Category Archives: Organized Labor

Economy, Organized Labor, Politics

Union Fight In Wisconsin Gets Settled Today

Wisconsin goes to the polls today. Six recall elections will be decided. All against Republican state senators who supported Walker’s bill curbing collective bargaining rights for most public union employees.

The sore-loser drive has brought BIG LABOR dollars and rent-a-mobs to try to ultimately repeal the reforms that Governor Scott Walker enacted by harassing their way to regain a Democrat majority again.

Ed Schultz is there, the rent-a-mob is there. Well, about 300 people who sound like a studio audience is there. He claims they are there to fight for the middle class, but they are there to support BIG LABOR. Actually, it is a fight to keep the state from going broke and avoid big layoffs.

You will remember the tough time Walker had in getting the state house to get his reform bill voted on because the Democrat senators fled the state. I don’t see the vote going against what the people in Wisconsin already voted for. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

Link: Walker Union Fight Intensifies as Wisconsin’s Recalls Threaten Republicans – Bloomberg.

Economy, Organized Labor, Politics

Organized ‘Labor,’ Organized ‘Crime’

Newly created ACORN front groups across America have signed on to SEIU’s economic terrorism and sabotage campaign. ACORN, long associated with President Obama, is participating in the disruptive campaign through its newly renamed state chapters. Mortgage and student loan strikes, crippling bank boycotts, intimidation, and who knows what else are all on the agenda.  (more . . .)

Economy, Florida, Organized Labor, Pensacola, Politics

Organized Labor Call To Action

Gov. Rick Scott will be in the neighborhood June 1. And BIG LABOR is trying to rally the climate change and social justice movements in Florida against Scott for not wanting the State of Florida to spend $300 million buying real estate for the Florida Forever program.

Of the $ 615 million vetoed from the$ 69.7 billion Florida budget, almost half of the $ 615 million was to help fund Florida Forever. Scott’s attitude towards working families, students, the unemployed and the working poor reflects in his attitude towards Florida’s pristine ecosystem- he simply has no respect for Florida’s citizens and the environment we live in!

In a broadcast email, Union representative F. Lee Pryor, Mobilization Coordinator for the The NW FL Central Labor Council FL AFL-CIO laments “we see where Scott and company interests lie and that is with big business!”

Odd that labor would not be in favor of an agenda that would focus on cutting deficits and creating jobs. No jobs, no labor. Organized or otherwise.

Pryor also says . . .

It is entirely up to you to show the strength of the working families movement and join with all of our allies in the social justice and climate change justice movements. We need to stand unified against this corporatist attack from Tallahassee politicians disconnected from the everyday lives of working people in the state of Florida. This is the very reason we must do whatever we can do on June 1st to let Rick Scott know that Northwest Florida will not back down!

Typical of liberals. Organizing to try to spend your money (that we don’t have) instead of their own. I have a suggestion to test their mettle in conservation. Use your own money, not that of Florida taxpayers.

Florida, Organized Labor, Pensacola, Politics

‘We Are One Rally’ A Bust

Pensacola had their version of the ‘We Are One’ public union campaign We Are One Rally in Pensacolatoday. Lee Prior, the organizer of the event,  said that the pro-union movement was ‘electrifying people across America’ like it did 43 years ago when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched to organize black sanitation workers in Memphis, and was later assassinated.

The crowd assembled was hardly a crowd at all. There were 30 people at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza, including the speakers and sound crew. Like all such rallies there was an activist sign-up list. They garnered 15 names for that.

The keynote speaker did not attend. The organizer read a statement from him instead, saying that he had to be in Tallahassee taking care of business there. Then Jerry McIntosh, the head of the local Movement For Change group spoke.

He tried real hard to lend some relevance to the labor movement and tie it in Jerry McIntosh of Movement For Changewith Dr. King. It was labor unions that started a 40 hour work week, it was labor unions that got us sick pay, vacation pay, health insurance, retirement and pension plans, etc.. It was almost as though he was transported back to the 60’s. All of which was met with a ‘oh hum’ from the supporters. Fact is, all of what he said labor unions started are commonplace in non-union work sites today. They do deserve the credit for improving the workplace for ‘the workers.’ And because of their earlier success, all employers have learned to take care of their employees to where now, they have caused their own demise. Evidence of that is the shrinking number of union jobs in the private sector.

They were orderly and polite. But the reason they were there in the first place, the reason they were protesting, was kind of fuzzy. The CWA printed up some red signs saying ‘Stand Up for Workers’ Rights! Granted that public sector labor unions are in much disfavor with the American taxpayer now that money is tight and budget deficits are high. They have to realize, painful as it might be, that the public funds that pay them do not come from trees. And, like their private counterpart, they have to, or are being forced to, face the reality that like a private company, the government has financial limits too.

A smart parasite knows not to kill the host. Private sector unions know that they won’t have a job or a future if their company has to close its doors. Labor unions are not dumb. But they know that the government isn’t going to shut its doors. They also know that they own the Democrat Party, who will stop at nothing to repay them for their campaign contributions and street mobs. As if granting exemptions from Obamacare to labor unions isn’t enough, the latest quid pro quo revealed today is $2 Billion to unions, state public employee systems, and big corporations to subsidize health coverage costs for early retirees. Including ‘Pensacola Junior College’ and Escambia County.  The biggest single recipient of an early-retiree bailout is the United Auto Workers, which has so far received $206,798,086. They seem to be OK with that.

Their problem is that the taxpayers have reached the point, as have state budgets around the country, that things have to change if anyone is to have a future. Otherwise, they will remain One . . . boil on the butt of American taxpayers.

Links: Uncovered: New $2 billion bailout in Obamacare |  List of health care bailout recipients

Organized Labor, Politics

House Rejects Obama-Backed, Pro-Union Amendment

From the beginning, the Obama administration has made growing labor union membership one of their priorities. Since never has it been the responsibility of the federal government to grow labor unions. It’s not one of the government’s constitutional responsibilities. Like any other business or industry, BIG LABOR can rise and fall on their own.

The bill is a big push back of Obama’s quid pro quo to Big Labor for their financial support. Card Check is another. Instead of saying thank you for your contributions, the administration changed 75 years of labor law to allow a simple majority of votes cast to determine unionization in the airline and rail (like ‘high speed’ rail) industries, instead of the prior standard that required the support of a majority of all workers.

For example, if a company has 100 workers but only 80 turn out to vote in the election, it would only take 41 pro-union votes for the union to organize the company’s workers. That means a minority of workers could determine the status of the majority of the company. A community organizers wet dream.

Notice the subtleness of the two industries that the administration chose to grease for unionization. The two that are vital to the functioning of our country for the distribution of goods and the freedom of movement of our population.

One only has to remember how the economy suffered in 2001 when the airline industry came to an abrupt halt after the terrorist attack to imagine,  if given that power, what an arrogant BIG LABOR can do if they get their shorts in a wad. Just look at how they and their Democrat enablers are behaving in Wisconsin if you want a preview. Now imagine that on a national scale.

It’s way to early to think that this will stand, given that the Senate and the White House are of a different mindset. But it is a start.

Links: House shoots down pro-union amendment on FAA bill, sets up confrontation with Senate, Obama |  House Rejects Obama-Backed, Pro-Union Amendment to FAA Reauthorization Bill.

Economy, Organized Labor, Politics

More Labor-Union Bullying In Wisconsin

Wasn’t it in January 2011 that President Obama called for setting a ‘new tone’ of ‘civility?’ And just a few weeks ago he and the First Lady had a bullying summit or some such? Apparently the Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, never got the message. Or they believed that the President was exempting labor unions from the general population.

They have become un-hinged and are now attacking businesses, large and small, with threats of a boycott if they don’t support their cause. That includes business who have said, hey, I want to stay out of it. Leave me alone.

Members of Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, have begun circulating letters to businesses in southeast Wisconsin, asking them to support workers’ rights by putting up a sign in their windows.

If businesses fail to comply, the letter says, “Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means ‘no’ to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members.”

I learned a long time ago that one man’s rights end where another man’s nose begins. But what do they know about individual rights? Union individual is an oxymoron. The WSEU are community activists with an underworld twist. Nice business you’ve got there. Shame if something happened to it.

The point these union thugs miss is this. Aside from a place that provides goods and/or services, businesses are employers. And I don’t know of any employer who would hire an applicant that threatened him.

Hey, you’re going to hire me or you’ll pay the consequences. Yeah right. If they are so ugly and in your face when they’re not working for you. Why would anyone think they’ll change if you were to hire them? And sorry, take your anger, hate and belligerence somewhere else. Thank you very much.

Florida, Organized Labor, Politics

Pro-Choice, Union-Busting, Whatever

On Friday the Florida House approved HB  1021. Also referred to as a union-busting bill, it would ban automatic dues deduction in public sector labor unions and require members to sign off on the use of their dues for political purposes.

By Nancy Pelosi standards, the bill was approved with a bi-partisan vote of 73-40. No Democrats voted for it, and three Republicans voted against.

Whether the bill is a union busting bill or not, depends on what you believe the purpose of a labor union is.

Union members may still pay their dues via a check or credit card. And they may still consent to the labor union using their dues for political activism. In either case, if labor unions are as attractive as the union leaders make them out to be, then they have nothing to worry about. The union-busting side complains that “the bill would bar unions from engaging in political activity without permission from members.”

Not only is that exactly right, but it is the point of the bill. The crux of the issue is the usurping of their members’ rights by presuming that all of their members wish to contribute to a political activity that they do not agree with. You could say that this is a pro-choice bill.

In this bill, the workers are permitted a choice where heretofore they had none. It in no way prevents the unions from participating in political activism as they have always done, and support whatever candidate or party (as long as they’re Democrats) that they want. They have the same rights as a union as their members do as individuals. Or to put it another way, the union members have the same rights as individuals as the union does as a collective labor union. The SCOTUS has already established that campaign contributions are the same as political speech.

All statistics being equal, if you figure that about half the country is D and the other half is R, then one could expect that, when finally given the right to choose to fund their union’s political activity or not, that the union might lose about half of their political campaign funds.

The way I look at it, the end of unions bullying their members has finally come. Sucks to be a labor union president nowadays.

 

Media, Organized Labor

Labor Union Calls Boycott On Huffington Post Blog

Oh this is rich. Calling out the left-wing blog Huffington Post for ‘unprofessional and unethical practices,’ the CWA is asking writers to boycott the blog and to not cross that ‘electronic picket line.’

The Newspaper Guild is calling on unpaid writers of the Huffington Post to withhold their work in support of a strike launched by Visual Arts Source in response to the company’s practice of using unpaid labor.

The HuffPo has been called out lately for using the work of reporters and news outlets in their entirety. You know, like stealing the work of others to make it look like your own production. One step above plagiarism. And now for their use of ‘unpaid writers.’

The HuffPo has been doing this sort of stuff from the beginning. So why this action now? Well, now that AOL has purchased the Huffington Post, they suddenly have very deep pockets. The union is saying, if you want us to go away, pay us for our work.

h/t Editor & Publisher

Link: The Newspaper Guild.

Update 3/18/2011: You can’t read this story in the NYT, LAT, or Miami Herald. Not a word about it. Wazzupwidat?

Update 3/21/2011: Dan Abrams has an opinion on ‘the boycott.’ Only mention of it on the Huffington Post is a copy of a tweet.

Media, Organized Labor, Politics

Obama’s New Low Profile

President Obama, never one to duck an issue, is appearing to take on a more adult posture at problem solving. From not being the first to the microphone anymore to that of letting others deal with it. White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer calls it staying above the fray. The media calls it keeping a low profile. I call it ducking when it is politically expedient to duck.

Ever ready to jump in front of the news, as in the Cambridge, Mass incident between black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and white Cambridge, Mass. police Sgt. James Crowley, who “acted stupidly,” and inject himself into the business of the state of Wisconsin by saying it is “an assault on unions,” President Obama missed his golden opportunity at Friday’s news conference to make a statement about the goings on in the Wisconsin state house. After all, it consumed the news media all week/month long, culminating in the passage of the budget repair bill that state Democrats fled the state for. The protests were orchestrated in part by Obama’s Organizing for America and other union bullies. Bullying is OK when it works for BIG LABOR you know.

One take on why Obama failed to talk about it was that the polls suggest that the public does not support it or that he should not be involved in a state issue. Or both. To be sure, if he thought he could make hay out of it, he would have brought it up. If he thought it would hurt his chances of re-election, he might stay ‘above the fray.’ But what is the excuse of the press corps to not ask one question about it? To think that there was no collusion between the press corps and the administration requires a suspension of dis-belief. If not just good old-fashioned Chicago style threats to intimidate the press corps from asking about it. Fact is, no one did.

The Left can’t be too happy with Obama’s new low profile either. They expect him to be in Madison with the demonstrators. Like he said he would do when he was in campaign mode. Try this question that was not asked. Mr. President, critics in your own party are frustrated that another campaign promise seems to have gone by the wayside. What do you say to those who want you to go to Madison and show your solidarity with the labor union? (like you said you would do during your campaign?) The latter part is pure fantasy that he would ever be put on that spot. You know if he was an R, that’s the way the question would have been delivered. But I digress.

Here’s Rush Limbaugh’s take on it . . .

All right. It’s official. There were no questions on Wisconsin asked of the regime at the press conference today. Now, come on, folks, please. It’s only been the rallying cry of the Democrat Party. We’ve only had Obama joining the debate saying we shouldn’t vilify or denigrate public sector union people, they’re our neighbors and so forth. He got involved. It’s his website, Organizing for America, that organized all of the spittle-flecked protesters that were out there. Not one question. Not one statement made by Obama. Again, let me tell you what this means. I’ll explain it by doing it the opposite way. Had there been questions and had there been answers, had Obama made a statement, it would have meant that the polling data was clearly on his side, that the Republicans were really taking it in the shorts in the polls, and that it was a golden opportunity to hammer this whole business of destroying collective bargaining rights for unions.

If they had polling data that suggests that the Democrats won big in this thing that would have been 90% of the content of this presser. And it didn’t even come up.

The president and his handlers certainly have their hands full, both here and abroad. Makes me wonder who has the tougher job? Obama acting as President of the United States or his handlers trying to make an empty suit look as though there is something in it?

Link:  On high-profile issues, Obama keeps a low profile