Reid’s Lame Payback Bill

Reid’s Lame Payback Bill

****UPDATE 12/6/2010****  This evening, Senator Reid moved to proceed to the following bills and filed cloture on the motions: - Calendar #662, S.3991, the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2009 (commonly known as Police -Fire Fighters Forced Monopoly Bargaining Bill); By unanimous consent, the cloture vote on the motion to proceed to Calendar #662, S.3991 (the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2009) will occur upon conclusion of the impeachment proceedings. We expect to complete the impeachment proceedings Wednesday morning. ******** Sen. Harry Reid is trying to repay his political debts and is attempting for move legislation that would give union bosses monopoly bargaining power over taxpayer money for police and fireman. The Detroit News adds their thoughts on the deal: Having survived a near-death experience on Election Day thanks largely to massive donations from labor unions, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is paying back his benefactors. The Democrat from Nevada says that during Congress' lame duck session he will try to once again force through a measure giving police and fire unions the upper hand in dealing with local communities. Reid will seek a cloture vote on the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act, which despite its name has little to do with cooperation. Rather, the bill would be a federal clone of Michigan's disastrous Public Act 312, which is blamed with ruining the finances of scores of communities, including Detroit, and pushing many to the brink of bankruptcy — that's you, Hamtramck. The bill would make it easier for police and firefighters to organize labor unions and force all officers to join, even in right-to-work states. That's a brazen usurpation of state authority, and very likely unconstitutional.

Forced Unionism vs. Private Health Insurance

Forced Unionism vs. Private Health Insurance

Between 1999 and 2009, the number of people with job-based private health insurance grew by 570,000 in Right to Work states, but declined by 7.74 million in forced-unionism states. Big Labor can't explain why. Image Credit: sph.umd.edu (Source: October 2010 NRTWC Newsletter) Big Labor Bastions See Steep Decline in Job-Based Benefits On average, residents of Right to Work states have higher real, spendable incomes than their counterparts in non-Right to Work states. And Right to Work states have a much better track record of creating and sustaining private-sector jobs that come with health benefits. The evidence confirming these two points comes from the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and Bureau of the Census (BOC), as well as the nonpartisan Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC). Last month, the National Right to Work Committee's research affiliate, the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, conducted an analysis of the BEA-reported 2009 disposable (after-tax) income data for each of the 50 states. The Institute adjusted the data to account for interstate differences in living costs with the help of a quarterly index created and reported by MERIC. The analysis found that, in 2009, the cost of living-adjusted disposable income per capita for the 22 Right to Work states was $35,543. Productive, Well-Compensated Jobs Disappearing in Forced-Unionism States