Category Archives: Organized Labor

Economy, Organized Labor, Politics

Big Labor, Minimum Wage, Laid Bare

Here we go again. A labor union advocate riding on the coattails of fifty and a hundred years ago. There’s a reason union membership is declining. They’re no longer needed in most cases. Especially so in the public sector.

Due to Big Labor’s successes in the last century, employers learned from them. They learned how to treat their employees so that there’s no longer a “need” for a union to step in and demand you pay them dues for protecting you from something that you don’t need protecting from or negotiating for. They want you to believe you have no power. You have all the power. It’s called “two feet.” And you can use them to leave an employer that you aren’t comfortable with, for whatever reason you choose. And, you have a voice. Use it yourself. Don’t feel you need a union representative to act or speak on your behalf. If you do, you’ve already surrendered your freedom.

Now it’s Big Labor’s turn to learn something. Be competitive or go out of business. I use the term “business” in an odd way because labor unions produce nothing. They are a leech on business. They are the reason that some businesses have gone out of business, or moved to another state.

Big Labor should put their theory to the test. Let them start a business that produces something (other than marijuana) and sell it on the free market (not to the federal government), and pay their employees two or three times the market value of a comparable private sector job, and see how long they stay in business. Without a government bailout of course. Go for it.

Here’s a fact for those Big Labor acolytes like Aaron Wazlavek who squawk class warfare about those evil 1 percenters. Under Obama’s economy, the top 10 percent, not 1 percent, are doing just fine. It’s the other 90 percent, the so-called working people (as if the top 10 percent don’t work), that have seen their incomes shrink. That median family income has fallen every year since Obama’s “economic recovery” began has nothing to do with labor union membership being low.

Wazlavek proffers . . .

A solid majority of U.S. workers consistently tell pollsters that they would like to join a union if their employer would simply not interfere.

Problem with this propaganda is this. When U.S. workers have a private vote on whether they want to join a union, they vote NO.  That’s not a poll, which can be manipulated to get a desired result. That’s a private vote, and the right to a private vote is not negotiable. “Card Check,” a union scheme to strip U.S. workers of their private vote, is government-sanctioned interference. Boosting labor union membership is not the responsibility of our government. Labor unions can succeed or fail on their own.

MinWagePayneAnother “hot button” of Big Labor is the minimum wage.

Big Labor advocates will say that raising the minimum wage to $15/hr or to what they call a “living wage,” which a starting salary was never intended to be, will cause the economy to grow because people will make more and therefore, be able to spend more. And (here’s the kicker) they’ll also say that it will reduce the deficit by decreasing welfare because, ostensibly, people will be making more money.

Here’s what really happens. Raising the minimum wage automatically gives labor union members, whose contracts are tied to the minimum wage, a raise. You know, the ones already making over $20/hr. The main reason President Obama wants it. His quid pro quo for Big Labor helping him get elected, twice. By arbitrarily raising the cost of labor employers must pay, employers will be forced to do with less of it (if not just go out of business) AND be forced to increase the price of their products, goods, and services to cover it. The result of that is, fewer people working, higher cost of living for everyone, including the long-term unemployed and the ones that just lost their job due to reductions in force, AND an increase in people dependent on government welfare. The second reason Obama wants to increase the minimum wage.

Bottom line, labor union membership is totally dependent on Big Labor learning something from their shrinking influence. Not the federal government and Card Check. And, hiking the minimum wage would have the reverse effect of what the proponents are saying.

Fair Tax, IRS, Organized Labor, Race Relations, Venezuela

World Leaders Differ On ISIS

British Prime Minister Cameron says the ISIS threat is “a poisonous ideology of Islamic extremism”. Clueless Pres. Obama says it’s political.

Why would President Obama deny that ISIS, alQaeda, all those cowardice cave men clinging to their guns and religion, is political and therefore requires a political solution? That there is no military solution and, btw, we don’t have a plan on how to deal with (terrorism) them. If that isn’t music to the terrorists’ ears, I don’t know what is.

Great Britain is learning what an open door Politically Correct driven immigration policy is getting them. Suicide bombers, citizens being decapitated in broad daylight. Unfortunately, President Obama is likewise genuflecting to the Islamic goons by ignoring border security here. Which begs another question. Do you think Obama has weighed the benefit of millions of undocumented democrats against the terror threat that exists? To put it another way, do you think Obama thinks that the sacrificing of untold number of Americans to terrorist attacks is worth the price for the perpetual Democrat control of government?

From the frame of mind of someone who wrote the book “Dreams from my (Communist) father,” I have no doubt that he thinks it is worth it.

As an aside, and not totally unrelated to Obama and terrorism, let’s review his actions of late.

  • Illegally sends reinforcements to the Taliban, ostensibly after spending a year in Qatar, by trading five of their top generals for one deserter.
  • Gives further aide and comfort to the enemy (that’s also illegal) by announcing that the US has no plan to deal with them.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not feeling confident that this president knows what is best for America.

Somebody tell me, what happened to, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for”? (h/t to Rush Limbaugh for that one)

Links: David Cameron stands up to Islamists |  Terror target Britain  |  Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap was illegal, says US government watchdog

Organized Labor

Union Blues

For 50 years, the number of union workers on the private sector payroll has been decreasing. Today, the majority of union members works for government, at the local, state, or federal level. One out of every three government workers belongs to a union. In the private sector it’s one-in-fifteen.

Men with skilled trades once dominated unions. Now, most union jobs are held by women who run offices, are in the food or service sectors, or education.

The largest union is the National Education Association, with over three million members. The SEIU is second, with two million members. The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees is followed by the American Federation of Teachers, and then, the Teamsters.

So along comes the Tea Party, or any conservative group, advocating that the growth of government be contained or even worse, scaled back. They are smeared and vilified! To this crowd, it is heresy to want to eliminate even one government job. Government union members owe their government jobs to liberals who grow government by design, as they take million of dollars in union dues as campaign donations. It’s a circle, it’s a scheme.

The private sector had to shed union jobs in order to be competitive and grow. The only thing liberals grow is government. That’s why Obama keeps talking about private sector jobs, but does nothing to help create them. While all the while, he keeps adding layer upon layer of more government bureaucracy. Got it? That’s how it works.

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The above was graciously lifted from Rush Limbaugh in its entirety. In a way that only Rush can do, he covers so much ground, in so little space.

Immigration, Organized Labor, Politics

What’s Behind The New Surge Of Illegals?

This phenomenon of illegal immigrants, including minor children with no accompanying adult, that are flooding the Texas border will come as a complete surprise to President Obama. That is, until he reads about it in the paper. That’s been the meme so far with everything wrong with his administration.

This surge is no accident. Especially so in the eve of mid-term elections. And now that Eric Cantor was swamped by a real conservative that, unlike Cantor, believes in legal immigration and secure borders, you can bet that President Obama will be on a full court press to swamp resources in Arizona and every other state with illegals.

Why has the flow gone from 6,500 to 90,000 in one year? Something happened. Like this, Central America Newspapers Tout Open US Door for Illegal Minors. This has Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett and Andy Stern’s (SEIU) fingerprints all over it. If I had to guess that this is not an accident, I’d guess that these people are involved. It is the orchestrated crisis that Cloward and Piven wrote about. And a strategy that all three players take to heart.

And did you know that the lawless Obama administration, aside from not enforcing current immigration laws, is now committing child abuse en masse. If you or I dropped a minor child on a street corner or a bus station without an adult, you would be charged with child abuse. But when President Obama and ICE do it, no problem. Let’s dump these kids on Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. “Serves the bitch right.” That’s where this administration is coming from. The country be damned. Oh well, of course. That is his goal you know. Tearing this country apart from everything it was founded on is part of what fundamental change (to him) looks like.

“Violating state law is something federal officials can still be held accountable for,” says Montgomery. “Kids are being dropped off in the middle of Phoenix, in June, with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees. I sent a letter to ICE, saying that if those circumstances are occurring, or did occur, would be a violation of Arizona laws against child abuse.”

This is why no one should be calling for impeachment. We should be calling for prosecution.

Links: Central America Newspapers Tout Open US Door for Illegal Minors | County Attorney: Did immigration authorities violate child abuse laws? | Illegal Immigration And Orchestrated Crisis

2014 Election, 2016 Election, Organized Labor, Politics

UAW Backs Off Of Tennessee VW Plant Organizing Loss

The United Auto Workers union on Monday said it was withdrawing its objection claiming undue outside political interference to the result of a February election it lost among workers at the Volkswagen AG plant in Tennessee.

UAW President Bob King, in a statement issued by the union Monday morning, said the process of objecting to the National Labor Relations Board could have dragged on for months if not years.

There’s never been a more big-labor-friendly administration than the current one. So why would they back down so quickly? With the fear of losing the Senate and maybe The White House in two years, maybe attacking a growing company on the behalf of Big Labor isn’t a winning proposition from a political standpoint? UAW President Bob King got the message, we’ll have more flexibility after the election. Which means using the federal government to make sure that the union is the only player in the game.

Link: UAW withdraws objection to lost election at VW Tennessee plant

Organized Labor, Politics

Obama Admin Quid Pro Quo’s v2.0 To Big Labor, Action Alert

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Dear Concerned American,Through Monday, April 7, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is accepting public comments on its proposed rule changes to union certification election procedures.The new election guidelines would make union certification elections as one-sided as possible by ambushing workers with quick-snap elections and invading workers’ privacy by forcing companies to hand over their addresses, phone numbers and shift schedules to union bosses.The bureaucrats at the Obama Labor Board are out of control. Demand they stop acting as an organizing tool for Big Labor.I hope you’ll act right away by signing the petition below opposing the ambush election scheme.

Sincerely,
Mark Mix
Mark Mix, President
National Right to Work Foundation

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Stop the Obama Labor Board’s Ambush Election Scheme Petition

  • Whereas:   Ambush elections allow aggressive union organizers to conduct one-sided, intimidating unionization campaigns; and
  • Whereas:   Under the new rules, workers wishing to remain independent may only have days to counter years of union-boss propaganda before a quick-snap election; and
  • Whereas:   The new rules would force companies to turn over every worker’s address, phone number, and e-mail address to union operatives, who can use that information to make intimidating “home visits” just before the election; and
  • Whereas:   Union organizers may withdraw the election petition but keep the list of employees’ personal information to launch an abusive card check campaign at a later date;
Therefore: I urge you to withdraw the proposed rule amending representation-case procedures at docket NLRB-2011-0002.

Sign your petition today HERE

 
Obamacare, Organized Labor, Politics

Obamacare, What Could Go Wrong?

Time for a recap on the success, or lack thereof, of the greatest piece of legislation (if you ask a Democrat) since the New Deal, Social Security, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Section 8 Housing combined. Universal health care, said President Obama, is what Americans have wanted. And they wanted it so that the 15 percent of Americans that didn’t have health insurance could then have it. After all, we are a generous and compassionate America. Not only that, but average family policyholders would see a $2,500 decrease in their premiums because everyone would now be insured.

Now, three years since the bill’s enactment, and with less than two weeks to go before the mandatory sign-up period ends, the circus of all legislation, Obamacare, is tumbling down and taking Americans, the economy, with it.

Remember when Big Labor and businesses complained of the cost and burden the ACA would put on them, and were granted delays of implementation through 2014? They couldn’t afford it. That left the individual mandate to fund the program on its own, since big businesses got the delay they wanted. Then Republicans asked for the individual mandate to also be delayed, because people, including Congressional employees who make six figure salaries, couldn’t afford it. They filibustered for the delay and got no where. Now, the administration is doing what Republicans wanted to do last year because, ta daaa, it is creating “hardship” on people. People can not afford to buy it. Now, since the individual mandate has been pushed back two years, until October 2016, the Affordable Care Act has no one mandated to participate. Which means that the Affordable Care Act now has no mandated funding. And what funding it does have, is no where near what it takes (by demographic) to survive, let alone reduce anyone’s premium. What a brilliant plan?

Delaying Obamacare’s Individual Mandate Due to ‘Hardship’ — Caused by Obamacare

It’s getting difficult to take any part of Obamacare seriously.

The Obama administration has altered or delayed it so many times—who can be sure what the law is at this point?

The individual mandate stating that every American has to purchase government-approved health coverage or pay a fine is supposed to kick in on March 31. That’s the deadline to sign up for coverage, supposedly to avoid this year’s penalty.

But Obamacare is never “settled law,” as the president and others have called it, because Health and Human Services (HHS) keeps writing more regulations.

Most recently, the administration extended the “hardship exemption” from the individual mandate for those who had their previous policies canceled because of Obamacare until October 2016.

To qualify, your plan must have been canceled because it wasn’t compliant with Obamacare, and you just have to tell the government you “believe” that other insurance policies are unaffordable.

The exemption means people who meet these criteria are free from the individual mandate. But if they want to buy coverage, they are given the special option to buy a “catastrophic” health insurance plan, which is not eligible for subsidies and typically would be available only to those under age 30.

When the exemption was first announced in December, Heritage experts Alyene Senger and Robert Moffit said this “is not going to simplify anything. Rest assured it is going to create even greater confusion for health insurers trying to sell these products. Also, don’t expect the unhappy consumers who’ve just lost their previous coverage to understand clearly which plan they can pick and be legally qualified to pick it.”

Due to the utter confusion and the underperforming signups on HealthCare.gov, reporters asked HHS this week whether the agency would simply extend the deadline for people to buy coverage. An HHS official responded that, “In fact, we don’t actually have the statutory authority to extend the open enrollment period in 2014.”

This administration hasn’t let a detail like legal authority stop it from overstepping its bounds multiple times. And as Heritage’s Senger and Moffit put it, “issuing more government rules to correct the consequences of their unworkable government rules is the only thing they seem to know how to do.”

Repealing the ACA would be way better than what we now have. Replacing it with the House version would be better, and, would deliver in the private sector all that the ACA was promised to do in the public sector but can’t.

H/T Amy Payne 

2014 Election, Economy, Obamacare, Organized Labor, Politics

Problem Is Median Income, Not Minimum Wage

It ought to be clear by now that nothing President Obama has done to “fix” our economy has worked. And the reason is he has it all wrong. You can’t build the private sector economy when you bleed the strength from it via taxes, over-regulation, and debt. As the government grows, the economy shrinks. And boy has the government grown.

Aside from his propensity to tax and spend, where spending is to favor contributors, labor unions, and favored special interests like environmental wackos and green energy flops, none of which builds the economy, President Obama’s economic engineering is not working because he can’t identify the problem.

The problem is not the minimum wage. That is a political strategy for hooking low information voters and the poor to vote Democratic. And to give Big Labor a raise. Raising the minimum wage will cause people to lose jobs. Just like Obamacare is causing people to lose jobs.  The middle class is getting poorer.  While the minimum wage remained steady, the median family income has fallen every year since Obama’s “recovery” began.

According to the Census report, the high point for median household income in the United States was back in 1999 ($56,080). It almost got back to that level in 2007 ($55,627), but ever since then there has been a steady decline. The following figures come directly from the report, and as you can see, median household income has fallen every single year for the past five years…

2007: $55,627
2008: $53,644
2009: $53,285
2010: $51,892
2011: $51,100
2012: $51,017

Did you know that there are six counties in America where the median income is over twice the national median?  Four of those counties are suburban Washington.

You know where President Obama’s focus is. And it is not on how to raise median family income. That’s where the middle class is. Is this because he doesn’t know how? Or is it because he doesn’t care that his social justice agenda is killing jobs and ruining the economy, especially the middle class? Which one works for you?

Organized Labor

Tennessee Volkswagen Plant Votes NO To UAW

In a stinging defeat that could accelerate the decades-long decline of the United Auto Workers, employees voted against union representation at UnionNOVolkswagen AG’s Chattanooga, Tennessee plant, which had been seen as organized labor’s best chance to expand in the U.S. South.

Continuing the obsolescence of labor unions that are no longer needed or wanted. That’s good news for the workers, the company, and the local economy. And it will be instructive to see how much coverage and the interpretation the media gives this. Where Big Labor is concerned, this is a big defeat.

Link: Tennessee Volkswagen plant votes against union in UAW defeat | Reuters.

Organized Labor, Politics

Government Labor Unions, And You

In real life, when an employer that pays bonuses to its employees does so, it is a reward for either goals met or a job well done. In either case, it is performance based. In government life, that employer-employee relationship is much different. In fact, that kind of relationship does not exist, because of Labor Unions and their contracts.IRS-Building1

Government (public sector) labor unions instead have an incestuous relationship with their employer. Public sector unions provide the greatest percentage of union employment, more than five times higher than private sector. Not surprisingly, Big Labor also supports and provides the greatest percentage of campaign contributions, including boots on the ground, to democratic candidates and incumbents. In short, that relationship becomes a huge money laundering operation, quid pro quo, you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. The difference is, the employer, the government, doesn’t pay for it all. You do.

If you already know how this scheme works, it should come as no surprise then that the IRS union, the National Treasury Employees Union, will be getting bonuses. Not based on performance like you and I would expect. The IRS is supposedly under investigation for targeting political opponents of the democrat administration, and, there’s not a whole lot to crow about where the performance of our country is concerned. Nothing seems to be working, including its people.

us-department-of-homeland-security-office_tombstoneBut the union ridiculousness doesn’t stop there. The union that has its grip on Homeland Security (a Labor Union in Homeland Security should make you feel really, really safe) is fighting the the halting of “administratively uncontrollable overtime” for headquarters and training personnel, as well as workers who have been found guilty of abusing the overtime system, responding to a federal investigation that found many employees have boosted their pay with unnecessary and unearned overtime.

Who’s pays this overtime? Not the government, it’s you.