Continuing from yesterday --
AFSCME http://www.afscme.org/ “AFSCME’s 1.6 million members provide the vital services that make America happen and advocate for prosperity and opportunity for all working families. We are nurses, corrections officers, child care providers, EMTs and sanitation workers. For us, public service is not just a job, it’s a calling.”
AFGE http://www.afge.org/ “The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union representing 600,000 federal and D.C. government workers nationwide and overseas. Workers in virtually all functions of government at every federal agency depend upon AFGE for legal representation, legislative advocacy, technical expertise and informational services. AFGE believes that all unions should belong to the house of labor and has been nationally affiliated with the AFL-CIO since AFGE was founded in 1932.”
AFT http://www.aft.org/ “The American Federation of Teachers, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, was founded in 1916 and today represents 1.5 million members in more than 3,000 local affiliates nationwide. Five divisions within the AFT represent the broad spectrum of the AFT’s membership: pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; and nurses and other healthcare professionals. In addition, the AFT represents approximately 80,000 early childhood educators and nearly 250,000 retiree members.”
SEIU http://www.seiu.org/ “SEIU is the fastest-growing union in North America. Focused on uniting workers in three sectors to improve their lives and the services they provide, SEIU is:
• The largest healthcare union, with more than 1.1 million members in the field, including nurses, LPNs, doctors, lab technicians, nursing home workers, and home care workers
• The largest property services union, with 225,000 members in the building cleaning and security industries, including janitors, security officers, superintendents, maintenance workers, window cleaners, and doormen and women
• The second largest public services union, with more than 1 million local and state government workers, public school employees, bus drivers, and child care providers”
Before we close this essay we would like to refer you to a Chicago Tribune editorial dated Friday, February 25, 2011. Here are two excerpts from this editorial. These excerpts deal specifically with the tie in of AFSCME (see above) and the Democrats in power in Illinois and their state union employees:
“These AFSCME raises compound to total pay hikes north of 17 percent during the same years when many Illinois taxpayers — that is, the lucky ones who still have jobs — are seeing their own wages and benefits frozen or starkly curtailed:
• Jan. 1, 2009: 2.5 percent.
• July 1, 2009: 2.5 percent.
• Jan. 1, 2010: 2 percent.
• July 1, 2010: 1 percent.
• Jan. 1, 2011: 1 percent.
• June 1, 2011: 2 percent.
• July 1, 2011: 2 percent.
• Jan. 1, 2012: 1.25 percent.
• Feb. 1, 2012: 2 percent.”
“He (Quinn) also had assured state government's biggest union — which promptly endorsed him — of no layoffs at least until mid-2012. Oh, and Quinn (recently reelected Illinois governor) had agreed that none of the state institutions where members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees work, no matter how obsolete, would close.”
The entire editorial is available at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-quinn-20110224,0,1484443.story
Does this combination of these unions and the Democratic Party provide you with cost efficient, measurable, quality services? Or does it simply cost you more for less?
These are not private sector unions organizing corporations or fast food outfits; auto companies or retailers where the consumer can just move on and pick a different store or car or hamburger joint if you don’t like the service or the product. These outfits organize government employees and then control government activities and services. Last time TheFundamentals checked most governments were monopolies and exercised darn near complete control over their citizens. Which of these unions do you want controlling your life? Your family? Your health care decisions? Your taxes? Your education?
Please support the efforts that are underway to limit the involvement of these unions in your life. It is simply not enough to vote for individuals like the new governors of New Jersey, Wisconsin and Ohio and then leave them to fight the entrenched power of these unions on their own.
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