Featured Posts

The Latest

Time to Give Indiana an Economic Edge

Time to Give Indiana an Economic Edge

As Right to Work legislation finds its way back to the top of the legislative agenda in the state capital, Andrea Neal looks at the benefits of enacting a Right to Work bill in the Hoosier State: It doesn't take an economist to spot the common thread in these recent economic development headlines: Chattanooga, Tenn., July 29: "Volkswagen hires 2,000th employee." Shreveport, La., July 28: "NJ-based bag manufacturer to build Louisiana plant." Decatur, Ala., July 21: "Polyplex to build $185 million plant." West Point, Ga., July 7: "Kia builds vehicle No. 300,000." All four stories have Southern datelines. All come from states with right-to-work laws, which prohibit labor contracts that [force] employees to join a union or pay a union representation fee. This is the issue that prompted the five-week House Democratic walkout during the 2011 Indiana General Assembly. The Democrats -- a minority in both House and Senate -- had no other leverage. So when a right-to-work bill came up unexpectedly in a session that was supposed to be about the budget, redistricting and education, they bolted. Republicans capitulated and took the legislation off the table. In 2012, it will return with a vengeance, and this time Democrats can't avoid it. Right-to-work has been promised a full public airing. The Interim Study Committee on Employment Issues, chaired by Sen. Phil Boots, R-Crawfordsville, is taking a first crack this summer and hopes to recommend a bill by November. Gov. Mitch Daniels, who didn't support the bill last session, has hinted he might this time around.
Boeing Workers Battle Big Labor, Obama NLRB

Boeing Workers Battle Big Labor, Obama NLRB

South Carolina Boeing employee Dennis Murray, a quality assurance inspector, doesn't mince words regarding IAM union bosses' aims: "They're trying to spank us like unruly children, by having all of our jobs taken away." Credit: WCBD-TV (Charleston, S.C.) Right to Work Offers Legislative as Well as Legal Assistance (Source: July 2011 NRTWC Newsletter) In 2008, Dennis Murray went to work at Vought Aircraft Industries' facility in North Charleston, S.C. The facility built a key structure, aft fuselage, for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner airplane. At that time, International Association of Machinists (IAM/AFL-CIO) union bosses had recently acquired monopoly-bargaining privileges over Vought's North Charleston employees, but no union contract was yet in place. Later that year, IAM union chiefs obtained a contract that cemented their power, but excluded important medical, dental, short-term disability, and other benefits Vought workers had had when they were union-free. Union officers sneakily secured approval of this contract, Mr. Murray charges, by notifying just a dozen of the facility's 200 union members about the meeting at which it was to be considered. The union contract ended up getting ratified by a vote of 12-1! Not surprisingly, Vought employees were angry about what the IAM brass had done. Their anger was soon exacerbated by layoffs lasting from three weeks to five months. In July 2009, Boeing purchased Vought's South Carolina operations for roughly a billion dollars. Shortly afterward, Mr. Murray led a successful decertification campaign in which a 199-68 majority of workers, including many union members as well as nonmembers, voted out the IAM union. Suit Charges IAM Bigwigs With Illegal Retaliation Against South Carolina Employees

collective bargaining abuses that bleed taxpayers dry

California is facing daunting budget deficits and a potential pension crisis brought on in large part by the union bosses for government workers. Brian Calle of the Orange County Register doing yeoman's work has discovered a slew of collective bargaining abuses that bleed taxpayers dry and threaten the financial stability of the state. Among them: disclosures of $100,000 a year lifeguard jobs; $5,600 a year bonus for city motorcycle officers who clean their bikes and now he discovered that "police officers in Costa Mesa are paid an additional, guaranteed 2.5 percent of salary simply to wear uniforms on the job. According to the city's Memo of Understanding with the Costa Mesa Police Association (the officers' union), officers are given "Uniform Assignment Pay" to wear their uniforms while working." Of course these disclosures are just emblematic of the abuses but they are significant none the less. As Calle writes: Encountering pay gimmicks like these can explain why so many people have begun calling into question public-sector collective bargaining rights – because these are the fruits of organized labor's negotiations with elected officials. All the more reason collective bargaining needs reform, pronto. What complicates matters further is that law firms, such as Upland-based Lackie, Dammeier & McGill, specialize in negotiations on behalf of police unions, and they negotiate similar benefits from city to city, using the pay and benefit levels garnered in one city as leverage in others to achieve the same outcomes. In Orange County alone Lackie, Dammeier & McGill represent police unions in Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Anaheim, Brea and Garden Grove.