The Smoke Break

You want some brie with that whine?

Walker Wins Wisconsin – Again

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Despite their big mouths, strong-arming and literal Mickey Mouse petition signatures, the unions and progressive liberal Democrats have been given their walking papers by the voters in Wisconsin.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.

With 65% of precincts reporting, it’s shaping up to be a rather embarrassing defeat:  58% (Walker) to 41% (Barrett). 

It makes the last year+ of headline news and handwringing about the dangers of allowing grownups to run state governments rather a waste of time; along with the reported $60+ million spent by everyone involved.

And since everything must always be about President Lame Duck, yes, Barack Obama, this is, indeed, a referendum about you and your supporters and everything for which you stand.  You might want to start getting estimates from moving companies to avoid the rush in November.

 

 

 

Unsustainable Unionization

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My personal opinion is that unions have long outlived their usefulness.  Nowhere is it more obvious than in the case of the unionization of government workers.  The Wall Street Journal reports:

A study in 2005 by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute estimated that the average public-sector worker earned 46% more in salary and benefits than comparable private-sector workers. The gap has only continued to grow. For example, state and local worker pay and benefits rose 3.1% in the last year, compared to 1.9% in the private sector, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

But the real power of the public sector is showing through in this economic crisis. Some five million private-sector workers have lost their jobs in the last year alone, and their unemployment rate is above 9% according to the BLS. By contrast, public-sector employment has grown in virtually every month of the recession, and the jobless rate for government workers is a mere 2.8%. For anyone who thinks such low unemployment numbers are good news, remember that the bulging public sector must be paid for with revenues that most governments don’t currently have.

Must I type really it out loud?  These “public sector” worker are government workers and are paid by our hard-earned tax dollars.  And no matter how dire the straights in which we find ourselves, their unions continue to demand higher pay and more benefits, despite the fact many are already protected by civil service laws.  The net result is higher taxes, of course, as President Obama increases the budgets of unionized agencies, and Labor Secretary Solis tells unionized government workers to push their Congress critters to pass the EFCA:

The way to “put trust and faith” back into a system of employer-employee relations that has for years favored management “is by making sure we pass EFCA,” Solis told some 700 AFSCME leaders and activists. “So when you go home, make sure you call your legislators and you tell them they will be doing the right thing to allow people to associate” by forming a union.

She declared the Obama administration will hire more people in the Labor Department to make sure “all our laws are respected and enforced.”

“So I’m telling you,” Solis added, “there is a new sheriff in town – a sheriff who cares about working-class people, brings respect back into the workplace and allows more people to associate with unions if they want to collectively bargain. I’m talking about EFCA. I’m talking about the opportunities for that bill to pass. And I’m talking about the means for us to strengthen our unions.”

And this, boys and girls, is yet another step down that yellow brick road to fascism.

SEIU President Brags About Power, Unwittingly Bares Corruption

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“We spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama — $60.7 million to be exact — and we’re proud of it.”

I wonder if anyone has ever told Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) that pride goeth before a fall?  The Las Vegas Sun recently interviewed Mr. Stern and it’s a fascinating, though decidedly chilling look into “entitlement mentality” and the greed and corruption that inevitably results when power and influence replace original good intent.  With the use of some mighty fine weasel words, Stern makes it clear that the SEIU has paid for their place at the White House table and, because of Obama’s resulting debt to them, will not let anything stand in their way. 

And when you understand that the SEIU is nothing more than the flip-side of ACORN (though with more and more of this coming to light they are going to great pains to try to hide it), this, of course, means the loss of freedom for workers in America, as well as the continuing loss of jobs when business after business is run into the ground by union demands that cannot be met.  (Remember that service workers are far more expendable than those who perform skilled trades.)  But all the while, those at the top of the unions, who have no qualms about skimming union dues for their PAC efforts to gain perceived power and influence, will live fat and happy.

Just like Jimmy Hoffa.

For as Stern notes himself, “It’s been a historical failure of the labor movement, that egos get in the way of what’s best for the membership.”

Now substitute “citizens” for “membership” and “President” for “labor unions”….