[TheRealVille]

First of all, not all the union dues go to paying for the benefits. A part of it goes to fund the union's political contributions to politicians that the employee may be steadfastly opposed to based on religious or other reasons. But the bottom line in my prior post is that the union is taking those rights away from the employee, correct? The right to not join the union and the right to not have a portion of your dues go to politicians are rights that you may not agree with. But I think they are rights that an employee should have. There is no way on green earth that the federal govt would allow an employer to withhold part of an employee's wages to be used by the employer to fund political contributions to the politician of the employer's choosing. Spin it any way you want to, but that's exactly what the union does. It negotiates wages for its members and then takes, in the form of union dues, part of those wages to fund political campaigns of the union's choosing.

You don't want to vote for politicians that "try to take away American citizens equal rights" (your words) but it sounds like you'd support a politician that would take away the rights I mentioned.

Wouldn't your logic of: if you don't like paying union dues, work somewhere else, apply to those public employees in Wisconsin and Ohio? If they don't like the deal offered in Wisconsin and Ohio, they go work somewhere else or choose a new line of work to get into.

For the record, I'm not a union basher. Far from it. My wife's family has owned a union construction business for 4 generations and over a 100 years. I worked there for a while and had a great relationship with the union. My brother is in a union. I just think there is some hypocrisy in the union positions, some of which I've pointed out. Nothing makes me shake my head more than when my super pro union brother goes on and on about me needing to buy union made products, and he uses non-union contractors to work on his house (to save money of course). If you're going to talk the talk, you better walk the walk.

You have every right in the world to not work union and not have some of your dues money go to candidates you don't support. Unions support candidates that are friendly to unions. I, 100% support your right to not work union. I 100% support your right to work for a nonunion contractor and keep all your wages. I also support my right to have union negotiated wages and benefits. Stay away from union jobs, and you won't have to worry where your money goes. What makes you think you have a right to come on union negotiated jobs, and not pay union dues?