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Unions are supposed to look out for their members - period. That's why they were formed, not to be Mr Nice Guy. I taught one year of high school in California in another century. I remember how most teachers were eagerly joining the American Federation of Teachers, which was back by the Teamsters Union! No one talked about improving the quality or teaching or any of that nonsense. It was all about how much more money they could get and how they could strike for better bennies. Also, the AFT insists on promotion by longevity - not performance. Incompetents cannot be fired just because they are crap teachers. That is the union way.

 

 

 

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Imagine that. The past 30 years the GOP has promoted this mega-company thing with unfettered free-market theories (and simply ignoring or repealing any anti-trust or monoploy laws). Well, that's what happens: just like in Teddy R's day, the near-monopolies get greedy because they can. Natural fallout of bad policy...

 

What are you gonna do about it? Six banks control 70% of the banking in the USA. If they wanna charge you $20, you'll have little choice but to suck it up.

 

And they have been ativetly trying to end credit unions. Not sure how it is now but to show you how this ATM fee is so much bullsh*t, I recall a credit union I belonged to that had no fees at ATMs from other credit unions.

 

Fee income from ATMS, etc. is lucrative for banks, very lucrative.

 

 

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Unions are supposed to look out for their members - period. That's why they were formed, not to be Mr Nice Guy.

 

What happens when you place these kinds of organizations into the current state of California, which is heavily regulated and legally imparts rights to workers never dreamed of decades ago.

 

Unrealistic pension structures and perks that cannot be sustained are part of the reason for the collapse of the auto industries in Detroit and the mills in Chicago. It ain't all corporate bad guys.

 

Like I said, I don't know. Our education system at the elementary and high school level pretty much sucks and lags far behind where it could be. The inflexibility of the Teachers Unions and their willingness to cling to the status quo, killing things like merit based pay differentials or the ability to can the a-holes who do nothing are partially responsible.

 

The groups that really need help -- migrant workers congregating in parking lots to be picked up or working the fields -- the unions could give a shit about them.

 

Anyway, you're right - money, power, politics is the name of the game.

 

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Well, yes, that's true. And I'm sure unions have historically done good things and probably do good things now. Does that make unions above reproach or fault? Do you see the issue with that logic?

 

EG, if someone wouldn't have wiped out a large chunk of Native Americans and robbed their land, the US as we know it probably wouldn't be here. That doesn't make make it right, or a model that should be perpetuated without question.

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Unions are supposed to look out for their members - period. That's why they were formed' date=' not to be Mr Nice Guy.

[/quote']

 

What happens when you place these kinds of organizations into the current state of California, which is heavily regulated and legally imparts rights to workers never dreamed of decades ago.

 

Unrealistic pension structures and perks that cannot be sustained are part of the reason for the collapse of the auto industries in Detroit and the mills in Chicago. It ain't all corporate bad guys.

 

Like I said, I don't know. Our education system at the elementary and high school level pretty much sucks and lags far behind where it could be. The inflexibility of the Teachers Unions and their willingness to cling to the status quo, killing things like merit based pay differentials or the ability to can the a-holes who do nothing are partially responsible.

 

The groups that really need help -- migrant workers congregating in parking lots to be picked up or working the fields -- the unions could give a shit about them.

 

Anyway, you're right - money, power, politics is the name of the game.

I can say that the management of the steel mills in the USA did nothing but suck the $$$ out of the mills. While the rest of the world reinvested to update the equipment in their mills, the USA did nothing! I know, it was up front nd personal for me.

I did more upgrades in Japan, Taiwan and China then were ever done in the USA.

 

The USA management brought much of this on to themselves. The unions only worked to get what they could before the management sucked the business dry.

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Unions are supposed to look out for their members - period. That's why they were formed' date=' not to be Mr Nice Guy.

[/quote']

 

What happens when you place these kinds of organizations into the current state of California, which is heavily regulated and legally imparts rights to workers never dreamed of decades ago.

 

Unrealistic pension structures and perks that cannot be sustained are part of the reason for the collapse of the auto industries in Detroit and the mills in Chicago. It ain't all corporate bad guys.

 

Like I said, I don't know. Our education system at the elementary and high school level pretty much sucks and lags far behind where it could be. The inflexibility of the Teachers Unions and their willingness to cling to the status quo, killing things like merit based pay differentials or the ability to can the a-holes who do nothing are partially responsible.

 

The groups that really need help -- migrant workers congregating in parking lots to be picked up or working the fields -- the unions could give a shit about them.

 

Anyway, you're right - money, power, politics is the name of the game.

I can say that the management of the steel mills in the USA did nothing but suck the $$$ out of the mills. While the rest of the world reinvested to update the equipment in their mills, the USA did nothing! I know, it was up front nd personal for me.

I did more upgrades in Japan, Taiwan and China then were ever done in the USA.

 

The USA management brought much of this on to themselves. The unions only worked to get what they could before the management sucked the business dry.

 

The car industry possibly killed itself as well. I know the unions are often to blame but shoddy cars were being made in the '70s from what I understand while the Japanese made sure they had good products on the road.

 

 

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For one thing the American car companies insisted the buyers wanted the huge street cruisers, when it was obvious that people were going for smaller cars. Detroit continued building what it always had, while the buyers were snapping up smaller - and cheaper - Japanese models. Some of Detroit's technology is also nearly obsolete, kept in place by the unions because it requires more people to operate.

 

 

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