When every single Republican is anti-union, why are so many DUers anti-union too?

[TygrBright]

111. So.... nonprofit employees don't need protections against labor exploitation?

I am old enough to remember what it was like working for the County before AFSCME.

It was possible to sleep or bribe your way to promotion; some did. And some who weren't "pretty enough" or got "too old" were fired from secretarial jobs or demoted to mailrooms, because, hey, being decorative for the public was a BFOQ.

There were no public pensions until/unless you worked more than twenty years for the same governmental unit in the same job classification, social security was supposed to be enough for anyone. And your savings. Of course, you had to factor in, back then, that your "savings" would very likely be based on a wage pretty close to what you started at, because there were no rules at all about having to give you a cost of living increase, review your performance and give you a raise based on how much better you were at the job having done it for a few years than when you came in off the street. And for many of those "cushy government jobs," that was minimum wage: A buck-sixty an hour.

Supposing, like a colleague of mine, you'd been hired as a Unit Secretary, but because the Unit Administrator was "off sick" most of the time (funny, she just *happened* to be the sister-in-law of a County Commissioner, so she was never disciplined or fired for being gone more than she was there,) you were doing most of her job, too. And then, when another Unit Administrator position fell vacant, you wanted to apply for that job?

But by the time you got your application in, the position was already filled, by a reception clerk from Road Maintenance who hadn't Clue One about the work of a County Benefits unit? Well, tough noogies for you, toots. Complain TOO much and your boss is likely to start leaning on you, with extra assignments, nitpicking your day-to-day tasks, claiming you took long lunches even though you ate at your desk, and generally letting you know that you'd better shut up or either be fired or transferred to the Building Inspection department where they needed someone to take phone messages?

And godz of all denominations help you if, in your work as a Child Protection Worker, you filed a formal complaint against a judge who kept remanding horrifically abused children back to their abusers because "it's better for them to work things out in the family home." I won't even begin to describe the world of hurt that would descend on you, without a union at your back to require due process in your extended bureaucratic evisceration.

C'mere, let me whisper a little secret in your ear-- something no one wants a sweet, kind-hearted, well-intentioned person like you to know: "Nonprofit organizations and government entities abuse their employees, too."

tiredly,
Bright