Conservatism and the Working Man

[ABikerSailor]

What percentage of private sector worker is represented by a union?

The UAW is one large sector of private industry that is unionized. Same with a lot of construction as well as road construction. My Grandfather was a union man with a road company called McIntyre Inc.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Unions only true goal is to increase their own power through the abuse of their own members money.

We no longer need unions to protect workers when there is a lawyer eagerly waiting to sue ANY entity for ANY reason on every street corner.

We'll put OUR guy.....​

March 8, 2012

Mark Wahlberg / Teamsters Local 25​

.....up, against your candy-ass CHICKENHAWK.....

....ANY day!!!!!!!!​

 

[ABikerSailor]

Ted Nugent sucks ass.........his music used to be good, but it's been overshadowed by his right wing lunacy.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Conservatives maintain that trade unions are a bad thing. The unions are arcane and unnecessary. Unions are greedy and hamper the bottom line of corporations.

Conservatives maintain that federal regulations are intrusive and onerous. Newt Gingrich called child labor laws stupid and suggested kids would be better off working than learning.

Conservatives say that unemployment insurance de-motivates workers and should be stopped.

Unions fight for safer work places. They fight for apprenticeship programs and continued worker training. They fight for fair wages and benefits.

Workplace safety regulations help protect workers from hazards on the job. They set minimum standards for exposure to hazardous chemicals, machinery and noise. Child labor laws have helped build this nation's education and skill levels. They have kept countless children from exploitation and injury.

There is no stronger motivation for out of work workers than loosing their homes, their health care, their savings and their self esteem. Yet Conservatives maintain that out of work workers are lazy and more willing to lay around than motivated to find work (even if there is no work to find)

Tell me again, Conservatives, how well you love the American worker. Tell me how your policies benefit the American worker. Seems your policies are more concerned with the welfare of the company owner than the work force. Tell me how your plans of deregulation and demonizing trade unions will keep workers safe and maintain a vibrant Middle Class.

And tell me Conservative working people, why would you support efforts designed to undercut your workplace safety and livelihood.

"Conservatives maintain that trade unions are a bad thing."

The adolescent, the Marxist, and the Liberal dream of “fairness,” brought about by the state. Silly. This would mean usurping the society decision that the skilled worker is entitled to higher pay than the unskilled. This decision is never pronounced by any authority other than the free market. It was arrived at via the interaction of human beings perfectly capable of ordering their own affairs.

The current attention to identifying ‘bad’ teachers reveals the idiocy of the Leftist’s position. If the street sweeper should be paid as the surgeon…in the interests of ‘fairness’ or ‘equality,’ then why should the ‘bad’ teacher not be paid as much as the good one? We see that principle in unionism, affirmative action, and set-asides and preferences wherein accomplishment and performance are often outside of consideration. This is the operative principle in a national healthcare regime.

Ideas from chapter 32 of "The Secret Knowledge" On the Dismantling of American Culture," David Mamet

 

[Mustang]

Conservatives maintain that trade unions are a bad thing. The unions are arcane and unnecessary. Unions are greedy and hamper the bottom line of corporations.

Conservatives maintain that federal regulations are intrusive and onerous. Newt Gingrich called child labor laws stupid and suggested kids would be better off working than learning.

Conservatives say that unemployment insurance de-motivates workers and should be stopped.

Unions fight for safer work places. They fight for apprenticeship programs and continued worker training. They fight for fair wages and benefits.

Workplace safety regulations help protect workers from hazards on the job. They set minimum standards for exposure to hazardous chemicals, machinery and noise. Child labor laws have helped build this nation's education and skill levels. They have kept countless children from exploitation and injury.

There is no stronger motivation for out of work workers than loosing their homes, their health care, their savings and their self esteem. Yet Conservatives maintain that out of work workers are lazy and more willing to lay around than motivated to find work (even if there is no work to find)

Tell me again, Conservatives, how well you love the American worker. Tell me how your policies benefit the American worker. Seems your policies are more concerned with the welfare of the company owner than the work force. Tell me how your plans of deregulation and demonizing trade unions will keep workers safe and maintain a vibrant Middle Class.

And tell me Conservative working people, why would you support efforts designed to undercut your workplace safety and livelihood.

Middle class and lower middle class conservatives are paving the way for the plutocracy in this country which already has a stranglehold on what campaign contributions can buy (and prevent from happening). And as it unfolds, their wages, and benefits, and job security, and retirement security are going to be hit JUST LIKE it will be for everyone else.

I keep shaking my head as I watch these conservatives get manipulated by the power brokers when the social issues keep getting trotted out any time Republicans need a boost in the polls. Yup, those deficit hawk conservative Republicans get into office and then vote in ways that cut taxes for the wealthiest in this country while driving up the debt in an attempt to bring down the very system they keep saying they hate. Read closely what Norquist says if you don't believe me.

And then, when the American middle class world and its past stability is lying in tatters, who are these conservatives going to blame? Themselves? That would probably be too difficult a burden to bear. Yeah, who wants to face the fact that they precipitated their own (and their children's) economic decline over a period of decades by supporting the very politicians who were cutting the rug out from under them? No, they'll blame liberals because they blame liberals for everything. That's their boogeyman.

 

[sparky]

And tell me Conservative working people, why would you support efforts designed to undercut your workplace safety and livelihood.

The True Conservatives will:

1. Abolish the Federal Reserve
2. Stop Outsourcing to China, India and other "cheap" parasites.
3. Skyrocket the taxes for importers from the "cheap" countries who are laughing and eating American pie.
4. Cut the taxes and support the manufacturing in this country.
5. Buy American policy.
6. Cut the power of banksters.
7. Abolish of many idiotic laws or bureaucracy for business.
8. Back to the Traditional Values and Christianity.

.

the concept of collective bargaining isn't anything new Baron, yet the leaders missed the boat in the last 30 trs or so , and some of your points apply

add

VAT

the WTO

GATT

NAFTA

as well as the Chamber of Corruption's snafu's

Free Trade

etc


~S~

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

no one cares about trade unions - until they are forced on business

public unions need to be abolished

 

[ABikerSailor]

no one cares about trade unions - until they are forced on business

public unions need to be abolished

Agreed Dante, totally nutso statement.

Hey FROODA Loops, might wanna take some time and look back in our history for things like Robber Barons and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

Unions are needed so that corporations don't crap all over their workers.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Conservatives maintain that trade unions are a bad thing. The unions are arcane and unnecessary. Unions are greedy and hamper the bottom line of corporations.

Conservatives maintain that federal regulations are intrusive and onerous. Newt Gingrich called child labor laws stupid and suggested kids would be better off working than learning.

Conservatives say that unemployment insurance de-motivates workers and should be stopped.

Unions fight for safer work places. They fight for apprenticeship programs and continued worker training. They fight for fair wages and benefits.

Workplace safety regulations help protect workers from hazards on the job. They set minimum standards for exposure to hazardous chemicals, machinery and noise. Child labor laws have helped build this nation's education and skill levels. They have kept countless children from exploitation and injury.

There is no stronger motivation for out of work workers than loosing their homes, their health care, their savings and their self esteem. Yet Conservatives maintain that out of work workers are lazy and more willing to lay around than motivated to find work (even if there is no work to find)

Tell me again, Conservatives, how well you love the American worker. Tell me how your policies benefit the American worker. Seems your policies are more concerned with the welfare of the company owner than the work force. Tell me how your plans of deregulation and demonizing trade unions will keep workers safe and maintain a vibrant Middle Class.

And tell me Conservative working people, why would you support efforts designed to undercut your workplace safety and livelihood.

Middle class and lower middle class conservatives are paving the way for the plutocracy in this country which already has a stranglehold on what campaign contributions can buy (and prevent from happening). And as it unfolds, their wages, and benefits, and job security, and retirement security are going to be hit JUST LIKE it will be for everyone else.

I keep shaking my head as I watch these conservatives get manipulated by the power brokers when the social issues keep getting trotted out any time Republicans need a boost in the polls. Yup, those deficit hawk conservative Republicans get into office and then vote in ways that cut taxes for the wealthiest in this country while driving up the debt in an attempt to bring down the very system they keep saying they hate. Read closely what Norquist says if you don't believe me.

And then, when the American middle class world and its past stability is lying in tatters, who are these conservatives going to blame? Themselves? That would probably be too difficult a burden to bear. Yeah, who wants to face the fact that they precipitated their own (and their children's) economic decline over a period of decades by supporting the very politicians who were cutting the rug out from under them? No, they'll blame liberals because they blame liberals for everything. That's their boogeyman.

"...paving the way for the plutocracy..."

So, if I can carry your view forward, you wish to see a government by the poor?

And this has been tried and proven successful....

...where?

You are, it seems, one of those who sees the evil wealthy hidden under your bed?
Surprise: in the United States, there does not exist a perennial class known as the wealthy.
The concept is known as economic mobility...and it is alive and well.

"...a stranglehold on what campaign contributions..."
It seems you are unaware that unions are the largest contributors...

You seem a particularly gullible fellow....
....I'm certain that no amount of education will have the salutary effect.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Conservatives maintain that trade unions are a bad thing. The unions are arcane and unnecessary. Unions are greedy and hamper the bottom line of corporations.

Conservatives maintain that federal regulations are intrusive and onerous. Newt Gingrich called child labor laws stupid and suggested kids would be better off working than learning.

Conservatives say that unemployment insurance de-motivates workers and should be stopped.

Unions fight for safer work places. They fight for apprenticeship programs and continued worker training. They fight for fair wages and benefits.

Workplace safety regulations help protect workers from hazards on the job. They set minimum standards for exposure to hazardous chemicals, machinery and noise. Child labor laws have helped build this nation's education and skill levels. They have kept countless children from exploitation and injury.

There is no stronger motivation for out of work workers than loosing their homes, their health care, their savings and their self esteem. Yet Conservatives maintain that out of work workers are lazy and more willing to lay around than motivated to find work (even if there is no work to find)

Tell me again, Conservatives, how well you love the American worker. Tell me how your policies benefit the American worker. Seems your policies are more concerned with the welfare of the company owner than the work force. Tell me how your plans of deregulation and demonizing trade unions will keep workers safe and maintain a vibrant Middle Class.

And tell me Conservative working people, why would you support efforts designed to undercut your workplace safety and livelihood.

Powerful thread. Power. full.

You see the thing about these RW and Republican beliefs and policies is that they do work...in their hopes and dreams. Only in their hopes and dreams does the market place magically make everything right and hunky dorey, only in their hopes and dreams does supply side economics work. It is only in RW and Republican's hopes and dreams where you will find that lower the taxes of the super rich immediately and directly results to increased jobs and prosperity for all.

You can't fight hopes and dreams...it's impossible. Besides, who are you or anyone to stop someone from their hopes and dreams?

I certainly agree with you...

....it is "full."

 

[whitehall]

Come on lefties. Even the union based sub-standard US education system doesn't excuse you from wild crazy generalizations you think you can pass off as political dogma.

 

[freedombecki]

Conservatives maintain that trade unions are a bad thing. The unions are arcane and unnecessary. Unions are greedy and hamper the bottom line of corporations.

Conservatives maintain that federal regulations are intrusive and onerous. Newt Gingrich called child labor laws stupid and suggested kids would be better off working than learning.

Conservatives say that unemployment insurance de-motivates workers and should be stopped.

Unions fight for safer work places. They fight for apprenticeship programs and continued worker training. They fight for fair wages and benefits.

Workplace safety regulations help protect workers from hazards on the job. They set minimum standards for exposure to hazardous chemicals, machinery and noise. Child labor laws have helped build this nation's education and skill levels. They have kept countless children from exploitation and injury.

There is no stronger motivation for out of work workers than loosing their homes, their health care, their savings and their self esteem. Yet Conservatives maintain that out of work workers are lazy and more willing to lay around than motivated to find work (even if there is no work to find)

Tell me again, Conservatives, how well you love the American worker. Tell me how your policies benefit the American worker. Seems your policies are more concerned with the welfare of the company owner than the work force. Tell me how your plans of deregulation and demonizing trade unions will keep workers safe and maintain a vibrant Middle Class.

And tell me Conservative working people, why would you support efforts designed to undercut your workplace safety and livelihood.

Unions are not a bad thing unless they

1. Require more money than the business can afford.

2. Refuse to negotiate in favor of the business/government entity when receipts cannot keep up with union demands and cause the business to become a marginal entity, and the union officials were given the books to prove it.

3. Tell workers to do things to harrass and buoycott management, their friends, family, and members of companies that have nothing to do with the union based on friendliness to management (isolation of management from community).

4. Threaten with punitive action, beat, and/or kill nonunion workers or those who cross picket lines.

5. Threaten with punitive action, beat, and/or kill management and/or their families.

6. Conspire to break up management families by telling the women in the office union to wear provocative apparel that reveal underwear or certain anatomical features. (I attended such a meeting in total horror at what I was hearing).

7. Steal and/or burn company property ten times the equivalent of what they feel they were cheated out of when things don't go their way.

8. Use omerta oaths to avoid criminal prosecution for criminal act

9. Punish union members who break omerta or engage in union whistle-blowing on criminal activities at any level of the union food chain.

10. Refuse to discipline union workers who do not engage in company safety procedures (not wear hard-hats in hard-hat zones, refusal to fasten seat belts in company vehicles, etc.)

​

I used to like the unions. Then a fellow manager's home was bombed with his family asleep inside. Fortunately, there was an issue with the fuse, so only 1 room was destroyed, and the kitchen was partially burned. Nobody knew nothin', but all of 'em cheered this horrible incident.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Unions only true goal is to increase their own power through the abuse of their own members money.

We no longer need unions to protect workers when there is a lawyer eagerly waiting to sue ANY entity for ANY reason on every street corner.

So if workers are in dangerous conditions, they have no right to demand safer conditions, they can just sue? And then, when Conservative law makers re-visit tort reform, what happens then?

The NLRB received 22, 497 unfair-labor-practices charges in 2008. But of those, 6,210 were filed against unions for “alleged illegal restraint and coercion of employees.” (http://nlrb.gov/nlrb/shared_files/brochures/Annual Reports/Entire2008Annual.pdf)

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

no one cares about trade unions - until they are forced on business

public unions need to be abolished

Agreed Dante, totally nutso statement.

Hey FROODA Loops, might wanna take some time and look back in our history for things like Robber Barons and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

Unions are needed so that corporations don't crap all over their workers.

when the great mass of the conservative base goes on about unions and medicare and social security, it is hilarious. Not one of them wants to go back to the days before those things existed. If they did they'd be living a whole nother lifestyle.

think things are bad today? /there wasn't a sane person who lived back then who wouldn't call today's society heaven on earth - even with our problems. thanks to union pay, social security and medicare for grandpa and grandma

 

[PoliticalChic]

The American labor movement has been under constant attack since the late 70s. Not sure of the rationale working class conservatives have in joining in the pile-on but I suspect it is little more than blindly adopting the opinions of their leaders. On the last board I was on there was a central group of hard core conservatives who flatly asserted that Americans do not have collective bargaining rights period, do the conservatives here feel the same way? That our constitutional right of free association ends at the door of the workplace?

Results of a recent Rasmussen poll found that 9% of nonunion workers were interested in joining a union. For public school grads, that means that 91% have no such interest. In fact, maybe that means that 9% are public school grads who didn’t learn to read on their own. (Just 9% of Non-Union Workers Want to Join Union - Rasmussen Reports™)

Rasmussen found that even workers in companies who were in danger of losing their jobs, it was still only 9%. What do the 91% know about union membership that the 9% don’t? One can only conjecture.

In the 1950s some 1/3 of all private-sector workers belonged to a union. Now only 7.6% of nongovernment workers belong to one. From 1997to 2004, private sector employment grew from 66.1 to 103.6 million, but union membership declined from 14.3 to 8.2 million. (AEAweb: Annual Meeting Papers)


Now, why is that?

Folks like you continue to talk like its still 1930, and the many laws that protect workers from management abuse don’t exist.

Victimology.

Seems that you know so much more of their interests than the 91%, eh?

 

[snakedoc]

A question for the liberals do you really feel the unions of Today have the same goals as the unions of 70, 80, or more years ago? Are they still looking for safe working conditions fair pay and benefits or are they know just trying to get as much as they can while doing as little as they can? There was a time when unions were serving a good and noble purpose are they still or have they now become just as greedy and corrupt as those they fight against?

 

[ABikerSailor]

The American labor movement has been under constant attack since the late 70s. Not sure of the rationale working class conservatives have in joining in the pile-on but I suspect it is little more than blindly adopting the opinions of their leaders. On the last board I was on there was a central group of hard core conservatives who flatly asserted that Americans do not have collective bargaining rights period, do the conservatives here feel the same way? That our constitutional right of free association ends at the door of the workplace?

Results of a recent Rasmussen poll found that 9% of nonunion workers were interested in joining a union. For public school grads, that means that 91% have no such interest. In fact, maybe that means that 9% are public school grads who didn’t learn to read on their own. (Just 9% of Non-Union Workers Want to Join Union - Rasmussen Reports™)

Rasmussen found that even workers in companies who were in danger of losing their jobs, it was still only 9%. What do the 91% know about union membership that the 9% don’t? One can only conjecture.

In the 1950s some 1/3 of all private-sector workers belonged to a union. Now only 7.6% of nongovernment workers belong to one. From 1997to 2004, private sector employment grew from 66.1 to 103.6 million, but union membership declined from 14.3 to 8.2 million. (AEAweb: Annual Meeting Papers)


Now, why is that?

Folks like you continue to talk like its still 1930, and the many laws that protect workers from management abuse don’t exist.

Victimology.

Seems that you know so much more of their interests than the 91%, eh?

Ever hear of the Big Branch Mine in Va? How about Massey energy?

On January 19, 2006 a belt line fire killed miners Don I. Bragg, 33, and Ellery Elvis Hatfield, 47, at Massey's Aracoma Alma Number 1 Mine in Logan County, West Virginia. Efforts to fight the fire were hampered by inadequate fire extinguishers, fire hose couplings which did not match the water line, and a lack of water in the lines.[46] On December 22, 2008 Massey Energy agreed to pay $4.2 million in civil and criminal penalties for the accident.[47] It is the largest financial settlement in the coal industry's history.[48] The Charleston (WV) Gazette reported on January 15, 2009 that Aracoma widows Delorice Bragg and Freda Hatfield urged U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver to reject Massey's plea bargain and fine for the accident.[49] Widow Bragg stated that it was clear "that Massey executives expected the Alma Mine to emphasize production over the safety of the coal miners inside."

On February 1, 2006, bulldozer operator Paul K. Moss, 58, of Sissonville, West Virginia died when his machine ruptured a 16-inch (410 mm) natural gas line at Elk Run Coal Co.'s Black Castle surface mine.[50] The bulldozer was immediately engulfed in flames. According to the Mine Safety and Health Administration report, operator Moss exited the cab but his body was found behind the blade. Massey Energy was fined $2.5 million after a federal judge accepted the company's guilty plea to 10 criminal charges for the fire. A U.S. District approved a plea deal despite a provision sparing Massey officials and the Richmond, Va., coal company from prosecution. The agreement also required Aracoma to pay a $1.7 million fine for civil violations found by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.[51]

On October 8, 2008 Steven Cain, 32, of Comfort, West Virginia was killed at Massey Energy's Independence Coal Justice No. 1 Mine when he was crushed by a railcar. A Mine Safety and Health Administration report[52] concludes Cain was killed because Massey managers assigned him a dangerous job, although he had “little mining experience and minimal training.”[53]

In 2009, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration cited Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch coal mine for 495 violations and proposed $911,802 in fines.[54]

On April 5, 2010, 29 miners were killed in a mine explosion at the Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine at Montcoal, West Virginia. Safety officials claimed that the mine had previous violations for not properly ventilating methane gas. In the previous year, federal inspectors had fined the company more than $382,000 for violations involving ventilation and equipment at the plant.[55] This explosion and subsequent deaths was the worst US mine disaster in 40 years.

[edit] Age discrimination

On Oct 30, 2009, Fayette County West Virginia Judge Paul Blake ruled in an age discrimination lawsuit that more than 200 miners who were not rehired after Massey Energy Co. bought a bankrupt West Virginia mine were entitled to a settlement of $8.75 million. The suit covers 229 miners, including 82 union miners. Massey has been ordered to rehire the miners. Under the terms of the settlement, the 82 union miners will each receive $38,000. The remaining miners will receive $19,000.[56]

Massey Energy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A union might have been able to prevent some of these mining deaths.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Unions only true goal is to increase their own power through the abuse of their own members money.

We no longer need unions to protect workers when there is a lawyer eagerly waiting to sue ANY entity for ANY reason on every street corner.

So if workers are in dangerous conditions, they have no right to demand safer conditions, they can just sue? And then, when Conservative law makers re-visit tort reform, what happens then?

They lobby......

FAUX Noise.​

 

[PoliticalChic]

The American labor movement has been under constant attack since the late 70s. Not sure of the rationale working class conservatives have in joining in the pile-on but I suspect it is little more than blindly adopting the opinions of their leaders. On the last board I was on there was a central group of hard core conservatives who flatly asserted that Americans do not have collective bargaining rights period, do the conservatives here feel the same way? That our constitutional right of free association ends at the door of the workplace?

Results of a recent Rasmussen poll found that 9% of nonunion workers were interested in joining a union. For public school grads, that means that 91% have no such interest. In fact, maybe that means that 9% are public school grads who didn’t learn to read on their own. (Just 9% of Non-Union Workers Want to Join Union - Rasmussen Reports™)

Rasmussen found that even workers in companies who were in danger of losing their jobs, it was still only 9%. What do the 91% know about union membership that the 9% don’t? One can only conjecture.

In the 1950s some 1/3 of all private-sector workers belonged to a union. Now only 7.6% of nongovernment workers belong to one. From 1997to 2004, private sector employment grew from 66.1 to 103.6 million, but union membership declined from 14.3 to 8.2 million. (AEAweb: Annual Meeting Papers)


Now, why is that?

Folks like you continue to talk like its still 1930, and the many laws that protect workers from management abuse don’t exist.

Victimology.

Seems that you know so much more of their interests than the 91%, eh?

Ever hear of the Big Branch Mine in Va? How about Massey energy?

On January 19, 2006 a belt line fire killed miners Don I. Bragg, 33, and Ellery Elvis Hatfield, 47, at Massey's Aracoma Alma Number 1 Mine in Logan County, West Virginia. Efforts to fight the fire were hampered by inadequate fire extinguishers, fire hose couplings which did not match the water line, and a lack of water in the lines.[46] On December 22, 2008 Massey Energy agreed to pay $4.2 million in civil and criminal penalties for the accident.[47] It is the largest financial settlement in the coal industry's history.[48] The Charleston (WV) Gazette reported on January 15, 2009 that Aracoma widows Delorice Bragg and Freda Hatfield urged U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver to reject Massey's plea bargain and fine for the accident.[49] Widow Bragg stated that it was clear "that Massey executives expected the Alma Mine to emphasize production over the safety of the coal miners inside."

On February 1, 2006, bulldozer operator Paul K. Moss, 58, of Sissonville, West Virginia died when his machine ruptured a 16-inch (410 mm) natural gas line at Elk Run Coal Co.'s Black Castle surface mine.[50] The bulldozer was immediately engulfed in flames. According to the Mine Safety and Health Administration report, operator Moss exited the cab but his body was found behind the blade. Massey Energy was fined $2.5 million after a federal judge accepted the company's guilty plea to 10 criminal charges for the fire. A U.S. District approved a plea deal despite a provision sparing Massey officials and the Richmond, Va., coal company from prosecution. The agreement also required Aracoma to pay a $1.7 million fine for civil violations found by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.[51]

On October 8, 2008 Steven Cain, 32, of Comfort, West Virginia was killed at Massey Energy's Independence Coal Justice No. 1 Mine when he was crushed by a railcar. A Mine Safety and Health Administration report[52] concludes Cain was killed because Massey managers assigned him a dangerous job, although he had “little mining experience and minimal training.”[53]

In 2009, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration cited Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch coal mine for 495 violations and proposed $911,802 in fines.[54]

On April 5, 2010, 29 miners were killed in a mine explosion at the Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine at Montcoal, West Virginia. Safety officials claimed that the mine had previous violations for not properly ventilating methane gas. In the previous year, federal inspectors had fined the company more than $382,000 for violations involving ventilation and equipment at the plant.[55] This explosion and subsequent deaths was the worst US mine disaster in 40 years.

[edit] Age discrimination

On Oct 30, 2009, Fayette County West Virginia Judge Paul Blake ruled in an age discrimination lawsuit that more than 200 miners who were not rehired after Massey Energy Co. bought a bankrupt West Virginia mine were entitled to a settlement of $8.75 million. The suit covers 229 miners, including 82 union miners. Massey has been ordered to rehire the miners. Under the terms of the settlement, the 82 union miners will each receive $38,000. The remaining miners will receive $19,000.[56]

Massey Energy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A union might have been able to prevent some of these mining deaths.

As John Donne pointed out, the loss of one is a loss of a bit of us all.

But said losses has nothing to do with the overwhelming view of free citizens who carefully consider their career paths and choose not to join unions.

Why?

Are they stupid? Or....insightful?
Is there something that they know that some of us on the board have overlooked?

 

[ABikerSailor]

Results of a recent Rasmussen poll found that 9% of nonunion workers were interested in joining a union. For public school grads, that means that 91% have no such interest. In fact, maybe that means that 9% are public school grads who didn’t learn to read on their own. (Just 9% of Non-Union Workers Want to Join Union - Rasmussen Reports™)

Rasmussen found that even workers in companies who were in danger of losing their jobs, it was still only 9%. What do the 91% know about union membership that the 9% don’t? One can only conjecture.

In the 1950s some 1/3 of all private-sector workers belonged to a union. Now only 7.6% of nongovernment workers belong to one. From 1997to 2004, private sector employment grew from 66.1 to 103.6 million, but union membership declined from 14.3 to 8.2 million. (AEAweb: Annual Meeting Papers)


Now, why is that?

Folks like you continue to talk like its still 1930, and the many laws that protect workers from management abuse don’t exist.

Victimology.

Seems that you know so much more of their interests than the 91%, eh?

Ever hear of the Big Branch Mine in Va? How about Massey energy?

On January 19, 2006 a belt line fire killed miners Don I. Bragg, 33, and Ellery Elvis Hatfield, 47, at Massey's Aracoma Alma Number 1 Mine in Logan County, West Virginia. Efforts to fight the fire were hampered by inadequate fire extinguishers, fire hose couplings which did not match the water line, and a lack of water in the lines.[46] On December 22, 2008 Massey Energy agreed to pay $4.2 million in civil and criminal penalties for the accident.[47] It is the largest financial settlement in the coal industry's history.[48] The Charleston (WV) Gazette reported on January 15, 2009 that Aracoma widows Delorice Bragg and Freda Hatfield urged U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver to reject Massey's plea bargain and fine for the accident.[49] Widow Bragg stated that it was clear "that Massey executives expected the Alma Mine to emphasize production over the safety of the coal miners inside."

On February 1, 2006, bulldozer operator Paul K. Moss, 58, of Sissonville, West Virginia died when his machine ruptured a 16-inch (410 mm) natural gas line at Elk Run Coal Co.'s Black Castle surface mine.[50] The bulldozer was immediately engulfed in flames. According to the Mine Safety and Health Administration report, operator Moss exited the cab but his body was found behind the blade. Massey Energy was fined $2.5 million after a federal judge accepted the company's guilty plea to 10 criminal charges for the fire. A U.S. District approved a plea deal despite a provision sparing Massey officials and the Richmond, Va., coal company from prosecution. The agreement also required Aracoma to pay a $1.7 million fine for civil violations found by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.[51]

On October 8, 2008 Steven Cain, 32, of Comfort, West Virginia was killed at Massey Energy's Independence Coal Justice No. 1 Mine when he was crushed by a railcar. A Mine Safety and Health Administration report[52] concludes Cain was killed because Massey managers assigned him a dangerous job, although he had “little mining experience and minimal training.”[53]

In 2009, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration cited Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch coal mine for 495 violations and proposed $911,802 in fines.[54]

On April 5, 2010, 29 miners were killed in a mine explosion at the Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine at Montcoal, West Virginia. Safety officials claimed that the mine had previous violations for not properly ventilating methane gas. In the previous year, federal inspectors had fined the company more than $382,000 for violations involving ventilation and equipment at the plant.[55] This explosion and subsequent deaths was the worst US mine disaster in 40 years.

[edit] Age discrimination

On Oct 30, 2009, Fayette County West Virginia Judge Paul Blake ruled in an age discrimination lawsuit that more than 200 miners who were not rehired after Massey Energy Co. bought a bankrupt West Virginia mine were entitled to a settlement of $8.75 million. The suit covers 229 miners, including 82 union miners. Massey has been ordered to rehire the miners. Under the terms of the settlement, the 82 union miners will each receive $38,000. The remaining miners will receive $19,000.[56]

Massey Energy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A union might have been able to prevent some of these mining deaths.

As John Donne pointed out, the loss of one is a loss of a bit of us all.

But said losses has nothing to do with the overwhelming view of free citizens who carefully consider their career paths and choose not to join unions.

Why?

Are they stupid? Or....insightful?
Is there something that they know that some of us on the board have overlooked?

They're neither stupid nor insightful. They're hungry folk who want to support a family and CAN'T join a union because the owner won't allow unions in the company.

Like I said..........if the workers had been able to pressure the owners via unions for better safety regs, they might not have died.

You were the one that stated we now live in a country where unions aren't necessary (according to you), yet I've provided an example of where they could provide a serious benefit to the workers (like being able to continue breathing).