The War On Unions

[bobabode]

Teachers in California just got gut punched yesterday.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hilt...12-column.html

[finnbow]

I don't have a soft spot in my heart for any public sector unions.

[BlueStreak]

Well, private sector unions have been decimated, so it's only logical that public sector unions are next. Can't have any of the peasants getting uppity here in America, now can we? It's better that we keep them fighting each other to hold onto a job, helps hold costs down.

Yes, the future is quite bright indeed.

Dave

[merrylander]

Meanwhile as the two sides keep fighting the kids don't get an education.

[whell]

I have to tell ya, IMHO, its just not the horror story you guys want this to be. Here in MI, as most of you know, the "Right to Work" legislation passed a couple of years ago, and many on the left were bemoaning the law's passage as the death of the labor union in MI.

Fast forward to 2014, and the unions are now getting off their asses and doing what they should have been doing for years: proactive outreach to their members, listening to their concerns, and generally making efforts to justify their existence to their membership like they've not had to do in years.

By the numbers:

The number of union members in Michigan grew by 4,000 to 633,000 in 2013, but the percent of employed workers in unions dipped from 16.6 percent to 16.3 percent as total employment grew faster than union membership, according to federal statistics released Friday. The number of workers represented by a union, including those who aren't members themselves, rose by 8,000 to 656,0000 while the percentage dropped from 17.1 percent to 16.9 percent.

Those are minor changes amid a small sample size, so it's tough to glean much from the data, said Dale Belman, professor at Michigan State University's School of Human Resources and Labor Relations.

"If right to work had a big impact on union membership, then we'd see it in this data," Belman said.

Also:

Nationally, union membership has dropped significantly from 20.1 percent of workers in 1983 to 11.3 percent in both 2012 and 2013. The unionization rate was 35.3 percent for the public sector and 6.7 percent for the private sector.

http://www.mlive.com/business/index....ship_righ.html

So, union membership dropped nationally at a higher rate than it did in Michigan, despite Right to Work.

Now, on one hand, the sample data doesn't include any impact from the Big 3 automakers, whose contracts won't be impacted by right to work until they expire next year. However, its hard to imagine much impact on the UAW contacts by Right to Work.

[whell]

Originally Posted by bobabode

Teachers in California just got gut punched yesterday.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hilt...12-column.html

By the way, did you actually take a look at the judges decision? It actually makes a heck of a lot of sense.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.document...a-decision.pdf

[Dondilion]

I am ambivalent about this issue.

I have come to the conclusion that a strong union protects bad teachers.
This I observe in the NY Brooklyn system. Yet I still feel teachers need some protection from politicians, students and awful parents.

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by Dondilion

I am ambivalent about this issue.

I have come to the conclusion that a strong union protects bad teachers.
This I observe in the NY Brooklyn system. Yet I still feel teachers need some protection from politicians, students and awful parents.

Which brings us around to the issue of arming teachers.............

Dave

[bobabode]

Learn...or else I'll shoot!

[barbara]

Originally Posted by bobabode

Learn...or else I'll shoot!

Reminds me of Sister Paola from grade school. She didn't have a gun, her weapon of choice was an evil eye. She could shoot you a look that made even the worse kid in class straighten up.