Now that I read your note I feel like I need to tell my pastor to sign me up for more youth events. I gave two Sunday lectures on the end of the world (Matthew 24-25) but other than that I usually just show up on Sunday and then go to the adult bible study meeting, You know how us Southern Baptists are — we spend 4 hours at church and think it was a short day!

Unions are always pressing, pressing, pressing. They press until there is nothing left to press. Then cry foul and play the victim, even though THEY are the bullys and the abusers.

Eons ago when the TINY union locals were fighting for safety for their workers unions did have their place. But now they have grown in to this obese parasite that devours that which sustains them.

On a MUCH MUCH tinier scale, I too am needing to deal with a similar problem. I am the volunteer director of our church’s library and have been given a yearly sum with which to run it. To buy books etc. We can “sell” certain material as Bibles and other material in order to be able to add to that funding.

This year, as everyone else struggles we as a church, are doing the same. I have just been notified that I may not get to use the full allotment assigned to us…due to a large fall off of funding.

I can scream foul and demand the full amount promised…OR…I can work with the team to make it through this tough spot. Much the same thing you are advocating for your situation. And I expect next year we will get less funding.

Team playing means everyone gives a little so more can at least have a piece of the pie and that we not “kill that goose”.

Why is that such a difficult concept for the libs to understand? Wonder what they will say when that goose does die?
These tough times are much of their own making but they don’t want to admit that do they? Only scream like an infant for their own self interests regardless of the harm that will befall all if they do get their way.

Unbelievable.

They talk the inclusion game, but peel the onion and it’s all about self interest. At crunch time, they couldn’t care less about the group.

In a nutshell, they are maniacally selfish. Not caring, not patriotic, not charitable, not understanding.

But VERY generous with the other guys money and assets.

My “union” (you’ll love this, jobeth) is the California Faculty Association, which represents instructors on all 23 “CSU” campuses. After years of being harrassed by the CFA, Gov. Schwarzeneggar had his day of revenge this year: He got to tell the CSU that there was a $580 million shortfall that simply could not be covered, because there was no money in the budget. The faculty ignored this warning for a while, assuming that the half billion would come from somewhere else, and we wouldn’t be in danger. Meanwhile, I quietly went and qualified for a US Army commission, so I would have a plan B. Thank God I did.

Ten days ago, the word finally came down to the faculty: Either we accept a 10% furlough and nobody has to get fired, or we lay off 10% of the faculty (that’s something in the neighborhood of 4,000 instructors, which as you can imagine, would devastate not only their families but the students.)

I’ve been forced to attend faculty meetings, which can be summarized with this transcript below. My words are in bold, the liberal anti-furlough self-serving hypocrite’s words are in plain text.

There’s not enough money to keep us all at our current salaries, so if we do not do furloughs, people will have to be laid off. Unemployment in real terms is close to 20% in Los Angeles County right now. The only humane thing to do is to override our union contract by a members vote, and negotiate furloughs with the administration.

The problem is capitalism! This is all a plot by the provost and the chancellor to undermine the hard work and courage we showed in the past to negotiate our salaries! We must show solidarity now. We cannot let them divide and conquer us. Stand together against furloughs!

Okay, thanks for that pep! But “solidarity” means, if I am not mistaken, staying together through tough times. I think solidarity means we all take a 10% pay cut and nobody gets fired. Solidarity doesn’t mean that the 10% who are going to get fired shut up while you keep your full salary..

This is a false choice, The adminsitration is trying to trick us. We should not be asked to take a vote which makes us responsible for our colleagues getting fired. Instead, we should refuse to vote at all, hold the administration to our contracts, and then force the administration to do the layoffs on their own account, thereby bringing public wrath down on them.

Wait, it isn’t a false choice. We have to cut $580 million out of our budget and 80% of the budget is salary and benefits. Unless you are willing to consider early retirements or giving up our pension benefits, the only way to cover head count is to shrink the head count or reduce per capita benefits, which is a furlough.

If layoffs must be done, then let the administration take the heat for them! It’s their fault we are in this mess. They refused to give us a 9% pay hike last year.

If they gave you a 9% pay hike last year, we would be in a bigger budget hole this year and you’d be looking at 19% furloughs or 19% of the faculty being laid off. And the ones to take “the heat” will be the union, because everyone knows we were offered a chance to opt for furloughs and we basically wanted to get away with rejecting furloughs without looking selfish. People aren’t stupid.

Do you know how much the administration is being paid? They are getting rich by making us fight amongst themselves. They should take pay cuts.

Good point. But do you think we can cover $580 million in budget deficits by cutting executive pay?

The problem is, we live in a society that only cares about money. Look at the wars we’re fighting. We should pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan and spend that money on education. If we weren’t run by corporations and taught to care only about money, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

Wait — aren’t you the one who only cares about money? I’m arguing for a furlough. You’re refusing to give up 10% of your pay, knowing it means I will be out of work. And the wars aren’t being funded by the state of California.

You need to stop being divisive. We have to stand together and not let them intimidate us.

With people like you teaching the leaders of tomorrow for the last 40 years, I can say, you have made our country what it is today!

Man! I couldn’t have said it better!

Maybe we can form a “Union”…(sarc)

We thought we did have one…”…a more perfect union…”

I hear you Yarddog..we all hear you…and feel the same pain and sadness.

uhh…