Anti-union movie made by people in unions - Won't Back Down (2012) Discussion

[–] shirley12vineyard 12 years ago

Shirzevor: Seriously!? Actually, I don't get your drift here. Could it be that they just want to work?! I'm from New Zealand, home of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, now The Hobbitt project. The Hollywood moguls escaped the organised workers of LA and swept into town to visit the Prime Minister, and overnight the Parliament passed legislation to bypass the normal open policy of including union reps in talks; "individual contracts" won the day. BUT sure, Hollywood's finest (workers) were not pleased to miss out on the Hobbit films.

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[–] timlin-4 11 years ago

There is no such thing as a union of government employees. Since it controls management, absorbs all profit, and coercively exploits the working-class taxpayers, it is obviously a kind of cartel.

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[–] Felix-La-PuBelle 11 years ago

...and since you elect your own government, I guess that makes you the cartel boss.

(See how silly that 'logic' is?)

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] Felix-La-PuBelle 11 years ago

It is a bit bizarre.

I have to say, it was very well acted. Cinematography was nice, too.

But yea, a lot irony involved.

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[–] Stewball 11 years ago

So it only makes sense if unions have creative control?

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] nemetzlj 11 years ago

This is not an anti-Union movie. It depicts the travesty of having public service unions with no incentive to help their students. Remember the Albert Shanker quote ?

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[–] cdz6969 10 years ago

Teachers unions is like 40% to blame for the public schools being the way they are. They lump all the teachers regardless of performance in with each other and protects them all the same. If the dept of education takes them to court, their contracts are such that it favors the union. That's why every 10 years or so when they negotiate a contract there needs to be more scrutiny on what deal is agreed upon.

The other 60% of the blame lies with state and local governments only allowing on mostly property taxes to fund these schools and sub-contracting out services to other companies when it comes to construction, IT services, and food services, etc. More money is wasted on overpaying for these services that have built in kick backs to administration officials than is spent on actual students and what's being taught to them.

Charter Schools aren't helping either. Those vouchers once the child is expected draws more dollars out of the already underfunded public school system. Plus those charter schools progress aren't even held to the same standard that public or even most private schools are. Plus there are still kickbacks involved in charter school over spending, it's just that it goes to a smaller group of corporate heads, so it's less noticeable.

Best thing to do is to look at other countries and see how their successful schools are run and funded and try to bring some of that back here.

Jesus would support Universal Health Care

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[–] perfectjade 10 years ago

the original post for this thread just shows why teachers unions are a problem today. there's a notion that you either blindly support all unions or you must be a union hater. I'm sure plenty of unions in different areas of the country and different industries prove useful. Where I live, they are outdated, and the way they try to stay relevant is by fighting for poor employees plain and simple. and I'm not anti union. with all the labor attorneys, employers end up talking to their attorney and giving 10-20 opportunities before firing, and then the union still drags it out in arbitration. it's silly.

It weakens us to not give our enemies the respect they deserve...

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[–] keithw1975 9 years ago

Underfunded???? That must be a joke. We spend an insane amount on education. Most of which goes to the administrators. Our local school district wastes more money in a week than I make in a year. The superintendent recently had his second office remodeled with wood imported from Europe to the tune of more than $100,000, though if my relative didn't work in the office that paid the bills, I would never hear about that particular waste. The same school district closed a couple of schools after a tax increase was defeated, because they said they couldn't afford them anymore, but it was basically to get back at the public who dared to vote against a tax increase. Then the next year they received their tax increase, and instead of reopening the schools they closed, they built two brand new schools. And all the while they had close to $30 million in the bank for an emergency fund.

This isn't some giant school district either, it is in a town of 80K people.

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