Thanks to Conservatives, Unions will probably make a big comeback.

[Claudette]

There's been a slow, long lasting assault on Unions over the last 40 years. Quite honestly, it's been successful. There's been a strategy of business voluntarily giving out benefits, a characterization of Unions being corrupt and a move by conservative politicians to chip away at laws protecting Unions. This has added up to the lowest membership in quite some time. This last push, however, might be the final straw. Of late, Business has been dropping benefits, the disparity in pay is wildly skewing upward, and layoffs have been occurring while companies are showing massive profit.

All this makes for a ripe environment for Unions to thrive.

Meanwhile, as the US continues to lose jobs because our workers are so overpaid that we cannot compete in the gloabl market, and our quality control is so poor that the global market can compete with us, unions will continue to die off. Personally? Good riddance.

OMG! I'm startin' to agree with you too much...I'll have to rethink my positions!

OMG is right. I agree as well. Holy Smoke.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Meanwhile, as the US continues to lose jobs because our workers are so overpaid that we cannot compete in the gloabl market, and our quality control is so poor that the global market can compete with us, unions will continue to die off. Personally? Good riddance.

OMG! I'm startin' to agree with you too much...I'll have to rethink my positions!

Which positions do you prefer....heh, heh, heh, heh, heh....

<sorry, couldn't resist>

Do I detect a cold sweat on your brow....?

 

[VaYank5150]

OMG! I'm startin' to agree with you too much...I'll have to rethink my positions!

Which positions do you prefer....heh, heh, heh, heh, heh....

<sorry, couldn't resist>

Do I detect a cold sweat on your brow....?

Not at all, my dear...

 

[Anachronism]

Wrong. There has been a realization by working folks that unions are not beneficial to their interests.

Not necessarily, PC. As someone who has worked on BOTH sides of the fence (in the same company); I'm quite pleased right now that our department made the choice to join the Union two and a half years ago. If we hadn't, I would be out of a job right now. Not because I can't do my job, but because the company could have gotten people in another location to do it for considerably less than I was being paid as a non-Union employee. Oh, and the fact that the company announced three weeks ago that it will be terminating the employment of about 20% of its non-Union workforce. Not because they're unnecessary but because we're in a regulated industry and the regulators didn't give us what we wanted in terms of rate increases. Gotta keep those profits up, regardless of how much it's gonna hurt our customers.

"There's been a strategy of business voluntarily giving out benefits,..."

Bingo! Why, then, does one need the unoin????

LOL. Voluntarily giving out benefits? I don't think so. At least not in any company that I've ever worked for.

 

[PoliticalChic]

There's been a slow, long lasting assault on Unions over the last 40 years. Quite honestly, it's been successful. There's been a strategy of business voluntarily giving out benefits, a characterization of Unions being corrupt and a move by conservative politicians to chip away at laws protecting Unions. This has added up to the lowest membership in quite some time. This last push, however, might be the final straw. Of late, Business has been dropping benefits, the disparity in pay is wildly skewing upward, and layoffs have been occurring while companies are showing massive profit.

All this makes for a ripe environment for Unions to thrive.

Meanwhile, as the US continues to lose jobs because our workers are so overpaid that we cannot compete in the gloabl market, and our quality control is so poor that the global market can compete with us, unions will continue to die off. Personally? Good riddance.

I hate to hit a serious note here, but we have already seen the best of times, as you point out, due to global conditions....

from H.W.Brands, who wrote "American Colossus"...

An interesting historical anomaly is the period 1945 through 1965, a golden age in many ways. This was the period after the war, when any of our potential competitors were rebuilding from the devastation, making it impossible for the United States economy not to thrive. Beneficiaries included the unions and blue collar high school graduates…who were assured of high paying jobs. That is no longer true, and probably won’t be again, short of a third World War.

 

[Mr Natural]

unions are for communists

Yeah, communists who want to make a decent buck in return for their labor, work in safe environments, and retire in style.

If that's what being a communist is all about, sign me up.

 

[Sallow]

There's been a slow, long lasting assault on Unions over the last 40 years. Quite honestly, it's been successful. There's been a strategy of business voluntarily giving out benefits, a characterization of Unions being corrupt and a move by conservative politicians to chip away at laws protecting Unions. This has added up to the lowest membership in quite some time. This last push, however, might be the final straw. Of late, Business has been dropping benefits, the disparity in pay is wildly skewing upward, and layoffs have been occurring while companies are showing massive profit.

All this makes for a ripe environment for Unions to thrive.

Meanwhile, as the US continues to lose jobs because our workers are so overpaid that we cannot compete in the gloabl market, and our quality control is so poor that the global market can compete with us, unions will continue to die off. Personally? Good riddance.

Lose jobs? Yeah..some. But alot of what's going on is companies are firing people and asking those remaining to do alot more. And they are doing this while not giving raises or cutting pay. This will work for a little while.

And if you look around..there are protests going on in all those countries we are "losing" job too..and mainly for economic reform. People are tired of working their asses off and not getting a piece of the pie.

 

[washamericom]

unions are for communists

I hope that was tongue in cheek, Washy...



but of course... still there are commonalities within collective and commune
http://www.jstor.org/pss/1802427

 

[uscitizen]

There's been a slow, long lasting assault on Unions over the last 40 years. Quite honestly, it's been successful. There's been a strategy of business voluntarily giving out benefits, a characterization of Unions being corrupt and a move by conservative politicians to chip away at laws protecting Unions. This has added up to the lowest membership in quite some time. This last push, however, might be the final straw. Of late, Business has been dropping benefits, the disparity in pay is wildly skewing upward, and layoffs have been occurring while companies are showing massive profit.

All this makes for a ripe environment for Unions to thrive.

Ohh it has been a cycle with haves vs have nots thru the the centuries.
The myth of Robin Hood for example. The Magna Carta, etc

 

[Sallow]

unions are for communists

I hope that was tongue in cheek, Washy...



but of course... still there are commonalities within collective and commune
JSTOR: An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie

All governments are collective.

 

[Missourian]

If Unions would get their heads out of their asses, there is definitely a need for Unions, but today's incarnation of Unions...how much can I get, how little can I get away with doing, how difficult can I make it to fire me...doesn't make the grade.

 

[uscitizen]

If Unions would get their heads out of their asses, there is definitely a need for Unions, but today's incarnation of Unions...how much can I get, how little can I get away with doing, how difficult can I make it to fire me...doesn't make the grade.

Umm that would require admitting they are wrong in some way.
Being wrong is not acceptable to most americans.

Heck we have not done one single thing to prevent another finiancial near collapse we just had from happeneing again.

We learn nothing.

 

[Stephanie]

Funny, I see what's going on in Wisconsin as Backfiring on the Unions.

The majority of people polled aren't really happy about it. With these greedy teachers who make a damn good living out there protesting, shutting down schools, putting the people of Wisconsin in a bind.

I hope they keep it up and it spreads.

 

[VaYank5150]

There's been a slow, long lasting assault on Unions over the last 40 years. Quite honestly, it's been successful. There's been a strategy of business voluntarily giving out benefits, a characterization of Unions being corrupt and a move by conservative politicians to chip away at laws protecting Unions. This has added up to the lowest membership in quite some time. This last push, however, might be the final straw. Of late, Business has been dropping benefits, the disparity in pay is wildly skewing upward, and layoffs have been occurring while companies are showing massive profit.

All this makes for a ripe environment for Unions to thrive.

Meanwhile, as the US continues to lose jobs because our workers are so overpaid that we cannot compete in the gloabl market, and our quality control is so poor that the global market can compete with us, unions will continue to die off. Personally? Good riddance.

Lose jobs? Yeah..some. But alot of what's going on is companies are firing people and asking those remaining to do alot more. And they are doing this while not giving raises or cutting pay. This will work for a little while.

And if you look around..there are protests going on in all those countries we are "losing" job too..and mainly for economic reform. People are tired of working their asses off and not getting a piece of the pie.

DUH??? And guess what, companies are finding out that the smaller workforce CAN in fact do the work of the larger worforce. It's called INCENTIVE TO KEEP ONE'S JOB. The union workforce has no such incentive. I have lived it and seen it. Their incentive is to get paid as much as they can with the best benefits as they can and get as many of their "brothers" hired. That's it.

 

[washamericom]

i hope that was tongue in cheek, washy...



But of course... Still there are commonalities within collective and commune
jstor: An error occurred setting your user cookie

all governments are collective.

all governments are collectors...

 

[PoliticalChic]

unions are for communists

I hope that was tongue in cheek, Washy...



but of course... still there are commonalities within collective and commune
JSTOR: An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie

Seeing as your link refers to 'collective democracy,' I'm going to have to disagree, to find the title syncretic...

Paul Kangor, who wrote "Dupes," described Marx's ideas as simply the end of private property....

what do you suppose it would take to enforce that idea?

“In its many enthroned variations, from Lenin's 1917 revolution to the recent Marxist Leninist regimes of Africa, communism has killed upwards of 100 million people, 65 million in China alone. Courtois and his colleagues do not simply unfold the numbers relentlessly and numbingly. Instead, they painstakingly explore the many ways the killing was done-from summary execution to forced deportations, from mass starvation to the gulag-and examine its many pretexts.”
The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression
Foreign Affairs (Book Review); New York; Nov/Dec 1999; Robert Legvold;

Kangor also reviewed the most popular texts in use in American schools: not one included those statistics.

 

[Sallow]

Meanwhile, as the US continues to lose jobs because our workers are so overpaid that we cannot compete in the gloabl market, and our quality control is so poor that the global market can compete with us, unions will continue to die off. Personally? Good riddance.

Lose jobs? Yeah..some. But alot of what's going on is companies are firing people and asking those remaining to do alot more. And they are doing this while not giving raises or cutting pay. This will work for a little while.

And if you look around..there are protests going on in all those countries we are "losing" job too..and mainly for economic reform. People are tired of working their asses off and not getting a piece of the pie.

DUH??? And guess what, companies are finding out that the smaller workforce CAN in fact do the work of the larger worforce. It's called INCENTIVE TO KEEP ONE'S JOB. The union workforce has no such incentive. I have lived it and seen it. Their incentive is to get paid as much as they can with the best benefits as they can and get as many of their "brothers" hired. That's it.

Again..this will work in the short term. But people will burn out..and become tired of the 100 million dollar CEOs..while their salaries stay stagnant.

 

[kaz]

There's been a slow, long lasting assault on Unions over the last 40 years. Quite honestly, it's been successful. There's been a strategy of business voluntarily giving out benefits, a characterization of Unions being corrupt and a move by conservative politicians to chip away at laws protecting Unions. This has added up to the lowest membership in quite some time. This last push, however, might be the final straw. Of late, Business has been dropping benefits, the disparity in pay is wildly skewing upward, and layoffs have been occurring while companies are showing massive profit.

All this makes for a ripe environment for Unions to thrive.

You're about to be woken up to reality, my friend. People are sick of unions and shutdowns. They are sick of government workers not having to deal with the reality of ever escalating cost of funding government benefits they don't get and government workers don't deserve in an ongoing bad economy which is caused directly by and sustained by government.

The last election didn't wake you up, so I hope you're happy in your delusional world while the rest of us try to recover from the effects liberal delusions have wrought on us all. The people who support a Union driven socialist society are already on your side. You have no reinforcements coming. Sorry.

 

[uscitizen]

i hope that was tongue in cheek, washy...



But of course... Still there are commonalities within collective and commune
jstor: An error occurred setting your user cookie

all governments are collective.

all governments are collectors...

And most governments tend to side with the haves instead of the have nots.

 

[Sallow]

I hope that was tongue in cheek, Washy...



but of course... still there are commonalities within collective and commune
JSTOR: An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie

Seeing as your link refers to 'collective democracy,' I'm going to have to disagree, to find the title syncretic...

Paul Kangor, who wrote "Dupes," described Marx's ideas as simply the end of private property....

what do you suppose it would take to enforce that idea?

“In its many enthroned variations, from Lenin's 1917 revolution to the recent Marxist Leninist regimes of Africa, communism has killed upwards of 100 million people, 65 million in China alone. Courtois and his colleagues do not simply unfold the numbers relentlessly and numbingly. Instead, they painstakingly explore the many ways the killing was done-from summary execution to forced deportations, from mass starvation to the gulag-and examine its many pretexts.”
The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression
Foreign Affairs (Book Review); New York; Nov/Dec 1999; Robert Legvold;

Kangor also reviewed the most popular texts in use in American schools: not one included those statistics.

Yep. People only started dying of starvation, summary executions and forced deportations once the Communists came to power. Before then..heck..no one died.