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A comment on Detroit files for Chapter 9 bankruptcy amid staggering debts . Parent comment

Re:Detroit files for Chapter 9 bankruptcy amid staggering de... by rayiner on Thursday July 18, 2013 @05:40PM (#6066720)
1) Those lofty retirement guarantees were much easier to bargain for before everyone realized that the days of heady growth in America were done.

2) The bankruptcies will dramatically weaken the public sector unions.

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Re:Detroit files for Chapter 9 bankruptcy amid staggering de... by fnordfnordfnord on Thursday July 18, 2013 @05:53PM (#6066803)
LOL, what public sector unions?
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Re:Detroit files for Chapter 9 bankruptcy amid staggering de... by mh- on Thursday July 18, 2013 @06:00PM (#6066845)
In 2009 the U.S. membership of public sector unions surpassed membership of private sector unions for the first time, at 7.9m and 7.4m respectively.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-sector_trade_union#cite_...

http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-troub...

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Re:Detroit files for Chapter 9 bankruptcy amid staggering de... by fnordfnordfnord on Thursday July 18, 2013 @06:16PM (#6066918)
From your second link "dramatic decline in overall union membership." which is what I meant to imply. Unions are fairly impotent today.
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Re:Detroit files for Chapter 9 bankruptcy amid staggering de... by rayiner on Thursday July 18, 2013 @06:29PM (#6066982)
Unions in general are impotent, but the public unions (teachers, police, etc) are among the only ones that still have a lot of leverage.
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Re:Detroit files for Chapter 9 bankruptcy amid staggering de... by bitwize on Thursday July 18, 2013 @06:11PM (#6066905)
Public-sector unions are the only unions left in the U.S. with much political zorch, more's the pity.
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Re:Detroit files for Chapter 9 bankruptcy amid staggering de... by thatswrong0 on Thursday July 18, 2013 @08:50PM (#6067615)
Why should unions have any political zorch? Why must collective bargaining require any amount of state intervention (besides, obviously, protecting individual liberty and property)?
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