Right to Work Blog

The headline “Union Boss Makes Threat” is like the “Dog Bites Man” headline — we have seen it all before. But, in New Jersey, there is a new twist. The union boss that is making threats is the head of the police union.

From CNSNews:

Two talk-radio hosts in New Jersey say they are worried about their own safety and that of their families after the head of the New Jersey State Police union threatened to make their home addresses and license tags public.

During a profanity-laced tirade on Thursday, State Police Union leader David Jones blasted Craig Carton and Ray Rossi, the hosts of WKXW-FM’s “Jersey Guys” program, for discussing an alleged State Police “ticket-writing blitz” on the air.

Jim Walters of the Georgetown Kentucky News-Graphic understands that it will take “new ideas and leadership backbone” to move Kentucky forward economically:

. . . Kentucky’s next governor could wield a positive influence over the commonwealth’s sluggish economy by going south of the border, grabbing Tennessee’s right-to-work policy and bringing it back.

Right-to-work laws simply protect employees from being forced to join unions or pay dues whether or not the benefits are worth those payments. The government doesn’t force any other citizen to pay dues to an organization. Rather, citizens voluntarily choose which organizations to join and support. Union membership should be no different.

Kentucky is at a disadvantage with their Right to Work neighbors like Tennessee when competing for jobs.

“Five nearby right-to-work states that often compete with Kentucky for new jobs – Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee – averaged nearly 287,000 new jobs between 1996 and 2004, the bureau reported. Kentucky added a measly 83,477 new jobs during that same time period,” Walters notes.

If Kentucky is to prosper, it needs a Right to Work law.

Walters gets it.

Let’s hope Kentucky’s next Governor and state legislature understands as well.

Teamsters Boss Jimmy Hoffa has made it clear why he desperately wants Congress to pass the Card Check Scam into law:

If EFCA [the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, H.R. 800/S.1041] were signed into law, Hoffa believes, Teamsters could double the size of the union.

The Card Check Scam is about power and filling union bosses’ coffers with more mandatory dues — period. It has nothing to do with worker rights or protection.

Eliminating any employee input in the process, would probably quadruple membership.

Perhaps Hoffa and company see that as the next step.

The Detroit News rightly finds legislation introduced in the Michigan State Senate by Michael Prusi as “[f]urther proof that the teacher unions in Michigan — and their lackeys in the Legislature — have little concern for anyone but their members.”

Prusi’s bill would allow teachers unions to end the hiring of services including contractors to serve food, drive the buses or clean the school to save money from outside the union. He wants the practice to be illegal and has introduced a bill to repeal the law that gives districts the freedom to find the best price available for noninstructional support services.

The Detroit News continued:

Prusi joins a long list of Democrats starting with Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who are beholden to the teacher unions first and students second.

Instead of looking at ways to reform the system to make it more efficient and ensure that limited dollars actually go into the classroom, they’ve decided it’s better to continue supporting outdated and exorbitant pension and benefit systems. Teachers in Michigan are the eighth-best paid in the nation and enjoy benefits better than what is offered in most of the private sector.

This legislation is so shamefully protectionist that Prusi’s co-sponsors — Irma Clark-Coleman, John Gleason, Raymond Basham, Deborah Cherry, Mark Schauer, Michael Switalski, Gilda Jacobs, Martha Scott, Gretchen Whitmer — deserve equal exposure.

Voters ought to take note of these 10 names. In taking away from school boards the ability to manage their district’s tax dollars as they best see fit, these legislators would guarantee tax increases in perpetuity to pay the inordinate costs that would come from a ban on privatization.

Competition is clearly a concern for unions and that’s not a surprise. But that’s precisely why more — not less — is in order.

When forced to take a close look at costs and delivery of services, vendors find savings and not always by getting rid of people. Union bidders can do this too by loosening work rules, juggling scheduling to eliminate overtime and working more efficiently. Some unions have beaten private vendors for contract.

That’s as it should be. And how it should stay.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) has a guest column in the Madison Record where he makes a strong case against the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill (H.R. 800/S.1041), pending in Congress right now. The highlights:

The proposed legislation would allow union organizers to ask workers to sign their ballot cards in the open – publicizing their vote and creating an awkward and potentially intimidating environment. Once a majority of a company’s employees express consent by signing voting cards, the union would automatically be certified as the bargaining agent for all the workers.

This legislation takes away workers’ voting privacy and exposes them to the outside pressure of the union organizers who are the distributors and collectors of the vote cards. Eliminating the right to a secret ballot is the antithesis of democracy and not an appropriate way for labor to organize. Therefore, I will continue to support a secret ballot for Alabama’s workers and oppose the “Employee Free Choice Act.”

While this legislation was aggressively pushed through the U.S. House of Representatives on a clear party-line vote, it is my hope that the majority of my colleagues in the Senate will join me in opposing this harmful bill that will only serve to undercut the great strides Alabama’s workers have made to boost the economy in recent years.

Recently, I cosigned a letter to Senate leadership expressing my opposition to the “Employee Free Choice Act.” It was signed with enough other members of the Senate to prevent the bill’s passage.

Alabama has a robust economy in large part due to our tremendous workforce. We are a right-to-work state, neither forcing nor prohibiting participation in a union. Instead of creating new federal laws that favor power grabs by the unions, we need to build on our already strong economy which has attracted numerous new companies to make investments in Alabama.

From the Mercedes plant in Tuscaloosa to the Honda plant in Lincoln and from the Hyundai plant in Montgomery to the EADS facility in Mobile, successful businesses recognize that Alabama is a smart place to do business and that our workers are some of the best in the world. We must continue to create further opportunities in our state and focus on working to attract even more new businesses and jobs, rather than taking rights away from Alabama’s workers. Alabama workers have partnered with business and together they have created a vibrant economy. The so-called “Employee Free Choice Act” would do nothing but harm our workers, our businesses, and our economy.

Jim Walters of the Georgetown, Kentucky News-Graphic understands that it will take “new ideas and leadership backbone” to move Kentucky forward economically:

. . . Kentucky’s next governor could wield a positive influence over the commonwealth’s sluggish economy by going south of the border, grabbing Tennessee’s right-to-work policy and bringing it back.

Right-to-work laws simply protect employees from being forced to join unions or pay dues whether or not the benefits are worth those payments. The government doesn’t force any other citizen to pay dues to an organization. Rather, citizens voluntarily choose which organizations to join and support. Union membership should be no different.

Kentucky is at a disadvantage with their Right to Work neighbors like Tennessee when competing for jobs.

“Five nearby right-to-work states that often compete with Kentucky for new jobs – Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee – averaged nearly 287,000 new jobs between 1996 and 2004, the bureau reported. Kentucky added a measly 83,477 new jobs during that same time period,” Walters notes.

If Kentucky is to prosper it needs a Right to Work law.

Walters gets it.

Let’s hope Kentucky’s next Governor and state legislature understands as well.

The Wheeling Intelligencer reports:

Russell Sobel, professor of economics at West Virginia University, strongly believes the state’s economy would benefit if the Legislature were to support a right to work law . . . .

Sobel could not be more correct in his analysis. The Intelligencer noted Sobel’s comments:

“When you consider job growth, there is substantial evidence that states with right-to-work laws tend to attract more jobs than states without them.” . . .

“States with right to work laws have labor unions, but only workers who want to join the union do so, which is much different from West Virginia where firms are unable to hire employees who are not members of the union . . . . From 2003 to 2005, the income for average citizens in right to work states grew by an average of 1.8 percent, but income only grew by 1.4 percent in West Virginia,” he said.

Sobel also said the average real per capita income for residents in right-to-work states was $4,083 higher than for non-right to work states in 2005.

“The average prosperity for most West Virginians would increase if we had a right-to-work law,” Sobel said.

Sobel’s report has set off bipartisan angst among elected officials who depend on forced-union dues and PAC money for their re-election.

[State] Delegate Orphy Klempa, D-Ohio, and state Sen. Andy McKenzie, R-Ohio, said the adoption of a right to work law would not help the state attract more jobs.

But all Klempa and McKenzie need to do is look at the economic record of Oklahoma since it adopted a Right to Work law. The Enid News points out that passage of the Right to Work Law has given companies a real reason to relocate in the Sooner State.

It’s not the first time we have noted news reports mentioning the tremendous benefits that Right to Work has created in Oklahoma. West Virginia politicians should take note.

Forbes Magazine had an interesting article last month about a lawsuit, “which is seeking class action status . . . ,” that “accuses ING . . . Life Insurance and the New York State United Teachers of ripping off union members in a retirement savings plan through over-charges, undisclosed payments and kickbacks.”

According to the article, Lynn Sarko, an attorney representing the plaintiffs in the ING case, is “preparing to file three similar suits” this month.

“Our investigation shows this was not an aberrant practice but widespread . . . . What’s so insidious in the New York case is that union officials held themselves out as having investigated and approved retirement products when they were in fact conspiring with ING to hide the facts and personally benefit.”

What’s even more insidious is that many of the workers who are being scammed are forced to fork over their hard earned funds to these same Big Labor Bosses as a prerequisite for getting or keeping their jobs.

Big Labor wants to eliminate workplace elections, and the decision by card dealers in New Jersey to reject unionization is a prime example why. After using political muscle, including having Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ) conduct a card check campaign on Big Labor’s behalf, workers voted secretly to reject a bid to unionize, the Associated Press reports.

“UAW [United Auto Workers] Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn noted that ‘a substantial majority’ of Trump Marina dealers had signed union authorization cards before the vote,” but when they were able to vote their conscience without peer pressure and intimidation, dealers said no to joining the UAW.

The Trump Casino example is prime evidence as to why workers must have the right to express their views secretly.

Advocates of the Card Check Scam claim the bill is about “fairness.” We know otherwise. It’s about forcing more people into unionism and mandatory dues payment to the union bosses. But a college professor is not arguing that bill is needed for “fairness,” but because it will mark the “rebirth of progressive politics.”

“The labor movement is still the most effective political force for electing liberal candidates at the local, state, and federal levels,” Occidental College professor of politics Peter Dreier writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education. “A strong labor movement thus benefits other [liberal] agendas and causes.”

Dreier urges liberals of all stripes to support the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, because he argues bigger union membership could lead to more Democratic politicians in power due to union leaders’ support for Democrats. As much as 95 percent of union political contributions support Democratic candidates.

“And once in office, pro-labor politicians are typically the strongest supporters of the environment; the civil rights of women, homosexuals, and minority groups; universal health insurance; Social Security; affordable housing; and funds for public schools and higher education,” Dreier writes.

It doesn’t concern Dreier the contributions to these causes would be paid for by mandatory and coerced dues payments from workers. But give him some credit — at least he isn’t using the old “fairness” canard for his reason to support the Card Check Scam.