Thread: WHAT IS COLLECTIVE BARGAINING?

Collective bargaining has been bugging me I have been trying to understand it..My first thought is why get rid of collective bargaining? Isn't that why union dues are paid so they protect you against greedy employers? Well it is, and it isn't, to a certain extent. In the private sector it really comes down to what the market will bare. But in the public sector it can hold the tax payer hostage. I have been on both sides of this issue my husband worked in a private union for over 20 years and we have had our own business for 20 something years....But what I think it is coming down to is what the unions do with the union dues they collect and the political flavor of the thing. If it is spent for the workers that is one thing but in most of cases it is not...it is used for political reason and in a most cases the workers don't have a say in this. That's my feeling and I may be wrong..

Well anyways I think this article helps explain it to me a little better to me so I wanted to share it with you.



WHAT IS COLLECTIVE BARGAINING?
Posted on February 24, 2011 by Citizen Tom

The Rag Blog uses this cartoon to portray (here) opposition to unions as a “component of the broader strategy by the Republican Party and frenetic conservative commentators to paint a picture in which Obama appears to be leading the country down the road to socialism, tyranny, and financial ruin—just like FDR.â€

Another difficult issue at hand

Just in my opinion: The major concern with the one in Wisconsin is not so much about the unions as it is about the fact it is a union that represents PUBLIC employees. The ones the citizens have to finance and pay their wages and benefits. The states are trying to alleviate the tremendous pressure of balancing budgets. I can see both their points in this. Something has got to give.

N Carolina is also working to change some of their policies,since the employees only have to work 5 years and can collect all their benefits including medical. In many cases they are finding these people double dipping.

Originally Posted by uniteasone

Another difficult issue at hand

Just in my opinion: The major concern with the one in Wisconsin is not so much about the unions as it is about the fact it is a union that represents PUBLIC employees. The ones the citizens have to finance and pay their wages and benefits. The states are trying to alleviate the tremendous pressure of balancing budgets. I can see both their points in this. Something has got to give.

N Carolina is also working to change some of their policies,since the employees only have to work 5 years and can collect all their benefits including medical. In many cases they are finding these people double dipping.

I know this also I brought a link over on the boards a few days ago about the Las Vegas firemen and how they work there straight time hours so that it lets them work around those hours to get overtime...and it is a lot of overtime. In a lot of cases it works out to over 90,000 extra in overtime pay on top of their salary and I am sure it is not just that group.. I know how they all work these public union excesses to their advantages..But I was curious as to the collective bargaining thing and why it is such a big thing for the States to end or cut back in the public sector unions. It isn't just these excesses that occur it also union dues going to certain political parties and politicians. To me that amounts to payola remember payola. To me it is wrong for our tax dollars to pay for their ideology in the public sector not if they get paid by public tax dollars. So Collective bargaining in not a good bargain for the tax payer.


Kathyet

I think there is a big difference between collective bargaining in the private sector and public jobs. There is no creation of wealth in the government jobs. Private sector employees create wealth. They should be able to bargain for a share of that. Public workers suck up wealth of others through confiscation of other's wages. Bad deal.

[quote="loservillelabor"]I think there is a big difference between collective bargaining in the private sector and public jobs. There is no creation of wealth in the government jobs. Private sector employees create wealth. They should be able to bargain for a share of that. Public workers suck up wealth of others through confiscation of other's wages. Bad deal.[/quote]


For sure, and then you get "loserville...labor"... Pun intended. Sorry, just had to do that...

Originally Posted by kathyet

Originally Posted by uniteasone

Another difficult issue at hand

Just in my opinion: The major concern with the one in Wisconsin is not so much about the unions as it is about the fact it is a union that represents PUBLIC employees. The ones the citizens have to finance and pay their wages and benefits. The states are trying to alleviate the tremendous pressure of balancing budgets. I can see both their points in this. Something has got to give.

N Carolina is also working to change some of their policies,since the employees only have to work 5 years and can collect all their benefits including medical. In many cases they are finding these people double dipping.

I know this also I brought a link over on the boards a few days ago about the Las Vegas firemen and how they work there straight time hours so that it lets them work around those hours to get overtime...and it is a lot of overtime. In a lot of cases it works out to over 90,000 extra in overtime pay on top of their salary and I am sure it is not just that group.. I know how they all work these public union excesses to their advantages..But I was curious as to the collective bargaining thing and why it is such a big thing for the States to end or cut back in the public sector unions. It isn't just these excesses that occur it also union dues going to certain political parties and politicians. To me that amounts to payola remember payola. To me it is wrong for our tax dollars to pay for their ideology in the public sector not if they get paid by public tax dollars. So Collective bargaining is not a good bargain for the tax payer.


Kathyet

So Collective bargaining in not a good bargain for the tax payer.

I agree

So Collective bargaining is not a good bargain for the tax payer.

Yeah. The normal checks and balances are not there. The government transfers the wealth at gunpoint until there is no more wealth. The left's fight in Wisconsin is not about whom will prosper, but rather whom will be the last standing in the wasteland

A lot of good posts here and insightful.

Originally Posted by loservillelabor

So Collective bargaining is not a good bargain for the tax payer.

Yeah. The normal checks and balances are not there. The government transfers the wealth at gunpoint until there is no more wealth. The left's fight in Wisconsin is not about whom will prosper, but rather whom will be the last standing in the wasteland

This is basically how it goes.

Now I support private Unions under the one condition that none of their benefits are covered by taxpayer bailouts such as some of the older pension programs.

The public sector one w/o a Union already has job security which is the biggest benefit. You don't need a Union for that either, just as long as your a decent employee. But in the public sector Unions do have the ability for extortion and we've seen it time and time again holding taxpayers hostage to get their way.

Back in Reagans years Airtraffic controllers went on strike shutting down airports. Reagan however did the right thing and fired them all and brought in the Air Force to run the towers until new controllers could be hired.

Back in Dec 2010 in NYC Sanitation Workers Union had its members stop working or work slow after a massive snowstorm to protest layoffs because of needed budget cuts. People died because of roads not being cleared and emergency services not being able to get around. But these Unions and the members... are they charged or fired today in mass?

Now we have teachers unions and other unions protesting their collective bargaining abilities being taken away in majority. They say they are now all of a sudden willing to take other cuts but in the last 10 years they wouldn't settle for anything less then a 5% yearly raise or more. Yet now how many children have lost critical education time? How many parents who couldn't go to work as no way for that many babysitters to be found last second plus the cost of such hurting many low income families.

Now if these PUBLIC Unions weren't so greedy to begin with this wouldn't have ever made it to the floor or gained major support. I remember back in the 90's when many teachers were becomming Unionized and the vast majority of people supported it.... but since then whats happened? They went from bad pay, to fair pay, to high pay, to insane pay. Not only that a bad teacher couldn't be fired. If a teacher is fired after 15 years and found to have been sexually abusing children at school.... they still get that pension! Plus to fire them requires an actual conviction, they can be sitting in prison for 1 year while being on trial and still collecting pay!

Its a sad day when an employer can't fire an employee for poor performance, negligence, or bad conduct.

Add in forced unionization if one wants to even work in a field. Add in forced union dues. Add in the union members have NO control over where there union dues even go. When was the last vote for seeing if union members wanted to contribute from their local union to the democrat campaign? When was the last union member vote to see if members wanted to support illegal aliens and a NA Union? Last I checked that wasn't democracy they claim it is.

Its a sad day when an employer can't fire an employee for poor performance, negligence, or bad conduct.

I have seen that happen over and over