"Thanks to my Spider sense, I am freed from those who have deceived me"

"Thanks to my Spider sense, I am freed from those who have deceived me"

Right to Work: Spider Senses Tingling From the Foster's Daily Democrat State Rep. Steve Vaillancourt makes the case for enacting Right to Work: Until the last few weeks, right to work has always been a close call for me. In years past, I have opposed the bill after buying into the argument that one should not benefit from union contracts unless one pays the cost of negotiating them. It was a close call because then as now, I believe the individual should control his or her own life without being coerced into joining anything. Thus, I have always seen a conflict of two principles and have to weigh their importance. This year, with the Daniels amendment, the conflict was removed, and I voted for right to work. It remained a close call, l but the Daniels amendment tipped the scales to supporting the bill. Even with the Daniels amendment gone, I continue to support the right to work bill, and guess what. It's no longer a close call. I'm now a staunch supporter of the bill and urge all my Republican colleagues, especially those who like me have been on the fence in the past, to vote to override the governor's veto. Clearly, unions were using the payment for negotiation argument as nothing more than a red herring. How do I know this? Because, when they refused to budge in their total opposition to the bill, even when the Daniels amendment was added, my Spider senses startled tingling. That's a phrase I use to describe when I begin to realize that I'm being taken for a fool, that those trying to convince me are in fact being less than totally honest.
Recent Right to Work Victories Under Fire

Recent Right to Work Victories Under Fire

Big Labor Blitzes For Compulsory Unionism in Wisconsin and Ohio (Source: May 2011 NRTWC Newsletter) Since the 1960's, Big Labor lobbyists in 21 states have successfully pressured elected officials to pass statutes explicitly authorizing union bosses to get independent-minded public servants fired for refusal to pay dues or fees to a union the employees would never voluntarily join. Until this year, despite the growing success of the Right to Work movement with regard to the private sector, not a single state legislature had ever revoked government union bosses' forced-dues privileges after previously granting them by statute. But this March two states, Wisconsin and Ohio, made history by restoring the Right to Work of public servants. Over ferocious and sometimes menacing Big Labor opposition, Badger State legislators approved, and GOP Gov. Scott Walker signed into law, S.B.11. Key provisions in this law abolish all forced union dues and fees for teachers and many other public employees. Unfortunately, it leaves public-safety officers unprotected. The Buckeye State reform, which union militants opposed with nearly equal bitterness but considerably less media attention, includes provisions protecting the Right to Work of all categories of state and local government employees, including public-safety officers. This law, signed by GOP Gov. John Kasich, is still commonly referred to by its legislative bill number, S.B.5. National Right to Work Helped Mobilize Public Support For Reforms
Obama Bureaucrat Tells Boeing Where to Expand

Obama Bureaucrat Tells Boeing Where to Expand

Company Prodded to Abandon New Aircraft Plant in Right Work State (Source: May 2011 NRTWC Newsletter) To a rational observer, it's obvious that the antics of the strike-happy union bosses at Boeing's West Coast facilities over the past few decades have been detrimental to the interests of the aerospace company's rank-and-file domestic employees as well as its shareholders. Since 1975, International Association of Machinists (IAM/AFL-CIO) union bosses have ordered employees at Boeing's Washington State and Oregon facilities out on strike five times. The most recent strike, in 2008, lasted 58 days and cost the company $1.8 billion. In a highly competitive, globalized industry like aircraft production, such costly labor stoppages put Boeing jobs at risk. The potential harm to workers is far greater than any economic gain they could possibly reap from a strike. Obama NLRB's Top Lawyer: Sensible Business Decision Driven by 'Anti-Union Animus'
Obama Labor Department: A School For Scandal

Obama Labor Department: A School For Scandal

Union Consultant Charged With Overseeing Union Financial Reports (Source: May 2011 NRTWC Newsletter) On his first full day as U.S. President, Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13490, otherwise known as the Ethics Executive Order. Under E.O.13490, presidential appointees are required to sign a pledge affirming that, for two years after the day they are appointed, they will not "participate in any particular matter involving a specific party that includes a former employer or former client." "Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency," Mr. Obama vowed. Unfortunately, almost from the day E.O.13490 was first issued, the Obama Administration has repeatedly ignored its letter as well as its spirit when it comes to appointees whose job is to oversee and regulate labor unions. Thousands of Union Bosses to Be Exempted From Disclosing Any Conflicts of Interest Last month, the National Right to Work Committee issued a report on one of the most egregious examples of an Obama appointee making policies that clearly benefit his former union-boss clients: John Lund, now the director of the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS). Mr. Lund is a former employee of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE/AFL-CIO). And he is currently on unpaid leave from the Madison-based University of Wisconsin School for Workers, of which the AFL-CIO and many other unions, as well as many union benefit funds, are clients. But now Mr. Lund is responsible for overseeing federally-mandated union financial disclosures and criminal investigations regarding union financial irregularities and embezzlement!

Where the Boeing Controversy Was Born

The Wall Street Journal's editorial page connects the dots to discover that the NLRB's complaint against Boeing and companies moving to Right to Work states is not the actions of a rouge General Counsel but the suggestion of the Chairman of the Committee Wilma Liebman. The Obama-era National Labor Relations Board has tilted so heavily toward union interests that companies might be forgiven for thinking the process is rigged against them. A recent missive from one of the agency's top lawyers shows why. In a May 10 memo to regional staffers, Associate General Counsel Richard Siegel discusses a March case in which the NLRB sided with telecommunications company Embarq Corp. in a dispute over its decision to close a Las Vegas call center and open a bigger facility in Florida. The company refused to explain to its union the rationale for the move. In America, business decisions are made by owners or executives and are rarely subject to compulsory bargaining, while unions confine their concerns to working conditions, pay and benefits. NLRB Chairwoman Wilma Liebman, a long-time union lawyer, doesn't like that balance. "The Board's task would be easier, and more importantly, the [National Labor Relations] Act's policy of promoting collective bargaining might well be better served, if employers were required to provide unions with requested information about relocation decisions whenever there was a reasonable likelihood that labor-cost concessions might affect the decision," she wrote in her concurrence to the Embarq case. Translation: Ms. Liebman wants to force far more companies to consult unions when they want to relocate, because unions might theoretically be able to offer concessions to avert a move if they had more information. Never mind that such a rule change would be an unprecedented intrusion into boardrooms, or that unions might use collective bargaining to request reams of data, such as payrolls and tax returns, to increase their negotiating leverage. In a "future case," Ms. Liebman added, "I would be open to modifying" the rule. Wink, nudge.
Trumka's Tirade

Trumka's Tirade

AFL-CIO boss Dick Trumka speech where he issued the hollow threat to the Democrat Party to take his fidelity elsewhere, is being called Trumka's Tirade by the Pittsburgh Tribune: Big Labor boss Richard Trumka has issued an ultimatum to unions' lackeys in Congress: Meet our unrelenting demands or find another sugar daddy to fund your campaigns next year. "We will spend the summer holding elected leaders in Congress as well as the states accountable on one measure: Are they improving or degrading life for working families (of union members)?" says the AFL-CIO's Mr. Trumka. And Trumka says Democrats may be "controlling the wrecking ball" that's hurting unions. How's that for gratitude? Whereas unions, given their substantial contributions to Democrats in the last presidential election, didn't get everything on their quite lengthy wish list, they've made substantial inroads with Team Obama at the federal level. Those inroads lead to the National Labor Relations Board.
Trumka's Tirade

Trumka's Tirade

AFL-CIO boss Dick Trumka speech where he issued the hollow threat to the Democrat Party to take his fidelity elsewhere, is being called Trumka's Tirade by the Pittsburgh Tribune: Big Labor boss Richard Trumka has issued an ultimatum to unions' lackeys in Congress: Meet our unrelenting demands or find another sugar daddy to fund your campaigns next year. "We will spend the summer holding elected leaders in Congress as well as the states accountable on one measure: Are they improving or degrading life for working families (of union members)?" says the AFL-CIO's Mr. Trumka. And Trumka says Democrats may be "controlling the wrecking ball" that's hurting unions. How's that for gratitude? Whereas unions, given their substantial contributions to Democrats in the last presidential election, didn't get everything on their quite lengthy wish list, they've made substantial inroads with Team Obama at the federal level. Those inroads lead to the National Labor Relations Board.