San Franciso Chronicle to Unions: NIMBY

From a state that for all intents and purposes is leading the direction of this country, can you see the irony?

The San Francisco Chronicle announced that they would stop publishing their newspaper at their aging, unionized printing plant and instead outsource the printing to a Canadian owned, non-union company.

Not surprisingly, the move has upset the labor unions…

The unreasonable demands of labor unions are one reason why California will be issuing IOUs over the next few weeks. Not the only reason, to be sure, but a might big part of it.

And while the unions are supporting a public option in the administrations health care plan that would be paid for in part by taxing some health benefits, it is in the works that unions themselves would be exempt from such tax.

But those union members serving under collective bargaining agreements would not be subjected to the tax, according to proposals under discussion.

Union workers enjoy some of the most extensive and costliest health benefits, and union officials complained their members would be unfairly burdened by a health care tax because their contracts cannot be changed quickly enough to avoid it.

Now tell me, I thought we were supposed to share the wealth? Andy Stern, powerful spokesman for the SEIU seems to think that is a good mantra. In a December 6, 2008 WSJ interview, Mr. Stern extols the idea of sharing the wealth. And he has a good idea who should be sharing. Needless to say, it won't be the SEIU:

Organized labor put up some $450 million to get Democrats elected. The SEIU accounted for $85 million of that, making Mr. Stern's union the single biggest contributor to either party in this election cycle. And just in case, the SEIU set aside an additional $10 million fund to get people unelected if need be. "We would like to make sure people appreciate that we take them at their word and when they don't live up to their word there should be consequences," he says.

Indeed.