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In the hours leading up to and those after the SEIU members walked out on strike on July 3rd, reports were filed with the police departments in Danbury, Newington and Stamford that include such incidents as:

   "...clean linens being thrown on the floor to more serious incidents whereby patients' identification wrist bands were removed as well as patient identifiers on room doors and wheelchairs....[T]he persons involved are presumed to be employees who are part of a protest taking place outside against the Danbury Health Care Center." [Source: Danbury Police Department Incident Report.]
   "Also of note for disruptive behavior that occurred prior to the employee labor strike was: The name tags on patient's doors for the Alzheimer's ward were mixed up. The photos attached to the medical records for these patients were removed further complicating, but not making impossible the identification of the patients. Also dietary blue stickers affixed to the door name tags were removed. Again, there would be unrestricted, unsupervised access to the areas that that occurred." [Source: Newington Police Department Crime/Incident Report]
   In Stamford, the glass door to the industrial washing machine was shattered. In the officer's comments, the following was noted: "Local 1199 of S.E.I.U. union is going on strike at 6:00 am on Tuesday 7/3/12 (may be related)." [Source: Stamford Police Department Incident Report]

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At my old summer job, the student employees weren't unionized but the rest of the employees are. The majority would take advantage of that by taking all of their days off (seasonal workers that need a month off... yesh), generally doing things they weren't supposed to, ignoring the people that were visiting...
One of the employees is so incompetent, she's had many, many, many complaints from people about her, she takes days off without calling in, she skips out on work, takes a million breaks throughout the day and she's guaranteed to never be fired.

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"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool
than to speak out and remove all doubt."

Yeah, there's a lot potential for abuse in unions. But it goes both ways.

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You create your past.

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I've investigated really corrupt unions. The MUNI (buses, cable cars, light rail) union here in San Francisco, for example, is run by the same people who run MUNI--paper pushers with half million dollar salaries. MUNI drivers are paid very well, but they don't get things like bathroom breaks or reasonable hours. If you're on a jam-packed bus and it suddenly stops at a Safeway--that's why. Their union dues go--well they aren't allowed to know where it goes. A typical union meeting consists of union execs screaming at the drivers about how they don't deserve to know shit. All the fare money gets sucked into the administrative black hole. I pulled some CIA hat tricks and found out there are six-figure positions in MUNI administration which don't actually exist. Meaning the money is going...somewhere.

Yeah, there's a lot potential for abuse in unions. But it goes both ways.

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Quote: from shadowpool at 1:04 pm on July 18, 2012

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I've investigated really corrupt unions. The MUNI (buses, cable cars, light rail)  union here in San Francisco, for example, is run by the same people who run MUNI--paper pushers with half million dollar salaries. MUNI drivers are paid very well, but they don't get things like bathroom breaks or reasonable hours. If you're on a jam-packed bus and it suddenly stops at a Safeway--that's why. Their union dues go--well they aren't allowed to know where it goes. A typical union meeting consists of union execs screaming at the drivers about how they don't deserve to know shit. All the fare money gets sucked into the administrative black hole. I pulled some CIA hat tricks and found out there are six-figure positions in MUNI administration which don't actually exist. Meaning the money is going...somewhere.  

 Yeah, there's a lot potential for abuse in unions. But it goes both ways.

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The reasons unions were once important have mostly been alleviated in America.

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I agree. We should pass union busting laws. Specifically because unions are getting soft. The moment we outlaw them, cities will shut down. Workers will form REAL unions. The communication necessary to achieve this inevitable outcome will fix any lack of compassion.

Also, I don't know anything about the specific case that you mentioned, but usually when you see things like that happen, the shocking facts are completely false and or conditions were crappy enough to justify the temporary lapse in service. Things like severe under-staffing justify strikes because the patients are in danger anyway.

Media is also highly politicized and willing and able to use things like fake video footage and pictures. Businesses have also been known to plant false evidence against workers. This is first-hand experience. Most protesting peoples who actually want demands met avoid grotesque actions because they attract bad press.

Even if some union workers did do those horrible things, we should be careful about the laws we pass. We tend to have to live with them.

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You create your past.

If all the workers were union, and in Conn you can bet they were, how would the evidence be false? And why would ANYONE use the excuse that the patients were in danger to make the situation even more dangerous?

Why are there laws that force people to join a union just to get a job?

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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...
It's learning how to dance in the rain
I don't always talk to liberal art students;
but when I do, I tell them Big Mac with no onions.

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To be honest, there's good things and bad things with unions. But the worst thing is that people take advantage of being protected by a union so much that from the outside looking it, it's a pretty bad situation.

At my old summer job, the student employees weren't unionized but the rest of the employees are. The majority would take advantage of that by taking all of their days off (seasonal workers that need a month off... yesh), generally doing things they weren't supposed to, ignoring the people that were visiting...  
One of the employees is so incompetent, she's had many, many, many complaints from people about her, she takes days off without calling in, she skips out on work, takes a million breaks throughout the day and she's guaranteed to never be fired.

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It's crazyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

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We're all messed up some way.