Union Teachers ditch to attend anti-RTW rally

**MikeM** · December-10-12, 07:50 PM

Originally Posted by p69rrh51

Yes I think all good workers will have not problems! Just the lazy coddled ones will actually have to get their act together.

Typical Grosse Pointe ....., living in their isolated world, coddled by mom & dad, probably with a free education and a job waiting for them thanks to dad's friends. No wonder everyone hates rich people.

**Detroitnerd** · December-10-12, 07:56 PM

Originally Posted by p69rrh51

Really you do care, I am a diabetic do you want to pay my insurance? I doubt it. How about my insulin I would love to have you to pay the $1,200-$1,500 a month it costs and I can guarantee NOBODY on here wants to! Unions take and governments take more without any benefit except to the lazy. You want to stop job growth what is more reckless than that!

Um, yes, I think with a system of national health insurance, I'd be happy to fund the system that ensures nobody has to go without treatments that extend and improve their quality of life. What's reckless and irresponsible about that? Seems to work in, oh, every other civilized country.

**Maof** · December-10-12, 08:07 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

I personally don't understand people who'd rather have three teeth in their head than a union dental card in their pocket, but it takes all kinds.

......lololol

**leapfrog** · December-10-12, 08:08 PM

Originally Posted by Ltdave

ive now seen that not only Warren but Taylor schools will be closed tomorrow while the union teachers run off to protest in Lansing...

so much for 'teaching because we love the kids'. what are the kids going to do now? ill bet there are PLENTY that end up running the streets...

hmmm....

I have no problem with them going to protest, your obvious anti-union sentiment aside.

**Goose** · December-10-12, 08:09 PM

because "those screaming protesters outside my office has given me not only a change of heart, but a change of political philosophy"

said no politician ever.....

**southen** · December-10-12, 08:27 PM

Originally Posted by p69rrh51

Really you do care, I am a diabetic do you want to pay my insurance? I doubt it. How about my insulin I would love to have you to pay the $1,200-$1,500 a month it costs and I can guarantee NOBODY on here wants to! Unions take and governments take more without any benefit except to the lazy. You want to stop job growth what is more reckless than that!

not a good example to bring up when many pro union people are also in favor of single payer health care, myself included. I'd gladly pay more in taxes to make sure everyone was covered... sorry for caring.

**Scottathew** · December-10-12, 08:28 PM

Unions are bankrupting our industries, our cities, and are a contributing factor in outsourcing.

It doesn't surprise me that teachers would abuse their sick time. They only get 184 days off a year.

JVB · December-10-12, 08:31 PM

Hey the UAW just got the jobs back for those Chrysler workers that were caught drinking and getting high during lunch [[on camera). YAY UNIONS!!!!

Shollin · December-10-12, 08:31 PM

Originally Posted by 48091

Unions are bankrupting our industries, our cities, and are a contributing factor in outsourcing.

It doesn't surprise me that teachers would abuse their sick time. They only get 184 days off a year.

If they're bankrupting our cities and states, why are the 7 of the 10 poorest states right to work?

Shollin · December-10-12, 08:32 PM

Originally Posted by JVB

Hey the UAW just got the jobs back for those Chrysler workers that were caught drinking and getting high during lunch [[on camera). YAY UNIONS!!!!

Again it was a 3rd party arbitrator.

**EastsideAl** · December-10-12, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by JVB

The 7 states with the lowest unemployment rate are all Right To Work states.

Gotta love statistics.

I've never understood what good a low unemployment rate is if workers are getting paid below subsistence wages.

JVB · December-10-12, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by Shollin

Again it was a 3rd party arbitrator.

As specified by the UAW contract. No union = no arbitrator to give those dumb shits their jobs back. That's a union victory right there, embrace it.

Originally Posted by EastsideAl

I've never understood what good a low unemployment rate is if workers are getting paid below subsistence wages.

What good are slightly higher wages if nobody is working?

**southen** · December-10-12, 08:36 PM

Originally Posted by Shollin

Again it was a 3rd party arbitrator.

just stop, it's not worth it. facts and logic have no place here.

Shollin · December-10-12, 08:37 PM

Originally Posted by JVB

As specified by the UAW contract. No union = no arbitrator to give those dumb shits their jobs back. That's a union victory right there, embrace it.

So why did Chrysler agree to this contract? People bitch about the unions but it takes two to form an agreement. I do embrace that there are procedures in place that would prevent people from being fired for any bullshit reason.

JVB · December-10-12, 08:38 PM

Originally Posted by southen

just stop, it's not worth it. facts and logic have no place here.

If they weren't union workers, there would have been no arbitration. They would have just been fired.

Originally Posted by Shollin

So why did Chrysler agree to this contract? People bitch about the unions but it takes two to form an agreement. I do embrace that there are procedures in place that would prevent people from being fired for any bullshit reason.

Are you serious? I see you have never been a part of any collective bargaining negotiations.

**EastsideAl** · December-10-12, 08:45 PM

This is all ahistorical nonsense. Strong labor unions were an enormous part of what built wealth and a middle class in Michigan and many other northern states.

If there were no labor unions neither I nor my father nor many of my other relatives would have a college education today. We would be uneducated low-wage manual laborers just like my ancestors were before my grandfathers fought like hell [[and I mean FOUGHT - my father's father was put into the hospital with a fractured skull for weeks by a nightstick blow from a hired goon) to gain recognition for unions and workers' right to organize and collectively bargain.

And that same basic history is repeated across thousands and thousands of families in Michigan and elsewhere in the midwest. But now our wonderful state GOP, backed by huge money from wealthy contributors and the sort of zealous Limbaugh-ite know-nothings I see here, wants very badly to deny this future to coming generations so that they and their friends can pocket a lot more dough off the labor of others.

Again, I have no idea why any reasonable person would want to turn Michigan, or any other civilized state, into a backwater shithole like Alabama, Mississippi, and other states that exist under this Orwellian notion of so-called "right to work" [[i.e. right to be endlessly exploited) laws.

**hybridy** · December-10-12, 08:48 PM

Originally Posted by the rock

Regardless of your feelings on the issue, I hope the protests not only are peaceful, but that the protestors do not trash our State Capitol to the tune of seven million dollars as was done in Madison, Wisconsin last Spring to their
building.

Completely inaccurate. Wasn't even half a million...

http://m.host.madison.com/wsj/news/l...cc4c03286.html

**Scottathew** · December-10-12, 08:51 PM

Originally Posted by Shollin

So why did Chrysler agree to this contract? People bitch about the unions but it takes two to form an agreement. I do embrace that there are procedures in place that would prevent people from being fired for any bullshit reason.

You do understand how labor strikes work, si?

Unions artificially increase the price and terms of their labor by threatening to walk out on the company if they don't agree to the terms.

Artificially high labor costs in the United States combined with very poor people around the world that are willing to do the job for a fraction of the cost will lead to the amazing amount of outsourcing you see here.

If you need a bolt turned on a line for 8 hours a day it's going to cost you $30 an hour + a pension for a job that doesn't even need a high school diploma.

Unions WERE good for this country. That is not true any longer.

**oladub** · December-10-12, 08:52 PM

Originally Posted by detroitsgwenivere

Well, teachers aren't babysitters. I'm sure parents will figure something out. Where do kids end up when there's no class on snowdays?

Parents will figure out that the teachers' lesson plans must have included teaching the children how to perpetrated fraud like they did in Wisconsin. I don't think that teachers were ever prosecuted in Wisconsin but doctors who wrote them phony sickness excuses were fined.
http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/...116544948.html

The largest demonstrations in Madison were on weekends when teachers and other employees who didn't commit fraud had a chance to drive from Milwaukee and Chicago to complain about Gov. Walker's similar changes. Before this is over, expect protest t-shirt sales to be up, a rousing speech by Rev. Jackson at the State Capitol, a speech by Michael Moore, placards equating the Governor with Hitler, paid union members from Chicago in attendance, and a parade of sympathetic union police and firemen. Everyone loves firemen.

What the Michigan State Capitol will look like on a warm weekend in January. [[Madison shown here)

Shollin · December-10-12, 08:52 PM

Originally Posted by 48091

You do understand how labor strikes work, si?

Unions artificially increase the price and terms of their labor by threatening to walk out on the company if they don't agree to the terms.

Artificially high labor costs in the United States combined with very poor people around the world that are willing to do the job for a fraction of the cost will lead to the amazing amount of outsourcing you see here.

If you need a bolt turned on a line for 8 hours a day it's going to cost you $30 an hour + a pension for a job that doesn't even need a high school diploma.

Unions WERE good for this country. That is not true any longer.

Then hire scab workers who will supposedly work for these low wages and tell the unions to adjust their demands.

Shollin · December-10-12, 08:54 PM

By the way, unions aren't just in factories. Places from grocery stores to banks have unions.

JVB · December-10-12, 08:55 PM

Originally Posted by EastsideAl

This is all ahistorical nonsense. Strong labor unions were an enormous part of what built wealth and a middle class in Michigan and many other northern states.

If there were no labor unions neither I nor my father nor many of my other relatives would have a college education today. We would be uneducated low-wage manual laborers just like my ancestors were before my grandfathers fought like hell [[and I mean FOUGHT - my father's father was put into the hospital with a fractured skull for weeks by a nightstick blow from a hired goon) to gain recognition for unions and workers' right to organize and collectively bargain. And that same basic history is repeated across thousands and thousands of families in Michigan and elsewhere in the midwest.

All of that is very true and this country owes an enormous debt to those people. But most of the things they fought for have been codified into labor law, so don't you think that today's workers should have the option to decide if they want to remain part of a union? If the unions still have something to offer then they will never be short of members. Right To Work doesn't eliminate unions, it just forces them to compete for members, and competition is good.

**Motor City Sam** · December-10-12, 08:58 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

I personally don't understand people who'd rather have three teeth in their head than a union dental card in their pocket, but it takes all kinds.

I'm going to use that in the future if you don't mind, but I will give you full credit.

**EastsideAl** · December-10-12, 08:58 PM

Originally Posted by 48091

Unions WERE good for this country. That is not true any longer.

Yes, we should all live now like powerless 30 cent an hour 3rd world workers.

Well, except for the one who are making the hugely increased profits off of our much lower wages.

That would be so much better for our country!

**Detroitnerd** · December-10-12, 08:58 PM

Seems I remember some workers who were so irresponsible that they pretty much crashed the national economy, resulting in trillions in equity going up in smoke, mass unemployment, millions of families losing their homes and leaving hundreds of American cities on the verge of bankruptcy.

Those workers didn't get prosecuted. Those workers didn't get fired. Those workers were given bonuses and their companies were given trillions of dollars to cover the problems they made.

Oh, but right: I'm going to get all upset about some working stiffs drinking alcohol.