Posts Tagged ‘unions’

Wisconsin, NOW I get it

Posted: February 18, 2011 by datechguy in opinion/news, politics
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Within Stacy McCain’s post this on Wisconsin was a link to Stephen Hays that explained an awful lot:

What’s more, Wisconsin teachers pay as much as $1100 each year in compulsory union dues. If the legislation passes, they will no longer be required to pay those dues – returning that money to their own pockets.

The power of labor leaders and the democrats pols they support are based upon compulsorily dues. My wife had to pay them when the nurses were made part of the teachers union. (It didn’t protect her job). It pays for a lot of fun parties and a lot of dem votes but does very little for actual union members who aren’t connected.

This is why the fight is so bitter. Once the compulsion is removed from union dues then the game is up and these guys know it.

Moreover as Stacy points out in his Spectator column:

Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard points out that the average teacher in Wisconsin receives $77,857 in total compensation, when the value of their generous benefit package is added to their salaries. Given that the median household income in Wisconsin is just above $50,000 (and the typical household has more than one wage-earner), this means that the striking teachers are earning substantially more than the people whose taxes pay their salaries.

This is fight that even if they win is going to coin republican votes nationwide. I think the unions actually know this but knowing they can’t survive without forced dues have decided to die on this hill…

…and they will.

Dem representatives flee responsibility, capital and state?

Posted: February 17, 2011 by datechguy in economy, elections, opinion/news, politics
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One of the things that always drives me nuts is when state legislatures or the congress appoint “commissions” to handle tough problems. Since every single one of those people spend a small fortune begging the voters for the office and responsibility it seems odd after begging for a job to be afraid to do it.

In Wisconsin today the democrats are proving to be profiles in cowardice:

Democratic senators apparently fled the state to prevent a vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill, which would cut public employee union collective bargaining rights and require them to contribute to pensions and health care.

Law enforcement has been sent to find missing Democratic lawmakers,

Remember these are the same people that campaigned for the right to conduct the people’s business. Meanwhile the protesters/ teachers opposing the governor’s plans to restrain spending are not covering themselves in glory either. But they are covering the capital with trash.

What a difference between them and the tea party. Just to remind you:

Tea Party:

One Nation:

And remember that call for civility? Apparently these democrats don’t:

If you want to know why tea parties poll better than unions, this is why.

As as far as the fleeing state representatives, if they don’t want to do their job, resign! Simple as that. What cowards.

Expect the MSM to play minstrels for these fools

Update: You’ve got to be kidding me:

UPDATE: TEA PARTY WINS!!
The Rockford Tea Party just chased the Wisconsin democrats out of the Best Western. They just boarded their bus and are leaving the Best Western! Run, Libs! Run!

These are supposed to be leaders and lawmakers? You can’t actually make this stuff up can you?

Democrats reject Obamacare repeal SEIU cheers from Waverland

Posted: February 3, 2011 by datechguy in opinion/news, politics
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The Hill notices that the SEIU is saying one thing

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is lobbying hard against the amendment offered by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) to repeal the healthcare reform law.

SEIU has sent e-mails to Senate offices urging lawmakers to vote against the proposal to unwind President Obama’s signature domestic initiative.

Their lobbying has proved effective:

every last Democrat voted no (Lieberman and Mark Warner missed the roll), which is a credit either to Reid and Durbin in keeping the caucus together or to the nutroots in intimidating vulnerable Dems with the prospect of primary challenges in 2012. For cripes sake, even Ben Nelson voted against it.

Meanwhile as they preserve the law for us for themselves it’s another story

SEIU’s outspoken defense of the law has prompted charges of hypocrisy from Republicans, given that some of the union’s chapters have sought waivers exempting them from a key provision of the law requiring the phaseout of health plans with low caps on annual benefits.

Michelle Malkin has been all over this

And the Service Employees International Union, which poured $60 million into Democrat/Obama coffers in 2008 and millions more into the Astroturf campaign for the federal health care takeover, added four new affiliates to the waiver list:

– SEIU Local 2000 Health and Welfare Fund, representing 161 enrollees
– SEIU 32BJ North Health Benefit Fund, representing 7,020 enrollees
– SEIU Local 300, Civil Service Forum Employees Welfare Fund, representing 2,000 enrollees
– SEIU Health & Welfare Fund representing 1,620

That’s in addition to three other previous SEIU waiver winners: Local 25 SEIU in Chicago with 31,000 enrollees; Local 1199 SEIU Greater New York Benefit Fund with 4,544 enrollees; and SEIU Local 1 Cleveland Welfare Fund with 520 enrollees — which brings the total number of Obamacare-promoting SEIU Obamacare refugees to an estimated 45,000 workers represented by seven SEIU locals.

And a fuller list listing all the other unions, is available here with the following note:

It is worth noting that there are 166 union benefits funds now exempted from this requirement, which account for about 40 percent of the exempted workers. This means that although there are only 14.6 million unionized employees in the United States, and 860,000 of them are already exempted from this provision of Obamacare.

Unions are huge democratic contributes, anyone who think this is a coincidence is fooling themselves

Reid BTW was very smart to get this vote over with ASAP, but I’m REALLY surprised that he didn’t give any of his folks cover. Either he figured it was early enough or that because of the first vote it wouldn’t have made a difference.

The Media will want to move away from this ASAP but the GOP will keep this vote in front of the faces for quite a while and if the opinion of the people I talk to door to door has any weight, it will be crushing come 2012.

Update: Hot air notices

The Obama administration seems very eager to impose regulation on everyone except their bestest buddies. If these policies are so bad that Obama’s friends and political allies need waivers to get around them, then perhaps they shouldn’t be in place at all. And perhaps the Obama administration should learn something about the rule of law, rather than the rule of whim — or as the rest of us call it, The Chicago Way.

Yup.

Rewards for services rendered?

Posted: November 15, 2010 by datechguy in oddities, opinion/news
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You know in the middle of a recession where people a struggling to find work of any kind this story is extraordinary.

The union is seeking a three-year contract that would increase its members’ share of health insurance premiums from 13 percent to 20 percent by the end of the deal. It is also seeking wage increases totaling 9.5 percent.

RTA Transit officials said they can offer only a one-year deal because they don’t know what money will be available beyond that. They have also said that an agreement is not possible because the union refused to agree to a 25 percent share of health insurance premiums.

The possibility of a strike alarmed WRTA patrons, who expressed concern about how they were going to get about if the transportation system ground to a halt.

Right now both sides are in the 2nd day of a 15 day “cooling off” period but as Sam Rosario host of the show following mine on WCRN pointed out the politicians have had no word to say about a Union asking for a 9.5% Payraise during the worst economic times in 80 years?

Perhaps Jim McGovern could be asked but then again how many democrats in this state owe their elections to the Union activist vote efforts on election day?

Meanwhile the Friends of Obama are also getting their reward.

Now comes word that Torquemada HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has approved a whopping 111 waivers for businesses of all sizes, along with more unions and other providers of health insurance. The escapees include employers of many low-wage and part-time workers whose health insurance plans would otherwise be dropped, including Darden Restaurants — the parent company of the Olive Garden and Red Lobster and other chains, which employ some 34,000 people.

If you were on the right side of the debate apparently you get the right side of the administration you get what you need:

The issue, Dear Friends, is not the waivers. Or Obamacare itself.

The issue, Dear Friends, is that Dear Leader decides who gets a waiver.

Your rights no longer are endowed by your Creator.

Make everything illegal (okay, bit of an overstatement, but you get the point) and then require people to ask for permission. It’s about control, and from where power emanates.

I guess if you support the left all things are possible and nothing is objectionable.

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