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Scott Wagner vs. Unions: Round 237

WagnerPennsylvania’s labor unions are unanimous in their hatred for State Sen. Scott Wagner and he welcomes their hatred.

Apparently, Senator Wagner appreciates a good joke or at least wants it to appear that way.

In a new email to supporters, the legislator points out that if you go to the PA AFL-CIO headquarters in Harrisburg you’ll see a mock-up poster from the movie Dumb and Dumber featuring Wagner with fellow “Scott” (and labor foe), Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

The Senator even had his picture taken besides the photo before transitioning to an attack on the union’s President Rick Bloomingdale.

The conservative Senator has never been a friend of organized labor in Pennsylvania but he became their biggest villain last June after some inflammatory remarks.

“The unions are about power and control,” Wagner said on the Senate floor. “And there are two things that I continue to remember about power and control. There was a gentleman by the name of Hitler, he was about power and control. There’s a gentleman by the name of Putin, who’s across the ocean, that’s about power and control.”

Given such mutual animus, there are sure to be many more rounds in this bout.

15 Responses

  1. Unions were created for a lot of reasons.
    I am a proud union member. I would of had ok at best benefits were I was. Now I got good benefits and an actual future to look forward to. All because of the union. Now you want to support someone that wants us all to work for pennies and no benefits no way. I worked real hard to get into the union and I plan on staying in it. Organized labor helps us be competitive and so we don’t become a slave again.

  2. If you’re afraid of non-union members getting a free ride, why not let them opt out of belonging to the bargaining unit too? The current rules are based on forcing people to use a service that some of them don’t want.

    And spare me the the crap about there being no workplace safety and child labor without unions. That might have been true 100 years ago, but it certainly isn’t anymore. If today’s unions deserve praise for the labor reforms of the early 1900s, today’s Republican party also deserves praise for ending slavery.

  3. @ S Evan You say that jmarshak’s question is straight-shooting and deserves and answer?

    OK, fine. Its for the same reason that Scott Wagner gets to cast a vote on behalf of residents of York who maybe wish he wasn’t their Senator. It’s called Democracy. And Unions are actually LOT more Democratic than our Government is. In order to get union representation, you need 50%+1 of the workers to vote in favor of the union… NOT 50%+1 of those who cast a vote, but of ALL of the workers who would be part of the bargaining unit. So if you have 80 workers in a factory and only 50 of them cast ballots for or against, you’d still need 41 votes in favor. How many of our politicians would be in office if they needed over 50% of the eligible voters in their district to vote them in? Once the majority of workers have chosen to be represented by a union, to suggest that those benefiting should not have to pay for that representation is like suggesting that I shouldn’t have to pay federal taxes anymore because I don’t like the fact that Scott Perry is my Congressman.

  4. Tommyd, start paying me dues next week because I’m going to negotiate your contract. Oh, what’s that you say? You don’t want my superior negotiating skills? Too bad, give it to me anyway or quit, because you’re not allowed to negotiate your own contract with the boss. Now you have two bosses.

  5. Why should someone who doesn’t join the union benefit from the union’s collective bargaining without paying the freight?

  6. Scott Wagner makes his money via government mandates and monopolies. On the other hand, Governor Wolf is a successful business owner who understands that you have to invest in your workers and give them agency through vehicles like profit sharing. Workers create wealth and when they get a fair shake, the economy does well. Unfortunately, many business owners seek profit at the expense of their workers – they have the money and the power and control and can easily take on an individual. Workers banding together and bargaining collectively even the playing field. United we bargain; divided we beg.

  7. Republicrat makes a good point;I typically ignore all the colorful metaphors and personal digs from all sides.

    jmarshaks straight-shooting direct question deserves an answer.
    Why should a union have the right to take money from him if he doesn’t wat to join?

  8. Another shining example of why I despise the Tea Party and their corporate backers. My heroic maternal grandfather was a UMWA organizer back in the days when miners dug it our by hand for a quarter a tone and had no safety or child labor protections. I suppose he wants a return to the robber baron days, when everyone was a slave except the .01%. Not my vision of America, and not what I want for my beloved Greene County, where we’ve been exploited quite enough by Big Coal and Big Gas, thank you very much.

  9. Hey Senator Wagner: How many good jobs have your created as State Senator. How many good pensions are your fighting for? Stop carrying the Koch Bros water bucket!

  10. @ whistleblower- I find Scott Wagner’s focus on economic and fiscal issues to be a refreshing contrast to other “conservatives” who are more concerned about touting their “social conservative” credentials. Wagner is also a very successful business owner who understands how government mandates and regulations are an impediment to business growth.

  11. @ Porter-

    Wagner is right. Why should a union have the power to take my money if I don’t want to join?

  12. “Power and Control.” This, coming from a guy that has directed his own riches into his own PAC to defeat politicians that are across the state and exercise his own “power and control.”

  13. Because god forbid a worker tries to exercise any power and control without asking Herr Wagner’s permission.

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    • No. It's an app used by millions and poses no threat. (40%)
    • What's ByteDance? (0%)

    Total Voters: 30

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