AMERICA

AMERICA
ONE NATION UNDER GOD!

Monday, October 25, 2010

LOOK FOR THE UNION LABEL

I'm not sure what your position on workers unions may be. But I know that I am diametrically opposed to them all, and everything they stand for. hate is not a strong enough word to describe my feelings about Unions and collective bargaining agreements. If that statement angers you, tough darts farmer! It was meant to be inflammatory. Labor unions in the United States are one of the biggest causes  of the  financial crisis we are currently experiencing. The city of San Diego, is currently trying to close down all and essential services, and some essential services such as police and fire department because they cannot continue at their current tax level. During fiscal year 2009 the city of San Diego reported one lowest crime statistics ever reported for the city of San Diego. If the Police Department labor union has said that those numbers are incorrect because so much crime may actually go unreported. And that without the new tax revenue being proposed on this year's ballot the citizens of San Diego who live in fear because police officers will be leaving for better paying jobs in other places. Forget that there are no openings in those other places, and in those places are experiencing the same LOAD of rhetoric from their Police Department.

Due to freedom of information, it has been discovered that city employees retiring from the city of San Diego are able to garner upwards of $80,000 a year plus full medical benefits for life at age 50. It doesn't stop there. The state employee union has the same deal. This infuriates me! Not because of the money. But, because those employee unions use their collective political clout to boss politicians around and force them to give those people exactly what their avarice and greed desires.

There's nothing that infuriates me more than a drive by some building or some company where the employees are on strike because they want to draw attention to the fact that they aren't getting what they want. Complaining that their job is so dangerous, or their pay is so egregious that they just have to walk out and stop all financial gain being done by the Corporation. And supposedly their job is so dangerous or so underpaid that they have to stay in the street and threaten bodily harm against anybody that tries to take their job. If a nonunion member stood up in front of the company and threatened to beat up somebody who applied to work there he/she would be in jail so fast he would know what them. With these mobsters get away with it on television and act with impunity.

There is a ballot measure in San Diego County that removes the requirement for people bidding on a construction job to be a member of the union. I voted for that. Back in 1979 when I took a part-time job as a security guard during the Chargers football season, I was forced to become a member of the Teamsters union. It left a bad taste in my mouth that has lasted until today. I really wanted that job and I feel bad for having gone against my convictions about labor unions, just to have it.

One of my least favorite collective bargaining units is the teachers unions! Especially the California teachers union. I keep reading and hearing how underpaid and overworked teachers in California are. Yet children spent 12 years in school and still not know how to read. I read information that says teachers spend on average $500 out-of-pocket for classroom supplies. And ask for us to donate markers and pencils and paper supplies for the classroom. Because, they just don't have the resources to teach our children. Well, I'm calling a big fat BS on that! Two years ago Gov. Schwarzenegger put on a ballot measure that would not allow teachers that automatically gain tenure just by showing up to work every day. The California teachers Association spent $150 million to defeat that proposition. Where the hell did they get $150 million when they can't afford crayons? Schwarzenegger's biggest mistake was to not reintroduce that Bill the very next year. It would have been a knockout blow financially against their teachers union that they would never have recovered from. And we would not be faced with a situation where the teachers unions are more interested in the teachers there are about the children.

I have the utmost respect for teachers, but I despise their unions. And I think they make for bad politicians also. I would never vote for a person running for political office on the basis of their experiences in academia. Academia is responsible for some of the worst tragedies ever perpetrated on the human race. Those fools who sit in their ivory towers and pontificate on how we could improve the world, are the same people that brought you the Marxist pogroms that killed 60 million Russians installing Communism in that country. There is also the German intelligentsia who were responsible for developing Zyklon B (nerve gas used for extermination of Jews during the second world war).

I have been debating in my own mind the best course of action for this blog. I thoroughly enjoy all the people I have met here and the interactions that we share. But I am feeling drawn, no called, by my patriotic heart to go all political. I need a little feedback from my friends here. Should I go ahead and start a second blog, where I'm free to attack verbally all of those institutions that I find at odds with the American dream? Would you like to hear it here in this forum?

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14 comments:

Karen thisoldhouse2.com said...

Kurt, this is your space to do what you please... I say go with your gut.

red.neck chic said...

HERE HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SO WITH YOU!!!!!!!!

There are so many reasons I love and adore you.

;-D xoxoxo
robelyn

Heff said...

I enjoy getting pissed off on occasion my damn self.

Charlene said...

Do what you want. Lord knows my opinion is not needed on the issue.

I was a manager in a small credit union with supervision of 4 loan officers. The whole place had 12 employees. A union was voted in. The craft employees began paying dues [closed shop all paid]. Two years later the union was de-certified, as it should be.

The reason the union got certified in the first place was the big boss was paying people higher salaries if he was fucking them. The people who turned him down were moved to jobs they didn't like and paid less. After 2 years of the union the board fired the guy and began treating people right. No need for the union.

Sometimes when nothing else gets a company to treat people right a union will become a great leveler.

You don't want a union? Create work policies that treat employees fairly and operate fairly using those policies. Thing is, most corporations cannot resist screwing over their workers.

My ADHD Me said...

When I ran customer service at a furniture company, it drove me crazy that I had these men that worked so hard and deserved more money but I couldn't give them a raise because of the union.

On the other hand, there were also slackers that never seemed to carry their weight and yet they received the same pay as my great workers.

I hated that.

Meanwhile, before my dad retired from Dupont he was at one time vice-president of the union and at another time he was president. I grew up thinking unions were the only way to go....then I went out into the real world.

Come to my post today. Finally, an overdue THANK YOU is there for the award you sent me.....hhmmm......now how could I find a way to do that on a Tuesday? Because Today is Tuesday....and you know what THAT means!!

Red Shoes said...

If you want to go political, I say go for it!!!

To me, it's kinda like voting vs not voting... those who don't vote really shouldn't have a say in what happens/doesnt happen...

~shoes~

Jo said...

I think political blogs are needed almost more than any others. I love when people speak their minds, and get other people to actually think. To me, that is what blogging should be al about.

Go for it...!

MsDarkstar said...

My two cents is that this is YOUR blog, do with it as you wish. Maybe mix it up, some political stuff, some other stuff just to keep us on our toes.

Kimberly said...

Maybe you could start a union for bloggers. Just saying.

lsand said...

Never heard of you before, but I like what you say here. In fact, my org. is running a radio ad this week in LA and SD that you might like. Please listen here - http://www.ctenhome.org/PDFdocs/CTEN%20-%20radio%20ad%20mp3%20-%20NEA%20and%20CTA%20spending.mp3

Spiky Zora Jones said...

It's your blog...you do what you want with it. You may get those that don't agree with you but let's hope it becomes a discussing on the 'whys' rather than who is right.

unions...I think there was a time in America when unions were the way to be able to live a better life. like in the book 'grapes of wrath.' and I'm not saying all unions are good. some go beyond what they are worth.

balance...is what what we seek but can't continuely keep.

later sweets. Go for it honey. xxx

UBERMOUTH said...

Thoroughly enjoyed this political rant and I vote MORE,MORE,MORE!
I do LIKE unions but like everything, where there's power there's always those who will abuse and corrupt it.

I think I shall UNIONIZE my blog! LOL

Marnie said...

I agree with you on this topic. I have seen so many lazy people keep their jobs (when they would have been fired anywhere else) thanks to Unions.

Just telling it like it is said...

I love that you are so passionate about what you believe in! you know how I feel about vets and How I wish that there was more help for them not because I pity vets...it is because I think because they shed their blood and heaved their hearts they deserve it.