There is something about the “union mindset” that I’ve never understood. I get the “most amount of pay for the least amount of work” part. We all try to do that in one way or another.

I also get the “maximize political clout” part, where the union buys political protection and legislation to benefit them. What I don’t get is the “I want to kill the company that provides me with a job” part. But then, once you have the political power, you must become disconnected from reality.

Regardless, the story below is YET ANOTHER example of union leaders exposing themselves as nothing more than union leadership hacks exercising greater clout over the workers they are supposed to represent.

Boston Globe staffers lash out at union leaders

Rank-and-file Boston Globe staffers are rising up against their union leaders, accusing them of keeping members in the dark over last week’s stunning ultimatum from the New York Times [NYT] Co. and questioning whether they’re putting their own interests first.

“There may be a reason why it had to come to a threat and it might have something to do with the way that our union leaders are negotiating,” one newsroom union member, who requested anonymity, told the Herald.

The Times has threatened to shut down the beleaguered broadsheet if the paper’s 13 unions don’t come up with $20 million in concessions by May 1 – including the elimination of lifetime job guarantees.

…

Leaders of the Guild, the paper’s largest union, are among the more than 340 union members who were granted lifetime job guarantees, according to a list on the Guild’s Web site.

The lifetime deals – a list dubbed the “Book of Life” – were given to staffers when the Taylor family sold the Globe to the Times in 1993. According to the contract, those staffers would never be laid off without cause.

Guild president Totten, vice president Scott Steeves, treasurer Patrice Sneyd and at-large executive board member Carl Younger are among those with lifetime jobs.

There is no sweeter justice in the world than for people with “lifetime jobs” to be tossed in a breadline. In a just society, the concept of a “lifetime job” should be prohibited by the Constitution. It just goes to show the level of unreality that has pervaded the United States when the rich believe in Ponzi schemes, the smartest bankers think Real Estate can climb forever, and union drones believe in “lifetime jobs.”

Ugh!