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Although unions were probably necessary 50 years ago, overreaching unions helped bring down the auto industry, steel industry and the airlines. The unions helped raise salaries in the short run, but their efforts eventually led to outsourcing and job loss when the market and competition forced change for survival.
In the public sector, there is no market-clearing price for services, and unionized employees can hold taxpayers hostage when they see fit (think France). Public employees already enjoy a retirement plan (PERA) and other benefits most in the private sector envy. It is not necessary, through collective bargaining, to give them the keys to the state treasury as well. (“Ritter backs partnership idea/But collective bargaining may be needed, he says,” Sept. 14.)

Mike Eller, Littleton

READER COMMENTS

Unions brought down those industries? Time to go back to school Mike.

Perhaps we need a constitutional amendment prohibiting employees from organizing? We could call it the first amendment in the Bill of Wrongs.

Was it the employees who decided to continue building the wrong kind of cars, or could it have the management that made those decisions?

Was it the employees who were grossly wrong in their calculation of how much longer people would live, that being a core reason why the auto makers are in the pension soup. No, it was management who made that miscalculation because it was more interested in its short term stock price and bottom line than its long term existence. If management didn't realize that the contract it entered into would result in its present day problems, it is grossly irrational to think that the employees should have realized it.

There will be several comments made by people who have no clue about PERA. It is not a great retirement plan, but looking into it get in the way of one's opinion. Public employees are a nice target when someone is frustrated with government. Just remember this Christmas, while you are enjoying your holiday, we are keeping you safe. As an employer you expect a lot and give little. No overtime or time with the family on holidays for us. Thanks

the unions will bring down our auto industry by making them unable to complete.

The United unions gave back huge chunks of their compensation and retirement packages, while management makes huge bonuses.

Yeah Keith, incomplete cars would be bad.

Usually Truth and I disagree most vigorously.Not this time.His point about company management being responsible for product design and consequent utility is EXACTLY on target.The point he didn't make is that the only entity who hates (but so desparately needs) unions more than company management is the government.

The unions and the companies made mistakes. They are both trying to survive. Unions have used the same tactic for over a century, the strike. Strikes were once a great means of shutting down a company, stopping profits and enforcing demands.
Companies have spent decades making improvements to their means of dealing with employees in addition to government regulations in that area. Companies have also no need to fear a strike. Most companies don't have unions and no longer fear a sympathy effect whereby the suppliers of goods, the transporters of their products and all other "connected" businesses refuse to cross a picket line. In this climate, to threaten a strike is tantamount to having an attack hummingbird.

A strike formerly cost both sides, but the company no longer suffers that fate. Offshore providers, non-union plants in other areas and many other factors make it less costly for the business. The workers still lose their income in exchange for many promises and a small stipend from the strike fund.
In the face of this imbalance, what do the unions do? They call a strike.
Unions in other countries have at least the initiative to, in a shoe company, make only left shoes, or strike only one or two days a week. That keeps all pay in effect, reduces the profit for the company and makes it impossible for them to replace the workers. In other words, incentive for the company to negotiate doesn't exist. Strikes no longer hurt companies without damaging the workers. Now the workers take the hit and the company takes advantage.

Public unions never benefit the public. There is no way to hire out their jobs when the workers strike. There is no way to substitute for the workers some other way. It is already state law that state employees cannot strike.

We need a state law prohibiting mandatory state employee unions before we end up in a crisis mode being held hostage to demands and for benefits and pay raises we might not be able to afford.

The law we need now is a right to work law. If unions are good for them, the workers will choose them. The law only protects the worker who refuses to join a union from being forced to pay for the union. Of course there will be those who claim that this is the wrong kind of freedom because it requires the worker to be allowed to think and choose for himself.

Well, lets see..........

the Unions were created to broker the relationship between greedy owners and poverty struck employees.....not much has changed in that ratio.........................

It wasnt the Unions that caused the greedy owners to go looking for cheaper labor, it was GREED. Corporate GREED.

My father and grandfather were carpenters during the depression. They both told me of carrying very heavy toolboxes up and down the streets of Chicago to find work. The labor union saved their family from total destruction....and my grandfather was here illegally by today's standards as a Danish immigrant..........
Ive consequently understood the importance of protecting workers,and as a 26 year veteran of schools, truly understand the nature of politics in the workplace, not to mention seeing the American way of life erode.
No one talks about inflation any more, as tho it doesnt exist. Ha. What a crock!

janis,

If unions today were as dedicated to helping improve the lives and rights of the workers as they were in the thirties they wouldn't be in a position where they have to beg, borrow and literally steal to gain a foothold with the workers. They are more interested in their own power and prestige than the status of the worker. Union dues now fund fat cat lobbyists and bought and paid for politicians whose main interest is the power of the union, not the rights of the workers. More and more people are rejecting unions because of this.

If unions really cared about the worker they would be doing more to improve their tactics instead of relying on the outdated strike. Were I a business owner I would pray for a strike because it would allow me to hire new workers and lose a union. Eventually the skilled workers would either come back or be replaced by workers who would not choose a union because they would have seen the fate of the last union workers. If possible, I would use the Wal-Mart system and close down. Wal-Mart prove that it is less expensive to close than to permit a union.
Yesterday is not today. Unions belong to yesterday.

Why do you think manufacturers are moving plants overseas as fast as possible?

There are good union managers and there are bad union managers. momma y continues to write in hyperbole by pretending that union managers are a monolith, that they are like clones of each other, that they are all the same, and bad.

Unions have lost a lot of power over the years. So has General Motors. But to say that either one is no longer important or useful is ignorant. There are some fifteen million union workers and there are hundreds of different unions. momma y acts as though she can speak for or about all of them.

She has the audacity, and ignorance, to say that employers should welcome a strike. Here are the examples she gives of that:

Did I miss any? You won't find any employer anywhere who would welcome a strike. momma y has simply gone wild and emotionally perverted in her quest to condemn all unions even though she obviously could know little or nothing about most of them.

Always beware of anyone who can only see things in black and white.

Momma, where did you get the idea that "there is a state law preventing public workers from striking"?

Instead, there is a CO Supreme Court decision affirming public teachers' right to strike: Martin v Montezuma-Cortez School District.

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