Union Derangement Syndrome - Granite Grok

Union Derangement Syndrome

Usually, BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) or PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome) is actually describing those that pretty much go off the rails when either President Bush or Gov. Sarah Palin comes up.  Here, however, my fellow Samsphere blogger friend, Maggie Thurber (Thurber’s Thoughts) takes apart a local union VP of communication as he runs off the rail in a Union newsletter against "union enemies".

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Warning: this post and the linked article contain potentially offensive language and terms.

I have no other way to describe the warped thinking evident in this missive than to call it ‘union derangement syndrome.’

You may have heard part of this article in the June newsletter of the Northwest Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council (NWOBCTC) being discussed on both the morning and afternoon shows on WSPD. That’s where I first heard of it.

I managed to get a copy and am sharing it here for all to see in its entirety, because I believe it’s important for people to know exactly what union leaders are thinking.

The title of the column, "Union haters are ignorant fools" might tell you all you need to know in terms of what officers of unions think of those who aren’t in a union. But, as I’ve said recently in other posts, when you start with an incorrect premise, you draw an incorrect conclusion.

In this case, the incorrect premise is that those who want to reign in the unsustainable public union compensation packages must ‘hate’ unions. Further, as the article makes clear, they have to be fools if they don’t agree completely with the union agenda.

But the article itself is dripping with ‘hate’ and derision toward people who see a problem and are trying to fix it. How else do you explain the use of the word "tea-bagger" – a sexually-explicit and intentionally derogatory term opponents (and even the media) have called members of the tea-party movement?

"Governors and Mayors, bankers and developers, Tea-Baggers and their conservative mouth-pieces are blaming unions for our economic woes. They complain about how much money union workers make and how opulent our benefits are while they give themselves and their pals pay raises and bonuses. Simultaneously, they introduce reckless anti-union bills in the name of budget balancing, while in reality these are nothing but thinly veiled union-busting tactics.

Why else would Senate Bill 5 contain language to the effect that public union members would only have to pay dues voluntarily?"

Let’s look at the ‘logic’ here…

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Yup, head on over and watch the slicing and dicing begin…

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