Jen had a good comment to my post from last night about the mine disaster.
I complain a lot about labor unions and how they used to be a great idea but now, they have fallen victim to Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy.
Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.
All that the Unions are doing now is gaining unreasonably high pensions for people that stick it out for twenty years.
They used to be a lot more proactive for their workers -- making sure that the workplace was clean and safe and that there was a sufficient level of industrial hygiene to keep the workers healthy (exposure to pollution and particulates etc...)
The Unions also benefited the factory owners too -- if the "Bosses" needed five workers skilled in the operation and maintenance of an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator, they could call the Union Hall and five well-trained workers would show up that next morning.
All of this is gone. Dust in the wind.
Now the unions are just another dull bureaucracy -- for every 100 new members, probably one or two will stick it out for the required twenty years until they can retire. This retirement is a scam as the pensions offered greatly exceed any financial contribution from the worker to either the union or the business that employed the worker.
The unions are forcing an untenable situation here as fewer and fewer people are joining the unions so less and less money is coming in. This Pyramid scam, this Ponzi scheme is about ready to burst and now that SEIU and other unions are making a naked grab for power in Washington, who is going to be forced to pick up the pieces.
Got a mirror handy.
And this whole thing is being paid for by our dollars -- there is no Federal money, it is only money that has been taken from us through our taxes.
I feel sorry for the miners that lost their lives and for the families that are grieving. I am pissed at Massey for not doing required preventive maintenance on the mines. I am royally furious at the Unions for fucking this up and for not doing their job and for their loss of focus.
The Miners Union was willfully complicit in the deaths of those poor souls.
There is no other way to say it.
