There was a time when labor unions played a necessary role in protecting workers against monopolistic companies that had no competition and took advantage of their workers. Those days are over as companies compete for the best employees. The unions demanded more and more costly benefits, and shareholders and company leadership resisted. Many American companies were put out of business because they were not competitive as a result, and workers lost their jobs all together.
Then unions discovered a new home – public employees. (Do public employees need protection from “oppressive” cities, states and the federal government?) Instead of having to battle company executives who care about the future of their organizations and are negotiating with their own money, now they negotiate with politicians who are dealing with other people’s money, and only want to get re-elected – so they won’t fight.
Now public sector workers can’t be fired if they perform poorly, so there is no incentive for workers to get better. Workers can work for just 20 years, and taxpayers have to pay them for the rest of their lives. Often worker A retires, worker B is hired and retires, and worker C is hired. We are paying three workers to have one working. Or worker A retires from one town and collects a full pension and health benefits while they get another job in another town, only to retire from the second town and get a second pension.
We have committed to paying trillions of dollars in pensions and benefits to public workers – and nobody knows where the money will come from.
If the parasite kills this host, it’s a very very big host, and we will all suffer greatly.
Hearing a lot about this now.Funny,now I think back of all the people I know that are the ones you are talking about and they laugh about ” making more than when they worked”!! And now” consulting” part time ( which turns to full time) and make even more with no risk! Crazy?
Amen!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/wisconsin-unions/
We just went through this in Wisconsin. You would have thought the world was ending. I listened to a good amount of the hearing debates, and people are extremely closed minded and naive about this topic!
Everything you said is true, seems like most people can’t put two and two together that way. It is a sign of the times we live in, and it will be interesting what the future holds.
In RI., our new Governor, Gina Raimondo,in her role as General treasurer, renegotiated all union contracts for ALL state employees. She Canceled COLA’s, reduced benefits, increased retirement age, and AMAZINGLY got elected Governor. I think the people are finally waking up. There is not one fire chief who hasn’t retired once and gotten a new chief post in order to collect 2 pensions. Time to end the insanity.
My son told me he was considering a career in Organized Crime!
My response
Government or the Private Sector!
Another side to the coin.. I worked in the private sector for 13 years, paying SS. I became a teacher. I can no longer collect on the SS I paid, nor on the money my husband paid (if he were to die first). So by becoming a teacher I lost all SS benefits. So now I have to work 20 years to get a reduced pension (that is not being properly funded!)
Some of us get “a different opportunity” – not the golden handshake because others abused the situation!
…………and now please consider how it is in the new South Africa; a communistic/socialistic state where only 4% of the population pay tax, and 48% are unemployed. And we must give massive ‘pensions’ to freedom-fighters who never worked a day. These politicians are the same the world over – please can we swap?