should Unions be banned from politics?

Unions members have as much right to be in a political party of their choice in a democracy as any member of any other legal organisation. They should be able to freely make an input into the democratic process. Because they have been suppressed in the past they have become defensive and therefore have formed hardcore and sometimes very aggressive groups to fight their causes.

Having said that, we come to the other side of membership and support of political parties and that is election funding. It is well past time that all monies donated by both unions and big business was either pooled into one election expenses fund - that is for Australia - and then distributed evenly amongst all the candidates regardless of persuasion. This is because donations to elections was originally intended to support the democratic process not to support one or other political party.

As things stand at the moment powerful groups whether they be business or not - for - profit groups or unions are able to buy off members of parliament and senators and governments have become corrupted. Democracy has suffered and that is what has happened in Australia. People think and have though that one side of politics is the same as the other because they are all in the pocket of some big monied organisation or another. The end result is they spend their time in parliament looking after whoever funds them instead of looking after the people who vote them in there.

This is why I think that you hear people say that unions and business and other groups should not be in politics. The don't differentiate between their right to be there as individuals and their money buying off and destroying the independence of parliamentarians.

Cheeers!!!

If it wasn't for the union workers, the rest of the people would still be working for whatever the minimum wage would be at this point. Nobody says a damn thing about what union workers make as long as the donate their dollars and personal hours to the various causes and charities in a community and pay a larger share of the tax base! The first place the kids always show up at for donations for Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Little league, Pony league, Midget Football, and other charities too numerous to mention, is at the front gate of our factory...three times during the day! Then if they still feel the need to collect more donations, they go outside other stores around town. Some of our employees had kids that were a part of the organization that told stories about how much money they were able to collect from our local plant versus the rest of the town! Union workers are very charitable people and have always fought for the rights of others who were not even union members. Sure unions have a large political clout, but so do big businesses and every citizen who is a registered voter in this country! Just because a union member donates his or dollars to a certain candidate, doesn't give them any more voting power than the people who don't contribute one dollar! This whole country was founded as a union! The only way for people to get anything done and be heard, is to be together on the needs of the people of this great country! Our government isn't listening, so more unions, mostly political in nature, are being organized to get those in Washington D.C. to listen to what the people need! If you try to ban unions from being what they are, then you will destroy a part of the political process! We have 50 states that form a union. We have a Congress that is a union. We have a Democratic Party that is a union as is the Republican Party and the Independents! Our different branches of the armed forces are very strong unions and the combination of these forces is most powerful union on earth! Whether you donate $100 or $1 dollar, your vote counts just the same! Work together and VOTE!

I agree they shouldn't be involved in funding politicians... now what they do with contributions out of there own personal bank accounts and not union dues is another story... Lobbyists should be banned from politics as well representing corporate interest and using money to fund campaigns out of their corporate sponsors pocket book... and again what comes out of their own personal bank accounts...

You can't have a level playing field in politics with money being funneled by by any special interest groups... even if 30% of the common households in the US got together to pool there money together to pay to bring their interest to Washington politics it wouldn't compare to the amount of money that corporations or unions can levy...

But I'm not against unions... I'm against corrupt practices from any entity in politics... unfortunately corruption is involved way more than it should be in our political system... with anything regardless of party we should all be coming together to voice our opposition to corruption... if this can be greatly reduced by putting more ownus on officials then we can start talking more about opposing viewpoints since these are all talking points once they become elected and their eyeballs turn into dollar signs...

No they should be allowed the same free speech rights, you, I, an advocacy group such as the NRA or NOW or a corporation such as Wal-mart or the lawn-care service down the street has.

Now whether a Wal-mart should require a shareholder vote, or a union should require a member vote before using those moneys on the other hand, is still an open question that I feel should be discussed.

I'm not anti-union exactly, but the unions have way too much influence and power over the political field in way too many industrialized nations.

It isn't fair that union workers can take the tax dollars of none union workers in the US. Of course I know that the people at the bottom(for most unions) don't get the tax payer money, I'm referring to the higher ups for the most part. That is not "social justice' by any definition.

i think of they might desire to not ban the BNP or the different team, nonetheless if somebody of those events shows indicators that they are including there own political evaluations to there curriculum and attempting to effect those they're ment to educate with there perspectives then the guy might desire to be held to blame. not the gang as an entire.

You mean Unions like Police and Firefighters and Nurses?

No.

That is where all the BIG money comes from, along with BIG business.

Only if companies are and throw in churches while we're at it.

hell no. you guys wanna take away everything this country stands for.