Archive for November, 2009
A Prelude To Unionizing the Boy Scouts?
Many have heard about this troubling story of a union boss threatening to file a grievance over the volunteer clean-up work of Boy Scouts because they were taking work away from unionized public employees.
We can only assume that, having tasted the public backlash, the union will move on and now try to unionize the Scouts … via card check, no doubt.
Card Check: Any “Soon” Is Too Soon
The Las Vegas Sun has an important report on the progress of the very unprogressive Employee Free Choice Act:
SEIU, Armies of 60, and Card Check
Mike O’Brien at the Hill has a great post with a quote from SEIU Generalisimo Andy Stern on making the violently misnamed Employee Free Choice Act a priority in 2010:
“The Democrats really have a historic and decisive moment, for anybody who runs a business there are moments where you sort of make big choices,” Stern told the audience. “They have 60 votes for the first time and probably the last time they’re gonna have it. They have to decide if they are an army of one or an army of 60.”
It’s interesting (again!) at labor leaders’ language of aggression tied to the issue of card check, which is really kinda the point, ya know?
It’s all the more interesting when one continually reads about allegations of — shall we say — zealous union tactics even as they claim that there will be no problems of coercion under a card check world.
The latest allegation comes from California, where a report says “NUHW supporters from UNITE HERE Local 11 were also targets of eggs and water bottles, with reports that one organizer was
Canadians Get Defensive On Card Check
Card check is mighty unpopular in America, and now Big Labor is calling in its allies from the Great White North. Some labor labour scholars have put out materials attempting to rebut statements made by U.S. opponents of card check that rely on the Canadian experience.
But don’t forget this tidbit:
Big Labor Misses The Point on Card Check
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. Similarly, it seems, one can provide lessons to organized labor leaders but you can’t make them internalize said wisdom.
That is most certainly the case right now with the issue of protecting the privacy of ballots for working Americans. First, the AFL-CIO’s Stewart Acuff shares his alarmingly unconventional wisdom that Democrats should not listen to voters in Virginia and New Jersey who rejected candidates supporting card check.
Not only should politicians retrench on card check, according to unions, they should find more ways to erode the sanctity of a private ballot. Katie Packer writes:
Airline labor unions are not only asking their friends in the Obama administration to change labor organizing rules to help them win elections, Big Labor is now demanding that technology be used in a way that would allow them to trace an employee’s vote.
On July 22, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) asked the National Mediation Board (NMB)–the body that oversees airline and railroad union elections–to allow it to use a hyperlink in emails and on its web site that leads to the official NMB voting site where votes are cast. The hyperlink technology would allow the AFA to track which employees have accessed the voting web site. That information would make it easier for labor bosses to threaten or coerce individuals into voting.
Perhaps a horse is not the right animal for this analogy. Perhaps it is a more hard-headed animal that would be more appropriate.
