Only 15.8% of workers in Minnesota belong to a union. If you object to unions, there are plenty of jobs in non-union shops.

How about a CBS Comments union? If you want to post here, you are required to give the union money.

What’s wrong with extorting money from people?

If you really want to know about Right to Work issues look at the states that have those laws in place,It means that you have the right to work for less!!
The states that have those laws have lower wages and less benefits so If the Republicans want MY VOTE for anything other then their own RECALL notice they had better table the issue FAST.

The last I checked this is a free country( although I know the current administration and unions are trying to make it a socialist country) we should have the right to join or not join a union. I also don’t want a union taking my money to vote for someone to turn the country I love into a socialist country. Why don’t you socialist’s just move to Europe.

It is, Duanes. Work someplace else. Like Mississippi.

This is nothing more than a cheap trick being used by the GOP to bust unions.
The majority of government employees have already voted that they want a union.
Why aren’t GOP supporters complaining about unions in private sector jobs?
They have to pay for there services too, nothing is free.

you don’t like unions ? Like everyone is saying, there are plenty of non-union jobs out there, GO GET ONE

After the Republicans bust the unions, their corporate supporters will be able to reduce everyone’s wages and take away their benefits. That is why they have set private workers against public workers. Divide and conquer is their game plan and in the end we will all have the right to work for less.

rentacop –
Only 7% of the private sector is unionixzed today, so they have already become extinct. Only the public sector still has unions and as FDR said, there is a confilct of interest there and that’s why he advised against allowing the public sector to unionize. Taxpayers can no longer afford to pay government workers to retire in their fifties as people are living ten years longer than they were just fifty years ago.

Feudalism didn’t work the first time around, I don’t understand why the GOP wants to give it another try…..

Paul:
7% or 30%, All those private sector Unions are all strong and doing well.

Imagine a boss telling you, your kids will need to come in after they are let out of school and do the janitor work for the company. Once these Right ‘Wing’ To Work ideas starts flowing, per se, Newt Gengrich. Hell really becomes a bottomless pit, even as fools believe
they are receiving the limitless eternity of Heaven. Ah! 21st century Republicans; what a Foxy and cunning breed. ALEC rules. A few billion dollars invested so far, but ALEC stands to profit in the trillions.

This is all pretty hilarious to read. I like the “cushy govt. job” and “retiring in their 50′s” comments the most. Pretty sure that cops, firefighters MNDOT workers dont have a cushy job, and most wait to retire until they can get medicare at 65 because the health benefits are too expensive and that “lavish” retirement that they supposedly get is not nearly enough to live on and cover the costs of health benefits. Unlike all in the private sector, the cops, firefighters, plow drivers, road workers ect. have been making their 20 bucks an hour keeping your tails safe in the cushy burning house, or the cushy city streets fighting with thugs, or staying up all night so you dont have to drive through snow to get to work or the roads are patched so your lexus doesnt pop a tire. COPS AND FIREFIGHTERS CANT STRIKE LIKE YOU CAN TO GET THEIR POINT ACROSS. So without a union they pretty much just have to take what the city offers without negotiations. Next time you think public employees are over paid, go drive by a fire station, mndot station or police station. Look at the cars / trucks in the parking lot. Then take a cruise by the USbank center, or wells fargo building (people you pay very high mortgage interest to), or better yet check out the salaries of those foreclosing on your neighbors home. Then tell me the public employees are overpaid with lavish retirement packages.

Union membership produces higher wages, better leave benefits, better retirement benefits, and better working conditions.

I think Minnesotans need to pass a Constitutional amendment that mandates union membership for all workers. Everyone working for a wage would benefit and dues could be much, much lower. That would be a good deal for most of us!

I’m glad that all you union nay sayers have good jobs with great wages and good working conditions. What about your retirement plan and monthly retirement checks ? You have to look to the future not just the present. My union provided me with good wages, great benefits, and now a lifetime monthly pension check. Yes, I paid union dues for 30 years but the company I worked for contributed more towards my benefit package than I did.

I have been in the private sector all of my working life. Retiring next year at 55 with the $4.4 milliion I have saved, earned and invested. Never needed a union to restrain me from the free market. I have always thought that unions are for the lazy, worthless hacks who need a babysitter to make it in life.

I received an automatic 1350 dollar raise when we voted a union out of our shop. The union would no longer listen to it’s rank and file members only the international who have become the people they hate. BIG BISNESS. NOT TO MENTION SICK PAY AND FLOATING HOLIDAYS. Unions are not what they seem.

the mn gop is lame

pulling the wool over our eyes during the day and pulling down the underwear of their staffers at night……thats how the gop works it

True story:

A worker at JC Penney’s who waited on me Monday was back at work after taking a week’s vacation with the blessing of her manager. She returned to find that her hours had been cut by 50% to 20 hours a week which made her ineligible for benefits. Tearfully, she told me that she had had 16 years of exceptional evaluations by her superiors and was distraught at what she was going to do to provide for her daughter. The manager’s rationale? He had to increase profits by cutting costs.

By the way, she is not a member of a union and by the responses on this post, I guess it’s just “tough” that she is in this position, because profits count more than people.

unions are destroying jobs in America. time to put a stop to their greediness and all that stuff.

Wait ’til your boss grabs your butt, angel. Your word against his and guess which way that will go.

what did i tell you. unions are the downfall of the “working” class and all that.

Why are some of you so quick to turn Minnesota into a Mississippi, Alabama or Georgia? Think about it.

many commenters do not realize that union members can under current law, opt out of their unions non representational expenditures (political). Public employee law calls it Fair Share and private sector law calls it Beck rights (court decision). they are then called fee paying non members. they DO pay for representational costs, so they continue to pay at least 85% of their dues depending on individual local union expenditures. What these fee paying non members lose is their right to VOTE on their union contract. Why give up your right to vote, ever.