The Real Way to Express Solidarity with Union Workers in Wisconsin – Let Them Choose

After seeing the tactics of the left-wing and their Siamese twin union leaders in Wisconsin on full display over the prospect of still getting a better retirement deal than we taxpayers do, I call for a National Strike Day for every single non-public sector union member. They seem to think we can’t live without them, and they refuse to work without getting more of our money, so let’s deny them our labor for a day or two and see who can’t really live without whom. (NOTE: Every negative reference here to public sector unions does not include police, firefighters and emergency personnel who do some of the most important jobs around, jobs most of us couldn’t do.)

Just think of it, every shop, restaurant, office, factory, gas station, EVERYTHING closed for a day or more. If the government won’t listen to us, won’t instill a minimum amount of fiscal sanity, let’s shut it down.

Government acts as though they own us and the fruits of our labor, more than that, they’ve spending the wealth of generations yet to be born in a never ending quest to…well, who knows? It’s almost as though they’re trying to plug a black hole with money. Well, a black hole can’t be plugged, it will just consume mass for eternity, much like the government, which, urged on by public sector parasites, is incapable of getting enough of our money, so let’s deny it to them.

This is, of course, impossible to make happen. Not only is it impractical, but those of us without the protection of tenure face real world consequences for our actions and would be fired for refusing to work, even for a day, without a valid excuse. We can’t all have doctors standing by to write us “get out of violating your contract free” notes. Non-liberals simply don’t act that way.

But think of the concept.

When public sector unions strike, or have “sick-outs,” our lives go on as normal. If everyone else, or even just a significant portion of us, do the same the country would come to a halt. We pay their salaries, they don’t pay ours. They are the symbiant, we are the host.

The teachers union has already announced that it is willing to accept the financial concessions proposed by Governor Scott Walker, so what exactly is it the teachers union in Wisconsin trying so desperately to avoid becoming law?

What they essentially fear is taking union membership from compulsory to voluntary by ending obligatory union dues. And therein lies the real goal of unions – the money. They’re perfectly willing to accept less money for their members, but not for them.

This fact begs the following question: if union membership is so valuable to its members, why do they fear losing members? How many members would resign from the union if they had the freedom to do so while being allowed to continuing to teach? The answer to that question is something union leadership does not want to risk learning.

The fact of the matter is unions, back when they started, did a great service to this country. They normalized hours and helped create safer work environments for union and non-union workers alike. They also helped rid the country of Dickensian child labor practices. But that was a long time ago. In the years since, unions have gone from protecting the rights of workers to a political organization whose leadership has no interest in the views of their membership, they simply slog forward supporting candidates and causes opposed by many, sometimes most, of their dues paying members. Union membership entitles a worker to certain guarantees from their employer, but it blocks their ability to have a say in how their dues are spent.

If we, as non-union workers, don’t like how a company operates, we can express ourselves by avoiding that business and hurting their bottom line. If a dues paying union member doesn’t like how their union is spending their money they are better served by keeping quiet. They can’t get out, their opinion doesn’t matter to leadership and leadership has subtle ways to pressure, shall we say, dissent.

Governor Walker, in addition to closing the state’s massive budget gap, is simply trying to allow people to opt-out of union membership, and that is a bridge too far for union leadership. They would rather face losing 1500 plus members to layoffs promised if this bill fails than the untold number of teachers who would flee the union if they had the freedom to do so. That’s very telling.

So while we non-union workers can’t strike, we can stand in solidarity with the majority of teachers in Wisconsin who didn’t show up to protest and support their right to freedom of associating by allowing them to join a union or not. (And realistically, what’s the difference between slavery or indentured servitude and compulsory membership in any group that takes part of your labor against your will?) We need to get our fiscal house in order, and one of the biggest causes of that disorder is the extremely generous, to say the least, benefits and pension packages public sector unions get. And we don’t even need a forged doctors note to do it.

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