Obama

Stayed away.

This is a state issue, not a federal issue*.


*Not that has stopped him (or other Presidents) in the past or likely will stop him (or other Presidents) in the future.

Should have been there.

I've heard some good arguments about him not being there, though. If he were to go there, the story would be about him and not so much about the throng of workers protesting. Walker looks like a tool at the moment, but with Obama going there, the Republicans could latch onto bashing Obama instead and divert the attention away from the workers.

Federal workers don't have collective bargaining "rights".

I would disagree...slightly.

All workers have the right to join together collectively* to negotiate and bargain with a prospective (or current) employer.

What they don't have the right to do is to force any employer to submit to this negotiation.

This, almost certainly, is what's at issue in Wisconsin (and elsewhere). It is the so-called "right" to force an employer to submit to the collective. This is not a right. It is, at best, a privilege but, more accurately, a government-granted special monopoly interest.

*Incidentally, in some cases, entrance into a union is compelled and abstaining from being in the union disallowed...so an individual cannot work for certain employers unless they join a union. This is another example of a government-granted special monopoly interest.

Yes.


Not sure what that means. If they organize, that's exactly what they can do. That's the reason they want to organize in the first place.


While I'm not a huge supporter of unions (though I'm in one as a teacher), I do think organizing is a "right." The entire idea is to make the employer deal with the collective.


I've not seen that. In my state, I either join the union or pay the fair bargaining fee (equal to dues amount) and get no protections. Do you have examples? I can think of some local examples (a union pit orchestra for example, or a union construction job site) but nothing large.

I know what the idea is. And I realize they can, in practical terms, "force" the employer to come to the table. What I'm speaking about is a specific legal "right" or protection. The employer should also be within their rights to say "go fly a kite...I'll hire someone else."



See here:


and here:




Note that I would also be opposed to these aspects of the Taft–Hartley Act:

I'm for freedom. Go ahead and form your union (aka labor contractor). If you can strike a deal with the employer great. If the employer strikes a deal with another contractor then your out of luck.

Public service unions have over played their hand.

I know someone, high school grad, that works in a steel mill. Dirty dangerous work. He fell into the acid vat one day while doing a repair. It was empty. His union is hanging him out to dry on hours and job protection. Ignoring their own contract. He needs a strong union.


Who are teachers fighting against, "The Man"? Teachers have advanced degrees, highly educated. But they need their union to negotiate for them because they are so darn oh-pressed by The Man? Who's The Man here? Greedy evil russian owned steel mill CEO? Um? The Man is the politician that the union put in place in the election. Where did the union get all the money they use for political activity? Union dues! Where did those come from? Sucked out of teacher pay checks. Who pays the teachers? I know! The politicians are spending their own money! They are spending tax payer money. The fix was in between the politicians and the unions without spending a dime of either of their money.

In the midst of a down economy with at best no pay increases and at worst lost jobs and foreclosures the public service unions are whining that the pay increase they get that is not as large as the one they negotiated is actually a pay cut.

So the little guy is out of a job and home and the 400lb gorilla public service union is trying to tell us that they are the oh-pressed ones.

The party of "no" has been defeated.

GOP Ends Union Stalemate

This part is just rich:


The politicians who stood up and voted are cowards, the ones who scurried off to hide are not. And the Republicans are abusing their power? Possibly. But how quickly we forget the manner in which Obamacare was foisted on the nation. It seems the tactics were strikingly similar.

^ One thing that completely disappoints me how the rhetoric flip flops when the other party is in power.