How much is a billion dollars, and why does anyone need multiple billions?

[raydog]

One thing that must be considered, my background in the USMC, Coast Guard and as an LEO Sergeant has revealed that what is seen up front as incompetence can, in so many cases, be trained away. Technique, best practices, interpersonal relations, on and on, can improve with good training/education.
Of course there are behaviors that shouldn't get a second chance, without question. I have seen situations, however, where everyone gave up on someone except one mentor....and with a little time, that mentor made the low performing person an exemplary employee!
That's why I say it's such a complex and difficult subject.

 

[AK Addict]

Man I sorta hate the idea of wading into this but as usual the "truth" is somewhere in the middle. Kudos on the civil way this has gone! First for disclosure, I'm a Union Stewart at my employer and a Trustee on my local Unions Executive Board. One thing we need to remember is that laws regarding public employment differ from state to state, here in NY the public employees have binding arbitration which can force the government (local and state) to accept terms of a contract they don't want. Also a public sector contract never expires, it stays in place till a new one in "negotiated" therefore a union will never accept a decrease even if it's warranted they just stall and stall, why lose anything? The laws do favor public employees over public employers, at least here in NY.

You tell me why a person should be forced into paying money for union dues against their will... It seems really what the governor wants is not for unions to go away but for each individual to make their own decision on if they are a part of the union or not... Surely if the union does great things then there should be no problem with people offering their hard earned dollars to the union freely... Right? It is my understanding that is really the only issue left on the table and that is to stop FORCING people to be a part of a collective group

No they should not be forced to join a union but yes they should be forced to pay dues or an amount equivalent to it (called agency shop dues here in NY), because by law unions are forced to represent all employees of the employer even if they are not members and do not pay dues. In some states, mostly in the south, unions cannot force employees to pay any kind of dues but are required to represent them and can be sued if they don't! Not a very level playing field there. Unions are a force for good and without them we would look like many third world nations, there are extremely rich people in Mexico but the masses are poor and this example can be shown all over the world. Without unions we would still have sweat shops with children working for pennies instead of going to school, unions were instrumental in providing safe working conditions for employees, 40 hour work week, overtime pay and the list could go on and on. Remember if we don't remember our history we will be doomed to repeat it. I for one don't want to go back to the way things use to be before unions and remember all employees have benefited from unions even those who have never been a member. But like they say you can have to much of a good thing and in some cases, especially the public sector, the unions have amassed to much power and the pendulum needs to swing back a little, just not as far as the WI gov wants. Public employees need to remember they are public servants and are not entitled to more then the private sector receives. How much do teachers at a private school make? If it's the same as here in NY it's less than 70% of what public school teachers make. The same thing for mechanics, drivers etc. Public employees make substantially more then the people in the private sector that are paying their wages! The public sector does not create any wealth it just consumes it and at the rate we are going there won't be any private sector wealth left for the ever growing public sector to consume.