Lincoln commits to opposing Card Check posted at 8:49 am on April 7, 2009
by Ed Morrissey
Previously, Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) had only wavered in public on Card Check, along with a few other Democrats. Yesterday, she fully and publicly committed to opposing Big Labor’s crown jewel of legislation, which should drive the stake a little deeper into the heart of the Orwellian named Employee Free Choice Act. Unlike Arlen Specter, Lincoln rejected the bill itself as well as its timing:
“'I cannot support that bill,' Lincoln said, according to one attendee. 'Cannot support that bill in its current form. Cannot support and will not support moving it forward in its current form.'
"The measure, better known as the 'card check' bill, has been fought by business groups and championed by labor, after intense lobbying by both factions. …
“'While I may not have been clear about my position in the past, I am stating today that I cannot support Employee Free Choice Act in its current form and I can’t support efforts to bring it to Senate consideration in its current form,' Lincoln said in a statement late Monday afternoon."
Card Check now looks dead enough that Harry Reid may well decide not to bring it to the floor at all. He has no Republican support, and this statement from Lincoln strongly implies that she will join a filibuster to keep Reid from “bring[ing] it to Senate consideration”. Dianne Feinstein has indicated opposition, as have Tim Johnson and Ben Nelson, the latter who has also committed to a no vote. He’s not going to come close to 60 votes, and he may in the end want to spare himself and Obama the embarrassment of Democrats supporting the Republican filibuster.
Thankfully, the secret ballot still means something to Americans.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/04/07/lincoln-commits-to-opposing-card-check/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Thoughts
This is good news for everyone.
Unions that are too strong will topple the companies, industries, and economies that it infests. It was one of the reasons why the Great Depression lasted as long as it did.
Not only is it bad for business, it also opens the door for fraud, corruption, and intimidation. It would bring the Godfather and Sopranos to life for many in this country. Big Labor will come to workers houses to "make them an offer they can't refuse".
We may have dodged a bullet this time.
Showing posts with label Employee Free Choice Act. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Employee Free Choice Act. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Indiana: UAW Harass Plant Workers Using Card Check Rules, Workers Furious...We Warned Ya
Card Check Process Used by Union Organizers Ignites Fury at Indiana Plant
Union organizers are going to great lengths to establish a union in a workplace -- including harassing and intimidating company employees until they sign a card.
FOXNews.com Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Union organizers are going to great lengths to establish a union in a workplace -- including harassing and intimidating company employees until they sign a card.
That the accusations from some workers at the Dana Corporation Auto Parts plant in Albion, Ind.
The Employee Free Choice Act -- known as the "card check" bill pending in Congress -- calls for an easier system to allow employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations. Under the bill, employees can request blank cards from an existing union and request signatures on the card from employees. The legislation allows the company to hold a secret ballot election to decide unionization if 30 percent of employees sign the cards.
Though the bill is still pending, some companies like the Dana Corporation have already begun using the card check process. Union organizers came to the plant two years ago to ask employees to sign a card and join the United Auto Workers -- an effort that was permitted because the company signed a neutrality agreement with the union.
But accusations about the UAW's aggressive campaign to get signatures has ignited fury among plant workers, some of whom claim they were hassled, intimidated and harassed by union organizers until they signed the card.
Some workers allege union organizers followed them to their cars -- and even showed up at their homes demanding a signature.
"We're here in a little town and we're a a plant of 50 some people -- you know the last thing you need is to have the union coming to your door saying I want your name," Dana employee Jamie Oliver told FOX News.
Some plant employees claimed the card check process created divisiveness at work, causing some employees to be threatened by coworkers who had wanted the union.
The UAW declined to give comment to FOX News on the employees' complaints.
The latest version of the Employee Free Choice Act was introduced to both chambers of Congress on March 10, 2009.
FOX News' Brian Wilson contributed to this report.
-----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/25/card-check-process-used-union-organizers-ignites-fury-indiana-plant/
-----------------------------------------------------------
My Thoughts
Isn't this exactly what we've been telling everyone will happen, if card check passes? This "Soprano" style of vote getting will be commonplace at many workplaces across the country, if the unions and Democrats get their way.
Unions have ruined the auto and airline industries and education. Unchecked they will wreck the whole economy like they did during the Great Depression.
Union organizers are going to great lengths to establish a union in a workplace -- including harassing and intimidating company employees until they sign a card.
FOXNews.com Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Union organizers are going to great lengths to establish a union in a workplace -- including harassing and intimidating company employees until they sign a card.
That the accusations from some workers at the Dana Corporation Auto Parts plant in Albion, Ind.
The Employee Free Choice Act -- known as the "card check" bill pending in Congress -- calls for an easier system to allow employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations. Under the bill, employees can request blank cards from an existing union and request signatures on the card from employees. The legislation allows the company to hold a secret ballot election to decide unionization if 30 percent of employees sign the cards.
Though the bill is still pending, some companies like the Dana Corporation have already begun using the card check process. Union organizers came to the plant two years ago to ask employees to sign a card and join the United Auto Workers -- an effort that was permitted because the company signed a neutrality agreement with the union.
But accusations about the UAW's aggressive campaign to get signatures has ignited fury among plant workers, some of whom claim they were hassled, intimidated and harassed by union organizers until they signed the card.
Some workers allege union organizers followed them to their cars -- and even showed up at their homes demanding a signature.
"We're here in a little town and we're a a plant of 50 some people -- you know the last thing you need is to have the union coming to your door saying I want your name," Dana employee Jamie Oliver told FOX News.
Some plant employees claimed the card check process created divisiveness at work, causing some employees to be threatened by coworkers who had wanted the union.
The UAW declined to give comment to FOX News on the employees' complaints.
The latest version of the Employee Free Choice Act was introduced to both chambers of Congress on March 10, 2009.
FOX News' Brian Wilson contributed to this report.
-----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/25/card-check-process-used-union-organizers-ignites-fury-indiana-plant/
-----------------------------------------------------------
My Thoughts
Isn't this exactly what we've been telling everyone will happen, if card check passes? This "Soprano" style of vote getting will be commonplace at many workplaces across the country, if the unions and Democrats get their way.
Unions have ruined the auto and airline industries and education. Unchecked they will wreck the whole economy like they did during the Great Depression.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Card Check Loses Momentum
The backers of Card Check put themselves in a box after three retailers floated a compromise that would have meant the end of both the arbitration and the Card Check portions of the EFCA. Despite bleeding moderates that want to find a middle ground and avoid the elimination of the secret ballot, Card Check advocates insisted that they would not compromise on any of their demands. The result will likely put a stake through the heart of Card Check for this session:
"An alternative offered by three of America’s largest corporations to a labor bill that would facilitate union organizing has been shunned by the legislation’s most prominent champions on Capitol Hill.
"Costco, Starbucks and Whole Foods offered the alternative to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) Sunday to open up a different approach to reforming labor law. Known as the Committee for a Level Playing Field, the coalition has been met by harsh words from lawmakers in Congress.
"'This proposal is unacceptable. It was written by CEOs for CEOs. It is not a serious attempt at labor law reform because it fails to fundamentally address key problems that currently prevent workers from being able to join together and bargain for a better life,' said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) in a joint statement."
Unfortunately for Harkin and Miller, they’re discovering that they’re on the fringe rather than the mainstream on Card Check. They had plenty of support when support was essentially meaningless, as George Bush would have vetoed the bill even if they got it passed through Congress, which they have never yet done. Now that Barack Obama is in the White House, many of their former allies have retreated on EFCA, especially in the current business climate.
The compromise plan effectively enables moderates to hold out. They can point to Lanny Davis’ involvement in tubing the card-check and arbitration provisions as legitimate concerns over the more radical proposal from Harkin and Miller. They have no reason now to move to the left on Card Check. It probably couldn’t get 60 votes before the compromise proposal, and it may not even get a majority after it.
In any event, it seems very unlikely to get out of Congress in this session. As reluctant as moderates are to pass Card Check this year, they’ll be even more skittish in an election year, especially if the Obama administration keeps fumbling the economy and railroading radical expansions of government. In 2011, Congress will probably look very different than it does now, and Obama will need to start shifting towards moderates in order to campaign for re-election. Card Check looks more and more like a dead letter.
----------------------------------------------------
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/03/23/card-check-backers-for-us-its-all-or-nothing/
----------------------------------------------------
My Thoughts
This is good news for all of those who love the idea of the secret ballot. Maybe they realized that most people don't like the idea of the secret ballot. According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 61% of people thought that secret ballots are good for determining whether a union should be formed or not.
"An alternative offered by three of America’s largest corporations to a labor bill that would facilitate union organizing has been shunned by the legislation’s most prominent champions on Capitol Hill.
"Costco, Starbucks and Whole Foods offered the alternative to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) Sunday to open up a different approach to reforming labor law. Known as the Committee for a Level Playing Field, the coalition has been met by harsh words from lawmakers in Congress.
"'This proposal is unacceptable. It was written by CEOs for CEOs. It is not a serious attempt at labor law reform because it fails to fundamentally address key problems that currently prevent workers from being able to join together and bargain for a better life,' said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) in a joint statement."
Unfortunately for Harkin and Miller, they’re discovering that they’re on the fringe rather than the mainstream on Card Check. They had plenty of support when support was essentially meaningless, as George Bush would have vetoed the bill even if they got it passed through Congress, which they have never yet done. Now that Barack Obama is in the White House, many of their former allies have retreated on EFCA, especially in the current business climate.
The compromise plan effectively enables moderates to hold out. They can point to Lanny Davis’ involvement in tubing the card-check and arbitration provisions as legitimate concerns over the more radical proposal from Harkin and Miller. They have no reason now to move to the left on Card Check. It probably couldn’t get 60 votes before the compromise proposal, and it may not even get a majority after it.
In any event, it seems very unlikely to get out of Congress in this session. As reluctant as moderates are to pass Card Check this year, they’ll be even more skittish in an election year, especially if the Obama administration keeps fumbling the economy and railroading radical expansions of government. In 2011, Congress will probably look very different than it does now, and Obama will need to start shifting towards moderates in order to campaign for re-election. Card Check looks more and more like a dead letter.
----------------------------------------------------
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/03/23/card-check-backers-for-us-its-all-or-nothing/
----------------------------------------------------
My Thoughts
This is good news for all of those who love the idea of the secret ballot. Maybe they realized that most people don't like the idea of the secret ballot. According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 61% of people thought that secret ballots are good for determining whether a union should be formed or not.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Democrats: What Is Good For Mexicans Isn't Necessarily Good For Americans
Friday, February 20, 2009 |
Examiner Editorial Special Report:Card Check co-sponsors favor secret ballot for Mexico, but not for U.S. workers
By Kevin Mooney Editorial Staff Writer |
2/20/09 5:44 AM
Democrats leading the charge in 2009 for legislation that critics say will abolish secret ballots for employees voting in U.S. workplace unionization contests signed a 2001 letter urging Mexican officials to protect their workers’ electoral privacy as a defense against union thugs.
The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA or “Card Check”) would allow labor activists to gather signatures from 51 percent of employees to force a company to accept a unionized workplace. Current law requires a representation election in which workers are guaranteed a secret ballot.
Critics, including officials with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Right to Work Committee and Members of Congress from both parties who oppose EFCA, say the card system invites abuse because workers could be intimidated into signing.
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the main “card check bill” sponsor on the House side, and nine other Democratic co-sponsors,” all signed the letter to Mexico demanding that the secret ballot be maintained. Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.), Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.), Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.). all joined Miller in both co-sponsoring EFCA and signing the 2001 letter.
“We understand the secret ballot is allowed for, but not required by Mexican labor law. However, we feel that the secret ballot is absolutely necessary in order to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not otherwise choose,” Miller and the other card check co-sponsors said in the letter.
“We respect Mexico as an important neighbor and a trading partner, and we feel that the increased use of the secret ballot in union recognition elections will help bring real democracy to the Mexican workplace,” they said.
Aaron Albright, a spokesperson for Democrats on the Education and Labor Committee, told The Washington Examiner that EFCA has been on the receiving end of “corporate misinformation” and that it will not jeopardize the secret ballot for workers.
“These are two separate situations,” Albright said. “These workers in Mexico were represented by a sham union and they were trying to replace this company dominated union with an independent one. In that circumstance a secret ballot is absolutely warranted and is the same as the law in this country, and it’s going to remain the same as this country. It’s a particular situation that was occurring in Mexico that the letter was addressing; the law will be exactly the same here.”
“My fellow Members of Congress and I wrote to Mexican authorities in 2001 arguing in favor of a secret ballot election in a specific case, where workers were trying to replace a phony, company-dominated union with an independent union,” Baca told The Washington Examiner. “The Employee Free Choice Act is responsible legislation that is consistent with this principle.”
The 2001 letter makes a strong case for the secret ballot in union representation elections everywhere, said Alexa Marrero, a spokesman for Republican labor committee members.
“I could not have defended secret ballots better myself,” she said. “I think they spell out exactly why voters could be pressured into voting for a union that they don’t support in their own words and I think this is incredibly relevant to the discussion today.”
The public is becoming more aware of the “card check bill’s” true intentions and they understand that it would put secret ballots in jeopardy contrary to what the co-sponsors have argued, Marrero said.
Union officials predicted after the 2008 congressional elections that EFCA would be approved by Congress within its first 100 days of 2009, thanks to expanded Democratic majorities, Marrero said.
“The dynamics have changed and the Democrats seem to be slowly backing away from the bill,” she said. “The more the public knows about this legislation, the less they like it. “Our strategy right from the beginning has been to push as much information out there as we can to let people know what exactly is at stake and what this legislation would do.”
-----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/columns/special-editorial-reports/Examiner-Editorial-Special-ReportCard-Check-co-sponsors-favor-secret-ballot-for-Mexico-but-not-for-US-workers-39875112.html
-----------------------------------------------------------
My Thoughts
Typical liberal double standard and hypocrisy. The Big Labor movement is too strong within the party. This letter shows that they know better than to actually put card check into law. We'll see if they really will do things that are better for the American people as a whole or do what is best for them by catering to their very liberal base.
Examiner Editorial Special Report:Card Check co-sponsors favor secret ballot for Mexico, but not for U.S. workers
By Kevin Mooney Editorial Staff Writer |
2/20/09 5:44 AM
Democrats leading the charge in 2009 for legislation that critics say will abolish secret ballots for employees voting in U.S. workplace unionization contests signed a 2001 letter urging Mexican officials to protect their workers’ electoral privacy as a defense against union thugs.
The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA or “Card Check”) would allow labor activists to gather signatures from 51 percent of employees to force a company to accept a unionized workplace. Current law requires a representation election in which workers are guaranteed a secret ballot.
Critics, including officials with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Right to Work Committee and Members of Congress from both parties who oppose EFCA, say the card system invites abuse because workers could be intimidated into signing.
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the main “card check bill” sponsor on the House side, and nine other Democratic co-sponsors,” all signed the letter to Mexico demanding that the secret ballot be maintained. Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.), Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.), Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.). all joined Miller in both co-sponsoring EFCA and signing the 2001 letter.
“We understand the secret ballot is allowed for, but not required by Mexican labor law. However, we feel that the secret ballot is absolutely necessary in order to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not otherwise choose,” Miller and the other card check co-sponsors said in the letter.
“We respect Mexico as an important neighbor and a trading partner, and we feel that the increased use of the secret ballot in union recognition elections will help bring real democracy to the Mexican workplace,” they said.
Aaron Albright, a spokesperson for Democrats on the Education and Labor Committee, told The Washington Examiner that EFCA has been on the receiving end of “corporate misinformation” and that it will not jeopardize the secret ballot for workers.
“These are two separate situations,” Albright said. “These workers in Mexico were represented by a sham union and they were trying to replace this company dominated union with an independent one. In that circumstance a secret ballot is absolutely warranted and is the same as the law in this country, and it’s going to remain the same as this country. It’s a particular situation that was occurring in Mexico that the letter was addressing; the law will be exactly the same here.”
“My fellow Members of Congress and I wrote to Mexican authorities in 2001 arguing in favor of a secret ballot election in a specific case, where workers were trying to replace a phony, company-dominated union with an independent union,” Baca told The Washington Examiner. “The Employee Free Choice Act is responsible legislation that is consistent with this principle.”
The 2001 letter makes a strong case for the secret ballot in union representation elections everywhere, said Alexa Marrero, a spokesman for Republican labor committee members.
“I could not have defended secret ballots better myself,” she said. “I think they spell out exactly why voters could be pressured into voting for a union that they don’t support in their own words and I think this is incredibly relevant to the discussion today.”
The public is becoming more aware of the “card check bill’s” true intentions and they understand that it would put secret ballots in jeopardy contrary to what the co-sponsors have argued, Marrero said.
Union officials predicted after the 2008 congressional elections that EFCA would be approved by Congress within its first 100 days of 2009, thanks to expanded Democratic majorities, Marrero said.
“The dynamics have changed and the Democrats seem to be slowly backing away from the bill,” she said. “The more the public knows about this legislation, the less they like it. “Our strategy right from the beginning has been to push as much information out there as we can to let people know what exactly is at stake and what this legislation would do.”
-----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/columns/special-editorial-reports/Examiner-Editorial-Special-ReportCard-Check-co-sponsors-favor-secret-ballot-for-Mexico-but-not-for-US-workers-39875112.html
-----------------------------------------------------------
My Thoughts
Typical liberal double standard and hypocrisy. The Big Labor movement is too strong within the party. This letter shows that they know better than to actually put card check into law. We'll see if they really will do things that are better for the American people as a whole or do what is best for them by catering to their very liberal base.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)