| Have unions outlived their reason for existing?Labor unions once served a purpose for all workers, long ago -- now they selfishly serve their own purpose:
-1/30/09, http://www.healthyhearing.com/content/ne: Federal Employees Health Benefits Program hearing aid insurance coverage plans went into effect on January 1, 2009 for potentially 8 million federal employees, retirees and their families.
-10/21/10 Wall Street Journal: The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is now the biggest outside spender of the 2010 elections,
-January 2007 Manhattan Institute study (manhattan-institute.org): Public school teachers are paid 61?ore per hour than private school teachers, on average nationwide.
-3/31/10, postalemployeenetwork.com: “Postmaster Potter has made headway in reducing work hours and the costs of benefits and pensions, but the average postal employee still makes $83,000 in salary and benefits a year, placing postal workers among the highest-paid government employees.” (in Newsweek)
-8/13/10 USA Today: The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade. Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
-7/8/11 U. S. News Report (usnews.com): The actual number of private sector jobs decreased since 2008. Government jobs increased. During the worst of the downturn, the private sector was hammered with massive job losses, while the public sector held fairly steady.
-2/22/12 CNN, Buffalo, NY: The sweet deal that all the 3,400 teachers in Buffalo are eligible to get under one of their insurance plan options, they are billed nothing for any plastic surgery procedure, such as botox, liposuction, tummy tucks, [hair removal, b****t enhancement, rhinoplasty] and there is no deductible; Linda Tokarz teaches second grade and says she gets regular treatments. She says, "I think its great for us. I wouldn't want to see it taken away”
-6/8/12 Investors Business Daily: “Private-sector jobs are still down by 4.6 million, or 4?from January 2008, when overall employment peaked Meanwhile government jobs are down just 407,000, or 1.8?Federal employment actually is 225,000 jobs above its January 2008 level, an 11.4?ncrease.”
-6/11/12 Cato Institute ((http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/obama-vs-…Public school enrollment has minimally increased over the last few decades, but teacher employment has exploded — the public school workforce has grown 11 times faster than student enrollment over the last 40 years.” Furthermore, on a per pupil basis, the inflation-adjusted average cost of a K-12 education has gone from about $55,000 to about $150,000.”
-6/14/12 townhall.com: Every pay period, the Philadelphia school district puts $155 per union member into a special fund that helps educators pay their personal legal bills, which includes everything from routine legal advice to estate planning.
8/15/12 USA Today/Gannet:
-More than 21,000 retired federal workers receive lifetime government pensions of $100,000 or more per year
-Government pensions are vastly more generous than those in the private sector," says economist Veronique de Rugy of the market-oriented Mercatus Center
-The average federal pension pays $32,824 annually. The average state and local government pension pays $24,373, Census data show. The average military pension is $22,492. ExxonMobilExxon Corporation, which has one of the best remaining private pensions, pays an average of $18,250 per retiree
-All federal retirees receive health benefits.
-Pension payments cost $70 billion last year, plus $13 billion for retiree health care. Taxpayers face a $2 trillion unfunded liability — the amount needed to cover future benefits — for these programs, according to the government's audited financial statement.
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In an August 16th, 1937 letter, to Luther Steward, president of the National Federation of Public Employees, President Roosevelt wrote:
“All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management.”
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Today we thousands of laws which protect workers: OSHA, The Labor Department, the EEOC. Are unions more costly than they're worth?
Asked By: tirrnlson - 9/4/2012 |