Blog 2: Rhetorical Analysis

                One item that I was required to read in my major was an article on unions. I cannot remember where I acquired this article from or even the author’s name, but I do remember the article’s contents. This article was about how republicans believe that union members are being paid ridiculous salaries and over-the-top pension plans. The author also believed that the union is, in some part, the reason for the recession. Although it was heavily an opinion-based article, it did include some factual information. It also brought some important things into consideration. Labor unions are a huge debate in America right now because the money they make and receive from the government affects everyone. When this author chose to publish this article, he knew of the political debates it could arise. The union’s response to this article was that the republicans are always trying to be a bully to the union.  The following link is an article (not the article talked about in this analysis) about how the union believes that the republicans are trying to take them down:  http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/145605-labor-unions-prepare-for-battle-they-are-trying-to-take-us-down.  The picture below depicts a cartoon photo of how the union believes that the republicans are attacking them.

                Although I do not remember where I got the article from, I do know that the writer was either a republican or disliked unions, maybe even both.  His audience was the U.S. general population. He did not target a certain group because he wanted everyone to see the issues that he believed occurred from unions. His call to write was obvious. The tone of his article was rather aggressive which drove me to believe that he was an active advocate against unions (especially since he had the guts to publish it on the web) and he wanted to be heard. One thing that he stressed heavily in the article was, according to him, “the ridiculous six figure salaries that some union stewards made when sometimes they go for two or three years without doing any significant work.” He had a strong belief that the unions were responsible for the U.S.’s deficits and recession. So, his call to write was to get his voice heard on this issue which is both social and economic. According to Ken’s lecture, this could be described as a passion for a situation or interest. It was clear to me that his purpose was to ultimately get rid of some, if not all, government funding to unions, especially the members’ pension plans.

                Next, I will analyze the goal of the author and his reasons for writing and publishing this article. His goal, as I indirectly mentioned earlier, was to diminish government funding to unions.  His tone of writing tells me that he is trying to persuade America to believe in these issues. He attempted to persuade as well as inform in a slightly aggressive manner. He also, in my opinion, possibly assumed that his readers will take heed to his article and make an attempt to change or bring light to these issues.

                In my opinion, the writer somewhat achieves his purpose in a small fractional portion. One reason why I say this is because recently we all saw in the news how the Wisconsin teachers were on a strike because they were asked to pay a portion of their pension. There are also a lot of other issues going on that are putting union executives on their toes. But, in my opinion, the government will continue to fund the union and it will never become obsolete.

(Also, I apologize for not being able to locate this article, but hopefully the link I posted and my analysis will help you to understand this more. After all, I only had to prepare a verbal analysis for this article in my Labor Relations class, but I do remember it because the class is very controversial and so is the topic of “unions”.)

Thank you!!!