- Joined
- Dec 9, 2009
- Messages
- 134,496
- Reaction score
- 14,621
- Location
- Houston, TX
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Conservative
I'm gonna have to challenge you here, Conservative.
I proudly served my country on active-duty in the Navy for nearly 16-years. When I left the Navy, I did so under Honorable conditions and had no blimishes on my service record. I came home, found a job in state-government and have proudly performed with high annual performance evaluations well within the "Exceed Standards" category. Now, here's where I should be upset...
For over 5-years, state employees like myself in my department have continued to serve and uphold the public trust - same as our duly elected public officials are suppose to do - WITHOUT receiving a pay raise. FIVE YEARS!!!
And until recently, I refused to join a union because I really didn't see the need. I use to think as you do that as long as I came to work on time, did my job and performed well I would be rewarded.
FIVE YEARS, Conservative WITHOUT a pay raise and what thanks do we honorable public servants have to show for it? Being attacked by Republican officials who claim that we've unjustly receive higher pay, favorable health benefits packages and expensive retirement packages. Folks like you actually believe that people like me are undeserving of the pay and benefits we've EARNED!
I do my job and I perform well. But until Republicans like Gov. Walker begin to lead this charge against public employee collective bargaining rights and forcing us out the door, I never felt the need to become part of any organized labor movement. So, before you start down that trail of "union employees need someone else to protect them as they are incapable of doing it themselves," you had better first try to understand what employers and state officials of some of these corporations and/or state governments are trying to do to union/public employees.
It's unfair that I should have to fight to retain my job let alone my pay and benefits that were stated that I would recieve upon agreeing to being employed here only to have those benefits stiffled and my pay frozen while the economy is in shamebles all because of the wreckless spending/budgetary practises of those politicians who were here before me. You chant the better virtues of Conservatism and personal responsibility. Well, what about professional responsibility? Where's the fault with CEOs and politicians who have acted so irresponsibilty to cause this country such short-term irreperable harm? Why shouldn't union members be outraged because of their greed and purposeful excessiveness and the wealth such people have accumulated on the backs of our honorable performance yet the only thing we have to show for our participation in that "wealth accumulation" in the end turns out to be either the prospect a pink slip that comes out of nowhere or our cost-of-living being held in abeyance indefinitely? Mind you, when our supervisors are also feeling the economic pinch who else are we to turn to for help especially when the decisions that are being made are coming at the highest levels of government? It's not our department heads who are calling the shots; it's the so-called Conservative politicians!!!
So, you tell me who exactly am I to complain to if not to my union rep? Because clearly where state-government is concerned you can't just go to your immediate supervisor or program Director about such matters seeking restitution when they themselves are also in the exact same fight.
Think before you speak.
First of all, thank you for your service and if you recall you were fighting for the right of equal opportunity not equal outcome. If you went to work in the public sector it was your choice and no one held a gun to your head to do that. Public workers work at the pleasure of the public and get raises and benefits on the backs of the people that pay their salary. There is a reason FDR was against public unions and there is a reason states are almost bankrupt now, they are basically one in the same, reasons against public unions. I am sure the 16 years in the military and years as a public employee made you marketable so rather than complain about what you are being paid find another job more in line with your belief as to your value.
I don't have a lot of use for unions as you can tell. I believe in personal responsibility. I was looking for a job when I found my first one and felt like I was on a day to day contract. If I didn't perform then I would lose my job thus I learned as much as possible and made myself quite valuable. The company owed me nothing other than the opportunity I got, the rest was my responsibility and I took advantage of it. I lasted in that job for 35 years, imagine that?
By the way, my Dad served in the Navy and was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and I served in the Army. Got a good education from my dad and the military which made me marketable.
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