Michelle Bernard Trashes Unions: A Lot of Unions are What Pulls America Back and Keeps Us From Being as Good as We Can Be
By Heather Thursday Aug 20, 2009 12:00pm
Where to even begin with this segment from MSNBC's Morning Meeting. I've really got to wonder if a single one of these people has ever done a hard day of physical labor in their entire lives to be able to carry on trashing unions the way they did.
First, Dylan Ratigan asks if unions are against health-care reform because everyone having health-care benefits would mean union members' benefits are no longer better than other non-union members' benefits, and of course the only thing unions care about is getting bigger. Ratigan doesn't seem to understand that those benefits are bargained for and part of an overall compensation package, and that if we weren't having to bargain for the health-care benefits, that would likely play out in being able to negotiate for higher take-home pay or some other benefit instead.
He also ignores the fact that this would be good for unionized companies if the burden of paying health-care expenses were taken off of their backs, which would make them more competitive, thus also benefiting the workers at those companies. Bernard follows with this:
Absolutely, the labor unions right now simply exist for one reason. To self perpetuate receiving union dues and having political influence. I think it's absolutely amazing to watch that clip from The Rachel Maddow Show last night. This guy is, he's saying to President Obama, I'm strong-arming you buddy. And my answer to this would be they are showing themselves to be as ridiculous as many members of the American public think they are. What happened to pragmatism? What happened to competition, and what actually happened to winning?
Maybe it would be great for the Democratic Party to lose the support of labor unions because quite honestly a lot of labor unions are what holds America back and keeps us from being as good as we can be.
I'd like to see these clowns try to have this conversation with someone like Leo Gerard at the table. He'd have eaten them for lunch. Heaven forbid someone who represents labor might have a seat at this table.
I hate to break it to them, but unions care about a whole lot more than just building up membership and accumulating political power. They have their problems like every other organization does, but to trash the only entity out there that is standing up for the interests of working Americans is just reprehensible.
They bargain for better pay and benefits, look out for the safety of workers on the job and they give the workers a chance to earn a living wage instead of a race to the bottom that there would be if corporations ran the whole show. They also drive up the wages of of non-union workers in industries similar to the unionized ones and for the non-union workers within the same company. Who's going to volunteer to be someone's non-union boss if your workers are making more money than you are?
The Michelle Bernards and Dylan Ratigans and Mike Allens of the world will never have to worry about working double shifts at two lousy jobs just to take care of their families because their first job doesn't pay enough to make the bills. They'll never have to worry about whether they might lose a hand at work because their company decided to skimp and not replace a guard on a piece of rotating equipment and they were afraid to complain about it because it might make their boss mad and find an excuse to fire them.
They won't have to worry about having a repetitive stress injury from doing the same task over and over all day, and because they have no union to ask that the jobs are rotated between workers, they can barely use their hands at a young age. They'll never have to be concerned that their backs are going out because they worked some job where they were stooped over day in and day out.
Instead, they sit on their pedestals and tell the public how awful the institutions that brought this country the end of child labor, the forty hour work week, overtime pay and a way for workers to be allowed to speak up for themselves in the work place without fear of losing their jobs are, and that all they care about is a "power grab".
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from a talking ditzhead. On teevee no less. Wow.
m bernard is a hypocrite,
she belongs to one of the oldest
unions in existence.....prostitution,
and she gets lots of money from the
corporations she is pimped by.
Where would she be as a Black woman w/out the rights she got as a result of Democrats and Union members fighting for her?
She is a thankless ho.
have a good side and a bad side as do corporation shareholders and business owners. bashing unions is one of the strategies to justify the increase in "cheap labor". corporations are very interested in destroying unions and demonizing them as the cause of many issues/problems.
We were self-insured and we had total coverage. The best insurance you could imagine. No one was denied anything. Anyone who would argue against unions is a corporate shill or an asshole. That last is a term of art, for those who are not familiar with it.
.
Corporate shill, asshole, same thing.
Republicans have been bashing unions since Reagan and they have done it the way they do everything else. Lies, followed by more lies, until they start to gain some traction.
Aren't the cameramen filming Michelle Unionized? Aren't there numerous Unions actually in the room when they say this crap?
imagine that many of these tools that make many appearances might even belong to AFTRA. The SAG/AFTRA benefits are excellent.
SAG used to have a terrific health insurance and pension plan for its members. This was cut back years ago - the so-called middle-class performers - the non-famous actors, extras and stunt performers who make up the vast majority of SAG and AFTRA members - now have to rely mostly on private insurance, or none at all, just like Joe Sixpack.
This is a big part of why health care reform is so important. Union membership has collapsed, and the remaining members have fewer pension and health benefits than ever.
In order for her to be considered a regular on MSNBC, she DOES have to be a member of AFTRA/SAG.
Gotta love it.
Sorry - double post.
Yes, indeedy! Don't be surprised if the lighting on her face in future broadcasts makes her look ghastly. I wish those unionized camera operators would give her a piece of her mind. As well as her children's unionized teachers. And, should she happen to slip on an unfortunately misplaced cable left out by a union electrician, she might get an earful from a unionized nurse.
The union guys are the professionals that make the sound and image go through the intertubes just like magic so that the talking heads can make asses of themselves........and who gets the greater compen$ation?
Damn, she said all that and didn't mention ACORN one single time. Beck's gonna have to have a talk with her. She missed a tea bag talking point.
UNAMERICAN.
The "Purple Shirts" are coming!
"A lot of political pundits with no experience in the real world are what pulls us back and keeps America from being as good as we can be."
She was just confused.
I'm on TeeVee!
Stick to law baby you don't HAVE IT.
I'm on teevee and I just get to say shit. I'm a star!
so wrong!
hot or integrity.
She would be hot, were it not for all the inner ugliness that is leaking and oozing like a flood out of her every pore.
Ignorance is a big holder backer too and she just proved it. She isn't as good as she could be if she were educated.
..real work, like in some factory where its 90 degrees all day with 100 decibels of noise and the possibility of losing a limb at every turn.
Let's see how awful unions are then! OSHA only goes so far and usually never investigates anything other than a workers' death. Its a good organization with a humane purpose but without unions, we'd all still be in sweat shops.
"The Jungle", Upton Sinclair.
during the GM debacle. there was plenty of finger pointing to blame UNIONs for the fall of GM. i find it interesting that union leaders sat at the table with GM corporate negotiators and shook hands and made a deal. then when GM gets in trouble it's portray in some arenas as ALL the unions fault. unions are a worker's strategy to have "collective" power. otherwise often a workforce will be fragmented. just what the corporations want weak slaves.
Unions would be unnecessary if every worker just got their own high powered agent to negotiate on their behalf. It works for these chair moisteners, why can't everyone do it.
..give the workers the same deal the CEOs get - the ability to give themselves $multi-million bonuses at the end of the year independent of performance.
http://www.njfac.org/ineqtop1.jpg
. . . Just like Ronald Reagan.
I've never heard of Michelle Bernard before, but as a working on-air reporter/broadcaster, she is almost certainly a member of NABET-CWA, the AFL-CIO-affiliated union that has represented her and her fellow broadcasters and technicians since the 1930s.
The hair and makeup people who make her scowling face presentable are also union members. So are the people in the control room who twiddled the knobs so this Knobette could be heard and seen by the nation. So are the people who edited her copy.
This hypocritical ignoramus has health care, dental, an 8 hour day and a pension as a result of hard-fought contracts her union negotiated over decades. If she is unlucky enough to be fired because she is no longer perky or young enough to suit the whims of her employer, or if she is harrassed or otherwise wronged at work, she will have access to a union grievance process to fight back.
Yes the fact that no pro union person was part of that conversation is all you need to know.Well,that and the fact that *cough* management somehow just doesn't figure into any of their equations.This is simply good old time union bashing.
Lets see how long it will take them to bitch about non-unions.
Hells yeah, what gives workers the right to peaceably assemble and petition their employers for a redress of grievances? Huh?? WHAT GIVES THEM THE RIGHT???
We already know what life would be like without labor unions. We had that for centuries in this country. You know, that would be the period that began with slavery and ended with the Triangle Shirt Factory Fire.
I'll bet, when those women in the Triangle Shirt Factory were crushed up against that locked exit door, and the flames were licking at their feet, they were saying to themselves, "Thank goodness there's no union boss here, taking money out of my pocket!"
would eat her dumb ass for lunch.
Studs would have had this condescending corporate ho with a superiority complex begging for mercy.
... that a union used to be able to get cost of living increases, paid vacations, and healthcare insurance... just like ALL THE SENATORS AND CONGRESSMEN GET!
Have no worry dopey broadcasters, the GOP has destroyed unions forever.
When people organize a corporation for the express purpose of enriching themselves, and they put lots of money directly into the pockets of a few already rich people, that means that corporations help the entire nation and move it forward, and corporations should be given ever more power.
When people organize a union for the purpose of helping one another, and some corruption sneaks in (as it does with any human endeavor), that means that unions hurt the country and move it backwards, and the whole concept of unions needs to be scrapped.
Makes sense to me!
who's responsible for those lights, should have let one go BOOM.
Slapping her in the head with a BOOM mike would have been appropriate also.
This reminds me of Scarborough when he was killing the union's completely forgetting he belongs to one.
The same one Dylan belongs to.
..if the union members on the set started fiddlin' with the lights and makin' noises except the union members are probably a little too professional to do something like that.
I am a CUPE member and glad for it. There are things I don't like about unions, but there are alot more good things when the union is strong. I guess she's never been abused in the work place, or threatened with her job held over her head.
All I can say is GET A GRIP WOMAN(normally I would refer to you as a lady, but you are obviously not one). And to my union brothers and sisters in america I know you're having a tough time but stay strong!
lobbies not only for benefits and safety issues for firefighters -
they also push for building fire safety requirements so that air-headed, uninformed bimboes like Michelle Bernard don't end up as crispy critters.
Blow in Ms Bernard's ear -
and she'll ask for a refill.
..that's hilarious!
Great way to end the day; makin' fun of Michelle Bernard.
if the guys at the firehouse have a photo of MB's mug up on the dartboard yet.
What an ignorant....
Ah gess sheeze so purty - she aint gotta no nuffin'.
purty dumm!
dye her hair blonde and be on Faux Snooze?
The Reslugs just want to control everything and everybody, but that will thankfully never happen.
Hopefully some Teamsters could pay her a visit and discuss the situation.
Isn't she a member of some republican club for women? We saw a lot of her on Matthews' show before the election, and she didn't appear to be a total idiot then. I guess she's had to amp it up a bit to stay relevant to her party.
recently. She said some pretty bizarre stuff then, too.
I think she the one that the first time she was on Matthews' show at the end of the segment he gave her his personal business card and made some complimentary comment about her appearance.
d'ya think she's that shallow? (/snark)
Do all right wing women named Michelle have that ugly snarl? Malkin had it mastered before Bernard did.
Don't forget about your special gift of crazy: Michele Bachmann!
it's the Unions that are holding this country back. If it weren't for Unions, we'd all be millionaires, working 4 hours a week and vacationing 48 weeks a year.
Hey bimbo, remember the 1950's and 60's? Those decades were just loaded with Unions, and as we've moved away from union membership, living standards have declined, despite the movement of more workers (women) into the marketplace.
I know, I know, the righties would rebut me by stating that it's taxes that have lowered the standard of living for working people. I mean, look how much higher the taxation was on rich people in the 50's; doesn't that prove that high taxes, er low taxes, uh, er, I guess I'm incapable of understanding the alternate-reality in which GOPers live.
I like the GOPer idea that we should let the market deflate until prices are so low that us poor folks will be rich again. They should make that the cornerstone of their push to win back the Whitehouse and Congress.
"Let the economy collapse, when bread costs 20 cents, we'll all be living like Kings"
-- Abraham Lincoln
Funny thing is, Lincoln seems to be in agreement with that supposed champion of the free market place, Adam Smith.
-– Adam Smith, ‘The Wealth of Nations’
And neither Lincoln nor Smith are very far from the conclusion that Karl Marx reached from the same starting point.
-- Karl Marx
the common thread to the discussion was really justice. Justice is it's own universal language. Justice is the far-leftwing, subversive element.
No wonder the rightwingers despise the ideas they talked about.
Ok, there's no denying the fact that Michelle Bernard is a hack, a twit, and probably a self-entitled princess who has never had to break a sweat on a job in her life. Her comments were such baseless rote right-wing talking points that even the Politico guy had to be like, "Ummmm, GM's management made some dumb decisions along the way too, you know..."
That being said, I want to make two observations in defense not of her, but of the segment and show in general:
1) To be fair, during the wrap-up of the show that day, Ratigan explained that they'd invited a union rep to join them, but hadn't been able to book one, and that they'd revisit the conversation again with a union rep. Should they have waited until both sides were represented before shooting the segment? Yes, probably; but this isn't Fox News, folks - they do acknowledge that there are two sides to every story.
2) I watch this show pretty regularly, and this particular spin from Ratigan surprised me. He's no liberal, but he's by no means a typical hack either. He strikes me as a generally pragmatic thinker, and in fact he usually does a good job cutting people off (left- or right-wing) as soon they start in on typical BS spin. Yes, he says some 'WTF?!?' things from time to time, but I'm pretty sure in his heart he's one of the good guys.
against Bernard, or on there period, I'll believe he was sincere. I have a very hard time believing they couldn't find someone to come on the show. This segment surprised me because I had not heard him talk this way before either, so I wasn't expecting it from him.
He spent the better part of his show today having it looking like a rerun of the O.J. slow motion car chase watching the car go to the airport to release the terminally ill convicted terrorist who was being released. Too bad he couldn't manage to allow a rebuttal to this some time between the two hours he spent showing that. I guess they just couldn't cut into the two hours straight of non-news "breaking news!".
..... coporate news show. All the news the corporations want you to get and nothing more.
Obviously bad management and soaring health care costs had nothing to do with auto-makers problems, it was those dam unions demanding fair wages.
In Japan, the average VP makes 10 times what the average auto-worker makes, but in the US, the average auto VP makes 300 times more than the average worker. Yes, it is obvious we have to get the workers to work cheaper or we can't compete.
Unions have been giving concessions for the last 25 years. Time for the rich to give a little.
They're actually asking for MORE this time around.
Winston Churchill once said "Americans always do the right thing in the end. Once they have exhausted all the other possibilities."
I hope he is right.
... the station GM wants to reduce headcount, but somehow thinks this will make us better able to compete in a changing market. Basically, they want reporters to shoot-write-edit-report their own stuff, without understanding that for your average 1:30 news story, you're talking over 12 man-hours in a day. So you're going to take a reporter and give him less than eight to do the same amount of work.
In the meantime, we're back to doing zooming maps (whoopeee, it's Google Earth!) and the no-tripod look to make it seem like we're out there, pushing the envelope. Management is trying 'from the newsroom' - as if shooting the anchor and a reporter talking at an actual desk instead of on a set makes it better/fresher.
Yes, the advent of the internet has changed the immediacy with which information can be disseminated, but we're still fighting a war over content. IMHO, any time we pimp our own website, we're slashing our own wrists: "Hey, don't watch us! Go get streaming video on our website!" It's like a five-star restaurant saying, "Hey, don't pay $30 for a steak dinner! Go to Sizzler!"
and this nutcase wants to blame the problem on those who've been loosing ground.
"Indeed, the economic policies that have been in place since the end of the cold war have not only ignored the great success story of the years since World War II, but actually represent a reversion to the policies that were in place in the 1920s, one of the most disastrous periods in world history."
-- William Wolman & Anne Colamosca, 'The Judas Economy'
No union: Child labor, no sick days, no vacation, no Worker's Comp., no wage increase, no health insurance(most of us), no retirement, no social security, and probably a couple of things I missed. Even right-wingers can't hit me back on these issues.
There's a slick MSNBC ad in which he extols the heroic role of journalist as intrepid watchdog speaking truth to power, keeping an eye on the powerful moneyed interests and looking out for us everyday taxpayers. You know, the old "afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted" saw. He comes across as a well-intentioned fellow.
But maybe he's just another member of the obsequious, insular, Kool AId-besotted, elitist, lapdog kneepad brigade ...
BID
In the 23 years I've been in television news, I've aggressively pursued new skillsets and opportunities.
For some pompous suit to tell me I'm to blame for holding other people back, or keeping Other People from excellence is insulting. You want to be as good as I am? Get your track shoes, kiddies.
I'm working the early AM shift (we start at 4AM) because I'm one of the reliable, work-ethic driven, multi-skilled employees in the shop. We get the job done, and a suit like Michelle Bernard can go to hell if she thinks I'm a slacker or standing in the way of anybody's excellence.
If it weren't for Ed, Kieth and Rachel. I would never even think of watching that channel.
GM has failed due to lack of breakthrough technology they directly have produced. Also, the vast amounts of brands and slightly different vehicles. Healthcare is part of it and is due to rampant costs inflating for no logical reason.
In 2003 CEO Bob Lutz said, "The Chevrolet Volt is more aerodynamically going in reverse." Pontiac Aztek was an atrocious disaster where I think someone needs to get drug tested for designing that car. Foreign nations have been on the leading edge of introducing new engine technologies which GM has to pay for liscensing to intertwine into their models.
Every foreign auto maker has National Health Care from their government saving billions of dollars yearly for them. A good majority of these makers produce the engines in their home nation to save a good majority of money and strict quality control.
This bitch has a lot of nerve! First of all, I'm not even sure she was born here. I've heard her say that her parents are from the Carribean. And judging from her bloated, pig face, she's pregnant. I'm sure she has great health insurance. She probably came here because the people back home make slave wages due to a LACK OF UNIONS! Get out of out country you ungrateful bitch! I'm speaking right now as an ANGRY BLACK WOMAN WHO WAS BORN HERE!
Won't the cities and school districts and large corps who employ most of our union brothers suddenly find some windfall cash if a number of employees decide to take the public option OOOORRR what about negotiating a contract with your current provider when they no longer have the "We are the only game in town" hammer against the employers head. Our school district only had one provider decide to bid on the current contract. Take it or leave it.
If you see anyone with "Independent Women's Forum" on their resume, it's all you need to know to not take them seriously. Other members include Linda Chavez, Kate O'Berine, Midge Decter, and Laura Ingraham.
I'm 100% behind unions. BUT, as a small business owner I will tell you that they would never have been necessary if business owners and corporations weren't so fucking greedy. My employees are happy and well paid. I never ask them to do something I would not do myself, and I make just about what they do.
Profit is shared equally among all of us.
Shit, I guess that makes me a Socialist.
It makes you a wise and just person. If that the definition of "socialism", then bring it on, please!
You took the words right out of my mouth.
I loved that part where she asks about whatever happened to winning, thats really what it all comes down to with these people, winning, being proved right, showing that you are better than the other guy no matter what, us vs them. They really dont have any other motivations (except maybe greed).
I've seen her frequently over the past couple of years.....and, of course, anyone who's a mouthpiece for a group called "Independent Women's Forum" means she's essentially a rightwing shill.
She's also not all that intellectually profound. OK at being glib, and at spouting talking points.
In short, she's just another voice that I don't give much credence to.....and I suspect since she's mainly on MSNBC (has she gotten Fox credentials yet?) that she's not swaying many people.
She's also in that general age group that only knows Reagan from the myths.
Unions with blue chip health coverage do not want a single payer system.
But she does seem to be deeply misinformed about everything else.
I was watching, when both Michelle and Dylan, I believe it was both, who made these on-air attacks on Unions, I wrote in right away and informed both, they need to back track those comments and statements, base simply on the facts, Businesses pay into, many organization and associations, with the express purpose of Political power and that power, we see in paid lobbyist, to exercised on Political power on there businesses behalf, just the same arm, only for Buisnesspersons, we in Unions call an arm. Plus workers get collective bargaining for wages.
They simply don’t like Unions as they lean Conservative, and intellectual in many respects, so they feel safe making these attacks, for attention and the twisted belief they will be scene as balanced and fair.
Michelle and Dylan’s agreement, after Michelle's Union bashing was low, as if the business community doesn’t have Unions, exercising political power on there behalf, please, just think about it!!!.
Hey, Ms. Bernard, you know what else used to pull back America and keep it from being as good as it could be?
Regulation of financial institutions, like the Glass-Steagal Act.
Wow, am I ever glad we got rid of that thing, so companies like AIG and Goldman Sachs could take our economy to the heights it has now reached!
but she's on CNN (Common Nitwit Noisemachine), so what should we expect. now that they lost Beck, CNN apparently wants to have the idiocy come in distributed form, one day blitzer, next Sanchez and now, this bimbette, who needs to look up the civil rights movement and the Brotherhood of Pullman Car Porters. She's a WAFI, no doubt!
(WAFI = WhatAFuckingIdiot)
in this country in the 50s and 60s when hard-working blue collars finally got decent pay so that a man could support his family, send his kids to college, go on a vacation and put a little away for his old age. If Michelle Bernard is a TV pundit, she has to belong to SAG, WHICH IS A UNION!!! Hypocrite!
even though it was the golden age of unions, and socialist programmes like the GI bill, the interstate system, etc?
Rethuglicans never let facts get in the way, they just assume everybody else is a stupid and sheeple-like as they are.
get a disproportionate amount of media exposure? Even though they represent, what? 0.0000001% of the population?
I see Ms. Bernard is an author as well. I'm sure she has an agent that negotiates her compensation for writing books and appearing on the television as well as other jobs she does. If she really thinks unions are so bad, why doesn't she fire her agent and just take whatever companies offer her? That's what she thinks most people ought to do.
do you suppose it ever even occurred to her that the reason she can get a job to go onto a television show and make the same salary as her male coworkers, and the fact that she can get all dolled up with a butt ton of makeup and hairspray and lowcut blouse like she's rockin without some sleazeball tryin' to pinch her ass .... do you suppose it even occurred to her that the reason she's so "empowered" .... is *BECAUSE* of unions???
naw, I doubt that thought even occurred to her.
this girl needs to watch a few episodes of Mad Men or something, get some perspective on just how much more awesomer and tolerable her job is, now, as opposed to then, *BECAUSE* of unions.
Unions will have less to deal with in Negotiations and a huge boost in, income for there membership. Dylan wanted something to sound like he knows what he talking about, his flaw, is in his believing the sounds of what come out of his mouth and after hearing himself, say; Boy, aren’t I wise, when , he just made fool of him self, especially to those in the know.
Maybe it would be great for the Democratic Party to lose the support of labor unions… on the contrary. If so many of the leading lights within the Democratic Party had not thrown in with the DLC crowd and instead had maintained or strengthened their ties with organized labor and ordinary working stiffs America would be far better off today.
with someone like Leo Gerard at the table. He'd have eaten them for lunch."
Heather, you or I would have these clowns for lunch. They aren't that good.
Unions brought us...
child labor laws
minimum wage
40 hour workweek
overtime pay for more than 40 hours/week
Americans with Disabilities Act
fair housing legislation
Freedom of Information Act
Voting Rights Act
food & drug safety regulations
student loan program
collective bargaining rights
clean air & water standards
civil rights movement
free speech movement
job discrimination protections
school lunch program
Head Start
rural electrification
public assistance
Medicare & Medicaid
Social Security
JUST TO NAME A FEW!
The Triangle Factory Fire
That the multi national corporations will do or say anything for the MONEY!
republicanism is a mental illness!
Pulls America back and helps keep it from being as good as it could be!
Just look at any Tee Vee news show? All you see and hear are lies obfiscation, misleading statements!
republicanism is a mental illness!
MSNBC users M.Bernard a lot. It's always bugged me. If you check out the Independent Women's Forum, it's a coven of right wing anti choice women. (They promote anti choice for regular women, that is: the leaders of the group, not so much. They're allowed to become CEOs etc. and get out of the kitchen and nursery. Regular women: nope.) The group was founded by Phyllis Schafley of the American Taliban (aka religious right). After the election Chris Matthews kept having Bernard on for her opinion. AS IF she even voted for President Obama. Stealth right wing trojan horse.
A few years back I saw a television whitepaper report on the U.S. Marshall Islands where women from the Philipines and China we brought in as contract labor with a promise of green cards and a future in America. They were kept in barracks and worked long hours either in sweat shops or in local sex bars. Abortions were forced whenever there was a pregnancy and they were shipped back to their countries at the end of their contracts with little money after paying off the company store for their living expenses. Oh, yeah, the owners were able to proudly sew tags on saying "Made in America".
I think that it was made around 1999.
One point that was very revealing was that the companies were under the protection of Abramov and Delay. And a company owner quoted one of them telling him that this was the future of American capitalism.
This is what they see as the Republican and Libertarian dream with the superior man rising to the top and gaining his just reward, while the working poor would live in abject poverty with no control of their own bodies and no protection from abuse and exploitation.
And Delay is going to show us how he can dance.
Many in media and politics have never done hard physical labor for a living. They go from college into the legal profession and unto politics without once breaking a sweat. They've managed to miss out on the hard knocks of life. But its never too late. For them.
re-education through labor.
It amazes me how these people can project their on self-promoting greedy attitudes on unions built of people who work for the common good of the community. Do these people understand that for decades unions have, through their employee-based healthcare benefits, been subsidizing the Emergency Rooms so that non-union unemployeed under-employed can have health care?
I would bet this damn hypocrite is in a union.
What's holding the country back are the hordes of lobbyists who own the souls of those we elect to public office. They put political figures in "2 minds". Serve their constituents or serve themselves through bribery. The sad shape of the country reflects their decisions.
Fuck these people.
"They might actually win some of those suburban women..." Keep it up, nostra-fucking-damus, I'm sure you knew what was going on in 2006 and 2008.
These people are idiots reading scripts.
It wasn't the labor unions that put GM out of business, and they aren't only looking for power. GM is in bankruptcy because health care costs rose at 4 times the rate of inflation. You fucking twats wouldn't understand, but that's why you have to address health care in order to address the economy.
And isn't your whole inane argument countered by the fact that unions do support a public option?
By the way, Wyden-Bennet is bullshit, and everybody except Sen.s Wyden and Bennet know that.
. . . it's comforting to have the occasional reason to note that one doesn't necessarily have be an old white man to have one's head up one's ass.
So tell her not to join a union if she doesn't like them.
Same thing with health care. Its my way or the high way with some of these folks.
I know republicans that have union jobs and like their jobs and the pay but vote republican union buster every election.
So every election time I try and take all the razor blades away from them so they won't continue going Komokozi on their own best interests.
Its a tough job but someone has to help them.
"....First, Dylan Ratigan asks if unions are against health-care reform because everyone having health-care benefits would mean union members' benefits are no longer better than other non-union members' benefits, and of course the only thing unions care about is getting bigger....".
It's an interesting argument this GE corporate shill is raising. Let's just examine it, shall we?
It's curious she should make such an accusation, when it has been unions who deserve the lion's share, even all, of the credit for such things as pensions, labor rights, company healthcare benefits and the like. It is even more curious, because it has been the corporations that have been the biggest obstructors of any meaningful healthcare delivery system in the US. Bernard accuses the unions of wanting to obstruct healthcare (untrue) in order to maintain a position of control over labor, when - in point of well-demonstrated fact - big business has always fought healthcare reform for exactly that reason, even though it goes against BB's own self-interest. By making sure that access to healthcare is determined by possession of health insurance, and by working to preserve a system in which BB becomes and remains pretty much the sole arbiters of who does and doesn't have insurance, they turn healthcare into a rationed commodity. They create a social order of haves and have-nots, a system wherein BB enjoys the position of being the all-powerful gatekeeper to the Promised Land. With a have-not population of 55 million-or-so who have no insurance, and with all those haves who do have insurance being under-insured (if only they realized it), BB gives itself an unbelievable, an astonishing amount of control over all employee's lives. The millions upon millions of uninsured stand as a cultural backdrop, a pervasive example to all, a draconian warning to the haves of what can happen to them if they lose their jobs and thus their health insurance: Step out of line and there is no safety net; "but for Our grace, there goes you". It is probably the single greatest factor that exists to control workers and compel them to continue working in jobs they hate for employers they despise. Absent that control, untold millions would be making employment choices on quality of life standards instead of mere desparation. Even if providing such benefits makes BB non-competitive in the global marketplace, they would rather die than give up the control their system affords them. They are addicted to the power and control that they now enjoy.
Michelle Bernard reveals herself as a propagandist, by accusing an innocent targeted scapegoat of the behavior and motives for which only the masters, on whose behalf the propagandists are employed, are guitly. She reveals herself to be an unprincipled manipulator.
...can all kiss my rear. I exist because of unions. I come from a family of FDR New Deal union Democrats.
I guess you are a bit spoiled "popworld7"?
I worked for an gov branch that was unionized, had no use for the branch or the union laziest bunch I have ever seen! Over paid and red tape up the ying yang, nothing gets done that way!!!!!!!!!!!!
I left the job one day at lunch, went to the tavern had a cold one and called the head of "public works" and we told each other off it was the greatest feeling and one of the best stories I have!!
I swore to the wife ( never again! ) I have a strong back and a mind of my own, I don't need the horse crap from a union we will survive!
Bottom line... over 20 yrs later and we did just fine...
If you need to be babied in your work place and expect high wages your nothing but a spoiled brat!
Unions are way over paid for services performed in many fields and those are facts... we owe you NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Get a real job and fight for your wage, if your any good at your job you will get what your worth or move on!!!
Pretty simple, common sense NO?
Have a great day and I can't wait for BILL he's looking like a very close to direct hit here, we are 2 miles from the coast and it's thrilling eh!!!!
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