Blaming Unions

Are public unions our convenient economic scapegoats? - Fortune Management:

"'...Unionized workers didn't sow the seeds of the economic downturn, deregulation of the financial industry did,' says Robert Bruno, a University of Illinois professor of labor and employment relations. 'We've suffered billions in losses because of greed, gross mismanagement and illegal activity in the financial industry.'

'Unions are an easy target because the largest cost in a state budget is always labor,' says Bruno, who studies employee and union issues. 'Why are we scapegoating teachers? Is the American love affair with capitalism so irrational that it knows no bounds?'

Joseph Slater at Toledo's law school agrees: 'It's easy to paint a portrait of public workers as overpaid, not working very hard and being fat cats on the tax dollar. But there's no correlation between collective bargaining and the state budget crises...'"

Comment on the above post by Ryan:

 "Huh. Take away rights from workers, blame the middle class for the deficit, put the money back into the pockets of the rich. Sounds like the Republicans are back in charge. To the person that said that liberals will be the death of this country - you can think that if you want, but Republican economic policy (deregulation, tax cuts for wealthy and business, curtailing worker rights, and eliminating social programs) has been killing this country ever since Reagan took office. Those economic policies are coming home to roost in a fatally corrupt financial sector and a government more worried about self-preservation than the will of the people."

Painful joke making the rounds:
‎"A public union employee, a tea party activist, and a CEO are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies in the middle of it. The CEO takes 11 of the cookies, turns to the tea partier and says, 'Watch out for that union guy. He wants a piece of your cookie.'"