Card Check

Obama Labor Bureaucrats to Bypass Congress?

On July 16, 2010, By NRTW Committee Staff

‘Electronic’ Voting Would Facilitate ‘Card Check’-Style Abuses

Three of the four current NLRB members who were appointed or reappointed by President Obama are veteran union lawyers. All three are expected to vote in lock-step to expand Big Labor's forced-unionism privileges.

(Source: July 2010 NRTWC Newsletter)

Since the beginning of 2009, Big Labor has had a cheerleader in the Oval Office. At the same time, ample majorities of both chambers of the U.S. Congress have been willing to vote for virtually any power grab sought by union officials, as long as they could do so without running into intense, across-the-board constituent opposition.

Consequently, top union bosses have expected to see enacted in the current Congress legislation that would help them sharply increase the share of all private-sector workers who are under union monopoly-bargaining control.

Their original vehicle for achieving this objective was S.560/H.R.1409, the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act.”

Sponsored by union-label Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Congressman George Miller (D-Calif.), S.560/H.R.1409 would grease the skids for Big Labor workplace takeovers in several ways. Most famously, it would effectively end secret-ballot elections in union organizing drives, replacing them with so-called “card checks.”

That means, if S.560/H.R.1409 became law, union organizers would have far more (more…)

DNC: Whoops, We Forgot

On June 17, 2010, By NRTW Committee Staff

The Democrat National Committee has surveyed its members to create a list of priority agenda items for the party and apparently someone forgot to get a sign off from the labor union bosses on the mailing. The Card Check Forced Unionism bill was left off the list.

Tagged with: AFL-CIO • Big Labor • Card Check • DNC
Posted in: Card Check, Card Check, Economic Impact of Unionization, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions

That’s News? Trumka Continues Support of Card-Check Forced Unionism

On June 16, 2010, By NRTW Committee Staff

Like the headline “Dog Bites Man,” the news is reporting that the AFL-CIO union boss Richard Trumka continues to support the Forced Unionism Card Check bill. You don’t say? The bill will eliminate workers ability to choose forcing millions of Americans into unions against their will. What’s not to love?

Tagged with: AFL-CIO • Card Check • Richard Trumka
Posted in: Card Check, Card Check

Will Voters Reject Big Labor Arlen?

On May 11, 2010, By NRTW Committee Staff

In 2007, Senator Arlen Specter voted for the Card Check Forced Unionism bill when he was a Republican. Then, in 2009, he helped block the Card Check Forced Unionism bill when he was a Republican. In the first session of this congress, he announced he was going to oppose the Card Check bill as a Democrat. Now as a Democrat running for reelection he has worked overtime to carry the union boss agenda in the Senate. Now, this current posture is paying dividends as he racks up endorsements of big labor including the SEIU, the PA AFL-CIO, the Teamsters and other big labor unions.

But, it appears that rank and file voters may reject the insider deal as polls of Democrat voters now show a majority rejecting Specter.

Tagged with: Arlen Specter • Card Check
Posted in: Arbitration, Big Labor Ethics, Card Check, Card Check, Economics, Forced Dues, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Monopoly Bargaining, NLRB, ObamaCare, Pennsylvania, Police/Fire Monopoly Bargaining, Public Employee Monopoly Bargaining, Union boss power

Card Check this Year?

On May 5, 2010, By NRTW Committee Staff

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) says senators are “still negotiating.”

From The Hill:

McCaskill said that while senators were still negotiating the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a controversial bill to reform union organizing rules, it was unlikely to even include the actual “card check” provision itself, which has been the subject of malign by conservatives and business groups.

EFCA was a top priority of the labor community heading into last year’s Congress, but the emergence of a series of Democrats to have questioned some of its provisions, along with timing issues on jobs and healthcare legislation, had left the bill on the backburner.

“I think there’s a lot of negotiation that’s going on about card check,” McCaskill said.

Tagged with: Card Check • Claire McCaskill • EFCA
Posted in: Card Check, Card Check, Economics, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions

The Becker (Dis)Appointment

On April 5, 2010, By NRTW Committee Staff

The President’s decision to appoint radical Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board has breathed new life into the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill. No, the bill is still bottled up in the Senate but Becker can now push to have the scam enacted by fiat rather than legislation. The National Right to Work Committee is at the forefront of protecting workers from a Becker-forced unionism scheme.

Tagged with: Card Check • Craig Becker • NLRB
Posted in: AFL-CIO, Card Check, Card Check, Economics, Forced Dues, Forced-Dues for Politics, Forced-Unionism Abuses Exposed, Intimidation Tactics, Monopoly Bargaining, NLRB, SEIU

Bend it Like Becker — “Does Barack Obama want to wreck the American economy?”

On April 5, 2010, By NRTW Committee Staff

The American Spectator’s Jeremy Lott steps up with a column about America’s newest economic wrecking ball — Obama National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) appointee Craig Becker.

Does Barack Obama want to wreck the American economy? That’s one obvious and troubling question raised by his recess appointment of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board.

People who know anything about labor law are extremely worried about this decision. Appointing Becker to the NLRB is a bit like assigning the fox to guard the hen house — if chicken were an endangered species.

The president’s political calculus was simple enough. The union bosses wanted Becker, and Obama wants the unions’ support in the midterm elections. Becker is a lawyer who has represented both the AFL-CIO and the SEIU (and, by extension, ACORN). He is at the leading edge of radical labor opinion.

To wit, Becker helped to pioneer the idea of card check that unions so desperately want to pass. This change in labor law would effectively substitute the public clipboard for the private ballot box, which Becker has disparaged as being “profoundly undemocratic.”

Card check is deeply unpopular and is not likely to be passed by Congress, but Becker may have a way around that. He has hinted that the NLRB may be able to impose changes on the way unionization elections are conducted without Congress legislating any changes in labor law. He has also advocated that companies not be allowed to participate in NLRB hearings or contest election results, and that they not be allowed to have observers at the polls to challenge ballot fraud.

Becker wants this pro-union tilt to labor law because he believes that all Americans should be represented by unions, whether they like it or not. He has written, “Just as U.S. citizens cannot opt against having a congressman, workers should not be able to choose against having a union as their monopoly-bargaining agent.”

Congress saw that Becker on the NLRB would be a one-man card check bill.

Tagged with: ACORN • AFL-CIO • Card Check • Craig Becker • EFCA • NLRB • SEIU
Posted in: Card Check, Card Check, Forced Dues, Forced-Dues for Politics, Forced-Unionism Abuses Exposed, Government Grants to Unions, Intimidation Tactics, Legislation, Monopoly Bargaining, NLRB, Personnel Alert

Blanche Lincoln Runs From Pro-Union Record — But it is impossible to hide!

On March 29, 2010, By NRTW Committee Staff

Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln thinks she can run from her record of support for big labor but we won’t let her and neither will the union bosses who now apparently regard her as a traitor despite the fact she voted against the National Right to Work Act, voted for Card Check Forced Unionism in the last congress and just cosponsored a bill to federally mandate union monopoly bargaining over every firefighter, police officer and emergency medical technician in America!.

The liberal blog Plum Line recounts her requests for union cash and includes copies of her candidate questionnaire where she pledges support for big labor’s agenda. As the headline states, “Lincoln Slams ‘Union Unions,’ But She Aggressively Sought Their Backing.”

Tagged with: Blanche Lincoln • Card Check • NRTWA • PFFB
Posted in: Card Check, Card Check, Government Grants to Unions, National Right to Work Act, Police/Fire Monopoly Bargaining, Police/Firefighters/EMTs, Public Employee Monopoly Bargaining, Public Employees

Union Agenda Advances without Votes in Congress

On March 11, 2010, By NRTW Committee Staff

Despite failing legislatively to gain enough votes for the Big Labor agenda in Congress, the union boss power grab is proceeding administratively according to investigative reporter Kevin Mooney.

Tagged with: Binding Arbitration • Card Check • EFCA • Kvein Mooney • NLRA • NLRB • NLRB Nominations
Posted in: Uncategorized

Back Door Card Check?

On March 8, 2010, By NRTW Committee Staff

Mark Tapscott of the Examiner looks at Big Labor’s back door play to impose the Card Check Forced Unionism bill on America.

Now, the the Obama administration is pushing new arbitration rules that would allow a union to gain representation certification in any company so long as it wins any representation election. The National Right to Work Foundation describes it in these terms:

“The new procedure would stack the deck in favor of unionization by granting a union monopoly bargaining power over workers if the union ‘wins’ an election, no matter how few eligible workers actually participate in the vote. In fact, this means that a small bloc of workers could force union boss ‘representation’ on the whole group as opposed to a true majority of all workers deciding for themselves.”

The foundation has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all NMB documents, including correspondence, transcripts or notes of meetings, reports or handouts, proposals, speeches, phone logs, or other writings or recordings, between [Harry] Hoglander or [Linda] Puchala and any union official or lobbyist concerning the proposed rule change.

“President Obama repeatedly promised a new era of openness, transparency, and ethics but has repeatedly violated that pledge when it comes to paying off Organized Labor bosses,” said Patrick Semmens, legal information director of the National Right to Work Foundation. “National Mediation Board members should comply with the letter and spirit of that policy by not making rulings that so directly benefit their recent associates, ALPA and AFA union officials, in their quest to force more workers into union ranks.”

Tagged with: AFA • ALPA • Card Check • FOIA • Hoglander • NMB • NRTWLDF • Puchala
Posted in: Forced Dues, Government Grants to Unions