Apparently, union members are perfectly OK with forcing others to work through their lunch break as more and more union protesters bus-ed in from Florida and Ohio order pizza into the Capitol, so they can all get into a circle and protest a right-to-work bill.
Now let’s review the CRAZY.
Nearly 30,000 children are missing school today because teachers are off gallivanting at the State Capitol, following union orders to protest (punch and pie all-inclusive). FYI this means there are now more children missing school than there are actual protesters. But they’re not SAYING that – the teachers are calling in sick. And what are the children doing? Well, several districts are calling this “a snow day.” Despite the distinct absence of SNOW.
BETRAYAL.
The typical union thuggery is taking place. A bunch of union protesters just tore down an AFP-Michigan tent. Eight people arrested from last week. Mob rule. Michigan legislators calling “Heil Hitler, Heil Hitler”! The Detroit Free Press reports police officers (coincidentally, also unionized) donning riot gear this afternoon, and some had to get on horses.
The same old braindead, low-down, no-good addle-pated union poppycock as always.
Except reports from inside the AFL-CIO and other places reports union morale is really, really low. Apparently, union bosses were kind of hoping Michigan taxpayers wouldn’t notice that whole “Prop 2 enshrine collective bargaining into the state Constitution thang.” And it turns out they did, and a majority support a right-to-work law as a non-revolutionary measure to tone down union power and attract businesses to Michigan.
God, I can’t wait for The Hobbitses.
So with a minimum of Whitney Houston-level drama (too soon?), let’s review the fundamentals of the right-to-work debate:
- It’s probably a democratic, nice thing for government to stop protecting unions from firing workers just because they don’t want to pay unions for non-services and/or massive political fundraising, frequently for candidates they don’t support.
- “Free Riders” are a myth on approximately 900 percent of the counts. Unions could accept “members only” agreements, where they collectively bargain for only those people who voluntarily join a union, but that would obviously limit their collective bargaining power. So they NEVER CHOOSE that option. (Like, ever.) Then the whole idea that their spending most of their money on bargaining for workers? Sure as hell not in Michigan. The state’s largest labor union, the Michigan Education Association, spent 61 percent of union dues on “general overhead,” and only 11 percent on “representational activities.” General overhead presumably includes aforementioned punch and pie.
- Michigan has a really sad, pathetic outmigration rate – and Detroit’s is EPIC – and much of that is people voting with their feet and moving to right-to-work states. Liberal and Conservative economists can argue over income disparities, benefits, etc., but the indisputable fact is that right-to-work attracts businesses and thus creates more jobs. People aren’t moving because they really, super-duper hope they get exploited. They’re moving because they think they can get freakin’ EMPLOYED.
At the end of the day, this is about choice. Let’s not lose our heads that unions will disappear because of right-to-work – and why would they fear being held accountable??? – but let’s make sure people have a say in whether they do. For some reason, that has Michigan unions scared as balls up in hur.
Unions are so great that they make people join them and punch those who disagree.
Did you see the video of what some of those union thugs tried to do to Steven Crowder ?
What a bunch of low-class redneck scumbags. They take a lunchpail to work, and they think that inherently makes them some specially-protected class of angels and saints who are doing work on behalf of humanity. Or something.
Dudes, y’all work in a factory on an assembly line because you struggled to pass Geometry and Econ 101 in high school.
Jee-zus.
Steven Crowder provoked the crowd for his own gain. There’s more on it that you could find if you had the desire. FoxNews loves ignorant viewers.
If it weren’t for unions everyone would be a slave. You can thank your living wage (if you have one) to unions. That safe work place? Thank unions. 40hour work week and paid vacations? UNIONS. You are a patsy to the 1% and you don’t even recognize it. They would sell you to buy a car elevator. Willful ignorance is not a virtue.
Haha. I come from a union family. Like most union families, the bosses who claimed to protect them eventually fucked them over. Don’t peddle your righteous bullshit about how horrible life would be if unions didn’t exist here, especially of you’re going to call yourself a disciple of a union boss who makes 30 times what one of his precious “workers” does.
Tony,
Sounds like you’re getting a little too turned-on by the union thug violence in the air in Lansing, Michigan.
After you eat some breakfast, and recover from last nite’s six pack of Old Milwaukee beer, reason and logic may displace your present agitated state.
Hmmmm. But I doubt it.
Anyhow, big fella, your Alinskyite prism of the world is kooky, to say the least. If paying union “fees” and “dues” is such a no-brainer proposition that everyone should want, then you wouldn’t be soiling your adult diapers over the mere OPTION for workers to CHOOSE whether or not they want to even join the union, not to mention whether they want to pay those “fees” and “dues.”
It’s pro-choice, man. Embrace it, don’t hate it.
By the way, why is it that you Fred Flintstones are always whining and carrying on about the boss man ? What’s stopping you from becoming the boss man ? Go get all your bowling league chums together and pool your money together to start your own business or factory, where you can pay low-to-moderately skilled employees whatever extravagant wage or salary that you think is “fair.”
Be the change you want.
But please stop with the Richard Trumka theatrical productions about how working on an assembly line is equitable to doing God’s work on behalf of humanity, or something.
It’s not high-skilled work, so it generally doesn’t warrant super high pay. This is just Basic Econ 101 that you blew out in high school in order to go smoke pot underneath the football stadium bleachers.
Tony,
You forgot to mention that Unions are almost universally connected with organized Crime. Guess we can thank unions for the broken legs too.