FNC tries so hard to make unions look bad

[Chris]

Actually, I don't like labor unions. Never belonged to one, and I never will. But Fox News is caught in a lie, trying to make union protesters look worse than they are.

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/ar ... ackground/

If Fox wants to be considered a major player, they should show the real footage, and not "file" footage.

[KeithE]

Hilarious Chris. Reminds me of the downing of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad by US servicemen but reportedly by Iraqis (you know that place we would be in and out of very quickly since they would welcome as a liberators).

Cons will gladly lie to make their points.

[Hal Eaton]

I cannot profess to know-all, see-all, or be-all with regard to labor unions, but here's my $.02 worth:

{My dad was a labor union organizer approximately 100 years ago. I was a union member while working for the Wilson meat-packing co. in 1943 (I joined because my fellow workers urged me to, else "no one would help me" . . .) I worked twice for the Railroad Terminal Co, (Kansas City, MO) but resisted pressure to join the union. I worked for GM in management positions (Personnel and Maintenance) and had to deal daily with union representatives. I worked for a deliberately non-union company, organized by former GM executives who had experienced the excesses of labor unions. And, finally, I remember the sermon topic on a Unitarian church sign in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1952, which read, "Why Rhode Island sholuld be a Closed Shop State." Ethics rears its ugly head . . .}

I listen to the news commentators, belaboring us all with references to the rights of workers to collective bargaining.

I am well aware that the clarion call of "Power to the Workers" is a seductive appeal, but the resulting action must be called extortion.

Laborers organize. Then their first action is to demand a greater share of the results of their efforts in the form of better pay, more vacation, shorter hours, and beneficial retirement emoluments. In earlier times, such desires were admittedly both necessary and venial, due to the attitudes and actions of the "robber-barons."

Today the pressure on "management" takes the form of extortion: if our demands or not met, we will "strike," thus depriving the company of its profit-making venture. Organized police will not maintain security; firemen will not put out fires; teachers will not teach; automobiles will not be built . . .

When such demands are met, often the final result is bankruptcy -- of businesses, cities, counties, states, or even Uncle Sam.

Even the vagaries of language are used in the psychological process of defining the parameters of the dispute: Those who try to work during the event of a strike are called "scabs." (Yuck!)

One more thought: The Democratic legislators who have left Wisconsin are practicing collective bargaining, much to the disdain of Republicans.

As always, "Power tends to currupt. Absolute power currupts absolutely."

[Jim]

I’ve been on both sides of the issue and have seen the positives and negatives. Both aspects are shared by both labor and management, the operative element being greed…perfectly normal. I lived in Ashland, Ky., 55 years ago as Armco Steel, one of the greatest steel manufacturers, started its slide into oblivion. Thirty years ago, I examined the 132-pound steel rail upon which I operated freight trains and found that it was made in Japan even though not one iron ore mine was/is found there. I was a member of a labor union during half of my working life and discovered the rampant corruption in it, as well as the gradual demise of the feather-bedding, the loss of which has allowed the RR companies to turn a good profit now. The benefits I received on the RR were achieved by the union. Except in rare cases (like Toyota a few miles from my city), companies are interested in the bottom line and bonuses but not much else. Unions have gone too far, to the point that most members are government workers whose unions finance the lawmakers. Result: raid on taxpayers. Just a look at the perks and pensions (especially retirement age) is enough, though it’s well documented now that government workers, on average, do far better than those in the private sector with regard to wages, as well.

Government workers should not be availed of collective bargaining, especially since there are many safeguards for job-holding, everything from whistleblower protection to harassment-grievances of one kind or another, real or imagined. No group should ever have the right to shut down any part of government. The controllers fired by Reagan in the 80s actually had signed employment documents to the effect that they would never strike. They thought that they could get away with it, most likely because they had in previous instances. Would anyone think the military (government workers) should be unionized? Of course not! Here’s a more detailed look: .

[Dave Roberts]

I am by no means a pro-union sympathizer. In fact, many of their methods are detestable. Public employee unions are not the total answer either. (As a disclaimer, I once had a membership in the Amalgamated Meatcutters Union in KY, and I am now a pubic employee.)

One of the persistent caricatures is that public employees are overpaid and spoiled with untenable benefit packages. Our VA governor wants to paint that now in state retirement. First, in most agencies in our state, three years have passed since the last raise. Second, while state retirements are nice, five years of participation are required to gain any benefits, and ten years are necessary to gain full benefits. The amount received will be based on earnings. Providing that, at least in VA, has been a way of offsetting lower salaries in government service versus those of the private sector. Third, the idea of striking among police, fire, ems, or other emergency services in not something that most employees would consider. Fourth, when a person responds on a police, fire, or ems call, and your life is in danger, you want the best possible respondent to come. Without adequate pay, agencies will not retain those better people, except perhaps during recessions and depressions. Most of those unions, if they exist, accepted no-strike agreements as a condition of employment.

Public education is a more difficult arena. Money is certainly not the answer to all educational problems, and there need to be careful evaluations of both the quality and effectiveness of all teachers. Yet, in our society today, we expect educators to remedy the problems that children bring with them into the classrooms from dysfunctional families, deprived backgrounds, parental disiinterest, and from a society that caters to the whims of children without teaching many of them the basic disciplines even of working in any structure at all. The rebellion of teachers has spilled over into union fights in many states that show little sign of resolving the issues involved anytime soon.

All of this seems to reflect the continuing loss of civility, even down to the NFL's brinkmanship over whether there will be a season next year. The last one was fun to watch, but if they don't play next year, the owners and players will suffer, not most of us. The behavior of overpaid quarterbacks and intractable owners has nothing to do with the collective bargaining of public employees.