Protesting in Wisconsin....Just the beginning?

Folks think this be modern times and those old practices can never return. Ever see laws rescinded, underfunded Govt regulatory agencies, political orders to not enforce things? Right now as we speak wages are going down, benefits are being cut.

As far as corporations go they will just play states against each other. Sorry but that tax is too much we're leaving for N. Dakota if you don't change it and those tax breaks for our plant they aint enough. In the end they'll pick up and move to China anyway after they've extracted what they can.

You've made a lot of excellent points. The labor laws are weak at best and are broken at will. In the early 1970's companies started to find that breaking the laws really didn't amount to much in fines and kept unions out.

Again, this country was most prosperous for the working class in the late 1940's through 1960's. Notice that the workforce was heavily unionized at that time. Ask anyone what percentage of workers in this country are unionized and I would almost guarantee they're way off. I ask members of my own union and they generally shoot out numbers around 20%. Try 7%!! The public sector is more unionized than that, but combined public and private workforce it comes out to about 12%. Anyone see the correlation with the weakening of the working class with the reduction of union membership?

Whether you agree with unions or not, any benefits you have you can thank organized labor for. They fought for the forty hour workweek, healthcare, paid vacations, social security etc, etc.

John

Unfortunately when the unions are removed you remove the lowest wage that a person can earn. The unions establish the floor for wages. Without collective bargaining rights you can have lower pay and lower skilled personnel. It becomes a race to the bottom.

What I see is the mismanagement of funding by the state, which was a surplus at first, and then putting the blame on the employees of the state to make up for this created deficit. The teachers union have made all the economic concessions that they can.

A privatization of public resources is being attempted. The public utilities of Wisconsin are being a possible point of sale for example.

What a lot of people don't realize, and you pointed out, is that in Wisconsin the unions have agreed to concessions. This is union busting, plain and simple.

Privatization has and continues to be the war cry. Let's make some more services for profit, because that's worked out so well for us!!

John

Zorro, I just noticed your signature. I think that poem sums up what's going on in this country and the world. First they come for one group and people don't care because it doesn't affect them, then they come for another and again people don't care because it doesn't affect them. Then they come for those left and they wonder where everyone is to help them.

John

First they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews but I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Martin Niemoller 1892- 1984 survivor of Sachsenhausen and Dachau

That's the one. I believe he was a priest.

John

Hey Kerry,

Yes, it has a way of sneaking up on you. One day you turn around and you wonder what happened or wonder how it could have happened.

Thanks,
John

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Originally Posted by kerryman71

That's the one. I believe he was a priest.

John

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Lutheran theologian.

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Originally Posted by nun2sharp

Is this the result of unions or is it the result of Nafta and Gatt? Unions did not push companies overseas, they went there for the slave labor and no regulation. Courtesy of Bill Clinton. Have you noticed that damn near everything from curtain blinds, baby food, toothpaste and sheetrock have all had issues with poisoning people. Neither the Chinese nor the corporations have an issue with killing you, its all about the bottom line. You have as much value to them as the dog in the OP of the Glorious China thread. Put the blame where it really goes.

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I lost my job in a factory that had the highest pay and benefits in the area. The UAW (U Aint Working) decided we should have better health insurance and higher pay. The company warned us if the UAW continued to push for higher wages and better insurance they would move to Mexico. Needless to say the UAW continued to push and I lost my job.

It should also be noted that before the factory unionized we were still the best paid with the best benefits in the area. The only difference was that NAFTA had passed about 6 years earlier.

I agree that it is too easy to move overseas for lower wages and then ship the items back here to sell to us. This is common knowledge...but our local chapter continued to treat the company like it was us against them. It should not have been them against us...we should have the company had other options and they called our bluff.

Recall NAFTA, tax imports, punish companies that move overseas and then sell us their goods, offer incentives for companies to stay here and expand, make it easy for an entrepenuer to be successful and higher employees, stop the NAFTA Super Hiway...wow I just realized I am on a soapbox. I hope you can see that I agree with most of the things you say, but I wish my local chapter had not been so ambitious.
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