Unions: "I Got Me and Mine...F*ck You and Yours!"

I fear that New Hampshire Senate Republicans lack the testicular fortitude that Wisconsin Republicans embraced in dealing with Union-related issues. In my 47 years on this planet, I never once begrudged a labor union its' right to exist and advocate for workers. Today, that has all changed. I now think unions totally and unequivocally 'suck'.

Unions' time has come and gone. The present-day union hackarama serves as little more than a loud, thuggish mouthpiece for a very small percentage of the labor force and merely exerts force on the greater masses into accepting higher taxes to pay for their often times lavish pay and benefits, not commonly available to comparable private sector workers. Only a Union collectively assembles people to act like disruptive bullies, and the rude jerks we witnessed yesterday at the Statehouse. Summarily, I think it behooves us to once again put the greater facts about Unions in perspective once again.

According to a 2010 report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 11.9% of the nation's workforce are union members. Of that number, roughly 35% are public sector employees and 6.9% are private sector unions. Demographically, the highest rate of union membership is among those aged 55-64, closely followed by members aged 45-54.

Despite the representation of a small percentage of the American Labor Force, public employee unions have become the largest contributors to political campaigns. This self-serving, greedy and corrupt allegiance has now netted unsustainable and structural deficits in local governments and municipalities across the nation.

With the rise in power of public sector unions, public employees earn significantly more, receive lavish benefits and enjoy unsurpassed job security on the backs of the American taxpayer.  The average salary and benefit package of a typical Federal employee is $123,049 annually. Throughout the nation the metric is consistent: Unionized public employees with handsome wage and benefit packages while enjoying unrivaled job security are secured by higher taxes, deficits and debt... All on the backs of working families.

Where local governments may not hire competitive workers, public sectors enjoy a monopoly and governments must employ the workers on the terms and conditions set by the Unions. Unlike the private sector unions, public sector unions are advocating and lobbying on tax dollars, because the moderating effect of market forces are absent in government. Unlike private corporations, a public employee strike will deprive citizens of essential services, such as education. Where public sector workers are prohibited by law from striking, "Sick-outs" have taken place.

Juxtapose these facts in the wake of the Wisconsin union thuggery taking place,  with death threats against State Senators, Threats against local businesses to oppose Governor Walker, violence during the relentless protesting, calls for violence against lawmakers, there has been not one single union official realistically addressing unsustainable deficits and spending that has brought this society and culture to we now face today.

In light of what we have seen yesterday and in Wisconsin in past weeks, It is pretty crystal clear that Unions do not give a hoot what people think of them. What clearly matters to them is the never-ending maintenance of the old addage, "I got me and mine, f*ck you and yours..." 

CROSS POSTED

Comments

[TaxiManSteve]

By all means.... After smashing the working-class that made our victory in WW II possible, it is time to reduce the self-seeking middle-class who mistakenly allied themselves with the rich against the majority.... Their turn into the pit....

So we can compete with the Chinese.... We must lower the American standard of living lower than the average Chinese worker to get back our manufacturing base! (Lower than that advocated by the despised enviros) We, like the Chinese, need our Tiananmen Square Massacre moment to restore order among the lower classes....(Remember FDR and the suppression of the Bonus Army in Washington, 1932?)

That is how China did it, so we must follow.

[Chaz Proulx]

Steve

On the money.

Richard-- How quickly you forget organized and ARMED right wing bullies in the house gallery hooting and hollering at Speaker Terie Norelli.

I was in the hearing room and didn't see any sidearms--

give me a break

You guys won't rest until we're all serfs of the Koch brothers and General Electric ( which pays NO Taxes on billions of dollars of profits)

Why you want another gilded age is beyond me.

If I have learned one lesson about right wing ideologues it's that they never never never re-consider.

We need more David Stockmans to "man up"

[What's Koch got to do with it]

Don't need sidearms when you've got an economic noose. Sidearms are short range, linguistics work as long range weapons (don't even bother to sight the target).

If I have learned one lesson about left wing ideologues: it's that they ignore the numbers and then they start talking about the Koch brothers even if it isn't relevant to the conversation.

[Jim Splaine]

It's incredible that so many people are against the working men and women who made this country great. Unions are only "families," where workers band together to support one another for fair wages and benefits, which if they had their druthers many corporations and company bosses would deny them.

Just what are we afraid of? Working men and women, those who receive the wages that some people complain about, labor all their lives in their jobs or professions, and should be able to share in the American dream. It is THEY who make corporations do well for their stockholders.

It is THEY who make it possible for the company to put away enough profit for the big pay for CEOs. It is THEY who usually stay in their communities for their career and their lives because they can't afford to buy houses in Florida to retire.

My Dad, who was in the painters and alllied trades union, often would remind me that labor is the backbone of America. Without labor, we would be a third-rate nation. Examples abound.

[NH INSIDER]

Jim and any of those thinking like Jim,

Personally I find Unions useful in the Private sector. The Private sector has built in regulators (Ie: Profit margins, overhead etc) it is the Public sector where the Unions are no longer welcome. It is where the Leftists like to confuse things, the difference between Public and Private sector unions!

It is an abomination that we have Public sector unions who make huge contributions to one political party who then when elected pays back the unions by escalating the pay and benefits. It is Corruption at it's finest. Leftists like to turn the other way when the corruption involves stuff they like. Mr. Hodes and the Democrats last Congress took away the requirement that Unions open their accounting for inspection, now there is no way to know what the money was spent on!

Look to WI, the Fire and Police unions threatened the local business people if they didn't publicly renounce Gov Walker and his plan, they would "Boycott" their businesses. A veiled threat to not show up or be slow to respond if their service was needed by these business people.

The average public sector union employee makes more $$$, has one of those dinosaur Pension retirement plans that the Private sector unions already proved unsupportable, and have job security such that it is almost impossible to reduce the work force in a public sector union shop. Also there is no accountability, if the negotiated packages are bank breaking just raise taxes more.

End all public sector unions immediately, allow the formation of local collective bargaining but no negotiating with national unions by the public sector. End withholding union dues. End closed union shops in government public sector jobs. Make all raises tied to the CPI. Any current employee over 40 years old can stay on the current pension system. Under 40 years old plus all new hires will be switched to a defined contribution plan with the municipality matching 3% of your pay into the plan. Employees under 40 will be credited with Pension vesting, if they have 5 years they get 20% of a pension, with 3% added for each additional year they were employed not to exceed a 50% vesting in a future pension. All employees become employees at will and subject to a 30 day termination notice.

There we solved that one!

Work Hard Have Fun!
Bob DeMaura

[Rowland]

Chaz, I remember Terie getting yelled at by citizens over that sovereignty disgrace. She had it coming but she didn't take it well.

If these pension parasites want to do the same thing, I say let them. They have the same right to scream from the balcony as any other New Hampshirite. But they don't have the same right to be taken seriously.

And if we find out they were bused in from out of state then we've got a very different matter.

[dave]

On March 31st, the New Hampshire House of Representatives showed a courage of conviction that is far too uncommon. After four years of feel good largess that created not only an unsustainable deficit, but a self licking popsicle that fed increasing dollars to state employees who in turn laundered the dollars through their union dues and back into their master’s pockets. Sadly, for many years before this, supposedly conservative controlled legislatures gave the liberal progressives lessons in how to not make tough decisions. Yesterday it was different because we the people elected a majority last year because were fed up with business as usual politicians that were bankrupting the moral and financial foundations of our state.

Speaker O’Brien, the House leadership and the quality of the Representatives did the job we elected them to do. Now it is up to the Senate to follow suit. Remember,they too were elected to stop New Hampshire’s slide into the abyss. They need to follow the House’s lead and pass their budget with no increases and the words that will stop the state union stranglehold on our citizen’s wallets and families.

[Rick Olson]

"How quickly you forget organized and ARMED right wing bullies in the house gallery hooting and hollering at Speaker Terie Norelli...." Chaz

I have forgotten nothing....That whole sentence is an absolute gross mischaracterization of what happened....totally....not to mention the pack of lies that followed...and still seem to reverberate to this day as manifest in your very post....

[troll]

It's funny you should use the title that you did for this post. I have said the same thing many times lately. Of course, when I say it, I'm talking about the "extreme" element of the Republican party. It seems to me that most of the deep cuts that the conservatives want are all to the programs that help the poor and disadvantaged. I guess it is much easier to make cuts to essential programs when you feel as though you will never use them. Any program that doesn't benefit them DIRECTLY must be a complete waste of money. A good example of this comes from the following quote: "Kurk acknowledged cuts to services could force some people to turn to communities' local welfare programs. To keep its promise not to shift costs onto local taxpayers, the committee inserted a proposal into its budget plan that suspends New Hampshire's two century old requirement that communities provide assistance to people." So, while cutting HUGE amounts of money from funds for the poor and needy, they are also making it LEGAL to let people suffer and go hungry. There's some of that "compassionate conservatism"for you. And then, when one of their own says that the cuts go to far, they exile him from his position on the house finance committee. When party leaders try to muffle and silence members of THEIR own party, that tells me that the leadership has lost touch with the real world and are playing their own little power games with almost no regard for the constituents. It's an ugly chapter in NH politics.