I guess that it was less of a threat to the Boy Scout than it was to his job:
Boy Scout brouhaha spurs Lehigh Valley union chief to quit post
Local Service Employees International head says he was just trying to protect jobs
By Jarrett Renshaw
Allentown union official Nick Balzano has been a political punching bag all week because he threatened to file a grievance against the city for allowing a Boy Scout to clear a walking path in a city park.
Three days of taking body blows nationally from conservative pundits, a rebuke from the Lehigh Valley’s congressman and even a lashing from his own union led Balzano to voluntarily resign his position Thursday as head of the local Service Employees International Union.
Balzano said he and seven other executive officers of the local SEIU stepped down.
”I am proud of the work I and the rest of the executive board have done over the years,” he said.
He had ”nothing against Boy Scouts” and was just ”trying to protect my jobs,” said Balzano, who had served as union president for nearly a decade.
The controversy began last week when Balzano warned that the union may file a grievance against the city after officials allowed a local Boy Scout to clear a 1,000-foot walking path in Kimmets Lock Park.
SEIU should change their name to the Roofer’s Union – They want to cover every job. SEIU’s mistake was not unionizing the Boy Scouts.
Poor, poor Andy Stern, his purple shirted goon squad picked on the wrong group. But I guess a wheelchaired diabetic blackman wasn’t nearby this time to rough up.
Further down in the story, the article noted that the SEIU had “distanced” itself from Mr Balzano’s comments:
So after all, as I initially said on the other thread, Balzano spoke as an individual, and did not represent his union.
Yorkshire, your hatred of the union movement really sucks! One reason the working class is hurting so badly is because corporate execs have not rewarded them for their productivity gains, which have been increasing year to year for at least two decades. But apparently you are just fine with stagnant wages for the middle class, while that paid to executives has skyrocketed. Get real, Yorkshire!
Rather, he stopped speaking for them once his words backfired. Had Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin not picked up this story, Mr Balzano would still be the local union president.
Except, of course, we’re not talking about those evil ol’ corporations here, but a city government. The employers are the taxpayers, not rich CEOs.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: unions for private sector companies have to have some sense of balance: they can’t make their demands so exorbitant that the company can no longer sell its product competitively. Unions for the public sector don’t face that economic constraint, because their employers have the power to compel higher “sales” by raising taxes. The public sector managers — mayors, governors, and their management minions — don’t run companies which can fail.
Labor unionism has always suffered from an “us against them” mentality when it comes to corporate management, but at least in the private sector the unions know that they can’t force “them” into bankruptcy.
Perry:
Yorkshire, your hatred of the union movement really sucks! One reason the working class is hurting so badly is because corporate execs have not rewarded them for their productivity gains, which have been increasing year to year for at least two decades. But apparently you are just fine with stagnant wages for the middle class, while that paid to executives has skyrocketed. Get real, Yorkshire!
I grew up with my father in a Union. I really enjoyed what they did for him. They went on strike three months at a time every two or three years. Any increase in wages was lost and he never made them up. The union did a great job for his pension – No Cost of Living Increases. I worked for a few Union contractors. They would help keep the price of work high and lost projects. Yeah Perry, I’m a real fan of Unions. In my life I saw more harm than good. Kind of jades your outlook when you don’t see an upside.
Yeah, I liked it too when the Union at the CAT plant in York had a year long strike there and chased 2000 high paying jobs out of town 12 years ago and they never came back. But that Union stuck to their guns. They really showed CAT who was boss. Plant sat idle for years, now low wage jobs are moving into the space.
“His comments were completely unauthorized and they do not reflect the position or views of the union,” wrote area leader of the SEIU’s Mid-Atlantic District Wayne MacManiman in an apology letter to Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski.
“The careless and insensitive comments were prompted by frustration over recently laid-off workers in Allentown,” MacManiman wrote Wednesday.
I would be curious to know if there had not been any pushback to Balzano’s statement, would SEIU leadership have felt the need to get in front of this? Regardless, it’s a breath of fresh air to see the power the average citizen still has in this country to stand against union thuggery.
Reminds me of visiting my former brother-in-law in Phoenix during the Carter years. He was a Journeyman carpenter, trying to feed a wife and four kids. During those years, I always used to show up with a 12-pack. He’d been going down to the union hall every morning for four months, hoping to hear his name called for possible work, always to no avail. When I opened his refrigerator, there was a jug of ice water, a bowl of macaroni salad, and a half of an avocado. After stowing the brew, I shut the door and turned to see a copy of the latest union magazine sitting on the kitchen table. On the cover were all these top union execs in three-piece suits sitting down at what had to be a $500 per plate political dinner. The headline read, “WHAT YOUR UNION IS DOING FOR YOU”. While it was hard to tell what the union was doing for him, it was real easy to see what the union had been doing to him. Interesting that while they weren’t able to get him working, they were able to continue nailing him for his union dues.
I had a project once where I needed three gasoline powered welding machines. I HAD to hire an Operating Engineer for the SOLE purpose of starting the engines in the morning, turn them off at lunch, turn them on after lunch, and turn them off at the end of the day and paid for 8 hours a day at a higher rate since the boilermakers made more. Of course I also had a crane operator who was banned from turning the machines off and on, and run a crane. So, one operator worked 8 hours running the crane, and the other worked 20 minutes and paid for 8 hrs. Yup, I like Unions.
Joe, it’s not WHAT YOUR UNION IS DOING FOR YOU, it’s WHAT YOUR UNION IS DOING TO YOU.
BTW, that sprawling 50 acre GM plant is now a flat vacant lot in Baltimore. And Beth Steel who had 35K working in Baltimore Co. has since gone bankrupt with a new company employing a few thousand in the same location.
I was a Teamster twice and a member of SMWIU once. I was even the 3rd shift union steward while a member of SMWIU. But all 3 jobs were small potatoes. The union only cared about getting the dues and not about representing the people. I also drove for JB Hunt (non-union) on a dedicated run from the transmission plant in Cincy to the Lorain assembly plant for Ford, I think. Either that or GM, but I think it was Ford. I saw those big-dollar union jobs. Use a drop-down air ratchet and secure two bolts. Wait 70 seconds and do it again. And, yeah, they got paid ridiculous money to do that.
Oh, by the way, if the car company lays people off, the car company makes sure the people get 90 percent of their pay while laid off. Talk about a welfare program guaranteed to kill a business!