Tim Kaine:

Tim Kaine: "Friend of Labor Bosses"

Virginia is a battleground state for the presidency and for control of the US Senate this year. Former GOP Senator and Right to Work champion George Allen is running against former Obama's handpicked Democratic National Committee Chairman and while  Virginia governor and Tim Kaine. Kaine claims to support the state's Right to Work law, but does not support a national Right to Work law. The Richmond Times Dispatch noticed how President Obama in a speech deriding Right to Work called Tim Kaine a "friend of labor." "Friend of labor" is a euphemism for "friends of the union bosses." American workers who have 'friends' like these, who needs enemies: In a recent speech calling Tim Kaine a "friend of labor," President Barack Obama took a swipe at states — including Virginia — that have right-to-work laws. Not surprisingly, he misrepresented not only the laws but the facts. The president says right-to-work laws are an attempt to "take collective bargaining rights away." No, they aren't. Unions can still bargain collectively in right-to-work states. What they can't do is make union membership a condition of employment. The president also said he likes to call right-to-work "right-to-work-for-less laws." Good one. But studies about wages in right-to-work versus non-right-to-work states differ; some say they're higher, others say they're lower. And others note that both economic output and wages have risen faster in right-to-work states.

Tim Kaine: "Friend of Labor Bosses"

Tim Kaine: "Friend of Labor Bosses"

Virginia is a battleground state for the presidency and for control of the US Senate this year. Former GOP Senator and Right to Work champion George Allen is running against former Obama's handpicked Democratic National Committee Chairman and while  Virginia governor and Tim Kaine. Kaine claims to support the state's Right to Work law, but does not support a national Right to Work law. The Richmond Times Dispatch noticed how President Obama in a speech deriding Right to Work called Tim Kaine a "friend of labor." "Friend of labor" is a euphemism for "friends of the union bosses." American workers who have 'friends' like these, who needs enemies: In a recent speech calling Tim Kaine a "friend of labor," President Barack Obama took a swipe at states — including Virginia — that have right-to-work laws. Not surprisingly, he misrepresented not only the laws but the facts. The president says right-to-work laws are an attempt to "take collective bargaining rights away." No, they aren't. Unions can still bargain collectively in right-to-work states. What they can't do is make union membership a condition of employment. The president also said he likes to call right-to-work "right-to-work-for-less laws." Good one. But studies about wages in right-to-work versus non-right-to-work states differ; some say they're higher, others say they're lower. And others note that both economic output and wages have risen faster in right-to-work states.

Right to Work is about Freedom and Jobs not Political Parties

Right to Work is about Freedom and Jobs not Political Parties

President Obama, pandering to a crowd of Democrat party AFL-CIO union activists, attacked Right to Work laws as being more about politics than economics when the inverse is true -- opposition to Right to Work laws is about the Big Labor-owned Democrat party not economics. The President's own Department of Commerce's proves our point: Somethings never CHANGE, no matter how much we HOPE it does. Today the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis posted annual personal income data for 2011 on its web site. The data show that Right to Work states continue to enjoy a substantial income growth advantage over forced-unionism states. The Right to Work growth advantage is especially strong when it comes to private-sector compensation – that is, the wages, salaries, bonuses and benefits businesses provide for their employees. From 2010 to 2011 alone, private-sector compensation increased by 2.2% in the 22 Right to Work states, after adjusting for inflation with the U.S. Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI-U). In the 28 compulsory-unionism states, real private-sector compensation increased by just 1.7%. (Just this month, Indiana became the 23rd Right to Work state as the law banning forced union dues and fees signed by Gov. Mitch Daniels in early February took effect.) Over the past 10 years, from 2001 to 2011, real private-sector compensation in Right to Work states grew by 12.5%. That increase is four times as great as forced-unionism states’ aggregate gain of just 3.1%.

Standing up for Workers? Hardly!

Standing up for Workers? Hardly!

For decades, Thomas Sowell has been a voice of reason and that voice continues with his latest column, "The Last Thing Unions Are Concerned About Is Free Choice For Workers." Sowell writes: Labor unions, like the United Nations, are all too often judged by what they are envisioned as being — not by what they actually are or what they actually do. Many people, who do not look beyond the vision or the rhetoric to the reality, still think of labor unions as protectors of working people from their employers. And union bosses still employ that kind of rhetoric. However, someone once said, "When I speak I put on a mask, but when I act I must take it off." That mask has been coming off, more and more, especially during the Obama administration, and what is revealed underneath is very ugly, very cynical and very dangerous. As workers in the private sector have, over the years, increasingly voted to reject joining unions, union bosses have sought to replace secret ballots with signed documents — signed in the presence of union organizers and under the pressures, harassments or implicit threats of those organizers.Now that the administration has appointed a majority of the National Labor Relations Board members, the NLRB has imposed new requirements that employers give union organizers with the names and home addresses of every employee. Nor do employees have a right to decline to have this personal information given out to union organizers, under NLRB rules. In other words, union organizers will now have the legal right to pressure, harass or intimidate workers on the job or in their own homes, in order to get them to sign up with the union.