Field Services: Making Money Now

Fill a bucket full of money, people will find ways to access it. So, tobacco subsidies = death by lung cancer; dairy subsidies = grilled cheese sandwiches in our schools; HFC = what? Now, the government has to find a way to 'use' all that excess HFC. That's why nearly everything in your local grocery store - 99% of it - contains HFC.

Could that be the reason: Feb. 10, 2010 --"More Americans are becoming overweight or obese, exercising less, and eating unhealthy foods.

"That’s the finding of the latest Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which shows that 63.1% of adults in the U.S. were either overweight or obese in 2009."

What choice do they have?

Not only are direct subsidies a waste of taxpayer money, they are hazardous to our health. In the great 'food v. fuel' debate, the same issues obtain. Until we change behavior, we will fail in our intention to save the environment in which we dwell, indeed, life itself on this planet. This should be the role of govenment -environment, individual, GOVERNMENT, business - a shield between humankind and those who would profit at the expense of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - even of life itself.

Imagine a steel wheel on a steel rail - more energy efficient than a jack-rabbit hopping across a prairie! Now, imagine a rubber tire on an asphalt roadway. Can you see why those who had gasoline - a waste product of the oil-drilling industry - to sell, promoted the rapid growth of the interstate highway system and neglected an in situ system of rail travel, nearly to death? Oh yeah, each union member - Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers - could be counted on the deliver fifty (50) votes to the Democratic Party.

My father, in the 1950's, (not 100 years ago)was absent from home for weeks at the time; came home exhausted and sick bacause of the conditions under which he was housed; and, went out on strike against the railroad to achieve decent working conditions, healthcare for his family, a decent salary, and a retirement plan. We were never rich. We made our own clothes and grew our own food including chickens and eggs. We shared one car and got scholarships to college - even a full waiver of tuition and fees to Cornell's Department of Design and Environmental Analysis.

Today, I live in the solar house I designed and built from re-purposed materials, twenty-five years ago. My home is 3000-ish square feet with all major appliances. A recent electric bill was $44.22; but, I'm planning to add photovoltaics, soon, to clear up that last little messy bit.

If we are waiting for politicians to solve the problems we face, we wait in vain; for, they are clearly representing someone besides the health and welfare of their constituents, their country, their planet.

Nevertheless, we are Americans. We don't assassinate our leaders, we vote them out of office (maybe a recall if necessary)!? Who can we count on to stand for the environment,for us, in 2012?

It’s nearing two weeks since unions and their cohorts on the Left have thrown a nationwide fit over Scott Walker’s solution to what is ailing Wisconsin. Unions and Democrats have made Wisconsin their cause célèbre by deploying OFA astroturf, the big talking heads, as well as recruiting just about every known Grateful Dead concert attendee on their mailing lists into Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Democratic state senators (now humorously known as fleebaggers) comically continue to hold the state hostage over an issue of union power, politics and money—nothing more and nothing less.

Despite unions’ long hatred of Scott Walker, the new governor is moving to address both the symptoms of the disease and the disease itself—the public-sector union scheme that has molested Wisconsin’s taxpayers and their children by gaming the system. Unions like Wisconsin’s teachers’ union [WEAC] (which was Wisconsin’s biggest-spending lobby in 2009) have been extraordinarily adept at fixing the system through spending millions to elect politicians who, in turn, reward the unions at the expense of the taxpayers.

Now, in response to Walker’s proposals, the Left has gone overboard in their attempt to protect their stranglehold on Wisconsin taxpayers. Even though unions have made clear that their fight is not about their wages or benefits (they’ve offered concessions), they’ve made the fight all about their “right to be unionized” and the fictitious right to “collective bargaining”—which makes their cause even more despotic.

In making Madison into something reminiscent of the spectacle of the 1960s, unions, Democrats and their liberal cohorts are attempting to make the Wisconsin union battle into a civil rights battle, when it is not. In fact, the Wisconsin fight, when compared to private-sector negotiations is about: 1) the Scope of Bargaining, 2) Union “Income” Security [Right-to-Work vs. Forced Dues], 3) whether Wisconsin should be the unions’ dues collection agency [payroll deduction of dues], and 4) whether public-sector unions should be ‘recertified’ by holding elections every year.

Contrary to the Left’s hyperbole, Scott Walker’s proposals do nothing to eliminate public-sector workers’ right to association, assemblage, or to petition their government. Even pretending that it is a “rights” issue is a mistake. There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that requires a government to engage in a back and forth negotiation with a collective of workers. In a poignant piece entitled There is No Right to Collective Bargaining, Public Service Research Foundation President David Denholm summarizes the problem with the unions’ argument, stating:

A law granting public-sector unions monopoly bargaining privileges gives a union, a special interest group, two bites at the apple. First, it uses its political clout to elect public officials. Then it negotiates with the very same officials.

When you consider that between 70 and 80 percent of all local government expenditures are personnel costs, you begin to get an idea of the magnitude of the power such laws give unions.

Not only is there no right to collective bargaining in public employment, it is wrong. Collective bargaining distorts and corrupts democratic government.

Collective bargaining is a process for employer-employee relations that was designed for the private sector. This process served as the model for the development of public-sector collective bargaining without taking into account the fundamental differences between the two sectors.

As Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour explains:

“When they have collective bargaining in Wisconsin, on one side of the table there’s state employee unions or the local employee unions. On the other side of the table are politicians that they paid for the election of those politicians,” Barbour said. “Now, who represents the taxpayers in that negotiation? Well, actually, nobody.”

Even Newsweek’s Evan Thomas noted on Sunday [via Newsbusters]:

The Democrats really depend on these public employee unions in a lot of states for their support and for their political muscle, and public employee unions got a problem here. I want to distinguish between unions and public employee unions. Unions obviously are critical, but in the public sector, public employee unions have a pretty easy time getting a lot of benefits because nobody’s really pushing back all that hard.

Admittedly, Walker’s proposals are a threat to unions in several ways. As Walker’s proposals determine:

The extent of what unions will be allowed to bargain about. Walker’s proposal limits bargaining to wages only, effectively eliminating the WEA Trust monopoly which gets its money from local school boards and runs it through a union-run insurance company.

Whether unions can have workers fired for not paying union dues. According to its most recent financial record on file, WEAC (the teachers’ union) raked in over $25 million in 2009. Walker’s proposal makes paying union dues voluntary, as opposed to mandatory. This goes to the lifeblood of any union. If, for example, 20% of those teachers who are currently required to pay union dues as a condition of employment opt out, WEAC could lose up to $5 million a year in revenue. [It is noteworthy that, in the private-sector, the SEIU will be conducting its second strike at a Pennsylvania medical center over the issue of mandatory dues.]

Whether the state will continue being the unions’ dues collector. Walker’s proposal eliminates’ the employers’ payroll deduction of union dues. Again, while it is commonplace for unions to negotiate payroll deduction, there is nothing anywhere (in private or public sector law) that states that it is an employers’ duty to be a union’s collection agency.

Whether the unions will have to ‘re-certify’ every year to maintain representational status. Of all of Walker’s proposals, this seems to be one that could be considered a ‘throw away’ item in negotiations. If Walker’s other proposals get enacted, and union-represented employees feel that the union is worthless, they can initiate an election themselves every calendar under existing law [see Section 111.83(5)[h]] .

Given the ability of the unions and their co-conspirators on the Left to hijack the issue in Wisconsin over these last two weeks, there appears no way for a “win-win” compromise to be worked out. One side or the other will win. Either the unions and the Left, or taxpayers will prevail.

If the Left wins, all chances of reforming public-sector unions will be tossed aside by weak-kneed Republicans who will then be held hostage by temper-tantrum throwing Democrats (see Indiana for example). In addition, the Left has already painted the entire Republicans party with bulls eyes and has for years. Therefore, there is no reason for GOP governors like Scott Walker, Chris Christie and John Kasich to back down, which puts the Left in an untenable situation as well.

In the meantime, the disciples of Saul Alinsky will continue their prattle, attempting to convince America that the Battle of Wisconsin is something more than a fight over union power, politics and money…even though it’s not.

_________________

“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

X-posted.

bench craft company

Field Services

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Making Money Now

Florida's Teacher Union Fight: the Next Wisconsin? - FoxNews.com

AOL Bolsters Local <b>News</b> Investment With Acquisition of Outside.in <b>...</b>

» BOMB THREAT at Scott Walker <b>News</b> Conference–Leftist Protester <b>...</b>

Florida's Teacher Union Fight: the Next Wisconsin? - FoxNews.com

AOL Bolsters Local <b>News</b> Investment With Acquisition of Outside.in <b>...</b>

» BOMB THREAT at Scott Walker <b>News</b> Conference–Leftist Protester <b>...</b>

Florida's Teacher Union Fight: the Next Wisconsin? - FoxNews.com

AOL Bolsters Local <b>News</b> Investment With Acquisition of Outside.in <b>...</b>

» BOMB THREAT at Scott Walker <b>News</b> Conference–Leftist Protester <b>...</b>

Florida's Teacher Union Fight: the Next Wisconsin? - FoxNews.com

AOL Bolsters Local <b>News</b> Investment With Acquisition of Outside.in <b>...</b>

» BOMB THREAT at Scott Walker <b>News</b> Conference–Leftist Protester <b>...</b>

Florida's Teacher Union Fight: the Next Wisconsin? - FoxNews.com

AOL Bolsters Local <b>News</b> Investment With Acquisition of Outside.in <b>...</b>

» BOMB THREAT at Scott Walker <b>News</b> Conference–Leftist Protester <b>...</b>

Florida's Teacher Union Fight: the Next Wisconsin? - FoxNews.com

AOL Bolsters Local <b>News</b> Investment With Acquisition of Outside.in <b>...</b>

» BOMB THREAT at Scott Walker <b>News</b> Conference–Leftist Protester <b>...</b>

Florida's Teacher Union Fight: the Next Wisconsin? - FoxNews.com

AOL Bolsters Local <b>News</b> Investment With Acquisition of Outside.in <b>...</b>

» BOMB THREAT at Scott Walker <b>News</b> Conference–Leftist Protester <b>...</b>

Florida's Teacher Union Fight: the Next Wisconsin? - FoxNews.com

AOL Bolsters Local <b>News</b> Investment With Acquisition of Outside.in <b>...</b>

» BOMB THREAT at Scott Walker <b>News</b> Conference–Leftist Protester <b>...</b>

Florida's Teacher Union Fight: the Next Wisconsin? - FoxNews.com

AOL Bolsters Local <b>News</b> Investment With Acquisition of Outside.in <b>...</b>

» BOMB THREAT at Scott Walker <b>News</b> Conference–Leftist Protester <b>...</b>

Florida's Teacher Union Fight: the Next Wisconsin? - FoxNews.com

AOL Bolsters Local <b>News</b> Investment With Acquisition of Outside.in <b>...</b>

» BOMB THREAT at Scott Walker <b>News</b> Conference–Leftist Protester <b>...</b>

No comments:

Post a Comment

Followers

Blog Archive

About Me