5 comments:

• Joanne Bobin posted at 4:45 pm on Thu, Dec 16, 2010.

  Posts: 3256

  Mr. Dunn questions the need for unions...I have never been employed in a position that has had union representation, but I have seen many employer abuses in businesses that do not have a union.

  Most recently, a friend whom is employed here in Lodi at a "hardware" chain told me that most of the full-time employees who were not "department leads" were approached by management with very petty "violations" such as "talking to other employees too much," "calling in sick and not getting someone else to cover their shift," (a management responsibility in reality), or "not completing an assigned list of duties" for the day. The employees were told that they could either go to a "part-time" position (reducing their hours from 32/week to 8/week) or face a 90 day write-up during which just a single mis-step would lead to termination. If anyone believes that employer abuses have been eliminated and unions are not needed, they should try checking out the real world outside of their own safe little bubble.

  I have seen numerous employers feed off of employee ignorance of the law in order to intimidate employees into complying with the employer's desires. It is also sad that management is so willing to throw their long-time employees under the bus in order to comply with upper management decisions. These people have no character and, in reality, should be counting the days before upper management tosses them on the dung heap, too, when they are no longer useful.

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• Darrell Baumbach posted at 5:47 am on Thu, Dec 16, 2010.

  Posts: 9403

  Ms Bobin is right, to be fair, Mr. Harmer did accept money from oil companies and banks… and of course Haliburton. I didn’t do the math, since Ms Bobin is making the point that unions for McNerney balance the big business contributions for Harmer, what percentage of total contributions for Harmer , came from Big business and what percentage of contributions to McNerney came from unions. Since she is equating corruption of big business and big unions as a balance to both candidates, it would make sense to compare what percentage of each campaign got their money from sources where the money is tainted. That way, the level of corruption of each candidate can better be assessed. Good point Ms Bobin!! You sound like you are becoming like an independent observer, Fair and Balanced. Did I get this right or did I misspeak? (I’m making the assumption above that Big business is equally corrupt as unions)

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• Joanne Bobin posted at 5:54 pm on Wed, Dec 15, 2010.

  Posts: 3256

  Give me a break here...Harmer is supported by BIG OIL and BIG BANKS. If anything, unions vs. big corporations is an equalizer. HALIBURTON? Makes you wonder why Haliburton wants a Republican in the House. Obvious...they want to continue their corruption. I hope that Nigeria is successful in prosecuting the most corrupt Vice-President in recent history...Dick Cheney.

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• Bill Dunn posted at 4:43 pm on Wed, Dec 15, 2010.

  Posts: 2

  As I scrolled through the donations I actually started to chuckle. It's obvious to McNerney will have his hands full with the unions for quite some time. It's actually a shame that he's going to be able to stand up and say he is a representative of the people. clearly he is not. It's obvious he's a representative of the unions. I question whether there is even a need for unions anymore. It would be my fervent wish that political entities and unions are. Should be barred from making contributions. Mr. McNerney is just another card in the system. I met Mr. Harmer and asked him point blank what he has to offer the people. His answer was what ever they want. It's obvious that Mr. McNerney can't make that claim.

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• Craig Cawelti posted at 12:33 pm on Wed, Dec 15, 2010.

  Posts: 36

  McNerney = Union bought

  Harmer = citizen supported

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