Union entitlement - a two-fer
First - from
Reuters:
Public pension costs swamp revenues of 10 U.S. states -Moody's
Ten U.S. states have public pension liabilities that are at least as big as their annual revenues, according to a Moody's Investors Service report released on Thursday that found the Illinois pension bill was equal to 241 percent of its revenues.
The others:
After Illinois, Connecticut had the highest pension burden in the country, with a pension liability equal to 189.7 percent of revenues. That was followed by Kentucky, at 140.9 percent; New Jersey, 137.2 percent; Hawaii, 132.5 percent; and Louisiana, s 130.2 percent. Colorado's net pension liability was slightly more than revenues at 117.5 percent and Maryland's slightly less at 99.5 percent.
Second - from the
Chattanooga Times Free Press:
UAW ate Detroit: Chattanooga could be its next meal
Will Chattanooga�s Volkswagen plant expand and hire more workers?
That�s what Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger and City Mayor Andy Berke hope. The two men recently traveled to Germany to meet with Volkswagen officials, hoping to convince them to expand the Chattanooga facilities� production to include a new SUV.
Expansion would be good for Chattanooga; since the plant opened in 2011 it has employed thousands of workers and pumped millions of dollars into the local economy. But a shadow looms over the prospects of possible expansion, indeed over the very existence of the plant itself: the United Auto Workers union.
The UAW would love to organize VW to staunch the bleeding of membership that has turned the former giant into a phantom of its former self: Since 1979 membership has declined 74 percent.
Why has it declined so drastically?
Why not revive Detroit and make it a worker's paradise instead of trashing Chattanooga. Unionization had its day but no more -- it needs to fade away gracefully.
Posted by DaveH at June 28, 2013 3:06 PM