AFL-CIO Calls on Members to Defend Occupy Wall Street

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Anonymous October 14, 2011 6:12 pm (Pacific time)

The super majority of union members are now public union members whose pensions and benefits have broke the bank in many different states. They make more money than the taxpayers who pay their slaries. That is coming to a change. In Wisconsin the conservative governor saved thousands of union jobs while also increasing private sector jobs by cutting back on union benefits. In other states like California and New York they have been losing tens of thousands of union jobs with democrats (progessives) in power. The evidence is there for all to see. The nearly 2 million federal union members do not have the same bargaining rights as non federal union members, but then the feds can print money. It is out of control spending by the progressives, not that bs corporate greed distraction that got our economy in this situation.

DJ: Milton Friedman wrote in Capitalism and Freedom: "there is one and only one social responsibility of business--to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud."

Is it not reasonable to allow unions and their members the same freedom to maximize their "profits", i.e., wages and benefits? After all, in a "free enterprise" system all that workers have to sell is their labor. The purpose of a union isto up the bidding. As Mitt Romney recently affirmed, "corporations are people"; let them compete for worker's services, too.

Tyrone Proctor October 14, 2011 9:52 am (Pacific time)

When I grew up in the South during the era of segregation, my family had little money. But my father Luther and mother Lenora were rich in ideas, faith and love. They were hard workers and family oriented, and instilled those same values in their children. My father worked three jobs to fulfill his dreams -- a house for our family and a Cadillac. My mother was a maid. They both believed in the American dream, and made their dreams come true. Though their circumstances were tough, they never played the victim card. They never made excuses. From what I’ve seen of these protesters -- including one news clip of a young man shouting at an elderly passerby that he wouldn’t work a $7-an-hour job -- it seems they would rather have a handout than work. What they should learn is that you don’t help the poor by hurting the rich. That’s not America -- and not how American dreams are made. Empowerment is the key to success, not entitlement. Stay in school and learn. There is dignity in all work. I started at very low pay, and now I have a piece of the dream, and blaming others for your failures is why you fail.

Anonymous October 14, 2011 9:00 am (Pacific time)

This not a popular movement as per professional pollsters. It is propaganda, and like all malicious propaganda, it fails in our society. Works well for the slackers and anarchists, but they are irrelevant. Just watch those "in-street" interviews that are of a random nature (not the trained shill spokespeople from move-on.org) and see the mixed bag of confusion these people project. As far as the unions, well they have been failing across America because their members and the voters have been rejecting them. It's all over folks, now depend on the conservatives, the ones who built America before the progressives (the enemies of freedom) started ruining our country...we conservatives will get our country back. By the way all those bankers give their money to the progressives, just go to the FEC and look up political donation records to verify. It's the real facts, not the propaganda.

DJ: Who cares what "professional pollsters" think? Most people know that the country has been lost to the plutocrats and oligarchs and they want it back.

Unions? The reason unions are in such bad odour is precisely because of propaganda against them. In The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith wrote:

"The masters, being few in number, can combine much more easily; and the law, besides, authorises, or at least does not prohibit their combinations, while it prohibits those of the workmen. We have no acts of parliament against combining to lower the price of work; but many against combining to raise it."

Union members routinely have higher wages and better benefits than non-union members. What's wrong with that?

You might try reading Smith before posting again.

Vic October 14, 2011 8:45 am (Pacific time)

This is great !

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