Quote:
Originally Posted by Jackbass
Look I feel in the past 100 years unions are the best thing to happen for the American Middle Class( one could argue unions created the middle class) unions are also the worst thing to happen to the American Middle Class.
Unions elevated the American worker to a comfortable living wage. They went too far in the manufacturing industry bankrupting The auto industry and pushing most of the jobs overseas. Killing entire towns states etc.
However public unions are in place they are not going away. Municipalities have the ability to negotiate as they should. If they come to an impasse there will be a strike lockout what ever. One side will cave and there will be concessions. The public union may be holding back due to length of contract etc.
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I'll grant you that there was a time when unions did a tremendous amount of good. That was a long time ago. As you said, in the long run, they also priced themselves right out of existence, except in the public sector.
Today, public unions are doing a tremendous amount of economic damage in many places. You still haven't touched on that.
"public unions are in place they are not going away."
Tell that to the teachers in Wisconsin (of all places, Wisconsin!). Public opinion is turning rapidly against public unions. They may go away when people open their eyes and see just how much of their future earnings have been confiscated by the unions.
"If they come to an impasse there will be a strike lockout what ever"
Wrong. In many places (everywhere in CT), when they cannot agree, there is something called "binding arbitration", where a neutral third party comes in and makes the final decision. This could not be less democratic. The guy who has the ultimate say, the arbitrator, is not an elected official, therefore he isn't accountable to me, I cannot vote him out of office, yet he single-handedly decides what my property taxes will be.
And when there are strikes, the union has all the leverage, because those on strike may be responsible for public safety, or teaching our kids. It's completely imnmoral for those people to strike over cheap healkthcare and the right to fatten their already bloated pensions with overtime.
You also failed to mention the inevitable conflict of interest that occurs when public labor unions give huge campaign money to the same politicians who then decide what benefits to award the union.