Unions and Voting....

[GT98]

Well its coming up on election time in the USA on the 8 of November. My question is do you know anyone or are you in a Union yourself and does your unions selection of a candidate infulance who your voting for at all??

I know of one of the sticking points of the New Airport Securty bill is the federatation of all Airport Securty workers. the Repubican party doesn't want this because they dont want another 28K Federal Workers and it would also make firing of people who dont perform to specs harder to do and not to mention expanding the payroll which would mean more taxes etc. Democats are for this idea and the news pushes that one of the reasons for this is that Democrats could possible get another x amount of people to vote for them because they would Unionize etc.

I dont get this whole Union=Democat party deal thing. I know that Unions usally tell their people to Vote Democat for the most part, but find this assine that someone would be so stupid/shallow/etc to vote for someone just because they are in a union and they got told to vote for them. I'm personally an Indepent myself, though I do vote Repubican it seems most of the time. I personally like to vote for who I think will do the best job when comes down to it and it doesn't matter who or what party they are from and I'm sure as hell not gonna let someone tell me who to vote for.

Anyone else got comments suggestions etc?

Scott

[RedRed]

GT

Think about the issues you are intrested in. Think about who you feel will service those issues best. Put your X in the box you feel adresses your issues.

Dont give a damn about your union. They can recommend, they should do no more.

RedRed

[GT98]

Red,

LOL I dont even belong in a union and I vote for who I think would be the best canidate. It just kills me that a potical party should be scared just because a group might favor the other party and suggest who there people who vote for.

Scott

[Dr Mordrid]

The influence of unions has been going way down in the US for over 20 years, basically since the Carter presidency and the 1980 election where Ronald Regan was elected.

Since then a lot of middle road or conservative Democrats became very disaffected with their partys post-1980 swing to the nutball left and moved into the independent catagory or became Republicans. Reduced union support followed due to the philosophical connections between the nutball left and the majority of the union leadership councils.

I know of this very well since I was a health care union official (negotiation committee, trustee etc.) during the '80's and saw it happen first hand. Who would have thought, 'eh?

Clinton won by talking like a moderate Democrat while supporting Republican legislation, esp. after the congressional takeover by the Republicans in 1994.

Dr. Mordrid

[cjolley]

I was in a union for twenty years and I don't ever remember being asked to vote for a Party.
Unions support Democrats for the same reason the Chamber of Commerce supports Republicans.
Same goes for individual members.
It just depends on which side of the bread your butter is on.
chuck

PS. Haven't we already tried private airline security?

[Dr Mordrid]

Where were you? In our union, which was AFL-CIO, the membership got their election marching orders on a regular basis!!

It got so pervasive that the disaffection I mentioned earlier became an epidemic, esp. when the Dems started nominating morons like Dukakis.

Dr. Mordrid

[GT98]

I know what your talking about Unions not knowing elbow from their ****ole at times. My dad works for Ford Motor Company and thus is part of the UAW...If I remember right they all suggested voting for democratic presidents in the past 20 years....

Scott

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup...and that disconnect is huge in Michigan. Here we are the home of the UAW and Teamsters, but the union voters have been instrumental in electing a Republican governor and legislature for many years.

The only reason Michingan (and a lot of other states) ended up with their electoral votes going for Clinton was the splitting of the Republican vote by Perot. Without him on the ticket Clinton would have never been president in the first place.

Dr. Mordrid

[spoogenet]

This isn't only a union phenomenon, however. There are many groups that lobby for such things. Many religious groups, for example, tend to push for certain candidates. Other organizations such as the NAACP do it as well. It's not just unions.

And I think in every case, you will find people who will blindly vote for who they're told to vote for, and you will find people who vote for what they personally feel important. Often times, however, I think you will find that many of the people find enough issues personally important that are aligned with who the group is pushing. Simply a case of people grouping with others who are similar to themselves. And this is why candidates tend to go and hold rallies with unions, religious groups, and other organizations to strengthen support....

b

[The PIT]

Nothing worse than voting blindly for someone or voting for a party just becuase you father did.
At one time (Okay this isn't Union voting ) in Sheffield you could have put a monkey up for election and it would win. It took years off mismanagement before People voted Labour out in the local electons. Unfortunaley the present incumbants are just as clueless.

[RedRed]

Pit
I second that!

And Third it too!!

Our local council are terrible, though we dont have labour/conservative/liberals here..... We have 3 flavours of Unionist, 2 of Nationalist and the Womans Coalition (center ish)!!!! No politics as such... tribal sniping.....


GT 98
I am sorry I might have come accross a little 'fatherly'. I didnt follow your original post, and took the wrong end of the stick....


Mordrid
What area of Healthcare do/did you work in? I work in a community / psychiatric healthcare park (state run).

Regards
RedRed