What unions do for Americans

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-lowitz-20100511,0,1998217.story

Far from transforming certain employees into taxpayer-funded aristocrats, unions today seek to preserve fairness for workers and a semblance of the American middle class.

Suzan Lowitz

May 11, 2010 | 9:43 a.m.

Robert "Mickey" Kaus, author of the May 3 Times Op-Ed article "America's lead weight, should meet director James Cameron, who famously blamed the high cost of movies on the film industry unions. This contention was false then, and it's false now.

I would like to invite Kaus to attend a meeting of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. He would see that the conditions of union members in all industries are far from the lives of an "aristocrat at taxpayer expense." We who belong to unions simply attempt to maintain something like an American middle-class lifestyle, with some assurance of a modest pension to supplement Social Security, which may or may not exist several years from now. We hope for sufficient healthcare to assure that we don't die as a result of our hard work. And we try to hold on to some of the benefits put in place to assure that we aren't exploited by employers who, if not for some regulations, would work us into the ground without fair compensation and would fail to maintain safe working conditions.

How can Kaus write this on the heels of the worst mining disaster in decades?

Kaus cites Detroit automakers and Los Angeles public schools as examples of institutions whose decline has been hastened by unions. The Los Angeles Unified School District suffers from overcrowding and a lack of funds, a problem endemic to our school system since I was a student in the 1960s and '70s. Teacher pay is hardly generous and, some would argue, is insufficient to keep excellent instructors in our schools. As for Detroit, volumes have been written on the causes of the automakers' financial failures. General Motors' have been attributed to its financing arm as well as the disproportionate salaries and bonuses of its executives.

FULL story at link.

[muntrv]

1. Mickey Kaus should visit those "right to work" states and see if life

is any better for teachers and working folks there.

[FBI_Un_Sub]

2. Try some non-union work sites in the mineral extraction industries

such as coal mining and ore mining and oil drilling.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Cannot hlep but wonder who pays this guy's bills....

[autorank]

4. k*r They provide the salery and benefits structure for the rest of the nation!

They got health care. They got salary increases as a fundamental right.

As Chris Rock once said, 'Man wouldn't pay you if he didn't have to.'

Well, the unions make the man pay.

[Scuba]

5. Unions are bad. Just look at all the children they put out of work.

[JNelson6563]

6. You'll get plenty of lip service here.

Hooray for unions! We love our union brothers and sisters! Oh, but of course I wouldn't lower myself to actually driving a car they make! Heavens no!

The level of hypocrisy here is stomach turning, really.

Julie

[Union Yes]

7. I wonder if we'd still be paid $3 a day for a 12-16 hour workday 6-7 days a week..

if it weren't for unions.

Unions created the middle class. I'd like to see just 1 conservative achievement that has ever come close.

Heck, at this point I'd like to see 1 con achievement that didn't bankrupt America or destroy our economy.

KNR solidarity union bro!

:patriot:

[Omaha Steve]

8. Thank you all for the support

I just wish the DU & our party would give this more thought.