I don't buy the pressure argument. The Citizen's United Decision created the same situation that you are arguing against for the corporate world. I would like to see both union, private, and corporate political donations outlawed. It is legalized bribery. I also don't buy the 'because I don't think government worker's are mistreated; therefore, they should be allowed to have a union' argument. Do government salaries have an impact on taxpayers? Certainly. So does private sector wages through the prices of goods and services many of which are necessities. (I put that last one in because I anticipated a rebuttal of we are forced to pay taxes, we can choose not to buy something in the private sector.)
It's not the same situation. Public sector unions have much more down side than upside in my opinion. The pension/HC packages that have been negotiated are destroying municipal and state budgets.
What is wrong with an organization protecting jobs? If I have read correctly, you are a professor. What if your department wanted to cut your large salary just so they could hire someone cheaper? I would say that you would appreciate someone helping you keep your job.
Protecting jobs is a problem when you: 1) build in inefficiencies (e.g. prevent cross training), 2) protect individual workers who are doing a poor job. I worked at ORNL. When a department ordered a new computer members from one union delivered the box, members from another union unpacked the box and members from a third union attached the keyboard and perphirerals and turned it on. As an employee, I would wait almost a week for a computer that was in a box to be usable. That year, the unions went on strike because of efforts to introduce cross training - they didn't want the same guy that delivered the box to be allowed to do the other tasks since it might mean less people are needed. Does that make sense?
With regard to the university, I think the tenure system should go. We hold onto a ton of deadweight because they cannot be fired. It doesn't encourage or motivate workers. I recognize that the organization has to compete and survive. Keeping me at my "high salary" while the organization suffers simply doesn't make sense to me.
Labor Unions still have a purpose. In the Industrial Revolution, wages were constrained by 'old' and 'new' immigrants from Europe. Unions fought for better wages then. Just one example from today: wages are held low by immigrants from Central and South America. The government is obviously not going to do anything about it. Dems see a new wave of voters. Repubs see cheap labor. Someone needs to do something. Wage stagnation is killing the middle class.
I see the need for reform and streamlining today's unions, but the government doesn't have protections for workers in place for all situations. Not trying to be a smart alec, but I was under the impression that most conservatives thought government intervention was bad, and you use the argument that government is doing what unions do.
not sure what you are saying in the last sentence
Unions allow people with little or no influence to band together to have influence. I see nothing wrong with that. In fact, I see it as very American. The employer/employee relationship need not be adversarial. They should work for a mutual goal. When one succeeds both sides should benefit.
Do you believe that is really the way unions work? Look at the Wisconsin case (forget the part about not being able to collective bargain). Clearly asking employees to contribute something to their HC or pensions isn't too much to ask - most jobs have this requirement. However, the union is going ape-shiz over this. Damn the fiscal situation, give me my free HC. Is that mutually beneficial? How about going to the wall to keep a slacker teacher or employee from being fired? Is that in the mutual best interests of all invovled?
Being an educator, have you read Eric Foner's book? It's not a novelistic page turner, but it is very insightful and thought provoking. He asks the question, 'What is freedom?' many times. The answer differs from person to person. Read his book if you have not. It's worth it.
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