The Auto Workers Obama Left Behind

The Auto Workers Obama Left Behind

Michele Malkin looks behind the president's rhetoric and self congratulations over "saving" the American auto worker to remind us of those the president choose to leave behind -- workers who were not part of the Big Labor machine in Michigan: The White House fairy tale about the Happily Ever After Auto Bailout is missing a crucial, bloody page. While President Obama bragged about "standing by American workers" at a rowdy United Auto Workers meeting Tuesday, he failed to acknowledge how the Chicago-style deal threw tens of thousands of nonunion autoworkers under the bus. In a campaign pep rally/sermon billed as a "policy speech," Obama nearly broke his arm patting himself on the back for placing his "bets" (read: our money) on the $85 billion federal auto industry rescue. "Three years later," he crowed, "that bet is paying off for America." Big Labor brass cheered Obama's citation of GM's "highest profits in its 100-year history" as the room filled with militant UAW chants of "union made." "Union made" -- but who paid? Scoffing at the criticism that his bailout was a massive union payoff, Obama countered that all workers sacrificed to save the auto industry. "Retirees saw a reduction in the healthcare benefits they had earned," Obama told the congregation, er, crowd. "Many of you saw hours reduced," he sympathized, "or pay and wages scaled back." Let's clear the fumes (again), shall we? The bailout pain was not distributed equally. It was redistributed politically.
Spring 2012: Taxpayer-Funded UAW training 100,000 people energize the fizzled Ocuppy Wall Street gang

Spring 2012: Taxpayer-Funded UAW training 100,000 people energize the fizzled Ocuppy Wall Street gang

Using forced worker's dues money, the United Auto Workers  (UAW) is organizing “100,000 Americans will train for direct action,” promises a new website called “The 99% Spring.” But they didn't want anyone to know about their involvement. From the Daily Caller From April 9 to 15, “100,000 Americans will train for ... direct action,” promises a new website called “The 99% Spring.” But while the 43 organizations co-signing a letter on the ragtag-looking site indicate the sort of leaderless resistance characterized by the Occupy Wall Street movement, a series of files The Daily Caller downloaded from the United Auto Workers website indicate that the organized labor powerhouse is behind the effort. The files, downloaded Sunday, include campaign talking points, a fill-in-the-blank press release template for participating organizations and an advance look at the social media campaign the organizers plan for Facebook and Twitter. Also included is a “FYI” letter designed for endorsers to distribute, complete with a blank space at the top of the list of participating groups. Filling in a given organization’s name lends the impression that it, not the UAW, is the campaign’s driving force.
Big Labor Bosses Setting Aside Vast Sums for 2012

Big Labor Bosses Setting Aside Vast Sums for 2012

Union workers are being forced to "dig deeper" to help elect President Obama.  The Associated Press reports that big labor will spend over $400 million in the effort.  Of course, that is only the reportable expenses.  We expect big labor will spend well over $1 billion nationally this campaign season -- most of which will come from the pocket of union workers who have no say on how their dues money is spent. AP reports: "People are digging deeper," said Larry Scanlon, political director of the country's largest public workers union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "If Republicans take over the presidency, Congress and enough state legislatures, unions will be out of business, pure and simple." Scanlon's union was the biggest overall spender in the 2010 midterm elections, doling out about $93 million to help state and federal candidates, mostly Democrats. This year, AFSCME is expected to spend at least $100 million or more on political action, including television advertising, phone banks and member canvassing. The effort is to help the president, Democrats running for the House and Senate, gubernatorial candidates and key state lawmakers.
Taxpayers Fleeing Forced-Unionism States

Taxpayers Fleeing Forced-Unionism States

Mark Mix: Forced unionism is "an economic albatross for many states and for America as a whole." Credit FOXBusiness.com National Right to Work Law Could Finally Stop the Hemorrhaging (Source:  January 2012 National Right to Work Committee Newsletter) Perhaps the single most effective tool for measuring the long-term, ongoing migration of taxpayers and income out of forced-unionism states and into Right to Work states is furnished by the Statistics of Income (SOI) division of the IRS. And today any interested person can easily access SOI data through a data bank maintained on the web site of the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation. Forced-Unionism States Are Losing Massive Amounts of Income as Well as People The SOI records the number of personal income tax filers who move (typically with their dependents, if they have any) across state lines, based on address changes shown on individual tax returns. The SOI data are arranged according to the year taxes are filed. For example, data for the Tax Filing Year 2010 show that a total of 1.35 million personal income tax filers were residing that year in a Right to Work state after residing somewhere else in the U.S. the previous year.