Tuesday, December 11, 2007
I don't agree with everything the following opinion piece states, but it does raise several questions that I have also wondered about...
The Associated Press brings us a doozie of a story about the creation of an entirely new area of union representation created in order to represent a workforce that mostly doesn’t even know they have a union in the first place.
For that matter, this new union representation has a workforce the majority of which didn’t vote to join. This was one neat trick for the union, for sure. In essence the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) created a new branch of their union out of whole cloth with the approving nod of 11 Democrat state administrations.
How did they do it? They sent a postcard in the mail and since a bunch came back saying they’d like the idea, wham-o-change-o a union was created out of thin air. But here is the thing: there was no vote, there were no mass meetings, there was no election of leadership… the unions just sent out a few postcards and decided they were now authorized to create a new union for a workforce that had no such
union.The SEIU has decided that in 11 states they now represent child-care providers that work out of their homes. Again, there were no meetings, there was no vote. Just some postcards.
In New York, for instance, the AP reports that this presumptuous new union organization
represents 28,000 child-care providers. How did it happen? Well, see, the SEIU sent out postcards and got back 8,382 that said they wanted to join such a thing if it were to be created. So, as far as the SEIU is concerned with less than 30% of the 28,000 New York child-care providers saying it was a good idea that gives them the right to claim they are now representing ALL of the rest of them!What gall!
This is simply amazing. Here we have a business run by individuals, working for themselves, who will now be FORCED to become a member of a union most of them didn’t even know existed. Who is the “oppressive employer” here? These employees are working out of their homes, working for themselves! What right does a union have to force independent contractors such as these to pay them dues?
And who will bear the brunt of these union dues? Anyone who has young children and has to work for a living. Anyone who cannot afford to send their kids to the big chain, professional child-care companies and have to seek out a local, neighborhood lady who has set up a business in her home. THAT’S who will bear the brunt of this presumptuous new “union.”
After all, these tiny businesses will have to raise their prices to be able to afford the exorbitant dues. Furthermore, since the SEIU will be forcing governments to pass laws to
affect these small business, who can doubt that the state fees and licenses giving in home entrepreneurs the permission to open such businesses will go up so that these new provisions of health-care and pension plans can be maintained?And, again, who will bear the brunt of these sharply rising costs? Poorer parents who use these small town, in home businesses, that’s who.
One last thing… this also means that many of these small businesses will have to shut down because the sharply rising costs to maintain them will get too high, driving them right out of the market.
But, this is yet another example of Democrats bowing and scraping to these un-American demands of union thugs. It is also another example of Democrats making it harder on the poor to get by!
What do you think about the union situation?
