Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions - Philip K. Howard, Mitch Daniels (Foreword) Audiobook

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• 
  Malachie520
  May 13th, 2023
  

  Be suspicious anytime someone claims that workers should be looking out for the greater good rather than themselves. There are pros and cons to any system but we’ve lived through two years of pandemic with “half” of the U.S. spitting in the face of ‘the greater good’ and embracing a made-up form of individual freedom and this was encouraged by elected officials. Probably not a mention of Citizens United in the book and ignoring the billions in PACs being spent to elect politicians and blaming public unions for demanding accountability of who represents everybody is essentially telling public workers to know their role and leave it to the monied to do what’s best. We’ve seen that play out too. Since unions struggle to get wage increases and better benefits already from state governments willing to spend millions defending their unconstitutional laws (and spend the money that is supposed to fund those benefits), being unaffordable is disingenuous at best.

  Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions - Philip K. Howard, Mitch Daniels (Foreword)
• 
  suckdeep100
  May 13th, 2023
  

  @Malachie520 couldn’t agree more

  Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions - Philip K. Howard, Mitch Daniels (Foreword)
• 
  ChazWylde448
  May 13th, 2023
  

  Collective bargaining is the only protection most workers have against exploitative employment. Those that don’t know their history will be doomed to repeat it, as we’ve seen with the undermining of unions in just about every field.

  Think about the coal mines in the late 19th century. Employees were given free or low-cost “housing” on the grounds near the mine, where the housing was usually small, shoddy shacks. The lands around the mine were usually fenced off and people needed permission from the guards to come in or go off the premises.

  Miners were paid in part or in whole with scrip, a faux-currency that was only good for the company store (think store credit rather than cash), so the company could basically reclaim everything they had just paid the miners by selling them goods at inflated prices.

  The labor was back-breaking, and the conditions extremely dangerous, because mine owners were tell the miners that safety measures were their responsibility, and that they would have to buy the lumber to shore up the walls of the mines out of their own wages.

  Children were often used to fit into tight spaces that adults couldn’t, leading to generations of boys with debilitating illness, injury, or malformity from the labor.

  If the mine collapsed and your husband died? Too bad. You and your children are kicked out of the ramshackle shed that’s your home, no compensation or death benefits. Your husband is injured badly and can no longer work? Same story, with a disabled spouse added into the mix.

  Of course, the miner doesn’t dare quit, because they have little to no cash (since they’re paid in Monopoly money), and quitting would mean being homeless as well as unemployed.

  And if they tried to unionize? Well, the Pinkertons were there to shoot organizers on sight.

  Fast forward 150 years.

  Already employers, especially large behemoth corporations like the Zon, are subjecting employees to unreasonable hours, insufficient wages, and intolerable workplace conditions. People are getting ill, being injured, sleeping in their cars and p*ssing in beverage bottles.

  The restaurant industry is lobbying to weaken child labor regulations so teenagers as young as 14 can work nearly full time hours, and we’ve got kids as young as twelve working in meat packing plants.

  Private equity firms are buying up all the housing so landlords are now corporate, with all the lack of humanity that entails. But back to my first example, the Zon.

  You think they wouldn’t pay their employees in part with gift cards/account credit rather than legal tender if it weren’t illegal? Of course they would. Know why it’s illegal to pay employees in store credit now? Because unions stepped in and demanded the government put a stop to robber barons paying employees with funny money.

  And this issue with employees having to sleep in their cars during the busy season, it’s bad PR. What’s to stop them from buying or leasing a nearby apartment complex from one of these private equity firms and making a reduced-rent place to live part of the employee compensation package, so long as they employee agrees to unionize and oh, yeah, that apartment complex is company property so if outside union organizers try to attend a meeting in someone’s personal apartment, well, that would be trespassing now, wouldn’t it?

  See where this is going?

  Of course, this particular book is specifically about public employee unions, and as someone whose spouse works for a local municipality, um, we’ll keep our union, thanks. Spouse took a pay cut to accept the job and we STILL ended up better off from the benefits alone. Not to mention regular cost-of-living adjustments, and the fact that the municipality actually has room for promotions. In six years my family has gone from slowly circling the drain to being (modestly) secure. We’re taking our first vacation in nearly a decade this summer.

  Police unions, however? Eff them, they’re there to make it impossible to fire bad cops which results in the taxpayers having to dish out millions in compensation for excessive use of force suits. Police unions can rot.

  Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions - Philip K. Howard, Mitch Daniels (Foreword)
• 
  cebanks1976
  May 14th, 2023
  

  Anytime someone says “greater good” it means they’re the “greater”, and you’re about to get screwed. Unions are neither good nor bad. Public sector unions are a different matter, I believe because they can essentially vote for and nominate politicians that will increase their wages, add to pension plans, etc. This leaves the rest of society on the hook. Unions are just like any other hierarchy, they are prone to corruption and stagnation, and in the end to bulldoze the very people they claim to serve.
  Unions only care about the job, not the individual. The job of the union is to acquire dues.

  Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions - Philip K. Howard, Mitch Daniels (Foreword)
• 
  Gweilo
  May 14th, 2023
  

  @cebanks1976: That’s ridiculous. Unions do not vote. Citizens who are members of unions can vote. As is their right. And like all citizens, they can vote in their own selfish interest, as do many other groups. Including manufacturing lobbies; farmers, etc. There is no union large enough to determine an election anyway. The rest of society can choose whether to support them, or not.

  If you’re worried about groups influencing elections for their financial interests, maybe look at the unlimited dark money donations the US allows to politicians and parties now. But influence from plutocrats intent on increasing their obscene fortunes is fine.

  Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions - Philip K. Howard, Mitch Daniels (Foreword)
• 
  cebanks1976
  May 15th, 2023
  

  But we have ample proof that one political party has all union support. And that unions
  have significant sway as to what candidates are chosen in one political party. Unions ” recommend” to their members who they should vote for. Sure, people vote in their own self interest. I can vote to increase taxes on the body politic, decrease taxes, these benefits or burdens are shared my the whole body politic.

  Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions - Philip K. Howard, Mitch Daniels (Foreword)
• 
  Gweilo
  May 16th, 2023
  

  @cebanks: so, that’s the reason you want to outlaw unions: because they usually support your political,opponents. How about police unions? Who do they usually support? Give them a pass.
  But what is nefarious about a group of citizens who decide to support a political party? Why aren’t billionaires who support a party and give them huge amounts of cash in return for favourable policies to their interests a problem?

  In any case, unions work for the welfare of their members. The original purpose is collective bargaining with employers, if the employer is the state that still applies.

  I’m sure you have similarly well argued reasons why every demographic that leans left should be disenfranchised.

  Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions - Philip K. Howard, Mitch Daniels (Foreword)
• 
  howlafist
  May 25th, 2023
  

  Uhm … this book seems to be about specifically public-employee unions (like police unions), and not unions in other contexts?

  Police are agents of the government, with power over other citizens, and police unions ensure that officers next-to-never are held responsible for abusing that power, preventing officers from being disciplined or fired, if they are fired anyways, helping them to get a new policing job elsewhere, and pushing for electees and policy that shield them from ever having to act most of the time anyways.

  The issue is that public unions are part of the government itself that controls the rest of the country, but they are not accountable to the rest of the country.

  Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions - Philip K. Howard, Mitch Daniels (Foreword)

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