public employee unions | The Truth Matters

SEIU: Myopic Greed

Ron Hunnicutt

The Service Employee International Union (SEIU) is out of touch with reality.

Reality: the current California state budget deficit is estimated at 13 billion dollars.

Folly: SEIU workers in Fresno, California, went on strike for three days on January 23^rd.

Reality: according to Phil Larson, a Fresno County Supervisor, the SEIU strikers have had a 31% compensation increase over the past 5 years.

Folly: The Fresno County SEIU workers went on strike for three days over a 9% pay cut.

Reality: according to U.S. News and World Report, Fresno is the 2^nd worst city in America to find a job.

Folly: SEIU protestors in Fresno, during the strike, chanted, “WE ARE THE UNION, THE MIGHTY, MIGHTY UNION!”

Reality: the unemployment rate in the Fresno County was 16.2 percent in December 2011.

Folly: SEIU labor representative Kevin Smith, referring to the three day strike said, “It’s a way to show that we’ve been disrespected.”

This article ran at American Thinker on Nov 2nd, 2012.

Prop 32 Restores We the People

One mediocre consequence of Obama’s bad economy is that employers are more inclined to oppress employees because the employer knows that there are ten people waiting in line for that particular job. The bad employer feels free to demand unreasonable productivity “goals.” The flip side of this dilemma is that many employees have no regard for the Protestant work ethic.

In times past, unions provided a check and a remedy against oppressing workers. Today, unions are sophisticated and effective shakedown organizations focused on extorting large amounts of cash from middle class workers with an endgame of obtaining power and influence. An objective analysis of California politics clearly reveals that union interests prevail. The Manhattan Institute reports that over the last thirty years, “75 percent of the measures that the unions opposed were defeated.” The unions have effectively dissolved Lincoln’s, “…government of the people, by the people, for the people…” in California.

In 1984 California was the 5th largest economy in the world but in 2012 California slipped to the 9th largest. Workers, about 225,000 per year, and employers alike are fleeing en masse to business friendly and tax friendly Texas, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon and North Dakota. Some will undoubtedly slam economic might as a worthy goal for California but the lament of that mindset is high unemployment (people’s livelihoods), huge deficits and bankrupt cities like Vallejo, Stockton, Mammoth Lakes and San Bernardino.

The San Francisco Chronicle reveals a common issue with these red ink communities, “…cities that are unable to persuade public employee unions to agree to deep cuts in salaries and benefits.”