Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.

Unions are great for union workers.
They boost pay and benefits to levels that drive companies to offshore jobs and lay people off, or even fold completely.
They protect bad employees from being fired, so the good ones have to work in a hostile environment.
They also make it necessary to place large numbers of people in limbo.
Just ask the Providence, Rhode Island teachers.
Every one of the 1,926 teachers have been given notice that they may be let go.
The district had to send out the notifications in order to meet requirements that call for advanced notification of any job actions.
Now these teachers can fret and worry until the last day of school, when final decisions will list those actually being cut.

Lay off first responders and install expensive art

Ann Arbor Michigan is laying off firefighters.
No big surprise there; it is happening all over (partly as a political) tactic.
The ugly surprise is that they are funding an $850K piece of water sculpture at the same time.
One reason things like this happen is the rigid way government funding is controlled.
If money is allocated for pink flamingos, you can't spend it on paving roads unless you go through a difficult process.
Lack of flexibility is exactly why we don't want government health care.
This is the kind of thinking you get when the government caters to an elite, rather than the people.
They are more than willing to guilt us into raising our taxes by threatening first responders and teachers (the teachers thing doesn't work as well these days).

Governor Patterson "Deaf" to The People

The people of New York know that times are tough.
Government workers know things are tough.
They are being furloughed and laid off to help deal with massive deficits.
Governor Patterson is not hearing any of this!
He has just raised the salaries of his own staff by as much as 29%!
As Bugs Bunny would say: "What a Maroon!"

BTW, It is hard to feel sorry for the union employees after reading this: ""It's a slap in the face to state employees who have had their raise delayed and are threatened with the loss of another 20 percent pay per week through the furloughs," said Public Employees Federation spokeswoman Darcy Wells.


So, they still have jobs and are still going to get the raise.
Wanna trade buddy?
Lots of people out there have no job at all.

Gotta Love Unions

Flint Michigan had to lay off firefighters due to budget cuts. Politicians seem to pick on first responders, the elderly, and children when they need to cut the fat. Is it that they feel they have more leverage by picking on these groups, or is it that they would never cut their own numbers or get rid of the faceless bureaucrats that can really gum up the gears if they are upset about their job security?

Thanks to American Thinker, I found that Eric at Classical Values puts the stories covering the suspicious results of the firefighter layoffs here: http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2010/04/the_statement_h.html

Will they will catch the arsonists and make them pay for hurting firefighters?