Union Busting in Wisconsin!!!

RW81233

while i agree with you...aren't like .1% of the country fucking it up for everyone else? the underlying point that you are making is that 12% holds similar amounts of power as the 88% of non-union laborers, yet those two factions are fighting. why don't we just hate the rich people who bend the rules to their favor at every turn?

Prince Of Dorkness

Pearl Jam_ie wrote:

If 88% of the working population is non-union and 12% is union, how is it that those 12% are the ones that are supposedly fucking everything up for our country?

This is all just about busting unions so Scott Walker can sell the public utilities to the Koch brothers. They will then lower the wages and quality of service through the floor, raise the prices through the ceilings.

It's got nothing to do with teacher pensions.

RW81233

you are absolutely correct...and being from maryland, where the public to private utilities has already happened, I can say even republicans here have agreed that privatizing utilities is stupid.

mikepegg44

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

^^^ i can guarantee you that governor walker is not raising a new generation of republicans. these people are going to remember what walker and the republicans did. i can see his point, but wisconsin is not in a dire financial crisis like he says they are. it would go a long way if he were to try to negotiate or at least listen to the people who are protesting, but his arrogance and his billionaire backers will not allow it.

this is true, Reagan did this same type of thing to the steel workers and I think MN will never go republican because of it...hell we were the only state that didn't go reagan.

ajedigecko

i say let the teachers vote on their benefits............just like the politicians do in DC.

also....i worked for koch ind, at one point. they are "shady" at best.

shadowcast

Unions have created a lot for the middle class. By doing so they made affected non union workers in a good way as well.

Unions have a substantial impact on the compensation and work lives of both unionized and non-unionized workers.
...
Unions raise wages of unionized workers by roughly 20% and raise compensation, including both wages and benefits, by about 28%.

* Unions reduce wage inequality because they raise wages more for low- and middle-wage workers than for higher-wage workers, more for blue-collar than for white-collar workers, and more for workers who do not have a college degree.

* Strong unions set a pay standard that nonunion employers follow.
...

The most sweeping advantage for unionized workers is in fringe benefits.
- paid leave - health insurance - pension plans
...

Unionized workers receive 26% more vacation time and 14% more total paid leave (vacations and holidays).
...

There is a more general mechanism ... in which unions have affected nonunion pay and practices:

unions have set norms and established practices that become more generalized throughout the economy, thereby improving pay and working conditions for the entire workforce.

This has been especially true for the 75% of workers who are not college educated.

Many "fringe" benefits, such as pensions and health insurance, were first provided in the union sector and then became more generalized -- though, as we have seen, not universal.

Union grievance procedures, which provide "due process" in the workplace, have been mimicked in many nonunion workplaces.

Union wage-setting, which has gained exposure through media coverage, has frequently established standards of what workers generally, including many nonunion workers, expect from their employers.

shadowcast

My personal problem with union workers is that they think they are untouchable and to fire a union worker is brutal. But if a union worker is not doing his job and received at least 3 written & verbal warnings it takes up to about 2 months for this worker not be employed by my company anymore. Then the union ships this individual off on somebody else through their job placement. The unions stick up for every one of their workers even though some of them are slugs and they know it. They need to weed out some of their lazy workers and create a more reputable work force. Cause the one they have now are just brutal. At least the ones that I come into contact with. I think this would help their name out a little more. Other than that I like the general idea of a union.