Want Jobs and Rising Income Levels? Pass Right to Work

The Investor's Business Daily confirms that enacting Right to Work laws is a recipe for jobs and economic growth: The business world is abuzz over the National Labor Relations Board's complaint vs. Boeing's new South Carolina production line. For NLRB critics, the case boils down to one thing: "right-to-work" laws. Right-to-work states have generally lower unemployment, higher job growth, lower taxes and better business climates. They have growing populations and have been attracting businesses from other states. In most states, once a workplace is unionized, employees are required to join the union or they can't work there. But 22 states, including South Carolina, have passed laws that give employees the right not to join. Hence the term "right-to-work." Unions dislike these laws for the obvious reason: It reduces their membership.

Teacher Files Brief in Wisconsin Government Unionism Reform Battle in Federal Court

From the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation press release: Public-sector union bosses file desperate lawsuit seeking to protect forced dues stranglehold over Wisconsin’s public workers and taxpayers Madison, WI (June 29, 2011) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a Kenosha teacher affected by Wisconsin’s recent public-sector unionism reforms has filed an amicus curiae brief in federal court. Kristi Lacroix, who has been a teacher for 13 years and is an English teacher at the LakeView Technology Academy in Pleasant Prairie, filed the brief Monday in favor of the reforms which sharply limited government union officials’ monopoly bargaining power over public workers and taxpayers. Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld Governor Scott Walker’s government-sector monopoly bargaining reform bill, which protects the Right to Work for most government employees and bans automatic forced-union-dues seizures from public employees’ paychecks. In response, union lawyers filed a new lawsuit in federal court seeking to overturn the bill, claiming that Freedom of Association – the right of American citizens to voluntarily come together to express their opinions and petition the government – gives union bosses forced-dues and monopoly bargaining powers.

President Obama: Union Owned and Operated

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer has hit the nail on the head -- the president is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Big Labor: In this year’s State of the Union address,[President Obama] proclaimed a national goal of doubling exports by 2014. One obvious way to increase exports is through free-trade agreements. But unions don’t like them. No surprise then that for two years Obama has been sitting on three free-trade agreements — with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea — already negotiated by his predecessor. Nothing new here. In 2009, Obama pushed through a federally run, questionably legal bankruptcy for the auto companies that robbed first-in-line creditors in order to bail out the United Auto Workers. Elsewhere, Delta Air Lines workers have voted four times to reject unionization. A federal agency, naturally, is investigating and, notes economist Irwin Stelzer, can order still another election in the hope that it yields the answer Obama’s campaign team wants. But Democratic fealty to unions does not stop there. Boeing has just completed a production facility in South Carolina for its new 787 Dreamliner. Why? Because by choosing right-to-work South Carolina, Boeing is accused of retaliating against its unionized Washington State workers for previous strikes. It jeopardizes the economic recovery, not only targeting America’s single largest exporter in its attempt to compete with Airbus for a huge global market, but also threatening any other company that might think of expanding in any way displeasing to unions and their NLRB patrons.
Oregon Senator helps SEIU organize state employees; threatens gov't officials who may oppose

Oregon Senator helps SEIU organize state employees; threatens gov't officials who may oppose

The Democrat Budget chief of the Oregon Senate is trying silence critics of an organizing drive that added more than 7,700 workers to the union's membership and turned it into the largest in the state. Thanks to campaign contributions, Sen. Richard Devlin is moving to tip the scales in favor of the union organizers.  Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian reports: At the behest of Service Employees International Union, Oregon Senate budget chief Richard Devlin sought to stifle criticism of an organizing drive that added more than 7,700 workers to the union's membership and turned it into the largest in the state. During a drive to organize workers who help care for developmentally disabled Oregonians, Tualatin Democrat wrote a letter to officials who help employ the workers, warning them not to say anything even "mildly" critical of unionization. He also suggested that a successful union drive would help boost legislative support for services for Oregonians with developmental disabilities. . Several officials who received the letter said it appeared Devlin tried to tip the scales in favor of the union's expansion.