Big Labor, Not Tea Party, Is Workers' Worst Enemy

[Heracles 417]

Unions, just like corporations are not perfect and like you said, they serve one purpose - for the benefit of the workers, although for both unions and corporations, one could say that they it is in the benefit of all, when all sides are fairly accommodated for.

What I find interesting about those with a absolute hatred for unions or the government, is that they seem to suffer from selective memory lapses. Various corporations and wealthy individuals have screwed over the country in ways that 100 unions could never pull of: Enron, Lehman Brothers, AIG, WorldCom etc etc etc. The guys responsible this current financial mess in Wall Street walked away with bonuses and billions in fees FFS.

Nevertheless, while China is building up their country, made it punishable by death to screw over the nation and buying the world's industries, American businesses are exporting jobs to save a nickle. It's just really sad to me that people, who clearly love their country, cannot see its demise. They'd rather stick with low taxes for the wealthy, government sucks and excuse anything elitist do as Capitalism, rather than admit vast sections of America are now third world country equivalents because of it.

At what point do you put your differences aside, including folks like yourself who have your own ideological bias, and look out for what is best for your country? This ain't the 50's or 60's, America is really hurting - badly.

Edited September 30, 2010 by Heracles

[JohnSmith2007 353]

Nice deflection. The Right Wing fights against regulations and laws (at least typically) and in this case, you are at least in favor of such regulations. But lets look at it more specifically - if you think the usefulness of unions has expired because of existing labor laws, are you then in favor of new labor laws for overtime? Vacation pay? Sick pay? Minimum wage? And if you have any of that right now, you can thank the unions for it.

Minimum wage should be outlawed. Your, "thank the unions for it" argument for the rest is tired and old. It isn't a reason to keep the unions around any more. Sure, at one time the unions were needed and did great things. Now they are not needed and are getting in the way of progress. Because of unions we have companies moving off shore. We can thank the unions for that.

[Heracles 417]

Minimum wage should be outlawed. Your, "thank the unions for it" argument for the rest is tired and old. It isn't a reason to keep the unions around any more. Sure, at one time the unions were needed and did great things. Now they are not needed and are getting in the way of progress. Because of unions we have companies moving off shore. We can thank the unions for that.

Bullcrap, companies like the one you worked for are moving overseas because they can save a nickle by doing so.

Without minimum wage, people like yourself who are not in white-collar jobs, would earn dollars a day, like your Chinese counterparts. Is that where you want the country to end up?

[peejay 327]

Michelle Malkin, peejay?

Quit laughing and step up to the plate to refute the facts presented. Just because you personally think she is a joke does not prove what she is saying is false, wrong, or misleading.

Try attacking the message instead of the messenger if you want to debate the facts.

[Dan J 277]

Minimum wage should be outlawed. Your, "thank the unions for it" argument for the rest is tired and old. It isn't a reason to keep the unions around any more. Sure, at one time the unions were needed and did great things. Now they are not needed and are getting in the way of progress. Because of unions we have companies moving off shore. We can thank the unions for that.

Unions are not the reason why companies move jobs offshore. Offshoring happens in industries that have pretty much no unionization. Companies have no interest in a national economy of one country or another, they are just looking at their own margins and will move operations as it suites them.

You can counteract it in two ways, equalization (Labor costs the same around the globe, Although I doubt very many Americans would put up with work conditions similar to a Chinese factory) or by making American workers worth the extra cost (Which largely requires large public investment into education).

There are other protectionist polices you could do too, like putting tariff on imports or taxing companies that move jobs overseas, but those tend to cause more harm than good.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Quit laughing and step up to the plate to refute the facts presented. Just because you personally think she is a joke does not prove what she is saying is false, wrong, or misleading.

Try attacking the message instead of the messenger if you want to debate the facts.

I am attacking the message. She's just towing the RWN line of "HATE the UNIONS!"

So the union can't organize politically, but corporate donations are free speech? I love the hypocrisy! Go unions! Thanks to that Supreme Court Ruling, they're going to have to fight fire with fire, even though their dollars will never match corporations' political war chests. Yeah, who is really looking out for the working Americans in that fight? Hahahaha....

Edited September 30, 2010 by El Buscador

[Ban Hammer 13,470]

I am attacking the message. She's just towing the RWN line of "HATE the UNIONS!"

towing eh? how much horsepower does she have?

[peejay 327]

I am attacking the message. She's just towing the RWN line of "HATE the UNIONS!"

So the union can't organize politically, but corporate donations are free speech? I love the hypocrisy! Go unions! Thanks to that Supreme Court Ruling, they're going to have to fight fire with fire, even though their dollars will never match corporations' political war chests. Yeah, who is really looking out for the working Americans in that fight? Hahahaha....

Nowhere in the article does it state that unions cannot organize politically. The article is mostly about how the union heirarchy is f*cking the membership for its own self serving benefit. So far you refuse to smell the coffee even when you have it poured over your head steaming hot.

RWN? Corporate shill? I've been a union member and come from a family of union members. I'm still a skilled technical hourly non-union blue collar worker. But the union assclowns and their corrupt political hacks in government are not looking out for the working people any more than the corporations are. They are flip sides of the same corrupt coin. Get some reality in your life. Smell the coffee instead of Obama's dirty underwear.

Edited October 1, 2010 by peejay

[lostinblue 1,989]

Unions only work when only a small portion of the population belong to one. A question to all you union supportors. What would the United States be like if EVERYONE belonged to one? This country would ground to a halt in a few months. 900sq ft homes costing a half a million dollars to build. $1000 for a pair of shoes. Productivity would drop to almost Zero. (not my job man ）

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Nowhere in the article does it state that unions cannot organize politically. The article is mostly about how the union heirarchy is f*cking the membership for its own self serving benefit. So far you refuse to smell the coffee even when you have it poured over your head steaming hot.

RWN? Corporate shill? I've been a union member and come from a family of union members. I'm still a skilled technical hourly non-union blue collar worker. But the union assclowns and their corrupt political hacks in government are not looking out for the working people any more than the corporations are. They are flip sides of the same corrupt coin. Get some reality in your life. Smell the coffee instead of Obama's dirty underwear.

I've worked under the UFCW, the Teamsters and the Cartoonist Union - never once was approached by anyone putting any pressure on me to vote one way or another, and for the sake of truth, lets remember that union leadership is elected by its members.

Just remember those 'assclowns' when you think about your salary and benefits, because none of it would be what it is today without the strength of unions. I'd like to know what exactly this corruption is within the union you used to work for, which continues to this day without any legal action. You do know that it is 2010 and not 1945?

[Pooky 3,825]

I've worked under the UFCW, the Teamsters and the Cartoonist Union - never once was approached by anyone putting any pressure on me to vote one way or another, and for the sake of truth, lets remember that union leadership is elected by its members.

Just remember those 'assclowns' when you think about your salary and benefits, because none of it would be what it is today without the strength of unions. I'd like to know what exactly this corruption is within the union you used to work for, which continues to this day without any legal action. You do know that it is 2010 and not 1945?

I'll remember the SEIU when it is proved they registered 23,207 fake voters in Harris County, Texas.

Unions, working to better conditions for their members everywhere - even the imaginary ones.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I'll remember the SEIU when it is proved they registered 23,207 fake voters in Harris County, Texas.

Ah, yes. Now that ACORN is gone, the union busters are now targeting the SEIU with the same kind of smear campaign, with wild allegations of voter fraud. Do let me know when you find a case where unions were found guilty of voter fraud in the last quarter of a century.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I'll remember the SEIU when it is proved they registered 23,207 fake voters in Harris County, Texas.

I had to look this one up to see just what the hell you were talking about and found this Fox News report on it:

“Vacant lots had several voters registered on them. An eight-bed halfway house had more than 40 voters registered at its address,” Engelbrecht said. “We then decided to look at who was registering the voters."

Their work paid off. Two weeks ago the Harris County voter registrar took their work and the findings of his own investigation and handed them over to both the Texas secretary of state’s office and the Harris County district attorney.

Most of the findings focused on a group called Houston Votes, a voter registration group headed by Sean Caddle, who also worked for the Service Employees International Union before coming to Houston. Among the findings were that only 1,793 of the 25,000 registrations the group submitted appeared to be valid.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/23/voter-fraud-houston-tea-party-truethevote-texas/

......

First off, you need to get your story straight. The SEIU has absolutely NOTHING to do with this. Second, these are the same kinds of attempts to dump voters off of voter rolls, typically in poorer, black areas. I'm going to look further into the group behind this targeting against Harris County, but it has been shown time and again that voter fraud does not exist on a large scale or organized in any way. This is a long held myth or propaganda tool that the Right Wingers use to go after voter registration drives....and WHY? Because statistically speaking, if every eligible American were registered to vote, the Democratic Party candidates would have an unfavorable advantage.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Ah, here ya go, Pooky. You're either a tool or an enabler to such smear tactics...

True the Vote, Lies and Videotape

In case you haven't heard, the Texas Democratic Party is suing Leo Vasquez in his capacity as Harris County Tax Assessor Collector / Voter Registrar for breaching the consent agreement he signed to end the last voter suppression suit against his office. The final straw was his new conference where he appeared side by side with a group called "True the Vote". True the vote is a project of the Republican TEA-Party group, King Street Patriots.

Here is the heart of the matter:

Exposing Vasquez and King Street

"Not only have they completely destroyed whatever credibility they had, but all Harris County residents should be deeply disturbed by how closely Republican Voter Registrar Leo Vasquez is working with this Republican group. They apparently are being given access to voter registration applications [1] [2] which contain personal, private information and which the Voter Registrar's Office refused to turn over to the Democratic Party in the course of our lawsuit arguing that the personal nature of the information on the cards needed to be protected, an argument they even made in federal court."

So, the Dems can't see the applications, but the "King Street Patriots" can? No partisan politics in the voter-registar's office. Nothing to see here, move on...

It now turns out that Leo's little helpers, those patriotic protectors of the vote are , (shock!!) liars.

Take a look:

On the flip, see the original and draw your own conclusions.

Then this one:

The full analysis is here: Fake video being used by organization which claims to have uncovered alleged voter fraud

How corrupt are these misguided tools? The answer apparently is totally so. It is the oldest game in town. Suppress the vote of those who don't agree with you. Lie about your motives. Wrap yourself in the flag and patriotism even as you dishonor everything they stand for.

Meanwhile, we are reminded why this may just work again to elect the worst and most benighted to office.

During a recent IAF [industrial Areas Foundation - a off shoot of Saul Alinsky's grassroots organizing model] convention in San Antonio, Linda Hollins, a member of Houston's The Metropolitan Organization, peered out from the podium in a packed ballroom and noted that only 33 percent of Texas voters turned out to vote in the last statewide election.

She then named the problem: inertia.

"

Voters have given up in mass resignation," Hollins said

. "We've got to change that."

Inertia may be inherent in the nature of modern-day political campaigns. These days, block walking is as much of a relic as pay telephones.

Politicians win by mobilizing their base, not the majority. As long as candidates seek out only true believers - either Republicans or Democrats - the great bulk of moderate voters stay muddled, confused and inert.

Yet the quest to reclaim meaningful public participation in elections persists. During the recent convention, a variety of political candidates faced the 1,500 citizens during "accountability sessions" in which the candidates were directly asked if they supported the IAF's statewide agenda.

White showed up and pledged his support, while Perry, who has refused to debate White, stayed true to his pattern and did not participate.

There are various theories on why Perry's chair is perpetually empty at all gubernatorial debates with the mild-mannered White, looking slightly uncomfortable, the only participant. Perry is ahead in the polls and doesn't want to risk a misstep. Or: He's sticking to his position that he won't debate White until White releases all his tax returns, presumably those dating to junior high.

The reason could be as simple as this: Perry doesn't have to debate. Inertia is with him

.

And the key to this model of winning elections is this: rev up your base with "red meat" lies , suppress your opponents voter turnout and make the entire process so dirty, non-transparent and disgusting that no moderate or independent voter wants to have anything to do with the process.

The shorter version of this strategy is called the Republican Election Strategy, every year, every election.

We will know in November whether or not it worked again. Be assured they will continue to use it until it stops working.Stay tuned.

link

Edited October 1, 2010 by El Buscador

[Ban Hammer 13,470]

I've worked under the UFCW, the Teamsters and the Cartoonist Union - never once was approached by anyone putting any pressure on me to vote one way or another, and for the sake of truth, lets remember that union leadership is elected by its members.

perhaps they didn't pressure you because they knew you'd vote the way they wanted you to vote?

my neighbor's union called him prior to the 2008 elections and told him to vote for obama. like a good union member, he did.