New York - We Too Could Run Out of Money

[DeacMan]

Oh no doubt, so what have the last two mayors done about it over the last 20 years?

Done about what, specifically? I'm all to happy to answer. Just be clear about the question. If your question if what have they done about union contracts, 2&2 is already discussing it. And they are obviously making demands for more changes - i.e. work until a later age to get your benefits, etc.

If your question is how they have otherwise cut costs, the answers are numerous.

 

[DeacMan]

Absolutely. "Closed shops" are BS. We just took over a facility in a right to work state that was unionized because prior management borrowed money from the union pension fund and had to let the union in as a condition of the loan. One of the first things we did was end the union's ability to automatically deduct union dues from pay checks. Guess what - suddenly not a whole lot of people are interested in paying the dues.

I think unions are important in industries that treat human beings like machine parts, especially where working conditions are dangerous (mining comes to mind) or workers are systemically underpaid (fast food comes to mind). These industries "deserve" to have unions, and the workers need them. Most big American industries have evolved past this, or have outsourced the line jobs that fit this description. In most service industries a team concept has set in and unions are actively deleterious to this concept.

Public employee unions are something of a round peg in a square hole. Some public employee jobs do treat humans like machine parts (sanitation, a lot of low level bureaucrat jobs, to some extent even police and fire and teachers). I support public employee unions to be able to negotiate over work conditions and work rules and protect the safety of their members. Allowing them to create a "closed shop" or negotiate over wages and benefits is a bad idea, because it allows politicians to buy votes on the backs of future generations and it sets the employees interests directly at odds with the interests of the people they are supposed to be serving (the taxpayer).

I agree with almost everything you've said here.

 

[RJKarl]

De Blasio is the first Dem Mayor of NYC in the past twenty years. How come Republicans were such doormats?

 

[EatLeadCommie]

De Blasio is the first Dem Mayor of NYC in the past twenty years. How come Republicans were such doormats?

Read the last few posts to see if they really were doormats.

FWIW, Bloomberg was in no way, shape, or form a Republican. He was a lifelong Democrat who ran as a Republican only because he didn't want to face the Democratic primary.

 

[Lectro]

"scrape the underside of the overpass of gross negligence"

Lenox, is that you?

I took it as a side swipe at Boston's Big Dig -- the engineering and fiscal marvel which began as a $2 Billion project and wound up a whopping $24 billion boondoggle that filled union coffers.

Shortly after opening, a slab of concrete detached from an overpass and killed a lady as she drove home from work.

I lived on the North End right down from Theo's. The starting pay for a flag man on a paint crew was $38.50 an hour. Granted, Boston can be pricey but that's not a bad wage...granted there are considerable skills required.

Obviously, unless you knew someone in the union you had no chance to get any of the work on that project.