- Joined
- Apr 14, 2008
- Messages
- 12,973
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- Location
- Huntsville, AL (USA)
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- Male
- Political Leaning
- Moderate
I think the greatest complaint in private industry is the impact they have had on putting companies out of business, or at least in causing them to take measures to try and maintain the profitability demanded by investors.
In the public arena, they are a virus the public needs to address in some meaningful manner.
I disagree with your last statement. I think public employees get a bad rap. On the one hand, the benefits we receive aren't as generous as you may think. Furthermore, I've seen public employees (myself included) who work just as long and hard as anyone in the private sector, maybe even more. In any case, not all jobs can be performed or left to the private sector. If that were truly the case, I'm willing to bet you'd see so many corners being cut just to save a few pennies. And if allowed to make up their own rules...self regulate....that may benefit the private company's bottom line, but it doesn't do justice to the customer who discovers the shabby workmanship years later and has to pay out of pocket for costly repairs that could have been avoided had the job been done right the first time. Cut out your public housing inspector and see what kind of house/housing development you get once construction has finished.
As a public employee myself, I've seen my benefits greatly reduced while the cost of said benefits take a bigger and bigger junk from my earnings. In fact, where I work we've gone years WITHOUT a pay raise, many of us have performed the job of two or three people due to a mandated hiring freeze that's been in affect for years. And to put icing on the cake, many jobs that were once performed in the public sector have now been privatized and the quality of care/services aren't as good as they were when said care/services were being performed by public employees. I'm sure that in time things will smooth out, but for now it's been rough.
As for unions themselves - public or private - I think they do have a place in the workforce be it labor, manufacturing or service sector. A person can only stand for so long, bend over so far, lift so much, perform a repetitive task so many times without a break, take on so many duties before feeling overwhelmed and work so many jobs for inadequate pay in an attempt to have his/her survival needs meet and remain silent for so long before insisting that his voice is fairly heard. Take those things away and push the employee so hard and eventually the employee will fight back....or leave. One can only hope there are enough available hands to fill the void(s) left behind.
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