Wisconsin to Connecticut Unions: The Way We Were in the Good Old Days
by Dr. Susan BerryConnecticut residents are awaiting the results of the second vote of its state’s unions on a concessions package that will, allegedly, allow rank and file union members to participate in the “shared sacrifice” of Governor Dannel Malloy’s budget. To the dismay of the Democratic-led legislature, their Democratic governor, and union leaders, state workers voted to reject the package in late June, leading the coalition of union leaders to change their bylaws and lower the bar required for ratification of contracts to a simple majority.
Obviously, union leaders knew their members were unhappy with, or perhaps unaccustomed to, having to make concessions. Requiring less of them to accept it should do the trick and ensure a successful vote, right?
While the governor has done his urging through threats of thousands of continued layoffs and elimination of some state services, Connecticut state workers have also received encouragement to vote, “Yes,” from outside the state’s borders.
In an editorial in the Hartford Courant’s online edition, Wisconsin union leaders Marty Beil, executive director of Council 24 of the Wisconsin State Employees Union, and Michael Thomas, president of the SEIU Wisconsin State Council, urged Connecticut unions to accept the concessions package because, quite frankly, they’re jealous they couldn’t get a deal as good as this one.
The union leaders write:
“We know that the proposed agreement contains real sacrifices, but we also know that it contains four years of job security, offered nowhere else in the country; and extension of your pension, health and retiree health contract; and has good wage increases in the latter years.
Like Connecticut’s working families, we are outraged by the direction our country has moved in, by how much is asked from middle-class workers and how little from billionaires like the Koches [sich]. There is a long fight ahead before working families in Connecticut, Wisconsin or anywhere in our nation will again be treated the way we ought to be.”
Let’s “decipher” some of this:
- “Four years of job security, offered nowhere else in the country…”
Certainly not in the private sector…
- “Extension of your pension, health, and retiree health contract…”
So that, when Connecticut state workers retire, they will have a high income and top-level health insurance, even as many of them move to Florida to avoid paying Connecticut’s now-increased-even-more state income tax…
- “Good wage increases in the latter years…”
So that pensions can be the highest amount possible, based on an average of the last three years of active employment…
- “Working families…”
That’s state union workers and their families…the people who pay for all these benefits and mandates, i.e., taxpayers- they’re not “working families…”
- “…working families…will again be treated the way we ought to be…”
It’s hard to hear the word, “service,” in the phrase, “public service.” People who have been taught that they are entitled have little, if any, insight into what that means.
Sounds like Wisconsin unions are suffering from “contract envy.”
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42 Comments
They're on the run now! Keep the heat on these union thugs till they implode frowm the pressure!
Absolutely, NO PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS
Gov Walker and Wisconsin will always be the prototype for freeing US from the clutches of the Dem Socialist Union thugs!
The Way We Were.
Redford and Streisand.
Together again.
Still.
The two poster children depicting everything wrong and vile in America.
There is not a single good reason for Government workers to be allowed to unionize.
A union is supposed to protect worker's right's, and that concept is ludicrous when the other side of the bargaining table is a democratically elected government.
Outlaw government unions.
There comes a point where there is no use in arguing or negotiating. Public sector unions need to be outlawed. Period.
I never saw the movie. From what I saw from trailers and word of mouth, the way we were was communists. Well, I never was a communist. I never had any communist friends. I grew up in New York City, where there wasn't any shortage of communists, but I managed to stay away from them.
Awwww – I feel so bad for the poor, downtrodden unions. NOT!
Public unions and to a lesser degree private sector unions are the poster children for much of what is wrong in the country today. Well past time they went the way of the Dodo bird.
The union leaders want the deal to go through. Problem was, the first time around, their own rules stated that they need 14 of 15 unions to agree. They got 11. Soooooo, they changed it to 8 out of fifteen.
Combine that with the fact that thousands of lay-off notices were sent out that would take place if they didn't accept the deal. Those notices made a lot of members more "open-minded".
It will pass.
I watched the movie.
I want my 3 hours back.
"So that, when Connecticut state workers retire, they will have a high income and top-level health insurance, even as many of them move to Florida to avoid paying Connecticut’s now-increased-even-more state income tax…"
This happens as a matter of course.
Dr. Berry,
Nicely done. But please add a "content warning" header at the top of your blog the next time you include a picture of Redford and Streisand. I almost puked onto my keyboard.
http://www.economicnoise.com/2011/08/17/two-ameri...
This college student has put onto paper the idea I have been verbally suggesting around here for years.
I saw it. Let's put it this way, they unintentionally did a good job of pointing out how naive and stoopid activists were back then and the casting director deserved an Oscar for signing these two douchebags to star in it.
Good thing she didn't put up recent pictures of them!
Not the way I remember: I joined a railroad union when I was 19 to get a summer job, they looked out for you at work for safety and pay, that was all, if you dug yourself into a hole, you damned well better find your own way out, make sure your own back yard is clean before you start criticizing someone else, and if you broke a rule, or got disciplined for missing a call or something, don't look for them to hold your hand, or tell you how to vote.
That's the way we really were.
I know what the liberal response will be. "We demand alimony, Forever!"
I'm going to remember the name John J. Wall.
CRUSH PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS!!!
That won't cure all the ills of the world, but it's a damn good beginning…
.
Man, living in Texas is sweet.
Like Connecticut’s working families, we are outraged by the direction our country has moved in,
—————————————————————————————–
Well, well, for once I'll have to agree with the lazy leeches. NONE of us are happy with the direction our country is headed in but not for the same reasons. Your days of lackadaisical nonchalant raping taxpayer's of their hard-earned money are OVER! NO MORE Free lunches, NO MORE partying on my dime.
Ah….the good old days when Democrats were Pro-American…good times, good times.
AGREED!
I just love how the term "middle-class workers" is slung around in a feeble attempt to convey that these do-little (nothing), freeloading, sit-on-hands useless busybody turds actually produce one single item of value in any form with a marketable price that someone would want to pay for voluntarily.
Instead, these A$$ clowns sit around, sucking on their slurpees and watch the people who pay their F-ing salary, benefits, lifetime employment and retirement rot away.
The Way We Were, is about as good as The Sailor Who fell From Grace With The Sea.
Stupid.
No kidding! That was the year Kennedy told Khrushchev to pack sand!
I threw up a little when I saw that photograph…
As a Union electrician, we have competition in the field amongst workers. Then, our Electrical Contractors compete amongst each other to win bids, besides competing with the non-union Contractor's.
So much for that.
Now, Public Employees and teachers don't compete with other or No One Else.
The Progressive, Socialist mindset of the Union Officials permeates the organization to a non-patriotic view.
If the Union were Patriotic, then they would issue copies of our Founding Documents to the members.
When there is no competition, that I consider to be a Monopoly. Therefore, shouldn't be unionized!
I am SERIOUSLY considering that…
Seen any of these poor oppressed union middle class workers on picket duty lately?
At least they used to walk a circuit, now they bring lawn chairs and smart phones (gotta stay in touch with local headquarters) and send out for pizza.
Rush had the public unions pegged when he said it was nothing more than a money laundering operation for the Democrat party. Public employees are paid with taxpayer money, who then make "contributions" to the Democrat party via public sector unions. It is a slush fund, a money laundering operation, theft of the public treasury.
by how much is asked from middle-class workers and how little from billionaires like the Koches …
Not folks like Soros, not folks like Imelt, not folks like ____________ you name the left prog of your choice that is filthy rich.
It's only a shame to be filthy rich and CONSERVATIVE, not rich and PROGRESSIVE.
The Union Thugs will probably Riot if you make them pay more for their health care and retirements.
I say let them show their true stripes. Let them show themselves as the greedy, self-serving bastards that they really are. If public sentiment can be changed in Wisconson, it can be changed anywhere.
People are getting tired of the recipient class demanding more and more of our money. We are broke yet they don't think they have to make sacrifices.
Bedsides a balanced budget amendment, we need a right to work amendment!
Well said. And that same recipient class is quickly getting the attitude that they are, in fact, the quasi-ruling class. Just go to a DMV or any government office and expect to be served…..
And NO tenure for teachers or professors.
Thank you, Big Government, that picture is just what I needed to vomit and feel better.
Every time I hear about unions and their "public service" this joke pops in my head:
At one time in my life I thought I knew the meaning of the word "service."
"It's the act of doing things for other people."
Shortly after that I heard these terms that reference the word SERVICE:
Internal Revenue Service
Postal Service
Telecommunication Service
Civil Service
City, County, and State Public Service
Customer Service
After which I became confused about the word "service." This is not what I thought "service" meant.
So today I overheard two farmers talking, and one said he had hired a bull to "service" a few of his cows. Then BAM, it all came into perspective. Now I understand what all those "service" agencies have been doing to all of us.
I hope you are now as enlightened as I am.
Outlaw ALL unions. There is not a single good reason for unions. Not one.
Two commies.
Private sector unions should be supporting the tax payers. The more PUBLIC unions abuse the tax payer….. the more likely RTW (right to work) legislation will become law in their state. These unions are all going to hang together with their current approach.
"…the Koches (sich)."
This is priceless stuff, funny as hell!
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