The Fight for Union Rights and Wisconsin

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What’s going on in Wisconsin is a positive development for the average worker.
The conservative Republican assault on unions has come full circle around the events that are taking place in Wisconsin, where the newly elected Republican governor is attempting to strip the state workers of their long fought for collective bargaining rights.

The Egyptian like protests by the workers in Wisconsin may be an indicator that the middle class in this country are finally waking up to the conservative Republican agenda of destroying unions and to deal a death blow to the middle class in America.

This agenda is what the rich and super rich want. That is to gut union rights in this country.

It is this right that has allowed over the decades for the average American worker to be able to garnish a decent middle class life style. This life style is now being threatened with extinction by the Republican assault on unions nationwide that Wisconsin is a glaring example of this assault.

The folly of denouncing unions is beyond stupid and middle class people who do it are vying against their own intrests.

Unionism brought this country and the world the very basis of a humane middle class lifestyle for the common man. It prevents the civilization from going back to the age of serfdom when workers were mere chattel slaves for the rich owner class.

Before unions people had no rights. Work places and factories in the industrial world were virtual slave shops where even children were forced to work up to 18 hours a day. There you had conditions of: No weekends off; small pay that allowed for bare survival; no medical or sick benefits; no time off; horrendous safety conditions, and no recourse for the average worker.

The advent of unionism slowly over the years rectified many of these retched conditions, although at a heavy price for many union activists were threatened and even killed by the ownership capitalists that fought the union movement at every turn. All workers and even those not in unions can thank unions for the work place progress in condiitons we have made in this civilization.

Here is a list of what Unions fought for and got with blood, sweat, and tears that has served a precedent for universal workers rights.

The 8 hour work week.
The abolition of forced child labor
Adequate vacation and sick time for workers
Minimum wage
Worker safety
Higher wages
Paid vacations
Livable wages
Equal pay for woman
Equal opportunity for minorities
And many other benefits

Do we honestly think that without unions the beneficence of capitalists would have given us all those rights without the input of strong unions?

Of course not.

Therefore what is the sick logic of those who denounce unions based on? The fact that there is and has been corruption in unions?

People in unions are human beings--subject to the same human frailties that all people are subject to--therefore not to expect the same kind of corruption that exists in ALL human institutions and all of life; not to have it show up in unions is ridiculous.

The good that unions do far exceeds the few that are corrupt.

www.epi.org...

• Unions raise wages of unionized workers by roughly 20% and raise compensation, including both wages and benefits, by about 28%.

• Unions reduce wage inequality because they raise wages more for low- and middle-wage workers than for higher-wage workers, more for blue-collar than for white-collar workers, and more for workers who do not have a college degree

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• Strong unions set a pay standard that nonunion employers follow. For example, a high school graduate whose workplace is not unionized but whose industry is 25% unionized is paid 5% more than similar workers in less unionized industries

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• The impact of unions on total nonunion wages is almost as large as the impact on total union wages.

• The most sweeping advantage for unionized workers is in fringe benefits. Unionized workers are more likely than their nonunionized counterparts to receive paid leave, are approximately 18% to 28% more likely to have employer-provided health insurance, and are 23% to 54% more likely to be in employer-provided pension plans.

• Unionized workers receive more generous health benefits than nonunionized workers. They also pay 18% lower health care deductibles and a smaller share of the costs for family coverage. In retirement, unionized workers are 24% more likely to be covered by health insurance paid for by their employer.

• Unionized workers receive better pension plans. Not only are they more likely to have a guaranteed benefit in retirement, their employers contribute 28% more toward pensions.

• Unionized workers receive 26% more vacation time and 14% more total paid leave (vacations and holidays).

reply to post by inforeal


I'm not trying to be smart but I'm pretty sure the strike in Wisconsin is a bit different from the protests in egypt..lets not compare the two...also please keep in mind that he was voted in with the idea that he was going to do this...

Originally posted by inforeal

Here is a list of what Unions fought for and got with blood, sweat, and tears that has served a precedent for universal workers rights.

The 8 hour work week.

I know lots of union thugs who only work 8 hours a week, but I'm pretty sure you meant to say the 8 hr work day not week.

reply to post by inforeal

Here is a list of what Unions fought for and got with blood, sweat, and tears that has served a precedent for universal workers rights.
The 8 hour work week.
The abolition of forced child labor
Adequate vacation and sick time for workers
Minimum wage
Worker safety
Higher wages
Paid vacations
Livable wages
Equal pay for woman
Equal opportunity for minorities And many other benefits

The majority of your list is what unions got for union workers.
Union workers also harass (and sometimes worse), non-union workers for simply working.

We can not dispute what unions have done in the past for the workers of the United States of America, however, as it has been seen in the more recent history and including in the past few years, they have gotten away from their core values and bases of helping the workers, and slowly have become a political tool. In times of economic troubles, such as what is going on today, unions are not willing to give, rather being a bit stubborn when it comes to giving up some concessions, even temporarily, to the point of where it is starting to effect many of the states economies. Many of the budget deficits can be traced to the pension plans of those who have retired, to the point that the states are not able or are having trouble to meet those obligations. As the costs of the benefits goes up, the unions refuse to budge on having a percentage increase pass onto the workers. In the case of Wisconsin, the choice is, as it is reported, having a full staff public sector, teachers, police, fire departments, and emergency workers, or having to have them take furloughs and be a part staff. The strike that the teachers did in that state is nothing more than a bold face slap to the citizens, combined with the shameful lack of representation of close to half of the legislators when it came to voting on this bill. Unions are not making the problems easier, rather in their actions, they are making it worse, by not wanting to negotiate. The job descriptions are very clear, and why should the police, or any who would work in the public sector either be in a union or forced to be in one? It is not good if the teachers strike, as it affects the children, and one can only wonder, if they are willing to strike, and close down school districts what are they teaching the children by their actions? The same can be said for any emergency personnel who work in the state of Wisconsin, who would walk off the job to strike or protest, rather than stay and do the job. The facts are that the state, and others like it, are in dire trouble economically, and at the heart of the matter is making ends meet. This means sacrifice, on the part of those who are working. The states can not raise taxes, as the people do not have the money to pay, so where is the money suppose to come from? Maybe it is time that people help themselves and their states, in times of economic troubles, by not taking that pay raise and giving up the concessions.
People, and union workers, benefit when times are going good, yet as it appears, refuse to stand by the state when times are tough. That is not fair, when so many are out of a job. This is not the first time such rules have been applied, nor will it be the last, as may be the start where the Unions are having to acknowledge that they can not be paws in a political game, and have to give up concessions, when times are tough, and show that they too understand the bigger picture when it comes to budgets. A state is not a company, rather it has to work on what money it collects in taxes, that will fund jobs and services for all in that state.
It is also time to have a level playing field, and that the benefits that a union worker gets, so too should a non union worker get.

reply to post by sdcigarpig


Very well put. Thank you.