Absolutely amazing....over 14 pages of comments on this article....

What to say with so many comments....????

Lots learned from the eloquent bloggers, thanks for all input...
Collective bargaining for public servants should be amended by the citizens only...on a grand scale...

Public Servants should be forced to attend budget training, fiscal management, and financial training at ALL LEVELS so that they can concurrently understand, respect, and hold their very leadership accountable for poor (fiscal) management of their own funds as well... Perhaps then, the majority of them wouldn't be living outside of their own means just like their superiors!

1)PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE seems to have become the American Way.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

2) JOB SECURITY for lazy, non competitive, "not my job", Public Employees on the Tax Payers' dimes... unacceptable.... Merit not Seniority, like in the military! (With sanctions like Article 15's for accountability issues!) As for the trash in downtown Cleveland not being picked up by the union workers who fought for their job security... THE Cleveland Alliance should have the right to do their job and BILL THEM FOR IT...taxing their entire staff as part of COLLECTIVE BARGAINING...And anyone on that staff who let the job not get done should be FIRED...oops...YEP FIRED! WHAT THE FLOWER ARE THE TAXPAYERS PAYING FOR IF THE WORK IS NOT GETTING DONE???? But you all "fought for your rights"......are you kidding the world of servicmembers who have worn a military uniform over the last few generations??? That's not fighting for your rights, that is violating every citizen under our flag! Heck, why don't you just spit on some more vets with that hogwash???? (Sorry, it's offensive to hear that union workers have such luxuries of slacking on jobs and keep getting away with it---specifically public employees!)

3) "ERODING THE MIDDLE CLASS".... who's thrwarting "CLASS WARS" here anyhow...? The middle class have enjoyed living outside of their own means for a very long time without any consideration for rainy day funds

4) UNION WORKER BENEFITS INCLUDE "SIDE JOBS" THAT TAKE WORK AWAY FROM NON UNION WORKERS...BUT IF THE SCENARIO WERE REVERSED, WOULDN'T THE NON UNION FOLKS BE CALLED SCABS? (WHAT DO YOU CALL THE UNION GUYS DOING THIS DAILY?)

5) Observations & Examples....

County workers....please give me a break....to see many of you stand around the halls of our county offices laughing and joking about your wonderful weekends, plans for next weekend, and wasting time chronically with your lethargic, smug, "I got all day" attitudes (AND YOU ALL KNOW WHO YOU ARE...--Yet I do send my respect to the arduous folks who actually put extra effort into your work while picking up slack for your less than desirable counterparts who MILK THE COW all day long!) In the military-it's called the 80/20 rule...20% of the people do 80% of the work....and it should be rewarded as such.... I guess these folks never learned what real "TEAMWORK" is about...nor sacrifices, nor concessions, nor appreciation for what they do have.... nope...they just kept on demanding more and more.... (And to beat that----based on what?...I am certain countless folks in Cuyahoga County would love to know what they have been paying for over the last couple generations besides FRAUD at large!)

6) I agree with Ebgillespie and Westside1952.

7) Locally...collective bargaining in the City of Cleveland also affects pay raises for the City Council-yet I bet a majority of the citizens do not even know that....but the City Council enjoys perks because of the contributions of the AFL-CIO and fails to see any of that "COLLECTIVE BARGAINING" as a "CONFLICT OF INTEREST"!!!!

8) Insolvent vs Solvent FISCAL BUDGETS.... extraordinary.... so much could be learned from the "SMALL BUSINESSES THAT HAVE SURVIVED FOR GENERATIONS" without unions... Particularly since they contribute so much to America...including pulling us out of recessions when allowed to prosper...

9) Suggestion to help the middle class remain alive: The IRS should allow all W-2 Employed citizens to write off all of their base living expenses like on a schedule "C"... particularly "FUEL".... then tax them on their AGI.... Fair is fair, regardless of where you work. (Why should only the rich, business owners, and self employed be able to write those items off?)

10) Our region has become a DEMOCRAT's DREAM....
Squash the small businesses, quotafy the low income, pay to play, and keep the poor running in circles in our areas most profiteering without profiteering industry.....the NOT FOR PROFIT INDUSTRY OF NEO....it's a multi billion dollar racket! (While you all are at it...please quit picking on the demographically disadvantaged.....they keep you all in your jobs as public servants and they serve as the NEEDY QUOTAS that apparently keep a job under your rear from federal trickle down funds!)

11) Inventions, patents...AGREED with writer who talked about them being stole by other countries...why our patent offices are years behind!!! (Are those UNION workers at the Patent Office, just curious?)

12)..... but once again...Class Wars.... Divide & Conquer... I just wish that ALL OF THESE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING ENTITIES WERE BASING THIER PROJECTED CONTRACTS OFF OF REALISTIC NUMBERS AND THAT THEY PROVIDED FOR MORE ACCOUNTABILITY, MERIT AND PERFORMANCE BASED REWARDS, AND THAT THESE MIDDLE CLASS WORKERS WERE A LITTLE MORE APPRECIATIVE OF WHAT THEY DO HAVE-NOT WHAT THEY DON'T HAVE....(THAT TEACHER REALLY INSULTED A LOT OF FOLKS)....