Welcome to Buster's Blog

Irregular commentary on whatever's on my mind -- politics, sports, current events, and life in general. After twenty years of writing business and community newsletters, fifteen years of fantasy baseball newsletters, and two years of email "columns", this is, I suppose, the inevitable result: the awful conceit that someone might actually care to read what I have to say. Posts may be added often, rarely, or never again. As always, my mood and motivation are unpredictable.

Buster Gammons















Friday, February 11, 2011

Kasich To Public Employees: "You Vill Verk Or Ve Vill Make You Pay!"


Hardly a day goes by without some new attack on organized labor coming out of the Kasich administration. Now, just in case you had any doubt (and you shouldn't have), Gov. Kasich has made his position plain: He intends to not merely reduce union influence, he's gonna be a union-buster. Not only does he dislike public employee unions, he dislikes public employees!

John-Boy said that if the Jones Bill (SB 5) doesn't give him everything he wants, he'll just make up his own draconian labor rules and slip them into the state budget. (Well then, fuck, King John! Why bother with the House & Senate? Save time and money, send 'em home, and do whatever you like. His hubris simply astounding!)

The royal words of King John regarding public employees:

"We would outlaw strikes, and the penalties would be either firing or docked wages."

Any recourse for dissatisfied union workers? Nope. "They have a job. Try to come up with something."

The King also said he'd eliminate Ohio laws requiring binding arbitration and prevailing wages.


It's shit like this that makes me want to puke. It's mean, punitive, and pure conservative ideology -- it's a "fix" of a non-existent problem, with no demonstrable social or financial benefit. Just throwin' a bone to the anti-union dogs.

In the historical big picture, it's people like John Kasich who make necessary people like Eugene V. Debs, Samuel Gompers, John L. Lewis, and Walter Reuther. (If you don't know who those guys are, do a Google search right now.)

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