Union Rules Hamper Oil Clean Up

Brian Wilson at Fox News asks an intriguing question:  Have laws favoring Big Labor union hindered the clean up of the oil in the Gulf?  Evidence seems to suggest the answer is yes:

Foreign companies possessing some of the world’s most advanced oil skimming ships say they are being kept out of efforts to clean up the oil spill in the Gulf because of a 1920’s law known as the Jones Act — a protectionist law that requires vessels working in US waters be built in the US and be crewed by US workers.

Joseph Carafano of the Heritage Foundation has been studying the matter and wonders, “Are we accepting all the international assistance in the maritime domain that we can, and is the Jones Act an impediment to that?”

The Coast Guard and the Administration are quick to point out that some foreign technology is being used in the current cleanup effort. Including: (more…)

Obama Backs Another Bailout – This Time it’s the NEA Union

General Motors.  Wall Street.  Big Banks.  Chrysler.  Union Pension plans.  All provided bailouts by the Obama Administration.  If they have their way, you will add teacher’s to the list.  The Washington Post reports:  The Obama administration on Thursday threw its support behind a $23 billion measure” intended to prevent teacher layoffs and he wants the bailout added to a war-funding bill.  Quality be damned.  Good, bad, indifferent — we can’t let the teacher’s union ranks thin even in the slightest. 

(related blog: New Right to Work Video — Inside the Minds of Teacher Union Operatives)

You Don’t Say? Obama: “I am a pro-union guy”

 

After handing billion dollar corporations over to union bosses, bailing-out union pension funds, stacking the deck of the National Labor Relations Board, and hundreds of other Obama Administration pro-Big Labor moves, the president proclaims: “I am a pro-union guy.”

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/04/27/obama_at_iowa_town_hall_im_a_pro-union_guy.html

Another Kick Back Scheme

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved a policy initiated by President Barack Obama’s Executive Order 13502, encouraging federal agencies to discriminate against nonunion workers and employers by adopting so-called “project labor agreements” (PLAs) on all federal construction projects costing the taxpayers over $25 million. Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, released the following statement about the policy.

“The Obama Administration’s policy is a slap in the face to the vast majority of construction workers who have chosen not to unionize. Qualified nonunion contractors whose workers have opted against unionization will be locked out from large-scale construction projects. The true purpose of so-called project labor agreements is simple: to impose unwanted union boss control on workers from the top-down.

“Rather than encouraging a competitive and open bidding process to ensure the American taxpayers get the best deal, the White House favors using federal contracts to reward Big Labor’s political machine. The policy is nothing more than payback for the billion dollars the union bosses spent electing Barack Obama and other forced-unionism proponents in the last election cycle.”