Unions - Good or Bad?

Been There-Done That
Having been a member in the Teamsters for four years and member of the National Education Association 12 years, and serving two years as local union Vice President, I do have some experience with unions. I was a card-carrying member of the local teacher's union for over 12 years. This gave me a deep insight to unions and how they operate.

The Ugly Truth
Unions are not what they seem. In the beginning union movements were good. Unions were definitely on the side of the workers. But over time this has changed. Now they are about POWER. Unions now (especially public employee unions like teacher's unions), are corrupted and are unnecessary. They often do not represent the best interest of their members. Quite the opposite.

For example, our local had to defend a teacher who clearly should have been fired. But because of the union contract, it made firing him almost an impossible task because he had tenure. The bad part was that WE had to defend him!

He won his case and the school district had to continue employing him. However, they got creative and made him a "permanent Substitute Teacher" giving him no particular school assignment. Consequently, he was notified each day to go to a different school. This lasted about three months until he made a "deal" with the school Superintendent. If the school district would write him a great letter of recommendation, he would terminate his employment and go elsewhere. They did and he was gone to reek havoc in the unsuspecting new school district.

A True Monopoly
Public Employee unions are a real monopoly. Here's why: The union collects dues which are mandatory. They spend YOUR money any way they want. You have NO VOICE in how they spend your dues. Next, they tell union members how to vote, use scare tactics, and threaten members into getting them to comply with THEIR wishes.

Then comes the true insult; Union leadership gives millions of dollars (nationally) to political candidates and politicians who support unions. After being elected, these politicians pay-back the unions by negotiating sweetheart contracts for the public employee unions. It one big circle of self-gratification and corruption. One hand feeds the other. Voters and taxpayers have no say in the whole arrangement.

Wisconsin
This is the story being played-out in Wisconsin. Unions and politicians feeding one another on a grand scale. The voters got mad, and wanted government to clean up their act. Now that they are, the unions are agitating members with lies, threats, and God knows what else. Unions are organizing these protests everywhere they can agitate workers into fear of job loss. This isn't too hard in these times of recession.

We need to support these changes being proposed in Wisconsin. Unions have out-lived their purpose. Government employees should not be unionized - especially the TSA! There's too much corruption and clearly, local governments cannot afford to pay for these outrageous contracts.