Teabagger Gets Smacked Down In Two Sentences

I was talking to my Dad yesterday, and we got to discussing this whole SB 5 nonsense going on here in Ohio. My Dad is a lifelong Democrat (it's a longstanding tradition on that side of my family), but he did have a brief flirtation with being a Conservative back during the '80s and early '90s. Listened to Rush Limbaugh, voted Republican, the whole deal. We used to have some EPIC debates when I was younger. As I've gotten older and have been able to better communicate the stances of the Left, he's slowly come back to the fold. Plus, he's always been a very strong Pro-Union guy (he was a public school teacher and his father, my grandfather, was a Union engineer for Westinghouse his entire life).

Anyway, he was telling me that he had gotten into a discussion with a group of the other people at his Cardiac Rehab regarding SB 5, and inevitably ran into a Teabagger decrying all the ills of those dirty, evil Unions. There were a few others there who agreed that Unions were ruining everything and that getting rid of them would be the best thing ever conceived.

He said that as the discussion wore on, a man who had been working in another area came over to the group, paused, and said, "I started working for GM back when I was 20 years old making two dollars an hour. I joined the Union so I wouldn't RETIRE making two dollars an hour." Then he just walked on.

DEAD SILENCE.

safe working conditions, and the list goes on.

edit: Oh, and that middle class standard of living thing we are so accustomed to as well.

Don't forget weekends - corporations didn't even want us to have weekends with our families.

TGIF? thank a union.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

you can see it as working conditions deteriorate all over for workers in many types of jobs without unions.... no pay raises.... less benefits....

Somebody only working 40 hours a week needs something to do on his or her weekends. Very likely, those activities will create jobs for other people.

Someone with a paid vacation goes on vacation. Welcome to a thriving tourism industry, recreation vehicles, etc.

Health benefits -- someone with a good health plan goes to the doctor, which means more doctors and more support staff and more companies making and selling things for them.

No child labor -- A child not slaving away in a coal mine is going to school. That means teachers have jobs. He or she is involved in sports and the arts and humanities, i.e. jobs.

Safe working conditions keep the worker alive longer, letting him or her use the 40-hour week, paid vacations, etc. longer.

All of this thanks to the middle class built by strong and vibrant unions.

A strong union means a stronger economy and more jobs.

and realize that their own lives would be far worse if we didn't have unions in this country.

On the other hand, all of our lives would be much better if unions were still bigger, stronger, and present throughout a larger part of our economy.

Unions Gave Us:

• The right to have and enforce regulations that protect workers from unsafe conditions.
  
  
• The right to get paid for every hour we work, without being expected to put in unpaid time in off the books as a condition of keeping a job.
  
  
• The right to work only a reasonable number of hours per week, because we have a right to a personal and family life outside of work
  
  
• The idea to fairness and equality in pay scales, so that everyone SHOULD get paid the same for doing the same job. This hasn't been implemented yet, and it never will be if unions don't become strong enough again to force companies to do it.
  
  
• The idea that Everyone should be able to retire some day. Not just executives. And when they do retire, the company they work for NOW should see that they won't be living in poverty THEN after they retire, because people deserve better after putting in years of loyal hard work.

And far more...

Imagine where we would be if unions had been able to maintain their strength in the economy, and in our political system.

never went without health care her entire adult life, thanks to the Union... (sorry to say I haven't gotten a union job)

but I come at this from a totally different direction. I have always been poor. To me the unions made sure that when I could work I got minimum wage and when I could not that there was a safety net there to catch me and my disabled daughter. Our party would not have been able to put those things in place if it had not been for union support. I thank the unions for my daughter's life.

:thumbsup:

should go back and read the history of the union movement, and how and why unions came into existence.

Men fought and died to give us unions and decent working conditions, and it scares me witless to think that we could very well be sliding back into the bad old days.

Every past generation has been certain that the next generation would be better off than they were. I am not confident that that will be so for our kids.

It depresses me to think about it, and the thought limits my time here on DU, I'm sad to say.

ever had with Ford just for ATTENDING a union MEETING.

In the 60s my father put food on our table working for Chrysler as a tool and die maker. He made just enough so my mother could stay home with us four kids. Am I pro-union? You bet your sweet arse I am.

He incurred the wrath of his employer for his union activity. The newspaper where he worked never unionized. He found another job as soon as he could and worked in a union job for 25 years until his retirement.

Always heard acquaintances or ( or even friends ) bash union employees and and then I say I am one and say they're stereotyping, and then they blanch and stammer about how that they didn't mean me of course! That's happened scores of times over the past 20 years.

According to my bitter nasty RW father, I am the only union worker in the world that's worth a damn. I ask how stuff gets done with a population of lazy greedy layabouts. I get a snarl.

Without unions, people just work until their body gives out and then try to figure out how they are going to make it on social security--that is if they are lucky enough to have their body stays strong enough to work that long.

This man made an economic decision that benefited him and his family. He joined a union to get fair wages for his hard work. Is that not the basis of a free market -- getting the most for your scarce resources?

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he said just because someone is born poor doesn't mean they have to die poor.

I would shake that mans hand if I had been there. I have a YT channel (Boomer1949) and have recently posted a 4 part video of the early history of the union (1900-1964). Too few people have watched all 4 parts but those who have are suddenly a little more appreciative of what our immigrant ancestors did for us by forming Labor Unions. I do spend a lot of time making personal videos about what is going on in WI, OH and ILL. It's important to me because I have grown children and hope to one day have grandchildren. I see the deterioration of benefits already in America and how the employers are pushing the employees to the limit with mandatory overtime and manipulating the shift limit laws. They get cooperation by promises of profit sharing. Trouble is that profit sharing doesn't work out so well and is often cut or withdrawn all together. The employees have no recourse or even a right to challenge what the corporation tells them. Unions need to make a come back in the private sector as well for the sake of future generations.

I think there is quite a lot of interest for such a documentary on this site.

And welcome to DU!

too much for one person to be paid. I still can't get over the talking heads that think $250K isn't enough for an executive but $50K is too much for a teacher!

It's like the Berlin wall only twice as high and three times as thick.

by demanding a decent wage which creates MORE consumers. Do you think the rich would do that willingly (out of the goodness of their hearts? - assuming they have hearts). AND that is good for our economy.

I remember working for nothing back in the late 80's - for a mom and pop shot. The owner thought she was God and withheld my last paycheck. I had to sue. They'll do whatever they can to screw you.

Hell yeah!

In NC, a right to work state, if I actually joined a union, I would never get hired (I work in the film industry) again.

However... when a film comes in from LA, all the LA people are in a union, and about 1/3 of the way through pre-production, the union will come in and "cause a ruckus". The result is always we non-union people will get union wages and even some benefits ... like "meal penalties". SAG demands that cast and crew stop to eat at least every 6 hours(I think). If shooting goes over this time, everyone working gets "meal penalties"... or a certain amount tacked onto your paycheck for every 30 minutes... or I swear one film it was every 15 minutes... they go over the deadline.

I think that's how it went. I've stopped working in film for a while now.... and I was so busy when I was working I couldn't keep up with the union stuff (not being in a union). But their benefits did help EVERYONE working on the film.

She then added. "They don't.They won't and it's not in their interest to worry about fairness."

Cold hearted and fine with the idea that business need not be responsible for the harm they would do to the disenfranchised. To me, that is why republicans should not be in positions of public protection and usually they aren't because they want to make profit over any service they may give.

To those brainwashed by-Limbaugh or Beck or Fox News, people who only want fair treatment of their fellow man to be their prominent reason for governing,are seen as their enemy.They are attacked and undermined. Why? If the RW claim to be patriotic and religious, are they so opposed to the common good and the golden rule? It is also the ruthless control of the top US 400 wealthiest people and their unrestrained lawyers, who find odd misjudgments to justify their un-honorable actions, who are actually killing our once strong middle class and soon our democracy.

It is hard to put the common good above your own and it involves sharing. It is second nature to us and frightening to the selfish Conservative and misinformed RW.

Greatest response ever.

Often, "polite," "succinct," and "reasoned" create the BEST kind of "smackdown." And I think the awed silence the comment created is proof of that.

can be used by anyone working in any occupation that has a union!

"Teabagger decrying all the ills of those dirty, evil Unions. There were a few others there who agreed that Unions were ruining everything and that getting rid of them would be the best thing ever conceived.


WTF were they blaming on the unions?
The ability to have a weekend off? An astounding average $45k a year salary?

WTF? Really, what were they focusing on? People wanting a better life or a just wage to be able to live on?

Contrast that with the deafening silence of criticism for the $40+ BILLION dollars in tax cuts to the top few percent (that's about a million jobs a year...)

The silence on corporations outsourcing jobs at a record pace?
That there's about 9% left of mfg in this country today?

Penny wise, pound foolish. All fools......


Edit: I know a lot of people will say "hey, yeah I'd like a job paying $45k a year!" But do you think those jobs would even exist for that $$ w/o unions?

Ask them if they are including all those union leftists who marched into the World Trade Centers when they were on fire.

with the cookie allegory making the rounds recently.

It's stopped all the repukes I've told it to while their brains defragged.

:kick:

Most Republicans only see the bad points, where Democrats only see the good points.

It makes it nearly impossible to have a rational discussion on what to do to create win-win situations between management & workers.

While businesses lobby to prevent government regulations of their businesses that protect the workers.

The argument I get from the Right on Unions is that they are no longer needed. It's obviously their talking point on the subject for a long time now. This ignores the facts. This latest Recession illustrates that point. OSHA and in my state of Michigan MEOSHA are not the forces they once were. Safety in the work place is a greater concern today than just 10 years ago. Labor Laws? In my state they aren't enforced. I work in an industry where I get to have a lot of contact with other companies. I regularly see blatant labor laws violations, ie. no overtime pay, no benefits for full time employees, unfair pay deductions, I've even seen underage workers as well as illegals. When employees do try to complain they are let go and sent out to find a job in this crummy economy. The system of protections has been gutted. Without Unions at least offering some protection in a decent percentage of the work places there is simply no reason for companies to follow any of the labor laws.

Without Unions it will truly be a race to the bottom.

"It had its purpose way back when, but this is 2011!!! It's not needed anymore!!!"

They use that argument to rail against Labor Unions, Affirmative Action, Constitutional protections of every stripe, and just about anything that stands in the way of the rich assuming every ounce of power in this country. And that's all it is. They just want to get rid of any law, entity, or person that actually stands up and tells them No.