Category archive: Unions
How AARP Willfully Betrayed its Members
By Chuck Roger • April 26th, 2011 12:00 am
By Chuck Rogér In November 2010, I wrote about the shady conduct of the leadership of the American Association of Retired Persons. Here’s what I said back then. The organization is trying to paint for its members a portrait of an out-of-control pharmaceutical industry rife with obscene profits. In reality, seniors are paying less each [...]
Zombie snails, parasites, and public sector unions… Oh my!
By Chuck Roger • April 6th, 2011 12:00 am
By Chuck Rogér In order to fully appreciate this post, view the video below (hat tip to a subscriber, Nigel) before reading past the sentence in red. As you watch and listen, keep in mind two groups of people: public sector unions (specifically teachers’ unions) and American taxpayers who reject the tenets of big-government liberalism. (CAUTION: If [...]
The Hollywood conservative, Andrew Klavan, nails public sector unions
By Chuck Roger • April 5th, 2011 12:00 am
By Chuck Rogér I have previously discussed an example of the work of Hollywood conservative Andrew Klavan. From that December 16, 2009 post: Andrew Klavan calls leftism a “religion” that forms “an elaborate system for hiding shame behind a cheap mask of virtue.” Liberals “demonize any opposition,” because we, that clear-thinking opposition, are “not just disagreeing [...]
Teacher motivation, performance, and the union mentality
By Chuck Roger • March 25th, 2011 12:00 am
Lo and behold, students in countries where teachers earn higher pay for higher performance achieve higher competency in math, science, and reading. The results of a study recently reported in Education Next show that …students in countries that permit teacher salaries to be adjusted for outstanding performance score approximately one-quarter of a standard deviation higher on the international [...]
Cobalt blue ignorance, anger, and victimhood
By Chuck Roger • March 16th, 2011 12:01 am
(Photo credit, Jane Phillips/The Santa Fe New Mexican) ______________ The deep blue skies over Santa Fe, New Mexico are legendary for their almost surreal appearance. But the sky wasn’t the only thing exhibiting an otherworldliness in Santa Fe last Saturday. About 300 labor union activists gathered outside the New Mexico state capitol building to show support [...]
AARP’s drug price lies
By Chuck Roger • November 11th, 2010 2:07 am
Still a member of AARP? Why? The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) reports that an AARP analysis of prescription drugs found 8.3% higher prices in 2009. AARP surveyed 217 drugs, 211 of which increased in price over a year. AARP is intentionally misleading its employees and members by excluding generic drugs from the analysis. Calling the [...]
The ‘lost jobs’ fallacy
By Chuck Roger • October 6th, 2010 2:32 am
Yesterday’s post, “Are union bosses and liberal politicians who whine about ‘lost jobs’ being dishonest or just clueless?” generated an interesting response from a reader who wrote, Everything that we buy pretty much comes from China with rare exceptions. I suppose Ford is still in business, but computers, televisions, phones, radios, toys, utensils, and pretty [...]
Are union bosses and liberal politicians who whine about ‘lost jobs’ being dishonest or just clueless?
By Chuck Roger • October 5th, 2010 2:32 am
Actually, the typical free-market interferer is a combination of a truth-twisting ideologue, ignoramus, and fool. A fundamental element of the union mentality onto which liberals have hitched their political wagons has always been the call to “protect” American jobs. In the union boss’s mind, a company that is losing money must be forced to keep [...]
Public education, lying liars, wasted money, and teachers’ unions
By Chuck Roger • August 9th, 2010 3:39 am
There are few better places to find nonsensical “thought” than in the education arena. A myth that captures a lot of attention is the falsehood that more money buys better education. The endless push by politicians for school funding hikes is nothing more than appeasement of teachers’ unions that dump millions into politicians’ campaigns. At [...]
Nanny state cometh; woops… she’s here
By Chuck Roger • August 2nd, 2010 3:49 am
Abusive bosses or coworkers–most of us have come across the unpleasantness of workplace bullying to some extent, directly or indirectly. In Time magazine, Adam Cohen points out: Worker abuse is a widespread problem—in a 2007 Zogby poll, 37% of American adults said they had been bullied at work—and most of it is perfectly legal. Workers [...]
Thuggish teachers’ unions and your tax dollars
By Chuck Roger • June 24th, 2010 8:56 pm
Let’s do a little exercise. Your employer pays you. With part of the income, you pay your property, sales, and income taxes. Part of the taxes go to pay teachers’ salaries. Part of the teachers’ salaries–whether the teachers like it or not–is forcibly extracted before the teachers even see the money. The extracted money gets [...]
America’s possible Greek tragedy
By Chuck Roger • May 17th, 2010 9:08 pm
America’s exceptionalism and spirit of liberty may bolster us against turning into Greece, but will not prevent us from becoming very Greek indeed. Writing at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Vincent and Carmen Reinhart explain “Five Myths about the European Debt Crisis.” First, Greece’s predicament is no new phenomenon. It’s easy to [...]
Unions are making America ‘unsustainable’
By Chuck Roger • April 18th, 2010 9:43 pm
The U.S. Post Office operates in an uterly unsustainable manner, and ridiculously lucrative union benefits pacakages obtained through thuggish collective bargaining are to blame. CNS.com reports: As mail volume has plummeted by 17 percent – or by 36 billion pieces – in the past three years, collective bargaining contracts have forced the Postal Service to [...]
Cut out the dead wood, give the tree life
By Chuck Roger • February 21st, 2010 10:13 pm
With school-related unemployment running well below general unemployment, Cato Institute’s Neal McCluskey observes that: …one can’t help but conclude that keeping teacher jobs at all costs truly isn’t about the kids, but the adults either employed in education, or trying to get the votes of those employed in education. …we have added teachers in droves [...]
Where will this teachers’ union wake-up call lead?
By Chuck Roger • February 16th, 2010 10:13 pm
In a Rhode Island town with high school graduation rates below 50% and teachers earning nearly three-and-a-half times as much as the average worker, the teachers’ union rejects the school superintendent’s request for teachers to work an extra 25 minutes a day. Soooo… the superintendent fires all the teachers. That’s quite a wake-up call for [...]
There are two sides to every story, but the left side smells really bad
By Chuck Roger • November 18th, 2009 3:35 am
People who let dogma rule their thinking ignore the truth. Radical Islam and liberalism are the most destructive dogmas on Earth. That said, many good people are “liberal” in their leanings. I have liberal friends and acquaintances. Few places are more left-inclined than Santa Fe, New Mexico, and yet my wife and I love the [...]
