Political Ad: Obama’s Union Bosses

Wonder what you would find if you frisked President Obama’s re-election campaign?

Answer: He is expected to raise a whopping $1 BILLION and that money has to come from somewhere.

The relationship between labor unions and the Democratic Party is one that needs to watched.

AFSCME (a public employees union) was biggest outside spender of the 2010 midterm election:

The 1.6 million-member AFSCME is spending a total of $87.5 million on the elections after tapping into a $16 million emergency account to help fortify the Democrats’ hold on Congress. Last week, AFSCME dug deeper, taking out a $2 million loan to fund its push. The group is spending money on television advertisements, phone calls, campaign mailings and other political efforts, helped by a Supreme Court decision that loosened restrictions on campaign spending.

[...]

Previously, most labor-sponsored campaign ads had to be funded by volunteer donations. Now, however, AFSCME can pay for ads using annual dues from members, which amount to about $390 per person. AFSCME said it will tap membership dues to pay for $17 million of ads backing Democrats this election.

Labor unions were created to be a vehicle to get workers more of the profits they help create. Government workers, however, do not generate profits. They merely negotiate for more tax money. Unfortunately, when government unions strike, they strike against the taxpayers who fund their salaries, pensions, benefits, etc.

Props to the Republican National Committee for releasing this political advertisement. It’s refreshing to see them take a firm stand on this issue.

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Michigan Teachers Union Goes After Its Own Members

Wonder what you would find if you frisked The Grand Rapids Education Association?

Answer: They are going after their own members that have refused to pay their dues!

Big Government reports:

The Grand Rapids Education Association, a local affiliate of Michigan’s largest teachers’ union, is attempting to pick off one-by-one 90-some members that have refused to pay their dues.

About 18 months ago, the school board voted to no longer deduct dues from employees’ paychecks, which meant union members had to physically write a check to the union.  Many saw it as their opportunity to protest the obnoxious behavior of union leaders during a previous contract negotiation period.  The union president, Paul Helder, was particularly pompous during negotiations, claiming the union was fighting a “war on terrorism.”  He even established “War Time Committees” to organize the fight against the school board and administrators.

Marjorie Hayward objected to her president’s behavior and refused to pay up.  So the union took her to small claims court.

The judge, citing the fact that Michigan is not a right-to-work state, ruled she has to fork over the money, regardless of whether or not the union is representing her interests.

Let that marinate for a bit – because of current Michigan law, the union has the right to take a school employee to court and extract money out of her. Isn’t that grand?

If there is ever an opportunity to make Michigan a right-to-work state, this is it.

As a Michigander, this news story hits home for me. For decades, Michigan has suffered from greedy and corrupt organized labor unions, including the Michigan Education Association (MEA). Unfortunately, as mentioned in the article above, Michigan is not a Right-to-Work state and union members can be forced to surrender their hard earned money to corrupt organized labor unions that do not represent their best interests.

I am a strong proponent of Right-to-Work and hope that with our new Republican governor and state legislature we can get something done that will loosen the death grip that organized labor unions have on private and public sector workers.

As for Marjorie Hayward’s case, hopefully this ruling will open the door for the teachers to file a class-action lawsuit against the union. After all, it’s quite clear that the union did not represent their best interests.

As Governor Snyder (R) says, “It’s time to reinvent Michigan.” Let’s hope he means it.

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Federal Workers Earn Double What Private Sector Workers Earn

Wonder what you would find if you frisked federal employees’ average compensation and compared them to the private sector?

Answer: A startling difference.

USA Today reports:

At a time when workers’ pay and benefits have stagnated, federal employees’ average compensation has grown to more than double what private sector workers earn, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Federal workers have been awarded bigger average pay and benefit increases than private employees for nine years in a row. The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade.

Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The data are the latest available.

The federal compensation advantage has grown from $30,415 in 2000 to $61,998 last year.

After seeing numbers like this, there’s no wonder why President Obama just announced a two-year pay freeze for overpaid federal employees (reminder: the number of federal employees earning over $150,000 doubled under President Obama). According to the White House, the pay freeze will save $2 billion for the remainder of FY 2011.

Every little bit helps, but the White House will have to come up with something better than this minuscule “symbolic gesture” that shows the American public they are getting serious about tackling bloated government and our massive debt.

Let’s be honest, the majority of us (who do not receive a paycheck from the federal government) are sick and tired of seeing the public employee pay scales dominating the private sector. Fortunately, the people over at The Heritage Foundation have a few solutions that would address this issue:

• Abolish the general schedule and implement performance-based pay.
• Hire more private contractors.
• Reduce federal benefits.
• End dismissal restrictions.

Of course these solutions are not popular with the powerful and greedy organized labor unions. In the end, it will be a fight if we are going to be serious about tackling this problem.

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