Card Check

Editor

I can not wait for “Card Check”. Just think of how much fun the work stoppages and strikes will be! It is so much fun to have the teachers go on strike and have the kids miss school. I so enjoy watching the NEA blackmail politicians and school boards into more and more unsustainable and unbreakable pay, benefit and pension contracts. I so like watching the users of public transit systems having to ride their bikes to work in the rain. It creates so much modern art when the garbage stacks up on the streets of our cities when the public employees decide they are underpaid and/or over worked. What a hoot when we hear of a “one day strike” by the French or Italian Air Traffic Controllers bringing flight operations in Europe to a stop. Wow, is “Card Check” going to be fun or what? Does anyone remember when the Greeks staged a country wide one day strike in 2007 protesting the government’s attempts to cut back public employee pensions? This is going to be such fun!

There was a day in this country when there was a desperate need for some worker representation but those days are long gone. Has anyone noticed that a lot of American jobs are going over seas? How many of those once were union jobs? With card check how many more will be forced overseas? All of those jobs have been in the private sector; none of them have been in the public sector!

Has anyone noticed that the biggest unions in the country are the public employee unions, SEIU, (Service Employees International Union) and AFSCMA (American Federation of State, City, and Municipal Employees), NEA (National Education Association), AFT (American Federation Of Teachers? Has anyone noticed that they have the ability to blackmail elected officials into unaffordable contracts that are far more generous and ridgid than anything in private industry? What public official can stand the pressure to settle a transit, garbage or teachers strike in the face of the pressure from the public? How many of you have seen a teachers strike settled without the need to raise taxes? When you voted for the last school funding increase how many have seen the option for voting for the current spending level? Has anyone noticed the state of New York City’s financial situation which has in large part been brought about by throwing money at the public employee unions to keep union peace? Has anyone noticed that when a private company goes out of business or declares bankruptcy the employee pay, benefits and pensions disappear? Has anyone ever heard of a public entity going out of business or being able to abrogate their employee contracts? What happens when the public paying for these state guaranteed benefits can no longer afford them? Well, “You just have to raise taxes, you promised these people this pay, medical care for life and pensions far better than you can ever expect”. I have yet to see a judge say otherwise. Have you? Card check is really going to help make this a lot worse!

What this country needs are more Employee Union control companies like General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. The managers of these companies have truly screwed up. They have screwed up so badly that without the ability to adjust their work force levels or the pay and benefits of that work force they will cease to exist. Eastern Airlines was brought down by a strike by of it’s mechanics. They seem to think the union paid their salaries. I have often wondered if they thought Eastern got what it deserved.

I guess all those who support Card Check are looking forward to higher prices, increased labor strife and outrageous demands by the public employee unions. Get ready for higher taxes and more strikes your Mayor, Governor or President has to settle at unaffordable costs. Card Check is going to be a great fun until we find out how much it is going to cost us. We really do need more unions to force up costs now that the country is doing so well! What great fun. What more can government do for you?