red states rule
09-13-2011, 04:30 AM
More good news for the 2012 elections
Swing Voters Recoil From Unions, and Obama
By Jack Kelly (http://www.debatepolicy.com/authors/?author=Jack+Kelly&id=14511)
snip
Obamacare played a role in the pitiful end, for labor, of the Verizon strike. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers of America went on strike Aug. 7 to protest the company's plans to make union workers pay for health insurance. The change was needed, management said, because Obamacare will impose a 40 percent tax on "Cadillac" plans like Verizon's.
The strike was nasty. Management reported hundreds of acts of sabotage. A judge enjoined an IBEW local from, among other things, "throwing feces." But it was doomed, because union members are concentrated in Verizon's rapidly shrinking landline business. The unions called the strike off Aug. 20.
More than half of all union members today belong to public employee unions. These suffered a blow when Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill passed in Wisconsin. Among other things, the Wisconsin Education Association may no longer automatically deduct dues from teachers' paychecks.
When public employees are not required to pay union dues, most choose not to, noted columnist George F. Will. He wrote about how membership in the Colorado Association of Public Employees declined 70 percent after Colorado, in 2001, required annual votes reauthorizing collection of dues. Indiana stopped collecting dues from unionized public employees in 2005. There's been a 90 percent drop in dues paying members since then. When Washington state in 1992 ended automatic dues deductions for political activities, the percentage of teachers making such contributions fell from 82 to 11.
In Wisconsin, too. The teachers union announced Aug. 15 it would lay off 40 percent of its staff. The teaching assistants union at the University of Wisconsin announced Aug. 22 it would decertify.
Labor leaders fret they've gotten a poor return on the $400 million they spent to elect Democrats in 2008. Unions will reduce contributions to Democrats in 2012, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Aug. 25. How vigorously unions support Mr. Obama depends on whether he abandons his current strategy of promoting "little nibbly things," Mr. Trumka said.
But the big things labor wants -- card check, a bailout of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., massive pork barrel projects -- are out of reach. With GOP control of the House, the outlook even for "little nibbly things" is cloudy.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/09/12/swing_voters_recoil_from_unions_and_obama_111296.h tml
Swing Voters Recoil From Unions, and Obama
By Jack Kelly (http://www.debatepolicy.com/authors/?author=Jack+Kelly&id=14511)
snip
Obamacare played a role in the pitiful end, for labor, of the Verizon strike. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers of America went on strike Aug. 7 to protest the company's plans to make union workers pay for health insurance. The change was needed, management said, because Obamacare will impose a 40 percent tax on "Cadillac" plans like Verizon's.
The strike was nasty. Management reported hundreds of acts of sabotage. A judge enjoined an IBEW local from, among other things, "throwing feces." But it was doomed, because union members are concentrated in Verizon's rapidly shrinking landline business. The unions called the strike off Aug. 20.
More than half of all union members today belong to public employee unions. These suffered a blow when Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill passed in Wisconsin. Among other things, the Wisconsin Education Association may no longer automatically deduct dues from teachers' paychecks.
When public employees are not required to pay union dues, most choose not to, noted columnist George F. Will. He wrote about how membership in the Colorado Association of Public Employees declined 70 percent after Colorado, in 2001, required annual votes reauthorizing collection of dues. Indiana stopped collecting dues from unionized public employees in 2005. There's been a 90 percent drop in dues paying members since then. When Washington state in 1992 ended automatic dues deductions for political activities, the percentage of teachers making such contributions fell from 82 to 11.
In Wisconsin, too. The teachers union announced Aug. 15 it would lay off 40 percent of its staff. The teaching assistants union at the University of Wisconsin announced Aug. 22 it would decertify.
Labor leaders fret they've gotten a poor return on the $400 million they spent to elect Democrats in 2008. Unions will reduce contributions to Democrats in 2012, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Aug. 25. How vigorously unions support Mr. Obama depends on whether he abandons his current strategy of promoting "little nibbly things," Mr. Trumka said.
But the big things labor wants -- card check, a bailout of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., massive pork barrel projects -- are out of reach. With GOP control of the House, the outlook even for "little nibbly things" is cloudy.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/09/12/swing_voters_recoil_from_unions_and_obama_111296.h tml