The Way I See It!

Ronald Reagan on Public Unions

Posted by Randy Hollenbeck on May 9, 2011

Ronald Reagan, Union

Earlier Parts:

How Ronald Reagan Saw The Government, Private Sector And Ideology

Who is George Meany?

As many of you know, I told you that the left liked to take out of context what Ronald Reagan said about unions and how he talked about George Meany.  Remember him, he was the President of the AFL-CIO in 1959 and echoed what FDR said, “It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.”

"Ronald Reagan - Liberty State Park [Pt. 1] "

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbroTjVm8Bw

"Ronald Reagan - Liberty State Park [Pt. 2] "

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lUZu9xhMqc

Would you like the transcript?

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ronaldreaganlibertypark.htm

Here's an important part from this speech:

"On this day, dedicated to American working men and women, may I tell you the vision that I have of a new Administration and of a new Congress, filled with new members dedicated to the values that we honor today?

Beginning in January of 1981, American workers will once again be heeded. Their needs and values will be acted upon in Washington.  I will consult with representatives of organized labor on those matters concerning the welfare of working people of this nation.

I happen to be the only president of a union ever to be a candidate for President of the United States.  As president -- as president of my union, the Screen Actors Guild, I spent many hours with the late George Meany, whose love of this country and whose belief in a strong defense against all totalitarians is one of labor’s greatest legacies.  One year ago today on Labor Day George Meany told the American people, 'As American workers and their families return from their summer vacations, they face growing unemployment and inflation, a climate of economic anxiety and uncertainty.’  One year ago, George Meany predicted just exactly what has happened to us."

Now he wasn’t speaking about public sector unions and George Meany in the same fashion, but showing you the differences between private unions and public unions.

Let’s review for those that didn’t read the history of George Meany.

George Meany former pres of afl-cio was AGAINST PUBLIC unions.

“It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.”

That wasn’t Newt Gingrich, or Ron Paul, or Ronald Reagan talking. That was George Meany -- the former president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O -- in 1955. Government unions are unremarkable today, but the labor movement once thought the idea absurd.

Public sector unions insist on laws that serve their interests -- at the expense of the common good.  The founders of the labor movement viewed unions as a vehicle to get workers more of the profits they help create. Government workers, however, don’t generate profits. They merely negotiate for more tax money.  When government unions strike, they strike against taxpayers.  F.D.R. considered this “unthinkable and intolerable.

Not only did President Franklin Delano Roosevelt write in 1937: “All government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service,” but as recently as 1959, the AFL-CIO Executive Council stated that “government workers have no right [to collectively bargain] beyond the authority to petition Congress—a right available to every citizen.”

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/02/18/the-first-blow-against-public-employees/fdr-warned-us-about-public-sector-unions