Friday February 25, 2011, 11:39 pm
If the president is so upset with Wisconsin's labor law reforms, why won't he allow federal workers to bargain collectively?
If the president is so upset with Wisconsin's labor law reforms, why won't he allow federal workers to bargain collectively?
The union horde is spreading, from Madison to Indianapolis to a state capital near you. And yet the Democratic and union bigwigs engineering the outrage haven't directed their angry multitudes at what is arguably the most "hostile workplace" in the nation: Washington, D.C.
It will no doubt surprise you to learn that President Obama, the great patron of the working man, also happens to be the great CEO of one of the least union-friendly shop floors in the nation.
This is, after all, the president who has berated Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to limit the collective bargaining rights of public employees, calling the very idea an "assault on unions." This is also the president who has sicced his political arm, Organizing for America, on Madison, allowing the group to fill buses and plan rallies. Ah, but it's easy to throw rocks when you live in a stone (White) house.
Fact: President Obama is the boss of a civil work force that numbers up to two million (excluding postal workers and uniformed military). Fact: Those federal workers cannot bargain for wages or benefits. Fact: Washington, D.C. is, in the purest sense, a "right to work zone." Federal employees are not compelled to join a union, nor to pay union dues. Fact: Neither Mr. Obama, nor the prior Democratic majority, ever acted to give their union chums a better federal deal.
Scott Walker, eat your heart out.
It will no doubt surprise you to learn that President Obama, the great patron of the working man, also happens to be the great CEO of one of the least union-friendly shop floors in the nation.
This is, after all, the president who has berated Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to limit the collective bargaining rights of public employees, calling the very idea an "assault on unions." This is also the president who has sicced his political arm, Organizing for America, on Madison, allowing the group to fill buses and plan rallies. Ah, but it's easy to throw rocks when you live in a stone (White) house.
Fact: President Obama is the boss of a civil work force that numbers up to two million (excluding postal workers and uniformed military). Fact: Those federal workers cannot bargain for wages or benefits. Fact: Washington, D.C. is, in the purest sense, a "right to work zone." Federal employees are not compelled to join a union, nor to pay union dues. Fact: Neither Mr. Obama, nor the prior Democratic majority, ever acted to give their union chums a better federal deal.
Scott Walker, eat your heart out.
For this enormous flexibility in managing his work force, Mr. Obama can thank his own party. In 1978, Democratic President Jimmy Carter, backed by a Democratic Congress, passed the Civil Service Reform Act. Washington had already established its General Schedule (GS) classification and pay system for workers. The 1978 bill went further, focused as it was on worker accountability and performance. It severely proscribed the issues over which employees could bargain, as well as prohibited compulsory union support.
Kliphnote: What a deal!
If you're a state public worker and belong to
the state workers union, you got it made.
How you say?
Besides having good wages and benefits.
(I have nothing against a fair wage.)
You get to endorse/or not endorse the politicians negotiating your contract.
The biggest employer in the state, is the state.
So the state workers endorsement and money often means the difference
between a politician winning and losing.
And a politicians first job after getting elected is to get reelected.
How can you lose!
The ones that lose are the tax payers.
I belonged to a labor union for almost 40 years.
I never had the chance to endorse anyone in management
negotiating my contract.
I never had the chance to endorse anyone in management
negotiating my contract.
Imagine the workers deciding if the boss gets fired.
No wonder the states are high taxed and going broke
at the same time.
There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.
George Orwell
George Orwell
No comments:
Post a Comment