Tax and Unions , , , , , , , , 1IDVET 15:32

These assholes in Congress just don’t fucking get it. The ONLY way that they will get the message is to fire them.

If you aren’t engaged in the process, you’re the problem too.

Unions don’t help anyone  but themselves. Look what the unions and communists in Greece did for that country. You’ve been warned.

The Next Bailout: $165B for Unions
By Erik Berte

Taxpayers could be on the hook for another $165 billion if a bill to bail out private union pension funds makes it through Congress.

A Democratic senator is introducing legislation for a bailout of troubled union pension funds.  If passed, the bill could put another $165 billion in liabilities on the shoulders of American taxpayers.

The bill, which would put the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation behind struggling pensions for union workers, is being introduced by Senator Bob Casey, (D-Pa.), who says it will save jobs and help people.

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More on Unions… Monday, Apr 19 2010 

Axis of Idiots and Democrats and Government and Lies and Neo-Marxists and Politics and Socialism and Stupid People and Unions , , , , , 1IDVET 15:37

Emphasis on morons…

An interesting look at unions and how they’ve pretty much ruined California.

The Beholden State

How public-sector unions broke California

The camera focuses on an official of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), California’s largest public-employee union, sitting in a legislative chamber and speaking into a microphone. “We helped to get you into office, and we got a good memory,” she says matter-of-factly to the elected officials outside the shot. “Come November, if you don’t back our program, we’ll get you out of office.’

Illustration by Sean Delonas.

The video has become a sensation among California taxpayer groups for its vivid depiction of the audacious power that public-sector unions wield in their state. The unions’ political triumphs have molded a California in which government workers thrive at the expense of a struggling private sector. The state’s public school teachers are the highest-paid in the nation. Its prison guards can easily earn six-figure salaries. State workers routinely retire at 55 with pensions higher than their base pay for most of their working life. Meanwhile, what was once the most prosperous state now suffers from an unemployment rate far steeper than the nation’s and a flood of firms and jobs escaping high taxes and stifling regulations. This toxic combination—high public-sector employee costs and sagging economic fortunes—has produced recurring budget crises in Sacramento and in virtually every municipality in the state.

How public employees became members of the elite class in a declining California offers a cautionary tale to the rest of the country, where the same process is happening in slower motion. The story starts half a century ago, when California public workers won bargaining rights and quickly learned how to elect their own bosses—that is, sympathetic politicians who would grant them outsize pay and benefits in exchange for their support. Over time, the unions have turned the state’s politics completely in their favor. The result: unaffordable benefits for civil servants; fiscal chaos in Sacramento and in cities and towns across the state; and angry taxpayers finally confronting the unionized masters of California’s unsustainable government.

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Re: Unions… Thursday, Apr 1 2010 

Axis of Idiots and Democrats and Lies and Neo-Marxists and Politics and Socialism and Truth and Unions , , , , , , , 1IDVET 15:58

A follow up to my previous post on unions.

Teachers Unions: Don’t Work Too Hard!
John Stossel

Jaime Escalante — the math teacher who became famous for teaching even the poorest kids calculus in a failing Los Angeles school – died this week at age 78. His story shows not just what can be accomplished by great teachers, but also what damage unions can do.

Escalante got national attention when 14 out of 15 of his students at a low-ranking Los Angeles school passed the Advanced Placement Calculus exam. By 1987, 73 students from the school passed the AP calculus exam — more than all but six other schools in the country. After a movie about his success, called ”Stand and Deliver”, was released in 1988, Escalante became an icon for showing that even the most disadvantaged kids could learn complex subjects if given the right instruction.

Read more:

 

Unions Suck.. Wednesday, Mar 31 2010 

Axis of Idiots and Democrats and Failure and Government and Lies and Neo-Marxists and Politics and Socialism and Unions , , , , , , , , , , , 1IDVET 18:36

Every time I see a “Work Union, Live Better” sticker, I want to drive the douche-bag off the road.

It makes me want to hurl. I almost become incensed from the sight. Almost as bad as “Obama-Biden” stickers.

Both have screwed up America. Both deserve your derision.

Anyway, the union folks might be decent people, but the organization they have representing their “interests” is corrupt and has been shoving money at the Democrats as long as I can remember.

Look  at what they have achieved at your expense! They own a good chunk of GM at no cost to them. It was handed to them by the Douche-bag-in-Chief.

They drive up the cost of goods and services across the broad spectrum of anything and everything that involves a union. Businesses have to compensate for the ridiculous sums of money they spend placating unions by raising the price of their product.

Unions make America’s situation even worse than it should be.

Yeah, work union, live better my ass. Maybe it should say, “Work Union, We Screw the American People so WE can Live Better!” Do you people that work for a union pay attention to the politics that these assholes play?

Somehow I doubt it.

Now, government unions outnumber private sector unions. Now these bastards will never lose their job, no matter how screwed up they are.

Check this out:

“We’re twisting arms. We’re threatening people.”
Posted By Ivan Osorio

So said United Teachers of Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy at a rally, which reason.tv now makes available in a new video on public sector unions [1]. As host Nick Gillespie notes, “as unemployment hovers around 10 percent and any sort of recovery seems to be forever and a day away…the one part of the economy that is going gangbusters during the Great Recession is government work.” Now that the number of union members working for government has surpassed the number of union members working for businesses [2], and compensation for unionized government workers is straining public budgets to a crisis point [3], this issue needs all the attention it can get.

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