U.S. Unions to Propose "Second Bill of Rights"

On August 11th, virtually every union in the United States will gather to officially declare their advocacy for a Second Bill of Rights that includes the right to (quality) jobs, education at all levels, health care, to participation in political life, and of workers to collectively bargain for work terms. Just thought I'd promote the event here.

 

You can expect an enormous collective yawn from the public when and if this call actually happens. Big Labor makes itself more and more irrelevant and calls like this for "rights" that cannot possibly be fulfilled or reasonably asked for are the reason why.

 

These same Unions might as well have resided on the deck of the Titanic calling for new chairs for themselves.

 

Um... dont workers in the US already have the right to collectively bargain if they so choose? As for the rest of the demands, why is a Second Bill of Rights (stupid name) required?

 

You forgot a right that list requires....the 'right' to be an idiot about economics. It requires a firm belief in the free lunch to work.

 

I concur. Most of the demands of the union campaign are either privileges, or current rights, natural or positive, encompass them.

 

Privately, yes. Publicly, no. Privately, you can negotiate as a group with your employer, who has his own money to lose, and who wasn't put in that position by the same people now collectively negotiating with them. Publicly, however, it's different. Groups should not be able to negotiate terms of their compensation with the very people they helped to elect.

It isn't. It is only suggested to circumvent the very clear and pre-existing notion that rights are extremely limited and endowed by our Creator, and that no right can possibly exist which requires the sacrifice of others.

 

I'll just never understand those who claim the "right" to take things from other people.

 

A government permitted to issue positive "rights" is also permitted to take them away.

but authoritarian progressive leftists (collectivists)...even in the face of crumbling European "social democracies"... will never. ever. admit to such....

as they must continue selling the notion that acquiring the money to fund their "rights" to coerced and manipulated, outcome based "fairness", "social justice" and economic "equality"...
does NOT violate the natural and negative rights of others...

and is simply a matter of picking it off the money tree.

 

What is the right to participation in political life? I am pretty sure everyone in America has the right to vote, run for office, all you have to do is get off your lazy butt. You have no right to a job, you must earn a job and maintain a certain level of proficiency. Health care? I thought Obama gave everyone healthcare paid for by the evil rich middle class. Right to education, everyone in America has the opportunity for free education up to and including high school, and also has opportunity to go to higher education be it trade schools, or college for little to no money. Personally I do not see anything in there you can not already have, you just have to be willing to work for it.

Once again lazy people wanting everything easily and cheaply, maybe they should read a few history books and realize how easy they have it today.

 

So are they effectively advocating for the same type of document as the Soviet Union constitution of 1977?
Here is a link to it http://www.constitution.org/cons/ussr77.txt

Right to a job:

Right to healthcare

Right to education:

Right to participate in political life:

They also have right to housing!

Now before anyone jumps the gun and says I'm screaming its communism, I am not. I just linked to the soviet union constitution to prove a point. To do so first I have to discuss what rights truly are. They are things that one possesses innately such as ones labor, ones voice (not literal voice), ones time, ones right to own property, or ones life. You don't need someone to give these to you, everyone has them when they are born. Of course it's true that they can be taken from you; you may be forced into slavery, thrown in prison, robbed of you property, murdered etc. This is where government comes in. We the people have given it a monopoly on violence and entrusted it to use that to protect these rights, that is it's main job to stop individuals or other countries from violating these rights of the people.

When people who don't understand what rights are make up a bill of rights like this second one, we run into problems. If something has to be given to one by force it cannot possibly be a right, as force is only used in the violating of other's rights. To give everyone healthcare, education, jobs, etc. Force undoubtely must be used to ensure that happens, and that takes away the rights of the owner or provider of those things. Also when governments declare that everyone has a right to finite resources it gives politicians more power over the people as they get to actively decide how to distribute the resources. If history tells us anything its that as governments get more powerful they abuse it. If anyone disagrees feel free to show me the numerous examples in history of strong authoritative governments not abusing its own or other people.

All people suffer from the same self serving attitude, all be it to differing degrees. I see it every day in just minor interactions between people, and I know everyone else does to if they just pay attention. So why do some continue to advocate giving people power over others? That is what bill of rights like these, ones that don't understand what rights truly are advocate. I know people who support these kind of things do it emotionally as they want everyone to have all those things, a good job, a good education, healthcare, etc. Their hearts are in the right place, but the fact of the matter is these things are not rights, they are commodities, ones that are not infinite. Declaring everyone can have whatever they want regarding finite resources is just plain stupidity. It will lead to a host of other problems.

Government cannot make the perfect society as society itself is an abstract changing entity. We need to stop focusing on trying to fix these problems with a group of powerful people in a city far away, we need to stop abdicating everything to them, take responsibility and start by fixing things around us. Work hard, provide for your family, be nice to people, treat them with respect and kindness till they earn a reason not to, and help people who are in trouble or down and out. If more people took this kind of responsibility on their own society would be far better as a result. Instead we look for the easy way out, using government to get what we want, (*)(*)(*)(*) the consequences. I refuse to be like that, and cannot support such a farcical bill of rights.

 

Stealing is wrong, even when people use the government as their muscle.

 

I think its a good idea by organized labor to do this. Its time the American worker woke up.




On the other hand I believe that people have a right to:

Work for less

to have no employer supplied health benefits

Be fired for any reason on the whim of the employer

to have no pension plan

allow themselves to be retaliated upon for political participation the employer doesn't agree with

To have no mechanism to discuss issues in the work place because the manager is the final word

to work in an unsafe workplace

To have no quality of life in the workplace

The right not to unionize if they agree with the above.

 

"Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else." -- Frederic Bastiat

Collectivists exploit inherent flaws in the human condition to nurture and maximize the potential for such.

 

If these people simply improved their skillsets they could get jobs that offer everything they want, because valuable employees usually do get what they want... Its only the union slug who has no marketable skills that seeks government intervention where none is needed.

 

Unions and liberal morons have been trying to do this since FDR. Won't happen now either.

 

It's worse than this. It's unions, which are Democrat/liberal negotiating terms with politicians [mostly liberal/Democrat] for tax-payer money [Dem and GOP] without the taxpayers having a seat at the table. This is inherently wrong and the reason public unions need to be shut down.

 

Sorry, those are not rights and the fact that Unions would waste time on this fantasy shows that their influence is waning and they are trying desperately to get some attention.

 

Obviously not. Check out Wisconsin for example. In connection to collective bargaining, what the unions are proposing is that such a right be enshrined in the U.S. Constitution as part of the aforementioned Second Bill of Rights so that individual states (like Wisconsin) cannot ban it.

 

Communism anyone? Move to (*)(*)(*)(*)ing china you union fools.

 

Don't they already have a socialist manifesto?

_

 

Because a "Bill to Enrich Unions" wouldn't sell. My personal favorite is the "right to a (quality) job." I think it's safe to say that such a "quality" job doesn't exist when deadbeats are considering work. I would like to see joining a union, or not, as a right of Americans regardless of the state they live in, the career field they choose, or the specific job they get.

 

You find nothing onerous about organized government labor aligning with collectivist politicians
to extort higher wages, better benefits and pensions (private sector employee: "what's a pension?") than the citizens and taxpayers they ostensibly serve?

You can find no deleterious ramifications to organized government labor having access and power to arbitrarily coerece and manipulate labor markets to their liking?

As you are undoubtedly bright, I suspect you can and do....but, being an authoritarian collectivist with an agenda, simply don't care.

 

Which would be an incredible miscarriage of justice, and legislatively corrupting into the system. Can you not see the insipid danger in allowing taxpayer money to be used by one group to both elect - and then negotiate compensation with - politicians?

 

This is a joke. Unions have no power. Anyone in a 'right to work' state knows how easily unions can be busted, and republicans are pushing for 'right to work' on a national level. Yet, no call from democrats to abolish 'right to work' on a national level. Democrats have had as much control of DC as republicans in modern history. The collapse of the middle class is as much their responsibility as the republicans, yet unions still throw money at one and demonize the other? Retarded. Not to mention FED policy which devalues money far faster than wages can ever keep up, supported by democrats, as well. Let's not talk about globalism, free trade/outsourcing, which democrats are as much responsible for.

Might as well be, "Unions of people in states where they still have power, and jobs haven't been outsourced as they are lucky enough to have chosen a field that can't be, call for a 2nd bill of rights!". Yippy skippy. I'm sure a whole lot will change.