RE: CRIME Dockworker lockout- OT

From: Gunderson_Dane (dane.gunderson@private)
Date: Mon Oct 07 2002 - 11:55:30 PDT

  • Next message: Crispin Cowan: "Re: CRIME Dockworker lockout- OT"

    	Frequently the markets are not liquid enough to support an ideal
    model and workers are faced with organized  employers. Autoworkers, Truck
    Drivers, Miners and the like have used organized confrontation to carve out
    a more equitable deal against these frequently state supported oligopolies.
    
    	Wouldn't you agree that in certain industries and within certain
    timeframes Unions have value?
    	I just don't think that's true now regarding the Teacher's unions
    and Longshoreman.
    
    	And I certainly don't think Sizemore is heading for sainthood but we
    should all fear the tactics used to bring him ( and Washington's tax
    activist ) down.
    	http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=49304 (the latest)
    
    	Educational spending	
    	http://www.oregonwatchdog.com/budget-ed.htm
    	http://oregonmag.com/Steve&Natalie.htm
    
    	StateBudget spending
    	http://www.oregonwatchdog.com/allfunds.htm
    
    	PERS is not a going concern ( even if you won't admit that you can't
    payout more then you take in )
    	
    http://www.pers.state.or.us/NewsRelease/new%20release%20PDF%20files/Replacem
    entRatio.pdf
    
    
    
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Crispin Cowan [mailto:crispin@private]
    Sent: Monday, October 07, 2002 11:22 AM
    To: Gunderson_Dane
    Cc: sugahara@private; crime@private
    Subject: Re: CRIME Dockworker lockout- OT
    
    
    Gunderson_Dane wrote:
    
    >	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.  
    >
    There is nothing "fair" about extorting wages above what the market 
    might provide. That is exactly the kind of distortion that leads to 
    crippling inflation.
    
    If excessive profits are being made, the market's natural response is to 
    breed competitors, who drive the price down to commodity levels. If 
    unions pre-emptorily drive the wages for workers in that class up, then 
    commoditization becomes more difficult, and consumers end up paying 
    inflated prices for a very long time.
    
    >	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...
    >
    I'm relatively new to Oregon (8 years) and I still find the Oregon 
    education budget confusing. During the boom years of the late 1990s, 
    when the economy was roaring and the State's revenues should have been 
    overflowing, the education system was in a budget crisis. I read in the 
    paper about budget cuts, and Dane claims that it is actually a 
    substantial increase that just isn't as large as the teacher's union 
    would like it.
    
    Can someone tell me what is actually going on here?
    
    
    >	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
    >
    Hmmm, perhaps. But Seizmore had his own bag of dirty tricks, and from my 
    personal arm chair, there's more dirt on Seizmore than on the Teacher's 
    Union (Crispin sides with a union: you saw it here first :)
    
    Crispin
    
    -- 
    Crispin Cowan, Ph.D.
    Chief Scientist, WireX                      http://wirex.com/~crispin/
    Security Hardened Linux Distribution:       http://immunix.org
    Available for purchase: http://wirex.com/Products/Immunix/purchase.html
    



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