Wow. So Michigan, once the very epitome of a union-controlled state, has kicked ass with a new law:
This week the Michigan House of Representatives took up a measure to put an end to a rule called the “prevailing wage,” a requirement that forces all construction projects initiated by state government to pay workers the same wage union members make even if the workers hired for said projects are not members of a union, MLive.com reported.
The measure passed, but how it became law is extremely impressive:
The petition submitted to the House could have been allowed to become a ballot measure, and likely that is what Protect Michigan Taxpayers expected to become of their petition. However, the state legislature always has the option to submit a petition straight to the state house and that is what the Michigan Senate did when they heard the petition and then voted 23-14 to enact its provisions. That prompted the Michigan House to take up the idea and they passed it as well, 56-53.
Indeed, since the petition met the required number of signatures to be considered and since both houses of the legislature voted to approve it, this repeal doesn’t even have to go to the Governor’s desk for a signature. It will now simply be put into service.
Hence, Michigan’s prevailing wage rule is a dead letter.
Hubba hubba. Now go and read the rest of the article, which argues quite persuasively against the concept of federal employee unions.
Before I say what I wish to say, bear in mind that I’ve worked my entire career in NYC and have lived my entire life in either NYC or NJ.
When the world comes to its collective senses and elects me Benign Dictator, one of my first moves will be to abolish ALL public employee unions. Yes, cops and firemen too. All they accomplish is providing voting blocks for elected officials, who promise sweet contracts in return, and the taxpayers have to fund. In NYC, every year the highest paid NYC employee is either a subway worker or a bus driver, usually to the tune of 250K a year. Why? Because his pension is based on the last three years of income, including overtime, so they rack up the OT during those last three years and put the taxpayers on the hook for a huge pension. How do they work all that overtime? My sister once dated a NYC bus driver who was near retirement. He’d go in at (say) 8:00 am, make one run (let’s say it takes an hour). Go home, watch TV, mow the lawn, etc. Go back at 7:00 pm, make one more hour-long run. Get paid for 12 hours. Four of which was time-and-a-half (so 14 hours of pay). Unless it was a weekend or holiday, then the whole thing was double-time, so work TWO hours and get paid for TWENTY-FOUR.
Public unions lack both the adversarial relationship to management (the elected officials will give the unions anything they ask for in return for voting them into office, instead of unions demanding everything and management trying to give nothing, so they meet somewhere in the middle) and the natural brake a company has (private union gets too much, company fails to make money, goes out of business and no-one has a job, as opposed to public unions which just steal more money from the citizens to pay for the unions).
A worker needs a union like a fish needs a bicycle. Public employees doubly so.
Gotta disagree. I vote Republican, voted for Trump, but I am in a union affiliated with the Teamsters. Prior to our voting in the union, the company (under previous ownership), cut our pay by 10%, told us seniority no longer was the determining factor on who could move to a day shift opening, changed our hours from 8 hours a day to 12 hours, alternating between 3 or 4 days a week. Now, if you spent 9 or 10 years, or sometimes more, on the graveyard shift, and according to the policy going back 20+ years, the next opening on dayshift was yours, only to be told that wasn’t going to happen, and some guy with 8 years less in time was going to get that spot, how would you feel? Most of the facilities that our current owners operate are 12 hour shifts, rotating between days, nights, and front end of week, back end of week. Ever worked 4 or more nights in a row, 7 pm to 7 am? Then, 2 days off, then 4 or more, 7 am to 7pm? Not fun. If not for our union, that would also be us. They also would have given us another pay cut when they bought us, because our pay scale is a bit higher than most of their facilities. Do you watch NFL, MLB, NBA? All unions. Those folks make more bank in a month than I’ll probably make in 20 years? Do they need a union? Obviously they think so. Are unions perfect? Hell, no. But, I’m glad we finally got one, even though it was a bit too late to prevent the ownership from taking some things earlier.
I have strong arguments against everything you said, but I’ll cut you slack since you aren’t reflexively voting Democrat.
I will say that 2 of the 3 times I have had my life threatened, it was by unions. First time, I was 4 years old, and it was teamsters.
Have at it. As long a it’s a logical debate. I’m not a snowflake.
Time for the Congress to repeal “Davis-Bacon” if for no other reason its Racist grounding. If you are in doubt that it was passed in result of an Anti-Black animus, see “The Forgotten Man” for details.
If Michigan is anything like West Virginia, the unions will tie it up in court immediately.
RTW passed here in 2016 and the Democrat judge is just sitting on the case, probably hoping that control of the statehouse will flip and make it a moot point.
The wife manages union guys. The only reason most of them are alive is because it is against the law for her to kill them. Unions are a pox on humanity.