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Union verfsus Boy Scouts? Huh?

Darth Rotor

Salted Sith Cynic
Darth Rotor
Joined
Aug 4, 2006
Messages
38,527
OK, this one has me a bit puzzled.

http://www.mcall.com/news/all-a8_5scout.7084728nov15,0,6238384.story

Part of that story came to me in email.
In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park.
Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city's largest municipal union.
Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.
"We'll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails," Balzano told the council.
Balzano said Saturday he isn't targeting Boy Scouts. But given the city's decision in July to lay off 39 SEIU members, Balzano said "there's to be no volunteers." No one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.
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From the article, however, we get a bit more.
Balzano said Saturday the union is still looking into the matter and might cut the city a break.
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"We are probably going to let this one go," Balzano said .
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Mr Bolzano, I think that's a good position, all said and done.

But

If you are probably letting it go, I want to ask why you raised it in the first place?

I am not sure I get this. Even though the Union is battling the city over jobs. Is this the fight you want to pick? ?????

DR
 
Well, I can almost guarantee you that it will make the Union look like bullies who just want to make a buck. The kid just wanted to do a good deed.
 
Darth Rotor said:
If you are probably letting it go, I want to ask why you raised it in the first place?

I am not sure I get this. Even though the Union is battling the city over jobs. Is this the fight you want to pick? ?????

DR
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I would imagine they never were actually planning to file a grievance. They might have been hoping to score PR points by showing they weren't going to complain about boy scouts even though they had a right. They might also have been making noise to let city hall know they weren't going to be replaced by volunteers without a fight.
 
Eyeron said:
Well, I can almost guarantee you that it will make the Union look like bullies who just want to make a buck. The kid just wanted to do a good deed.
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Well, let's say he wanted to earn his eagle badge. He may have even been willing to do it for just the PR.

Nothing against boy scouts, I was one. But, as with the rest of reality, you usually don't get something for nothing.

Perhaps, too, the city was sending a message to its employees.
 
Eyeron said:
Well, I can almost guarantee you that it will make the Union look like bullies who just want to make a buck. The kid just wanted to do a good deed.
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hmmm, the kid just wanted to do a good deed, but is that all to the story? How did the kid come up with the project? On his own? Did he go to the city council and ask what he could do to volunteer? Did the city council give the BSA a list of jobs that could be done to volunteer?

As far as looking into the scout himself, the union could mean that they are going to ask these questions to him, to find out if the city is using volunteers instead of union labor. Still, I don't see anything wrong with that. If people want to volunteer to do something, let them. union workers can volunteer also, no one is stopping them.
 
Eyeron said:
Well, I can almost guarantee you that it will make the Union look like bullies who just want to make a buck. The kid just wanted to do a good deed.
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No, the kid just wanted to become an Eagle Scout.
 
Next, the unionists will be complaining if you help a little old lady accross the street.

when are these scumbags going to get nailed to the wall?
 
Magyar said:
Next, the unionists will be complaining if you help a little old lady accross the street.

when are these scumbags going to get nailed to the wall?
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When the city decided to stop paying all of the crosswalk assistants, that became a sore issue. just TRY to walk an old lady across the street and see what happens. :)
 
Balzano may have been speaking out of turn.

SEIU spokesman Matt Nerzig called Balzano's comments "completely unauthorized and insensitive" and said the union was "not at all" considering a grievance in this case.

"Not sure if it was out of context or just a bad moment, but we've got no intention of doing anything like that," Nerzig told FoxNews.com. "Not sure where he got the idea but he certainly doesn't have the authority to do so."
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Allentown union official Nick Balzano has been a political punching bag all week because he threatened to file a grievance against the city for allowing a Boy Scout to clear a walking path in a city park.

Three days of taking body blows nationally from conservative pundits, a rebuke from the Lehigh Valley's congressman and even a lashing from his own union led Balzano to voluntarily resign his position Thursday as head of the local Service Employees International Union.

Balzano said he and seven other executive officers of the local SEIU stepped down.
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Link
 
BobK said:
Link
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So, as it turns out, the union did not back his protest. Good for them. Some people forget that just because they are the leader, does not mean they are a ruler. Don't go speaking for a group without figuring out what the group wants to say.
 
shadron said:
Well, let's say he wanted to earn his eagle badge. He may have even been willing to do it for just the PR.

Nothing against boy scouts, I was one. But, as with the rest of reality, you usually don't get something for nothing.

Perhaps, too, the city was sending a message to its employees.
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Actually it is easy for the city to get something for nothing.

First you mandate a few hundred hours of community service to graduate highschool. Then you open up maintenance projects to them.

This means you can replace paid labor with unpaid labor from the high school kids. It seems like a great way to cut the budget.
 
Popular media has turned many icons of good into evil. Clowns, and Santa Claus come to mind. Boy scouts time has come. Gay, narc zombies, with badges.
 
quarky said:
Popular media has turned many icons of good into evil. Clowns, and Santa Claus come to mind. Boy scouts time has come. Gay, narc zombies, with badges.
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What?!?! There was a time when clowns weren't evil? :eye-poppi
 
This reminds me of the time I went to Navy Pier with a friend to watch another friend's band play there. My friend brought a small DAT recording rig to record his friend's band. 5 minutes into the show some union jackass came and demanded we either shut it down or pay the union $500 to run his rig, because only union jerks were allowed to run recording rigs on Navy Pier.

It was unbelievable... no, we didn't pay them. We just took it down.

These are the same unions that are sending all the trade shows to Orlando and Las Vegas. Set up a display booth in McCormick Place and you're not even allowed to plug a slide projector into the wall outlet, a union electrician has to do that and it will cost you $150. And then a union projectionist has to run your slide projector. Have one small piece of vital equipment still on the truck? You have to leave it there until the Teamster comes off break, no one but a Teamster is allowed to unload a truck.

Plastics show? Gone. Medical show? Gone. Restaurant show? Most likely gone. The unions are determined to extract every last golden egg from the corpse of the goose.
 
Taking young, impressionable boys and giving them paramilitary uniforms... taking oaths... starting fires...
 
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