Archive for June, 2009
Union Watchdog Blog Shares ABC Member’s View of Employee Free Choice Act
The Union Label Blog — an indispensable resource for tracking the latest and less-than-greatest union official efforts to harm employees and our economy — has taken some comments from Associated Builders and Contractors member Brett McMahon of Miller and Long concrete construction.
McMahon argues:
My company has been operating for more than sixty years
That Was Kind of Them: Union Group Dispenses With Need For Employee Free Choice Act
The Chamberpost blog has a great item not to be missed:
This past weekend, the AFL-CIO was unusually frank about the potential fallout should the so-called Employee Free Choice Act become law. According to Daily Labor Report, the labor conglomerate
Of Burglars and Binding Arbitration
A reader draws our attention to this quote from UNITE HERE co-president John Wilhelm, who has decried efforts by the SEIU to raid and split up his recently merged union. Mr. Wilhelm’s latest line to SEIU president Andy Stern:
“Suppose a burglar broke into your house, stole your property, and demanded ransom. Then the burglar contacts you to demand that a third party be given the right to divide up the stolen property. Would anyone accept such an offer?”
That is certainly a reasonable response to the naked powergrab of the SEIU and Bruce Raynor…and it is exactly how small business people feel about the Employee Free Choice Act.
Coercing employees into signing unions cards, whether by intimidation, trickery or false promises, that will force their employer to cease operations is precisely analogous to this union situation. The Binding Interest Arbitration section of EFCA will force employers into massively underfunded multi-employer pension plans which put the company on the hook for liabilities that are impossible to sustain. This will rob the accumulated net worth of the company and it’s principals who are quite often the ones who took all the risk of building and sustaining the business and the associated employment opportunities.
The “last man standing” concept inherent in multi-employer pension law leaves the “last man” paying for the lifetime retirement packages of workers who may never have worked for the the employer. Take a look at YRC’s situation and you will get the idea. YRC, however, made that decision. It is their bed to lie in just as GM made their foolish deals with the UAW.
Under EFCA, however, that decision will be left to a nebulously defined ‘arbitration panel’ via the US Government agency known as the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. They will be empowered to force BOTH sides, the employer and the newly organized employees, to accept terms that they may not be able to sustain. Who in their right mind would ever agre to that? Now where have we heard that before… Oh yes, an earlier reponse by Mr. Wilhelm to the tyrannical tactics of Mr. Stern and Mr. Raynor:
“No International Union has ever submitted its very future – its membership, its organizing jurisdiction, and its financial resources – to arbitration.”
Substitute ‘International Union’, ‘membership’, and ‘organizing jurisdiction’, with ‘company’, ‘market share’, and ‘core operations’, and we could not agree more.
Card Check Update From Arkansas
The Arkansas Times blog has this note:
Washington press continues to report that U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin is intent on forcing a vote on the Employee Free Choice Act, the union-backed legislation to restore some balance to labor negotiations.
If Arkansas senators’ votes are neeed, fuhgeddaboudit.
Don’t forget ABC members’ comments to Arkansas’s senators:
CNBC Hosts: Maybe Iran Should Use Card Check!
Excellent capture from the Business and Media Institute:
