First I've Heard About This. How About You? Unions Are Choking Reform Efforts At The VA Says The Committee Chairman.

Pretty upsetting CPT Jack Durish.

CPT Jack Durish - Captain; Since "public service" unions are (effectively) negotiating with monopoly employers with ever full pockets I tend to agree with you to a great extent.

I don't have a real problem with "public service" unions negotiating NON-monetary items and/or representing their members in matters of discipline and/or advancement.

However, I would suggest that it would be better for everyone if the "public service" employees' wages were fixed either by law or under a 10+ year contract at the appropriate percentage of the average wage in their area for the type of work that they are doing and then adjusted annually to keep them there. [NOTE:- "Average wage" EXCLUDES the income of self-employed people so your 37.5 hour per week "public service" plumber would NOT have the income of the 60 hour per week independent contractor plumber taken into account when the average wages are calculated.]

PS - Where I am living now we were facing a teacher's strike and, as usual, the teachers were claiming that they were going to go on strike "for the sake of the students" (amusingly enough the key issues were teacher's wages and benefits). I wonder what the teachers would have done if the government had come back with something along the lines of "OK, we'll meet all of your demands for smaller class sizes and more teaching staff, but that means that there won't be a dime left over for any wage increases. That's our offer - put it to your members.". I suspect that they would have screamed in anguish.

1SG Joseph Yorski, MHS, This article indicates they are using the union to keep from exposing their screw ups. I'm not sure what to think. I know I'm disappointed to read this.

MSG(P) Joseph Yorski, unfortunately this is more true than it needs to be. It's a reflection that VA has the wrong managers in place. Managers who don't know how to read the labor agreement and apply it. I had very little negative interaction with the unions I worked with because I used the agreement against them. Frustrated the hell out of them, I'm sure. Conversely, I would use the same agreement against leadership when they tried to do things that negatively affected my operations or staff.

Sgt Spencer Sikder - Sergeant; The rule for a GOOD administrator should always be "Play by the rules but know what the rules are and know what ALL the rules are.".

If you dig deeply enough there is almost always a rule that makes what you want to do mandatory and a rule that makes what you don't want to do prohibited (and you get to chose which one you are using if you change your mind).

COL Ted Mc - Aye Sir!

I remember a quote from a Teacher's Union in California back in the 90's -- "We'll start looking after students' interests when they start paying union dues."

(OK, that might be a paraphrase and not a quote. It's been a while.)

In the beginning unions had the interest of the workers in mind. They did help labor pay and equal rights, which caused many wars between non union and union companies. Then during strikes, the company hired "scabs" to cross picket lines. My dad walked picket for a year, even though "scabs" had been hired to cross the line and work for the company. As another slap in the face, the company hired some of scabs and after the strike was over, they fired some of the picket walkers for going public about how unfair the company had been. There were "strike breakers" too. I was working as a mechanic and a guy I went to school with came in to get his brakes fixed. He asked me if I would be interested in making some real money by being a strike breaker. A strike breaker attacks picketers and beats them up or sometimes they use deadly force. I told him Hell No! I hate and despise unions.