Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s support for Right to Work ignited long and enthusiastic rounds of applause from the New Hampshire audience. [stream provider=youtube flv=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DKFB3EdI-v6M img=x:/img.youtube.com/vi/KFB3EdI-v6M/0.jpg embed=false share=false width=580 height=360 dock=true controlbar=over bandwidth=high autostart=false /] The state came…
Wisconsin Supremes hand government employees, Gov. Scott Walker and state Republicans a solid win; and they completely rejected Big Labor's ace-in-the-hole Judge Maryann Sumi's ruling. From the Journal Sentinel story by Patrick Marley and Don Walker: Madison - Acting with unusual speed, the state Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated Gov. Scott Walker's plan to all but end collective bargaining for tens of thousands of public workers. The court found a committee of lawmakers was not subject to the state's open meetings law, and so did not violate that law when they hastily approved the measure and made it possible for the Senate to take it up. In doing so, the Supreme Court overruled a Dane County judge who had struck down the legislation, ending one challenge to the law even as new challenges are likely to emerge. The majority opinion was by Justices Michael Gableman, David Prosser, Patience Roggensack and Annette Ziegler. The other three justices - Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Justices Ann Walsh Bradley and N. Patrick Crooks - concurred in part and dissented in part. The opinion voided all orders in the case from the lower court. The court ruled that Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi's ruling, which had held up implementation of the collective bargaining law, was void ab initio, or invalid from the outset.
UAW and BMW plan to expand in Right To Work state of South Carolina Otis Rawl, president and CEO of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, lays it out straight in a recent column in the Charleston Post Courier entitled "Right to Work law fuels South Carolina's economic engine": I can't tell you how many business leaders have approached me over the past month to express their disbelief, and in some cases outrage, that the NLRB would so blatantly misuse its power by issuing a complaint requiring Boeing to open a second 787 facility in the state of Washington. The NLRB claims the complaint is to remedy what it calls an illegal transfer of work to non-union facilities in North Charleston. In reality, Boeing did what any responsible company in its situation would do -- locate in the most manufacturing-friendly place possible. The NLRB should enforce the law as it is written -- not as dictated by organized labor. Here in South Carolina, we enjoy a right-to-work status that makes our state very attractive to companies considering where to locate. Currently, 22 states have right-to-work laws that protect the rights of workers not to be forced to join or pay dues to a union as a condition of employment. Right-to-work states must protect that tradition, which is under attack as union numbers continue to drastically decline. The last thing we need is for the union to force the same formula on South Carolina that helped bring Detroit to its knees. In fact, the formula we have is working just fine. Consider this. The auto industry has created 85,000 full-time jobs across the state. Many are available thanks to international automotive plants in places like Greer, Timmonsville, Spartanburg and throughout South Carolina. We are fortunate to be such a sought-after location for successful manufacturers to bring new jobs to South Carolina. And, it is important to note that at the same time that South Carolina was developing these 85,000 new jobs, UAW members were losing almost 1.2 million throughout the U.S.
Right To Work freedom strongly linked to economic prosperity explains Vincent Vernuccio in his Townhall post: The NLRB’s complaint is in fact a back-handed compliment to right-to-work laws, because it is based on the assumption that right-to-work laws help attract businesses. The preponderance of the evidence favors that position. As Arthur B. Laffer and Stephen Moore recently noted in the Wall Street Journal, from 2000 to 2009 right-to-work states “grew faster in nearly every respect than their union-shop counterparts: 54.6% versus 41.1% in gross state product, 53.3% versus 40.6% in personal income, 11.9% versus 6.1% in population, and 4.1% versus -0.6% in payrolls.” A recent analysis by the office of Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) shows that right-to-work states created 1.3 million more jobs in the private sector, had 3.5 percent faster income growth, and 46 percent higher business growth than forced union states between 1993 and 2009. And, according to a recent National Right to Work Committee analysis of Department of Labor data, over the past 10 years, the top five states in creating new jobs are right-to-work states, while the bottom five are forced unionism states. Workers in right-to-work states also have more disposable income than those in forced unionism states. In right-to-work states, unions must demonstrate to workers that their service has value or they will refuse to join. As in other areas of the economy, competition makes providers of goods and services—in this case the representation services of labor organizations—more efficient and responsive.
Sixteen state attorney generals try to stand-up to the Obama NLRB attempt to trample states' rights hours after the NLRB rejected efforts by Boeing employees to be heard. From Associated Press reporter Meg Kinnard: COLUMBIA -- Attorneys general from South Carolina and 15 other states Thursday weighed in on a lawsuit filed by the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that its complaint against Boeing for building an assembly plant in North Charleston after a strike by Washington state workers hurts states' abilities to keep manufacturing jobs. Alan Wilson and Greg Abbott, the attorneys general in South Carolina and Texas, respectively, asserted in a brief that "the NLRB's proposed action will harm the interests of the very unionized workers whom the general counsel's Complaint seeks to protect." "State policymakers should be free to choose to enact right-to-work laws -- or to choose not to enact them -- without worrying about retaliation from the NLRB," the two officials wrote. "It is logical that some employers will simply avoid creating new jobs or facilities in non-right-to-work States in the first place." The brief also was signed by attorneys general in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming. It points out that the attorneys general represent right-to-work and unionized states, although only two of the signers -- Colorado and Michigan -- fall into the latter category. South Carolina is a right-to-work state where individual employees can join unions voluntarily, but unions cannot force membership across entire worksites.
Could worker freedom from union compulsion come to Michigan? It looks like only Republicans can stop it: Click image to contact Sen. Randy Richardville (R-MI 17th District) ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Republicans in Gov. Rick Snyder's own backyard are urging the GOP chief executive, state Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, and other area legislators to support enactment of a state Right to Work law that would protect employees from being forced to join or pay dues to a labor union as a condition of employment. The Washtenaw County Republican Executive Committee Thursday night -- by vote -- adopted a resolution proposed by the Willow Run Tea Party Caucus saying a Right to Work law will "guarantee individual freedom of choice and help attract and create new jobs in Michigan." "No person (should) be required as a condition of obtaining or continuing public-sector or private-sector employment to: resign or refrain from membership in, voluntary affiliation with, or voluntary financial support of, a labor organization, (or) become or remain a member of a labor organization, or pay any dues, fees, assessments, or other charges of any kind or amount...to a labor organization," the resolution said. Judy McCoy, a member of the GOP committee, said Right to Work legislation "is a civil rights law that will protect employees from job discrimination on the basis of union membership or financial support. No employee should be discriminated against and fired for choosing to join or support a union, or for choosing not to. Every person should be free to choose either way without fearing loss of their job." "With overwhelming Republican majorities in both houses, and a Republican in the governor's office, the only people in Lansing who can prevent Michigan from passing a Right to Work law are, obviously, Republicans," McCoy said.
After trying to eliminate the secret ballot election in the workplace, Big Labor is now demanding a secret ballot election. From the Heritage Foundation: Secret ballots protect voters from intimidation. As long as a vote remains private, no one can retaliate against individuals for voting the “wrong” way. The leadership of the union movement wants to replace secret ballot union elections with “card-check”—a system where workers would unionize by signing union cards in the presence of union organizers. Publicly, union leaders insist that union organizers would never intimidate workers if they knew how they voted. But it turns out union bosses know full well that without secret ballots, union organizers would intimidate workers. Two unions, the International Association of Machinists (IAM) and the Association of Flight Attendants–Communications Workers of America (AFA–CWA) are vying to represent workers at the newly merged United–Continental airlines.
Meanwhile, United Autoworkers Union Bosses Pocket $3.4 Billion (Source: May 2011 NRTWC Newsletter) In late 2008, GOP President George W. Bush "loaned" a total of $19.4 billion in federal taxpayers' money to the Big Labor-controlled General Motors Corporation (GM). Mr. Bush assured taxpayers they would get their money back. But by the spring of 2009, we learned we would never get back any of the money Mr. Bush had handed over to GM shortly before he left office. His successor as President, Democrat Barack Obama, announced GM would never have to settle up with taxpayers. President Obama simultaneously earmarked an additional $30 billion in taxpayers' money to by-then bankrupt GM. In exchange, taxpayers got a 61% stake in the money-losing company. Echoing Mr. Bush, Mr. Obama and his advisors insisted that, when the government eventually sold off its whole stake in GM, taxpayers would get the entire $30 billion back, and perhaps even reap a profit. Just last August, the President said it again. He told a CNBC interviewer: "We expect taxpayers will get back all the money my Administration has invested in GM." 'Government Officials Are Willing to Take the Loss'
'In a Sense,' We 'Elect Our Own Boss' (Source: May 2011 NRTWC Newsletter) An October 27, 1975 New York magazine feature article by journalist Ken Auletta examined the causes of the Big Apple's financial implosion that year. Three-and-a-half decades later, the article is still remembered for a remarkable quote from government union bigwig Victor Gotbaum. The then-head of the extraordinarily powerful, Manhattan-based District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union had "recently remarked," the story reported: "We have the ability, in a sense, to elect our own boss." Mr. Gotbaum was alluding to the fact that, in jurisdictions like New York, where union monopoly bargaining over the pay, benefits, and working conditions of public servants is authorized by law, union bosses negotiate with government officials over such issues. At the same time, government union chiefs funnel a huge portion of the (often compulsory) dues and fees they collect from unionized workers into efforts to influence the outcomes of local and state elections. And the outcomes of those elections often determine who represents the public at the bargaining table. "In city after city and state after state, union bosses wield their privilege to force public employees to pay union dues, or be fired, to amass huge war chests, with which they support and oppose candidates for public office," explained National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix. "Big Labor thus determines who sits on one side of the bargaining table, and heavily influences who sits on the other. It is a terrible conflict of interest, which Victor Gotbaum plainly recognized, even as he bragged about it.