Granted, there’s no statute in place to enforce this.

it’s a mafia laundering network. It’s more extensive than people realize. All the unions are linked together, including the Lawyer unions that aren’t called unions.

…does anyone really think that there is any chance in Hell of ever reducing the size of govt as long as unionized employees are guaranteed a perpetual job…

Right, not even a snowball’s chance in Hell bloated government will get any smaller with these unions around. However, it’s a sure bet that stupid, intrusive expensive government will get bigger and even more intrusive and expensive. See step 2) in my previous comment.

In WI at least, those unions all had clauses built into their contracts that made it mandatory for their employers (us) to buy only the union-sponsored health care plan. Walker’s Act 10 allowed the municipalities and school districts to seek competitive bids from private insurers.

Despite sizable cuts in state funding, every one of those entities saved enough money on health care to close significant budget deficits. In total, they realized savings of many tens of millions of dollars that the unions had been overcharging every year..

This didn’t even include liberal Dane County (Madison) because they rushed through union contracts before Act 10 took effect. It also disn’t include the very powerful police, firefighter and prison guard unions, which were not covered under Act 10.

Ironically, that may have cost Tom Barrett, Mayor of Milwaukee, the election. He barely even raised Act 10 as an issue, even though that was the proximate cause of the recall. You see, the prior year, Barrett had used the health care provision of the law to save enough to close an $18 million dollar budget shortfall in Milwaukee.

Romney was hampered by RomneyCare because he was not able to use the unpopular Obamcare as an issue, and Barrett had a similar problem with Act 10. Too bad, so sad.

It makes me wonder how many similar lucrative items are buried in all the other public union contracts nationwide. It certainly might help explain how they can throw so much money into every election cycle.

Not only is it a money laundering scheme, but does anyone really think that there is any chance in Hell of ever reducing the size of govt as long as unionized employees are guaranteed a perpetual job suckling at the govt teat?

But it’s still a big issue [public service unions]; I think a lot of people are angry about it, it’s just that no candidate has ever made it a big issue.

It damn well should be a “big issue.” It’s a money-laundering scheme done by “public service” unions on behalf of their favored politicians–in which taxpayers and ordinary citizens get taken to the cleaners:

1) Unions collect dues which are used in part (along with union labor) to help elect candidates that will do their bidding.

2) If these candidates win, they vote for pay increases, valuable benefits and more public employees for the unions that helped to elect them, pumping more money into the cycle to pay for step 1).

3) Lather, rinse, repeat–until the unions run everything and the taxpayer is broke (see California).

As if federal bureaucracies weren’t powerful enough already…

To the extent that the Republican candidates learn to leverage Trump, they can improve their own campaigns. As I noted above, this may be Walker’s early attempt to do just that. Fiorina is already learning to do just that:

http://twitchy.com/2015/09/14/well-played-fiorina-capitalizes-on-trumps-jackassery-in-a-bold-beautiful-way-video/

I didn’t mean to imply that Trump possesses Newt’s intellect. Trump is not a stupid man, but he is not an intellect. I meant to say that Trump takes Newt’s feistiness and turns it visceral.