Wait a minute, Isn't a public corporation a form of "collective bargaining" ?

[KurtNYC]

When the state of Wisconsin contract with a corporation, the corporation is bargaining on behalf of its shareholders collectively. A public corporation collects money and collects board members and then they bargain as a group.

I know technically corporations aren't what courts refer to as collective bargaining but if the State wants to argue against the cost of contracts it enters into where a small group of executives represent a large number of other people then this is the same. If there is, as Scott Walker alleges, some unfair advantage gained when the state cannot deal with each individual separately then corporations surely exploit this dynamic.

[Swede Atlanta]

1. You are technically correct......

Corporations act collectively on behalf of their stakeholders. By law the stakeholder interests are supposed to be those of the shareholders but we know that some corporations act as much in the interests of the board and the company executives as they do the shareholders.

The argument from the right is the union bosses do not really represent the interests of the membership. I suggest they represent their membership to a greater degree than the executives of a corporation. Union leaders are elected democratically.

Decisions on who will lead a corporation are usually left to the Board of Directors who are directly elected by the shareholders. But most shareholders, except for large institutional investors, really have no voice in who is placed for election to the Board. So it is hardly democratic in any real sense.

[rurallib]

2. I would say lobbying surely is.

Defense industries, Big Oil, Tobacco, religions, on and on it goes

[ieoeja]

3. Interesting idea the next time they are taking bids (?) for privatization. The unions should bid!

Of course, I suppose that depends on the manner in which the privatization takes place. When I was at the Veterans Administration, the VA first set out the metrics for the job. Then the VA and outside vendors were allowed to bid. After seeing the metrics only one vendor bothered submitting a bid which lost out to the VA.

Conversely, when Daley (RIABN-Chicago) privatized city parking meters he leased the parking places to the bidder rather than taking a bid for providing services. The bidder now gets to set the metrics however they want. They want to jack up prices? Go for it! And they have. So in that case it is going to the highest, not lowest bidder. As long as it is a corporation fucking us over, people are all for it ("that is how capitalism works!&quot . Had a union leased the parking, people would be up in arms.



RIABN - Bob Novak referred to Daley as a "Republicans in all but name." Even a Republican can recognize a DINO when they see one.

Only one vendor bid for the VA job because of the metrics. Gov't predecessors to the VA (this was under Reagan) made the mistake of only looking at what they did and not including service level agreement requirements. So bidders low-balled the bid and slashed service. When the gov't shouted "foul" the vendor shrugged and started tacking on extra cost because of the new requirement for better service which is how every gov't job ever privatized ended up costing the taxpayer more money.