A few odds and ends that I've found in my news wanderings:
Only in the mind of a union thug is it all right to pay workers $6 an hour and send them out for a day shift in 104 degree weather without much of a hint of shade. To top it off, they're picketing a place where the starting salary is 25% or more higher than the $6 per hour (no benefits) that these workers are making.
But this is happening in Las Vegas, where the local UFCW union is sending day laborers to picket one of the new Wal-Mart "Neighborhood Markets." (Hat tip goes to Suitably Flip for this one.)
It's not a new tactic. Being from one of the top 5 union markets per capita I've seen my share of picketers, mostly Teamsters or UAW since Toledo is heavily a manufacturing center (think of Jeeps.) But most of the labor unrest there in the last decade has come from the UFCW as various grocery chains have moved into town and some other non-union retailers expanded into the grocery business.
The first dust-up was when Michigan-based Meijer, a "superstore" that featured both general merchandise and groceries, moved into the area in the early 1990's. The local UFCW union struck them in the late 1990's when Meijer's management wouldn't raise wages quickly enough to "catch up" to the other more established chains. They also had a showdown with Kroger a couple years later where a strike was narrowly averted.
But the fangs came out when Giant Eagle moved to town. This chain expanded westward from Cleveland and remained non-union. Oddly enough, I think their northeast Ohio stores are unionized but the stores in the Toledo area have remained non-union. And almost every nice weekend I would drive by Giant Eagle to see the picketers out imploring shoppers not to patronize the non-union store. Of course, I drove by them and shopped there anyway...a nice store with decent prices on their loss leaders and good service. But I found it funny when I'd drive by and see their "workers" sitting around, or, the best one who I saw sleeping in his truck with the sign hanging out the window. Wish I could make $8 an hour for sleeping.
The picketers at Giant Eagle disappeared though when Wal-Mart came to town. Apparently UFCW Local 911 had bigger fish to fry. There were pickets, radio ads (even during Rush), newspaper ads...they pulled out all the stops. Even the city of Toledo bent over backwards for the union. Wal-Mart stores were approved for the city of Toledo proper IF they didn't carry groceries.
So union thuggery is nothing new to Wal-Mart. But back to these workers baking in the hot Las Vegas sun. As I stated, the union pays these people $6 an hour, with two 15-minute breaks allowed in their 5 hour shift - potty breaks at the service station washroom across the street. The union transports them back and forth, except on weekends, where these folks have to find their own way to work.
All this because the UFCW claims that Wal-Mart shortchanges their workers, who make more than the picketers do and can get health insurance through the company for as little as $141 a month for a basic family policy (or $35 a month for individuals.) Obviously picketing is now a job that the Vegas unionistas turn up their nose at - must be too hot to sleep in the truck.
Reading an item from TheGoldwater tonight (props to him for digging this up) regarding Charity Hospital in NOLA. It's a hospital that stayed open as long as it could during the crisis but ran out of generator power only a few hours after the lights went out. Sadly, this proved too much for many patients who died as a result.
His take is sort of a Jim Crow-revisited tale with an almost conspiritorical tone. Charity Hospital is in one of the poorest areas of New Orleans. With decrepit facilities and not a lot of money coming in, this sad situation was pretty much foreseeable.
But I wanted to use this story as a parable of another sort. Along the same vein, many of the hospitals in southern California have shuttered their ERs or closed entirely because of an influx of people who they have to treat by federal mandate but who cannot pay. I do not have a problem with the treatment mandate, although it could be handled more properly at state levels (an argument for another time) - but this is what happens when business and government clash.
In a nutshell, services that Charity Hospital provided were becoming more and more costly, but the payments they received for doing them became less and less. So Charity had to scrimp someplace - in their case, they gambled that their facilities would hold together just enough to pass muster with JCAHO and other hospital regulators. Which they did.
But much like what would happen if you plugged a leaking dike with chewing gum, at some point things are going to break and it won't be pretty. In this case, it was tragic and needlessly so.
There's a big problem with the system as it is. The trouble is that the health care market is way out of whack. Part of that is the redundancy that is built in so doctors aren't accused of malpractice. So each prodding, poking, and test is a "out" in case the doctor is off on his diagnosis. But these cost money. Of course, "you" don't pay for it, the insurer does. And that's great until the premiums and co-pays go up. To turn a phrase, health care insurers ain't in it for their health. They need to make money, otherwise they go out of business!
Then we have the people who extract big money from the Medicare program. If you watch TV for any length of time, you'll likely see a commercial aimed at the older folk for mobility chairs. They seem to be the latest rage in getting Medicare to pay for a big-ticket item that may or may not be necessary. But hey, it's not money out of "their" pocket - until the government has to raise the Medicare premiums. Then it's hissy fit time at the AARP!
It's time for a look at reforming the system. Eventually we have to ease the government out of it. Newt Gingrich was right - Medicare should eventually "wither on the vine," replaced by a fairer privatized system that benefits the patient but doesn't spoil them with extras unless the patient is willing to pay extra.
Finally tonight, I was perusing the FU! Maryland site and they were posting about the MSTA teachers' union complaining about the Steele Report on Maryland's schools. (Note: I didn't read the report, it's 57 pages long.) The gist of the MSTA's complaints were almost all money based - pensions and starting salary. Meanwhile, they were also up in arms about any sort of accountability. No teacher testing for them!
Makes you wonder why homeschooling continues to grow, huh?
