Archive for the “Unions” Category

Yesterday I posted this article: Why the UAW is still full of crap which describes how the UAW won’t allow certain vehicles to be parked in their parking lots.

Today, an employee of General Motors not only took offense, he suggested you go buy a Ford.

Editor’s note: This comment came from a GM employee and he’s saying “buy a Ford?”

IP Address: 198.208.251.22
OrgName: General Motors Corporation
OrgID: GMC-20
Address: 200 Renaissance Center
City: Detroit
StateProv: MI

I would not allow a foreign car on my property either. Wake up. Most of the camry profits go to japan, buy a Ford and the money stays in the US supporting American jobs…. yeah you’re a real patriot

My post was in no way intended to lambaste Ford. It was to illustrate how the UAW is eaten up with the union dumbass. That aside, given that GM took Obama’s handout at our expense, screw GM.

So the question is, should I rat him out and possibly cost him his job, or thank him for supporting Ford.

A couple of weeks ago, Kansas City Business Journal reporter James Dornbrook was attempting to cover Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon’s signing ceremony for the Missouri Automotive Manufacturing Jobs Act, which includes $100 million in potential incentives for Ford Motor Company.

Read the rest of this entry »

All the talk about improving schools getting federal Obama money has brought to the forefront the idea of “What makes a good school?” Is it changing for change-sake?

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Last week I posted about the Service Employees International Union and their attempts to unionize McDonalds across the country. Thanks to a tip from a reader, now comes this, which is a-typical of how unions pilfer money from their members pockets for their own personal gain.

Service workers express outrage over alleged misuse of SEIU funds

They make subsistence wages tending to the sick and elderly, minus the dues paid to the union local whose charismatic former president promised again and again to make the caregivers’ own lives better.

Now, the workers are told, the same fallen leader, Tyrone Freeman, owes the Service Employees International Union more than $1 million that officials say he misappropriated from the Los Angeles local to enrich his relatives and himself.

“I go back to those days when he was calling us brothers and sisters,” said Sergio Shokouh, 56. “He cheated us.

With 160,000 members, not counting 30,000 in an affiliated organization, the United Long-Term Care Workers is the largest union local of any kind in California, and one of the biggest in the country.

[...]

Since The Times began reporting on Freeman’s spending in August, the paper has received a steady stream of email and telephone calls from people who identified themselves as members of the local, making $9 an hour or so.

Most expressed shock at the revelations that Freeman channeled millions from the local and a related charity to his wife’s and mother-in-law’s business accounts; spent members’ dues on fancy restaurants and resorts; and allegedly used union funds to pay hotel and other bills during his wedding in Hawaii.

From the Teamsters Union to the UAW, and now, the SEIU, this type of corruption has gone on for years at the expense of their members. The feds recently gave the big three automakers a $17.4 billion bailout. The UAW refused to consider any cuts in benefits, work rules or pay, and the automakers will continue to fund retiree health care benefits.

All the while, the UAW manages to spend upwards of $5 million per year to cover the losses at a resort and golf course it owns, the Black Lake club and retreat. See story here.

Gimme.. gimme..

AWB

The SEIU, Service Employees International Union is conducting a nationwide blitz in an attempt to unionize McDonalds. I personally don’t think they have a chance in hell. What the SEIU fails to tell the workers is how they could be actually jeopardizing their jobs. Who would pay $10 for a Big Mac?

What they’re pushing is the The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Read on..

From WIKI

The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is legislation in the United States which aims to “amend the National Labor Relations Act to establish an efficient system to enable employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to provide for mandatory injunctions for unfair labor practices during organizing efforts, and for other purposes.”[1] Under current labor law, the U.S. National Labor Relations Board will certify a union as the exclusive representative of employees if it is elected by either a majority signature drive, the card check process, or by secret ballot NLRB election, which is held if more than 30% of employees in a bargaining unit sign statements asking for representation by a union. If enacted, this bill would require the NLRB to certify a bargaining representative without directing an election if a majority of the bargaining unit employees signed cards, the card check process.

Pursuant to the bill, a union can demand that an employer begin bargaining within ten days of certification of the union as the exclusive bargaining representative for an appropriate unit of employees via the card check. In addition, if the union and employer cannot agree upon the terms of a first collective bargaining contract within ninety days, either party can request federal mediation, which could lead to binding arbitration if an agreement still cannot be reached after thirty days of mediation. Where government arbitration determines terms of the agreement, employees would lose their current right to ratify the terms of the agreement. Finally, the Act would provide for liquidated damages of three times back pay if employers were found to have unlawfully terminated pro-union employees. The EFCA also would impose a $20,000 penalty upon employers for each employer violation of the proposed legislation if the NLRB and/or a court deems the violation willful or repetitive.

From The Heritage Foundation

How the Employee Free Choice Act Takes Away Workers’ Rights

Does a ballot cast in private or a card signed in public better reveal a worker’s true preference about whether to join a union? A private vote is the obvious answer, but organized labor has nonetheless made the misleadingly named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, H.R. 800) its highest legislative priority.

Recently, unions have switched the focus of their organizing operations from private balloting to publicly signed cards. These so-called card-check campaigns make it much easier for unions to organize workers, but most companies strongly resist the idea of denying their employees a vote. Unions now want the government to take away workers’ right to vote and certify unions after only a card-check campaign. The Employee Free Choice Act would do this and more.

First, it requires the National Labor Relations Board to certify a union after a majority of a firm’s workers has signed union cards, putting an end to almost all organizing elections: “if the [National Labor Relations] Board finds that a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed valid authorizations…the Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization.”[1]

Second, the EFCA requires companies and newly certified unions to enter binding arbitration if they cannot reach agreement on an initial contract after 90 days of negotiations.[2] Neither companies nor employees could appeal the arbitrator’s ruling, and the contract would last for two years.

Third, H.R. 800 would dramatically increase the penalties for unfair labor practices committed by employers, but not unions, during an organizing drive.[3]

More here and it’s worth the read.

AWB

From the NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS

Kentucky is the only southern state that forces people to join and pay dues to a union if one is present, sending the signal that Kentucky is not a job-friendly commonwealth. This leads many workers and corporations to skip over Kentucky and move to an employee-choice state, like Tennessee, says Henderson, says Jim Henderson, judge-executive of Simpson County, Kentucky.

When Colgate announced plans to close its historic plant in Indiana, just across the river from Louisville, it decided to skip over Kentucky and settle in Tennessee as well.