Public Sector Unions Must See Beyond Their Own Interests to Survive

obama should not be persident he is a liar and isnt helping fix the united states I feel like america sucks!!!! lets move to Canada

rachael of OR 5:49PM October 04, 2010

One need not look much further then the author's title to deem how he feels things should be. Mr. Greife has spent not one day in the shoes of a unionized worker. Yet in several areas of his columun he makes it clear that it is the union worker who must surrender hard earned wages and benefits. He would do well to remeber that every penny earn then surrendered is a penny which is lost. Private unions along with non union private sector jobs have suffered greatly but not because they are over paid. Corporate greed is the main problem there. One simply has to look at how the upper pay scales have soared while the average American worker has seen their pay stagnate. If Mr. Greife would like to assist union workers in adjusting their pay, then it would be only fair that the union workers would adjust his. Welcome to the race to the bottom Mr. Greife.

JDZ57 of WI 9:10PM June 30, 2010

Jerry described how pipeline tasks were put in categories that made the system fail. How could the Secretary of Labor permit such corruption of the system? Did anyone benefit from that situation? Did the company that got the pipeline contract make more money by making the work take longer? There's a reason for that situation. Its disgusting that collective bargaining isn't operating perfectly, after so many people were crippled or killed in strikes. It surprised me to learn The American Legion was formed to be a lobbying arm of the National Association of Manufacturers. See "The Inside Story of the Legion." It says the AL was formed to use vets to use baseball bats & other weapons against strikers. Read history to realize they did do that, aiding owners against workers. That way, consumers were confused & fooled into thinking the vets were "keeping prices down" against union demands for fair pay. There was also Moral ReArmament. MRA. It said bosses & workers are both Children of God, so there should not be labor strife between relatives.

aura dawn veirs of CA 8:36PM June 30, 2010

In the begining Unions were needed but that time has come and gone.

With all the Labor laws minimum wage, living wage, Davis Bacon and other factors. Gov't workers are so protected how many firnings were done at the SEC after it was discovered they were watching porn instead of watching the Banks,Fanny and Freddy, Ponzi schemes ran amuk.

Ive seen it over and over dont punish just relocate. No wonder we have a deficit to much dead weight. Not saying all Union employees are bad but when I was working in facilities I can rember on many occasions people telling me slow down or they will want everyone to speed up. I wasnt going fast at a normal pace but those guys made the same money I did. They intentionly slowed productivity which meant more people were needed.

i Rember working on a pipeline in the early 70s clean up crew. Consisted of 3 Dozer operators, 3 swampers, 1 teamster.

Swampers are laborers they clean the tracks change the blade angles. 1 swamper for each dozer I was swamper worked about 2 to hours a day. Other than that sat on my lunch bucket. Thats times 3. Teamster drove us to and from the sight and sat in the bus the entire day. We worked 6 ten hour days, over 8 was time and a half, over 40 was time and a half. 2 hours at time and a half for 4 days, 5th and 6th day all time and a half. anything over 60 double time worked as many sundays as I could. If you wonder why gas is expensive can you see me now.

These type of contracts are typical of unions 1 swamper could have taken care of the crew, and the teamster could have backed him up if needed. But thats right he was only allowed to drive.

Look at the auto workers did you know that by thier contracts before the bailout if they were layed off the company paid them 90% of their salary for up to 2 years. Know way to survive if your in hardship. But still the Administration needs that vote. Which was proved duribg the bankrupcy Unions were paid before investors show me the reasoning. Many of those investors were retiement plans why was the Union given special treatment.

Unions need to be realistic or be shut down. We cant afford the cost.

jerry of NY 9:29AM June 30, 2010