All discussion inherently has a bias from the person exposing theory opinion. That said, I am very anti union as they exist today. There was a time when unions were necessary and perhaps they still are in certain sectors of industry, but the union long ago ceased being about protecting the worker and became a behemoth of power that abuses that role as.Mich as any other organization of clout.

Espousing their opinion. part autocorrect part type.

I agree with Draugnar that unions have no place in today's workforce. They are a bunch of thinly-veiled thugs who love to extort money from taxpayers.

In today's technology-oriented, connected society it would be very hard for companies or governments to exploit workers. The public outcry from any publicized mistreatment of workers is more effective than any union. Unions are leftover from a different era.

"All discussion inherently has a bias from the person exposing theory opinion."
Yeah, my request was more of a reflection on the way these types of threads tend to develop rather than an actual hope.

So you see no redeeming quality in unions? Surely they are marked difference between the U.S. and other less-developed labor markets?

Aside from the union debate, how about the recall in general? Is it out of line to recall a governor over a political issue? Have Walker's reforms done well for the state? Or was it always intended to be more of a long-term plan?

i AM NOT FROM TEH STATE, BUT i THINK HE SAID HE WAS GOING TO BALANCE THE BUDGET, AND the question right now, is...has he>?

jmeyersd: You inspired me to type in the following into Google:
wisconsin recall election

The first thing that came up was this:
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/Governors/2012/0604/Why-did-Dems-spend-so-little-on-Wisconsin-recall-election

That's pretty disillusioning. If the Democrats don't have enough money to contest in one gubernatorial election, then what hope do they have for the future? Republican propaganda has been omnipresent for years, but with the recent court cases it's becoming much more open. I don't even know why I'm typing this; all I'm doing is wasting time stating the obvious.

Draugnar: "All discussion inherently has a bias" – That is why 'bias' doesn't exist.

Gunfighter06: If you think there's no exploitation in the States you live under a rock.

@JMeyers - Please compare apples and oranges. I was referring to the current place of modern day unions in the US (Wisconsin is a state after all). Developing countries are where the US was at the turn of the 19th century when unions were needed. I didn't say unions were never necessary (I said the opposite infact).

Walker is doing the job he was elected to do. There is no reason for him to be in this election. Just another tactic from the left to change results they don't like.

Government worker unions must be stopped. Here in California, we didn't. As a result, we've gone from being one of the lower taxed states thirty years ago to having the highest taxes west of the Mississippi today to pay for all the government workers (many of whom make 3-4 times what they would be making if they didn't have a government job) and their defined benefit pensions (that in many cases allow the government workers to retire with six figure pensions at the ripe old age of 50).

The state has been mired in a depression for years now, with real unemployment rates in the 20+% range for the productive sector. California is consistently rated the worst state in the nation for business climate, largely due to the high taxes to pay for all the government workers (and the hideous regulations they enforce as well). I'm hopefully going to be leaving this state early next year, I simply can't survive here any more.

If Wisconsin fails to stand up to the government workers' unions now, your state will be next!

@Draug I've been a union worker and my husband still is. I can say without a doubt that in some cases an union is necessary. Not everywhere, but in a place like UPS absolutely. I've seen what management has tried to do and I've seen the Union step in to correct some less the okay work conditions. And even as connected as we are today the bigger companies can still cover things up.

Unions serve a useful purpose to force companies to respect worker's rights and help enforce the law when governments don't. Managements would gladly cut everything that they can to increase profits.

I wish a union had existed when I was a teaching assistant and found that the administration was pocketing our COLAs for themselves.

The Unions are controlled by George Soros,who also funded voter fraud groups like ACORN. The Unions give billions of dollars to Obamas campaign, and are absolutely not necessary. In the words of Nikki Haley, Unions are "not needed, not wanted, and not welcome" in her state or anywhere. It's time to get rid of all Unions. Please Wisconsin, reelect Scott Walker!

Some things never cease to amaze me. Unions are virtually powerless in the United States and represent only a small percentave of the workforce. If there is any country that needs its syndicates revitalized it's the United States. How most of you don't see that I don't know.

Unions make it next to impossible to terminate bad employees and teacher unions in particular allow our children to be abused with impunity.

king daniel the best: Please, tell me more about how ACORN is frauding voters.

Bad employees can be fired. Management just has to actually take the time to do all the paperwork. In my experience the union did more benefit then harm at UPS. But that's only in what I saw.

And yeah when a company had 2 people die last summer and no media ever found out yeah I think there needs to be some employee over sight. When a safety manage threatens peoples jobs when they report an injury and she doesn't want her safety numbers to go down. Yeah I think an Union is a kinda important thing to have.

Draugnar: You live in Cincinnati. Who the hell around you is saved from 'termination' for belonging to a union? I've only heard of teachers not being able to be fired, but I assure you that a teacher who is only accused of abusing children is in serious danger of losing his or her job.

@JECE - Just review the news for the last year. They were caught redhanded paying for votes. Duh!

Draugnar: Oh, of course. How could I miss that?

For clarifications sake, that was sarcastic. Produce a reputable link if you wish, but I'm more than just a little skeptical about such an accusation, especially since ACORN has been hounded for years for no apparent reason.

www.rottenacorn.com/activityMap.html

Read this, there's your link

Here's another
pjmedia.com/blog/the-complete-guide-to-acorn-voter-fraud/

"for no apparant reason"??? Gimme a break.

@JECE - I'm on a phone or would get a link to a major news source, but did you not see the sting operation where the ACORN folks were recorded via ballcap cam offering a bribe to vote their way and to go collect others, paying for each *democrat* regisration brought in? ACORN execs were convicted. OK, here is a link after all.

http://spectator.org/blog/2011/04/15/acorn-obamas-favorite-gangster?nomobile=1

@Draugnar. Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that one.

If Walker was on the opposite side of the political spectrum and had done something dramatic and controversial to strengthen the unions, I would still oppose his recall. A recall election should not be abused as a political tactic. It is merely a democratic way for the people to get a redress of grievances against a governor who has behaved inappropriately or otherwise failed to execute the duties of his respective office.

I can respect that. I'm in Chicago,. so I've been hearing some but not a ton about the recall. Is it split Dem vs Rep on the issue or no?

Why should capital get to organize for its own advancement but labor be forbidden the same rights?