sugahara@private wrote: > First off, thanks for everyone's feedback and discussion on the issue > of technology in the state. It was a great discussion and it was > great to see some new posters out here. > > This is a little off topic in terms of crime, but it does have > specific implications for the technology industry. > > It seems to me that the entire problem with the lockout hinges with > the potential elimination of union jobs (data entry) through the use > of technology. The issue is for the union is the loss of those jobs. > However, they want to ensure that any technology jobs that are created > are included in the union. This brings up the question: would a > union be good and/or necessary for jobs in the technology field? I am a Union Member and come from a family of Teachers obligated to be union members and can tell you from personal experience that Unions have a useful life cycle dependent on the maturity of the industry. If excessive profits are to be made within an industry unions can help protect workers and grow a community with 'fair' wages that often are above what the market might provide. But... within the current Oregon economy you can see demonstrated the exploitive diversion of tax dollars to the teacher's unions through obligatory dues that fund politically self destructive ends. Evidence? In a state with 8% unemployment, with an educational budget that doubled in 8 years, with PERS revealed to be a complex ponzi scheme how does the media portray a multi billion dollar increase in the educational budget? They use the word 'cuts'... because the Teachers' unions wanted even more... And... both Oregon and Washington have allowed Teacher's unions lawsuits to drive out of business anti-tax activists. Allowing people to have a say by 'voting' so offends the teacher's unions they attacked with lawsuits the initiative creator, created an action group called the VEP(Voters Education Project) to misrepresent the initiatives and use 'dirty tricks' to discredit the initiatives and with the support of other PERS employees managed to get them off of the ballot. Why isn't it OK to test the validity of an initiative with 150,000 submitted signatures at the ballot box? Because if you have tax dollars to spend, and Senate Candidate Secretary of State Bradbury and Governor Taxhaber in your pocket ( since the Teacher's Union is their largest contributor ) ya' just don't have to bother with a pesky detail like representative democracy. So... do I have sympathy for Longshoreman that make 6 figures demanding to protect 'jobs' that really don't exist? Well at least they have the guts to stand up for themselves and say 'we are screwing you because we can' instead of violating the rights of our citizenry to steal us all blind. Where do I get these wild opinions? Mom, Dad and my Uncle are retired on PERS and yes, we did notice that getting a fixed return on your retirement, at the taxpayer's expense, larger then ever earned by the fund that manages that retirement is exploitive... so what are they supposed to do? Give it back?
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon Oct 07 2002 - 08:11:39 PDT