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I've been relatively quiet in this medium lately.
There's been plenty on my mind, but I haven't been saying much of it.
So let's just get right to the point: I don't like unions.
(This is the part where a good number of you will shout "Live or die by the union!"; no shit, someone did exactly that at a recent gathering when all I did was raise the subject.)
You're not done yet? You still have some 19th century union-rallying songs to sing? Go ahead; get it out of your system.
taps foot, checks watch
Okay, having uttered the heresy and withstood your wroth, let me qualify: the right to join a union is one of the fundamental enumerated rights in this country. Even tho I have never worked in a union shop and would not join a union for software engineers if one were ever to spring into existence, I fully recognize, tolerate, and condone others' right to do so.
I have even had the pleasure (yes, "pleasure") of paying a union member to work his craft on my house. It's someone I know personally (as opposed to strictly professionally), and he has convinced me thru his acts and his career moves that union membership is absolutely a good thing for both him and his customers. And he did so without once mentioning the Pinkertons.
So, have we just about got where I'm coming from? I, myself, have an antipathy toward unions, but I accept them as a legitimate free choice, and a possible force for good. The actions of the Longshoremen's Union during the Vietnam War era against anti-war protesters are not condoned by today's union supporters. The union thugs who stalked me after I had a letter-to-the-editor published in favor of a proposed "Right to Work" law in the 1980s were acting outside of approved union policy. I get that.
So let's look at Wisconsin.
By now, you've probably heard that the union-busting acts of Governor Walker and his party members (except one) in the Wisconsin State Senate have just extracted the "thou shalt not collectively bargain with the state" language from the financial bill, ran it as a stand-alone bill, and passed it without the presence of the Wisconsin Democrat State Senators, who fled the state to keep there from being a quorum on the financial bill. But because non-financial bills do not require the same quorum, the union-busting section of the bill has now been passed on its own.
Cry foul all you like, but that's standard parliamentary procedure. Cheap, sleazy, and everything I hate about politics. Gaming the system. And all perfectly legal.
There's actually a sound argument for prohibiting collective bargaining with the government. Even FDR considered collective bargaining to be something to use only "against" corporations and wealthy mine-owners, but never "against" the government. (Yes, I'm using scare quotes on purpose; negotiations are supposed to be "with", not "against".)
But here's the real deal: Walker's bill, and the reasoning behind it, are bullshit.
There are several states which have already prohibited collective bargaining with the government. They have exactly the same pension and wage problems that Wisconsin had.
The problem has nothing to do with the public-sector workers negotiating as a collective.
Re-read that last line. Thanks.
The problem is that politicians from yesteryear set long-term pension and payment contracts into law which they could not deliver. It isn't that Wisconsin cut taxes for the rich right before pulling this union-bashing stunt; Wisconsin couldn't make those public-sector pension payments even with the uncut taxes.
California is in even worse shape than Wisconsin; some economists say that California is in even worse shape than Greece. But, Schwarzenegger excepted, this was all the doing of Democrats. And they have an all-Democrat state government right now.
Busting the public-sector unions won't help there, either. So it's a good thing nobody is talking about that in Sacramento.
Meanwhile, ask yourself why less than 6% of the private sector is unionized these days. Ask yourself why unions were unable to keep the bill from even hitting the floor in Madison. And see whether you can credibly blame union-busting politicians for the steady decline of union power outside of the political sphere.
Unions have got to stop fighting the battles of the 19th century and the 1920s.
There's been plenty on my mind, but I haven't been saying much of it.
So let's just get right to the point: I don't like unions.
(This is the part where a good number of you will shout "Live or die by the union!"; no shit, someone did exactly that at a recent gathering when all I did was raise the subject.)
You're not done yet? You still have some 19th century union-rallying songs to sing? Go ahead; get it out of your system.
taps foot, checks watch
Okay, having uttered the heresy and withstood your wroth, let me qualify: the right to join a union is one of the fundamental enumerated rights in this country. Even tho I have never worked in a union shop and would not join a union for software engineers if one were ever to spring into existence, I fully recognize, tolerate, and condone others' right to do so.
I have even had the pleasure (yes, "pleasure") of paying a union member to work his craft on my house. It's someone I know personally (as opposed to strictly professionally), and he has convinced me thru his acts and his career moves that union membership is absolutely a good thing for both him and his customers. And he did so without once mentioning the Pinkertons.
So, have we just about got where I'm coming from? I, myself, have an antipathy toward unions, but I accept them as a legitimate free choice, and a possible force for good. The actions of the Longshoremen's Union during the Vietnam War era against anti-war protesters are not condoned by today's union supporters. The union thugs who stalked me after I had a letter-to-the-editor published in favor of a proposed "Right to Work" law in the 1980s were acting outside of approved union policy. I get that.
So let's look at Wisconsin.
By now, you've probably heard that the union-busting acts of Governor Walker and his party members (except one) in the Wisconsin State Senate have just extracted the "thou shalt not collectively bargain with the state" language from the financial bill, ran it as a stand-alone bill, and passed it without the presence of the Wisconsin Democrat State Senators, who fled the state to keep there from being a quorum on the financial bill. But because non-financial bills do not require the same quorum, the union-busting section of the bill has now been passed on its own.
Cry foul all you like, but that's standard parliamentary procedure. Cheap, sleazy, and everything I hate about politics. Gaming the system. And all perfectly legal.
There's actually a sound argument for prohibiting collective bargaining with the government. Even FDR considered collective bargaining to be something to use only "against" corporations and wealthy mine-owners, but never "against" the government. (Yes, I'm using scare quotes on purpose; negotiations are supposed to be "with", not "against".)
But here's the real deal: Walker's bill, and the reasoning behind it, are bullshit.
There are several states which have already prohibited collective bargaining with the government. They have exactly the same pension and wage problems that Wisconsin had.
The problem has nothing to do with the public-sector workers negotiating as a collective.
Re-read that last line. Thanks.
The problem is that politicians from yesteryear set long-term pension and payment contracts into law which they could not deliver. It isn't that Wisconsin cut taxes for the rich right before pulling this union-bashing stunt; Wisconsin couldn't make those public-sector pension payments even with the uncut taxes.
California is in even worse shape than Wisconsin; some economists say that California is in even worse shape than Greece. But, Schwarzenegger excepted, this was all the doing of Democrats. And they have an all-Democrat state government right now.
Busting the public-sector unions won't help there, either. So it's a good thing nobody is talking about that in Sacramento.
Meanwhile, ask yourself why less than 6% of the private sector is unionized these days. Ask yourself why unions were unable to keep the bill from even hitting the floor in Madison. And see whether you can credibly blame union-busting politicians for the steady decline of union power outside of the political sphere.
Unions have got to stop fighting the battles of the 19th century and the 1920s.
