Loss at Volkswagen plant upends union's plan for U.S. South

[Pooky 3,843]

Ideological argument, not all unions are involved in making political contributions. It is their right to do that if they want. I think some companies take very good care of their employees and address the grievances between the management and workers, as I have read VW does. There are also some bad companies that exploit workers and create conditions that are dangerous to them and do not care. At the same token there are good unions and then there are poorly managed unions.

But unions' political contributions far outweigh many corporate contributions. They make the much-reviled Koch Brothers seem positively insignificant on the political finance landscape.

Workers in a union have more say over how that union is ran than workers in a corporation have a say in how that business is ran. I'm not saying whether that is good or bad only to prove my point that if a worker does not like what his union is doing or how he is representing him he can vote for change. In the VW case if after a year the workers didn't see any benefit to the union they could have voted to disband it.

You and I will respectively have to disagree on this part. It simply doesn't work that way for any union of which I have been a member, or with which I have had dealings.

I support all of the unions that employ mainly low wage workers such as the United Food & Commercial Workers. http://www.ufcw.org/

Reagan destroyed unions. He gets credit for that. Unions aren't even that significant anymore. Have to research but last I heard only 30-25% of the work force in America is unionized.

Union membership, overall, is a little under 12% of the total labour force in the USA. The major driver for this, in my opinion, is that unions have moved away from their core purpose, of representing their members and striving for fair wages, benefits and conditions, and into the arena of political activism on ideological grounds.

Unions will only return to relevance if and when the big unions remember that they are supposed to be advocates for their members, rather than themselves.

Edited February 15, 2014 by Pooky

[unsmiley 111]

But unions' political contributions far outweigh many corporate contributions. They make the much-reviled Koch Brothers seem positively insignificant on the political finance landscape.

You and I will respectively have to disagree on this part. It simply doesn't work that way for any union of which I have been a member, or with which I have had dealings.

Union membership, overall, is a little under 12% of the total labour force in the USA. The major driver for this, in my opinion, is that unions have moved away from their core purpose, of representing their members and striving for fair wages, benefits and conditions, and into the arena of political activism on ideological grounds.

Unions will only return to relevance if and when the big unions remember that they are supposed to be advocates for their members, rather than themselves.

I agree with most of your comments on unions.

An interesting chart comparing the relative amount of political contributions from unions to those from the Koch brothers confirms your point:

http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/02/friday-morning-linkage/

For those too lazy to click the link: labor unions contribute 35X the amount of political contributions that are made by Koch Industries. Talk about big $$$. And also remember the Koch's spend their own money. Labor unions spend their worker's money.

[Pooky 3,843]

I agree with most of your comments on unions.

An interesting chart comparing the relative amount of political contributions from unions to those from the Koch brothers confirms your point:

http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/02/friday-morning-linkage/

For those too lazy to click the link: labor unions contribute 35X the amount of political contributions that are made by Koch Industries. Talk about big $$$. And also remember the Koch's spend their own money. Labor unions spend their worker's money.

Looking down the list of political donors, on the Open Secrets website, you have to wait until #17 until you get to the first organization that leans Republican, UPS.

Of the 16 organizations that have donated more, 12 of them lean Democrat, some of them markedly so. Maybe the Progressive focus on the Citizens United ruling is more of a smokescreen to cover where much of the political money is coming from and where it is going.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

As far as I can see they work really hard to screw with management and collect dues from the bargaining units. I used to think they gave their folks those cool jackets with the union patch on them but they don't, they have to pay for them.

I worked as a manager in a unionized plant in Ga for 15 years. They vowed union to the end. They were right. It's rusting down now. Go find the most antagonistic loudmouth inbreed fool you can find. Make him president, then proceed with doing everything possible to kill productivity.

Same thing with Kellogg here in Macon. They asked the Union for concession. The Union gave them the finger. They shut down and moved capacity elsewhere. They showed them right.

Same thing with Brown and Williamson here. 100's of good jobs. Unions killed it.

[Karee 4,191]

It's not just ideology, the major motive why Republicans today are against unions is because unions are the ONLY big money machine in the Democratic party. If you take out the unions then you have free reign of corporate influence who mainly donate to Republican causes in politics. I think it was mainly a strategic move. VW did not ever say they were against unions. .

Trial lawyers seem like big financial backers of the Democrat party as well.

[DavenRoxy 1,073]

We have a union here where I work. For the most part, they are just hampering progress it seems, from the outside.

[unsmiley 111]

Looking down the list of political donors, on the Open Secrets website, you have to wait until #17 until you get to the first organization that leans Republican, UPS.

Of the 16 organizations that have donated more, 12 of them lean Democrat, some of them markedly so. Maybe the Progressive focus on the Citizens United ruling is more of a smokescreen to cover where much of the political money is coming from and where it is going.

The fact is that big money has gone to Democrats the last few election cycles. I don't know how they do it, but Democrats have deceptively cast the Republicans as the fat cats, and the biased media accepts it as fact, and the average Joe believes it. But it simply is not true. The Dems raised more money in each election, yet the public is somehow convinced that they are the party for the little people. That is why I sometimes refer to them as the elitists, to the dismay of some VJers. (That picture of a tanned John Kerry on his speedboat was worth 1000 words when he ran for President.) Also constant liberal mention of the Koch's, without mention of "similarly" biased (in the other direction) of billionaire George Soros, et al, is also unfair and wrong. And lefty unions contribute so much more than these few billionaires it is not even close.

[Karee 4,191]

We have a union here where I work. For the most part, they are just hampering progress it seems, from the outside.

While taking their two hours wages a month.