No More Labor Unions and No More Recalls
on June 7th, 2012 at 9:00 AMDemocratically elected Governor Scott Walker won. Unions lost. Recall elections should be outlawed.
Industrial nations with the security and overall stability similar to the likes of the USA have no need for labor unions at all. None. When The Jungle was published our country needed unions. But then the competitive free market allowed our GDP to rise and once it became sustainable the need for unions left. Today unions are just political action committees who throw money behind their leadership’s favorite candidates. And when a union is not acting as a PAC it is busy protecting workers from getting fired whether they deserve to be dismissed or not. The most harmful example of this is a teachers union because they prevent bad teachers from being fired. School should be about the students, not the teachers. If a teacher proves to be incompetent then they need to be dismissed. Any union which stands in the way of that is corrupt.
My favorite example of how worthless unions have become is over in my favorite sport to watch, the NBA. Recently there was a “lockout”. During this work stoppage Dwayne Wade, a shrewd and knowledgeable negotiator, was “disrespected” by NBA Commissioner David Stern. Please keep in mind that this union, which decided not to show up for work because of salary concerns, flies first-class, stays at five-star hotels, has chefs in the clubhouse, a clubhouse which is like Richie Rich’s mansion, and those idiots still think they need union representation to protect their rights. Ridiculous. A union of millionaires is truly the example of organized labor leaving behind all the reasons they were ever needed in the first place.
Moving on. Recall elections are undemocratic. In the case of Wisconsin returning Governor Scott Walker they are especially contrary to democracy. Gov. Walker was elected fair and square. He then did something which may or may not have been popular. He may or may not have exercised the will of his constituents. His actions were not criminal. If they were, then the proper channels are already in place to impeach and remove him from office. But unlawful activity was not the issue here. In this case, the unions didn’t get what they wanted, so they went after Walker as payback because he took away collective bargaining rights from state employees, no other reason. Next we saw a well organized minority angry and vengeful and able to undermine the results of a free and fair election thanks to the recall. If Walker’s actions are unpopular and against the will of his constituents then those constituents will have the chance to elect someone else once Walker’s democratically decided term is up. The system, the system which we call democracy, breaks down and elections lose the mandate they give the winners when those winners can be recalled. Just wait and vote and let’s forget about Recalls.
Odd that you don’t make any reference to the millions that bought the election. Scott Walker is really the best Governor that money can buy.
Perhaps you don’t understand, but a LOCKOUT is not the same as a strike. A lockout is when the management refuses to allow the union to work until it makes concessions.
The NFL and NBA players didn’t refuse to play last year, the ownership refused to allow them to play. That is a huge difference.
The ownership of two tremendously profitable enterprises decided they wanted a better split of the revenues and that the contracts they themselves had negotiated and signed were worth too much, so they refused to play the games or do business until the players gave back money they were entitled to under the previous agreements. In the NFL’s case the owners also tried to force the players to play an additional 2 games a year with no increase in compensation.
Chris,
Couldn’t agree with you more. Recall Elections are a horrible idea. The people spoke in 2010, and unless there is a case of maleficence, elected officials should be allowed to serve their term. Furthermore, if a law was broken (and it wasn’t in this case) state constitutions provide for impeachment proceedings.