BF2S Forums GOP senator threatened by mob, saved by Democrat Hulsey

You're going to get your knees broken.

When I was at UPS some drivers wanted to get home early (for different reasons), so they would skip their lunch and knock their route out quick. The next morning union members would hide the keys to their truck before they got in, making them get out late.. and thus having a very late day.

Kmar wrote:

When I was at UPS some drivers wanted to get home early (for different reasons), so they would skip their lunch and knock their route out quick. The next morning union members would hide the keys to their truck before they got in, making them get out late.. and thus having a very late day.

When I first got out of the army I was looking for work in my field and started chatting up the guy that was installing my cable for me. So I asked him what his job was like and it came around to the number of jobs that he does in a day. He told me there is a months long backlog for installations but that he is limited to four jobs a day. It doesn't matter if it only takes a half hour like mine did, if he gets four of those in a row he sits in the shop for 6 hours waiting for his shift to end. Now, this obviously didn't make any sense to me so I asked him why. He said it was because they had some older members on their crew who were injured and couldn't move very fast so the rest of the members were forced to work at the pace of the slowest worker in order to prevent him from being fired. Seriously, wtf.

What is this whole thing going on in the US right now, I haven't been following it. I've just heard about protests in Wisconsin and the police being called in to force politicians to be present, but they also refused to do that

Mekstizzle wrote:

What is this whole thing going on in the US right now, I haven't been following it. I've just heard about protests in Wisconsin and the police being called in to force politicians to be present, but they also refused to do that

Well, the dems decided to take their ball and go home when it became clear that through the process of government, they wouldn't be able to prevent these reforms.

Mekstizzle wrote:

What is this whole thing going on in the US right now, I haven't been following it. I've just heard about protests in Wisconsin and the police being called in to force politicians to be present, but they also refused to do that

Republicans control everything in Wisconsin currently, the Governor's seat, the Senate, and the Assembly. They campaigned on a promise to fix the debt Wisconsin has so what they've done is propose a bill that would strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights. Essentially, they're busting the public servant union.

So, in protest, the Democrats in the Senate have fled the state in order to prevent a vote. Without at least one of them present there is no quorom so the bill can't go forward. So, the Dems have fled, and the state unions (and many unions from outside of the state who are terrified of the same thing happening back home) have been protesting outside of the capitol building for weeks now.

SenorToenails wrote:

Mekstizzle wrote:

What reforms?

They want to cut way back on the power of public sector unions.  Remove collective bargaining rights, make them pay for more of their pensions and insurance, etc...

which by the way would still less than the majority of non union workers

11 Bravo wrote:

SenorToenails wrote:

Mekstizzle wrote:

What reforms?

They want to cut way back on the power of public sector unions.  Remove collective bargaining rights, make them pay for more of their pensions and insurance, etc...

which by the way would still less than the majority of non union workers

I know.  I wish the state government in NY would do what they are trying to do.

Poseidon wrote:

I know it's not comparable to a teachers union or something similar, but when I worked at a large chain grocery store (Stop and Shop for you US northeasterners), the union I was in was a fucking joke. Basically ensured that no matter how hard you worked, you could not get a raise. Raises only came with time spent there, and you got a small raise every 6 months. There were also multiple occasions where people had terrible, terrible work ethic or would do almost nothing, and could not get fired because the higher ups didn't feel it was worth it to go through the union.

Again, it was a part time job, but it was my first experience with unions...and it was awful.

My sister was forced into a union when she started working at a grocery chain (Tops Markets, if anyone cares).  They force ALL employees to join, even when most are 17/18 year old high school students (and part time), take the first hour of your pay for the week (which starts on a sunday--when they give everyone a higher pay rate), and basically give you nothing.  It was a total racket.

Edit: Of course, she was in a state workers union for about a year when she worked at a SUNY facility...and man did she have some awesome benefits.

Last edited by SenorToenails (2011-03-03 07:37:19)

In my own state the teachers union and the police departments of several cities preferred to lose 10% of their members rather than take salary cuts or have to chip in for their benefits. Not all unions are terrible though. The Jersey City police union (I think it was the JC police) decided to take pay cuts so that they wouldn't have to fire anyone.

As for teachers and their unions- by and large grad rates have been going upo over the years and schools have been getting better. I do think that teachers get a bad rep from people (like John) when the problem is really the union bosses and the older members.

SenorToenails wrote:

Macbeth wrote:

In my own state the teachers union and the police departments of several cities preferred to lose 10% of their members rather than take salary cuts or have to chip in for their benefits. Not all unions are terrible though. The Jersey City police union (I think it was the JC police) decided to take pay cuts so that they wouldn't have to fire anyone.

As for teachers and their unions- by and large grad rates have been going upo over the years and schools have been getting better. I do think that teachers get a bad rep from people (like John) when the problem is really the union bosses and the older members.

Not all are bad...but when public sector unions make it so they have better pay schemes and better benefits with smaller contributions than the private sector, there is a problem.

Right. Public sector is supposed to be low pay. You're trading off the higher pay for benefits, a pension and job security. Over the last few decades they've decided that it wasn't enough and have pushed through annual salary increases regardless of reality. They got overly greedy and now it's time to break them.

Macbeth wrote:

Time to break them lol

The problem isn't with their salaries it's their pension programs.

But whatever I just think unions and their members are unfairly bearing the full force of American economic angst.

It's not just the pensions, it's the tenure as well (or how about the fact that gym teachers make the same pay as a physics teacher?). The entire system is not grounded in reality. They have the politicians in their pocket and constantly scream for tax increases to pay for their own benefits and pay increases. New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the country because of unions, and more precisely, teachers unions. High tax rates drive away businesses which kill jobs. The public sector unions just don't give a shit about reality and know they have the muscle to get whatever the fuck they want (until Christie came to town that is). They're Me!Me!Me!Me!Me!Me!Me!Me!Me!Me!Me!Me!Me!'ing the country into the ground.

I hope your fat fuck of a governor runs for President tbh.

Last edited by JohnG@lt (2011-03-03 08:22:17)