Public Unions vs. the Unorganized Taxpayers

There Will Be Blood: Public Unions Vs. The Unorganized Taxpayers

June 3, 2011

SHTFPlan.com - The latest micro documentary from Daniel Vision Victory and Crush the Street is bound to get tempers flaring – on both sides.

With cities, states and the Federal government facing serious budgetary problems, cuts are going to have to be made. We can expect, then, that any such cuts that will affect public union members will be countered by mass protests and potentially riots. As the documentary points out, organized unions are a burden on the system, with government officials regularly bowing to demands for more money, benefits and pensions. The end result, which apparently union members don’t realize, will be the opposite of what they are trying to accomplish. Not only will public union members pay the price, so too will the private sector:

After years of politicians signing off to Union demands, let’s see how union states stack up to right to work states.

According to the BLS, over the last 10 years, right to work states’ private sector growth has increased by 40%. Meanwhile, union states saw their private sector grow by just 17%. When you look at production (19% vs. 17.5%), job growth (17.6% vs. 8.9%), economic growth (41.6% vs. 33.5%) it all favors the right to work states.

When looking at the financial condition of all 50 states it is no coincidence that the states with the highest union membership are in worse condition than the states with the lowest union membership.

A few weeks ago our federal government hit the Congressional Debt Ceiling, which meant we could no longer borrow money by issuing debt. What was the first thing Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner did to fund necessary expenditures? He dipped straight into union pensions. This was a foreshadowing of what will come in the very near future.

Regardless of what union members think, the end result of their continued demands for more benefits and the pillaging of private sector US taxpayers will lead to the money they earn being worth less, their health care benefits being significantly reduced (via universal health care policies), lost jobs, and the real possibility that their pensions will be wiped out.

We’re not blaming this financial crisis solely on unions, but the negative economic impact on our fiscal and economic situation cannot be ignored.

Analyst Meredith Whitney, last year, forecast that two million government jobs would be eliminated during this depression. This is already happening, as 750,000 government employees have already lost their jobs. Governments are bloated and broke, and it is not mathematically possible to pay public union members what they think they’re worth. There will be much more pain to come.

There will also be blood, because union members seem to be disconnected from reality. We can expect more protests, and potentially riots if the governments have to raid their pensions, benefits and wages to cover budgetary gaps.

Watch the Video: Public Unions Vs. The Unorganized Taxpayers - There Will Be Blood:

What Does a Right-to-Work State Mean?

February 26, 2010

US Money Talk - In 1947 Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act that outlawed the “closed shop” practice enforced by many unions. The “closed shop” meant that when a workplace had been unionized any employee who did not join that union could be terminated. “Union shop” rules stipulated that new employees must also join the union or at least pay the dues.

In one section of the Taft-Hartley Act it states that states have jurisdiction over whether to enforce the union rules or to be a right-to-work state.

In a right-to-work state no employee can be forced to join a union.

Right To Work States

Twenty-two states have right-to-work clauses. In these states employees do not have to fear retribution from unions for not joining or fear losing their jobs.

There are pros and cons on working in this type of state. One major pro is not being forced to join a union. One major con is the lack of unionized power that can push for great changes in the work force.

The states with right-to-work laws include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.

What This Mean For You

Depending on which state you live in you could be subject to unionized workforces. In the non- right-to-work states unions can invade a workplace and force all the employees to join the union or be terminated. In this situation there is little an employee can do to avoid joining the union short of finding another job.

Read more here and here and here and here.