Tag Archives: Unionista

Right To Work: Indiana

We’re in a place where we need to create jobs.  We need to be able to take folks who are on the unemployment rolls and move them to the tax roles.  And to do that, we have got to make hiring someone a better option than not hiring someone.

Employees provide productivity.  They do this in the same way that machines and assembly lines do.  In the exact same manner and means that a company owner will seek out the cheapest source of copper or lumber or wool, she will seek out the cheapest source of labor.

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Minnesota Metro Transit Bus Drivers: Pay And Overtime

A recent analysis of bus drivers for the Minnesota Metro Transit system provided some interesting data:

  • Base pay for drivers is nearly $50,000 a year.
  • The top earner in the system made $120,000 a year.
    • He did this by working, on average, 74 hours a week.
  • Overtime in the system has jumped by 52 percent from 2008 to 2010.
  • A driver on overtime – paid at time and a half – saves Metro Transit $4 an hour on average.
    • This due to the fact that the agency would have to pay for training, additional benefits and pension.
  • A union agreement says that no more than 24 percent of Metro Transit’s workforce can be part time – prompting the agency to turn to overtime.
  • In October, 89 percent of weekday overtime assignments were during rush hour and lasted less than three hours.

The incentives are undeniable.  For a system that demands flexibility; traffic doesn’t occur in neat 8 hour blocks, the rules prohibit the proper response.  Further, regulations surrounding benefits, those benefits that include vacation, retirement and health care, make it more cost effective to work an already employed person than to hire someone else.  And lastly, being a Metro Transit driver isn’t all that bad; 50 large is a good deal of money.

Finally I’d like to point out that for at least one of these drivers, the overtime is a feature and not a bug.  And it’s a feature because of decisions HE’S made in HIS life:

Lance Wallace is happy to drive a few extra hours if it means his wife can stay home with their four children – all younger than 5.

The New Hope man is among the top 5 percent of overtime earners at Metro Transit. Picking up extra shifts and working nearly every day, he averages 60 to 70 hours a week. The $37,700 in overtime he earned last year pushed his total earnings to $86,400.

“I don’t really want to work overtime,” Wallace said. “But I do it to make up the income.”

The extra work doesn’t make him “overly tired,” Wallace said. In fact, after working two jobs before, he “feels good” to now work where he can dictate his own hours.

Mr. Wallace is a father.  A father of FOUR.  A father of FOUR in a family that has the mother stay home.  And of those FOUR kids, all are younger than 5.  And this father of four young children is happy that he’s able to work the hours he does in order to prevent having to carry two jobs.

My point?  Incentives matter.  Raising the cost of hiring means that you will see less hiring.  Wage earners will enjoy working more hours if it benefits them, not the other way around.  Government union work pays well.  People who have 4 kids in 4 years time have a more limited ability to dictate their time.

Ohio: Unions and Elections

Liberals love to scream that corporations influence elections in an unfair manner.  They have tons of money and are able to exert influence that ordinary people can’t.

Strangely they are silent when that exact same influence is wielded by unions:

The nation’s biggest labor unions spent nearly $30 million to repeal the law. That was more than twice the amount spent by Republican-affiliated groups backing the law.

30 million dollars.  30.  Million.  Dollars.

Listen.  The Left complains that abuses take place all the time by “actors” of the right.  Rules are broken and advantages are exploited.  But make no mistake.  The REAL complain isn’t that those rules are really important or that advantages shouldn’t exist.  The REAL complain from the Left is that they aren’t the ones benefiting from ’em.

Once again we have Unions using illegally obtained money to elect officials and pass laws that benefit the Union.

Occupy Ohio people, Occupy Ohio.

Teacher’s Unions: It’s About Power – How They Hate Kids

I love teachers.  My dad taught, many of my friends teach, some in my family currently teach.  Hell, I was a teacher.

I love great teachers.  We should fire the horrible ones, not the bad ones, just the horrible ones, but that’s a post for another day.

My beef is the Union.  That organization that represents teachers and bargains and negotiates for them.  If you ever had any doubt, any doubt what so ever, that Unions not only don’t care about kids, but hate children, here it is.  In all its glory, how Unions are power hungry monsters:

To the relief of college-bound seniors, Lakeville high school teachers will once again write letters of recommendation under a deal reached this week between their local union and the school district.

The agreement ends a standoff that began two weeks ago during contract negotiations between the union and district. Hoping to spur a settlement, some teachers began refusing to write recommendation letters, among other measures requested by their union.

The Union requested teachers stop writing letters of recommendation for seniors trying to get into college.

Power.  Pure and unapologetic power.  Unions do not exist for the benefit of the children.  They exploit children.  And teachers.  And you.

Measure teachers.  Fire shitty ones.  Reward great ones.  And abolish teachers unions.

Teacher’s Unions: We Hate Kids

Let’s face it, teachers might be in this gig for the kids, in fact, I’d say many are.  But not all, and certainly not their unions.

I have found that there are three very strong methods to identify what is important to a person or to a group of people:

  1. Listen to what they say
  2. Watch what they do
  3. Look where they spend their money

Teacher’s Unions?  There is little doubt that they do not care for kids.  They care only for themselves.

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Tea Party Is Me

So, I’m sittin’ here looking at old articles regarding the Tea Party and how racist they are.  Right?

After all, we’ve seen the pictures that show how the Tea Party protests lack a certain…a certain, shall we say, touch of color.

And who can argue?

But what is your reaction when I tell you that those protests weren’t Tea Party protests?  Rather, they were Union protestors opposing Scott Walker.

Racists!

If The Point Of Teachers Unions Was Ever In Doubt

“Despite what some among us would like to believe it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power.

And we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year because they believe we are the unions that can most effectively represent them.

But they need not and MUST not, be achieved at the expense of due process, employee rights and collective bargaining.  That simply is too high a price to pay.”

Yeah….sleep well gentle Unionista.  Knowing full well that your organization is about power. And not educating.

You Know You Are a Unionista If…..

Neil Boortz released a Top 1o List that is pure magic:

My favorite, of course, is #1:

You pay more in union dues than you do for your healthcare insurance.

Dood!

18 – 1

And so it appears that Wisconsin Democrats find themselves in Atari.  This should not be surprising.  Either to they themselves, state democrats as a group or the nation as a whole.

By fleeing the state and preventing a quorum, the Wisconsin 14 knew, they had to KNOW, that they were setting themselves up for failure.  True, they WERE able to block the vote.  But only because it contained fiscal portions.  It isn’t rocket surgery to know all you have to do it strip out that aspect of the bill and pass it without the required 20.

There will be yelling and much nashing of teeth.  But make no mistake about it, the Wisconsin 14 brought this on themselves.

More Proof Unions Suck Money

If there is a better way to sum up the impact and effect of Unions on their host?  If so, I don’t see it.

But this just about is as close as it gets:

The Wisconsin Department of Administration estimates it could cost the state $8 million to restore the Capitol to its pre-protest condition, Wisconsin media are reporting. The estimate includes $500,000 to remove adhesive from taped posters, $1 million to repair the structure’s exterior and $6.5 million for rebuffing the interior marble.

The Unionista, while not working to protest the state has managed to cost that state $8 million American.  Just for being there.  Forget the cost they have incurred by missing work.

* Spit *