Posts Tagged ‘ABC in the News’
The Price Is Eternal Vigilance
Matt Lewis at The Daily Caller has an excellent look at the desire for the current Administration and Congressional leadership to appease Big Labor. He turned to none other than ABC member Brett McMahon of Miller & Long for some insight, and reported:
A recent letter sent to House and Senate committees by a collection of union and pension sponsors noted that a,
ABC Member Analyzes Card Check “Compromise”
ABC member Miller & Long’s Brett McMahon was quoted today offering his analysis on the future of card check and “compromise”:
The compromise being considered on Capitol Hill calls for workforce representation elections to be held 10 days after 30 percent of workers sign cards in favor of organizing. Although the card check phrase would be dropped, the legislation would be still very weighted against business, Greg Mourad, director of legislation for NRTW, has observed.
“This so called compromise is really just window dressing,” he said. “These quick snap elections would give the unions as much time as they want to propagandize the workforce and collect petitions, while the other side has just 10 days. The current average is 42 days when petitions are turned in to when elections take place and we think this is a reasonable time frame.”
Brett McMahon, vice-president of Miller and Long, a Maryland-based concrete construction company, concurs. The maneuvering on card check and proposed substitution of new, seemingly benign language is a typical labor tactic, he warned.
“They usually give ground on one of their most unreasonable demands after all the objections have been made,” he said. “Then they come back with something even worse and claim the moral high ground for having ‘compromised’ on their first demand.”
ABC Leader: “Specter’s switch could force businesses to close”
Be sure not to miss Associated Builders and Contractors national chairman Jerry Gorski’s article from this weekend on the Employee Free Choice Act and Sen. Arlen Specter.
Gorski’s conclusion:
EFCA could cost up to 600,000 American jobs in the first year alone with millions more job losses to come, according to a study by Anne Layne-Farrar, an economist from the nonpartisan firm LECG consulting.
In light of this study, many Pennsylvania businesses would likely close their doors and workers would be unemployed if EFCA became law.
That is unacceptable.
With many businesses in the state already struggling in this economy, I don’t understand how Specter can justify his surprising reversal on this reckless legislation.
He needs to answer to Pennsylvania workers and businesses that stand to lose if this bill becomes law.
ABC, Specter, and Card Check
The Employee Free Choice Act got another blip of news today as Sen. Arlen Specter said he and a small group of other Democrats have
ABC Member: Unions Cashing In At Workers’ Expense
ABC members continue to stand up against the Employee Free Choice Act. Today, Brett McMahon of Miller and Long writes on Project Labor Agreements, EFCA, and those who will pay the real price for bad laws. He writes:
… unions stand to gain easier unionization if the controversial Employee
Card Check: ABC Educates Pennsylvanians
The relative importance of Sen. Arlen Specter’s views on the Employee Free Choice Act — and labor law reform in general — is high because the law’s razor-thin margins for success or failure in the Senate. This weekend the Philadelphia Inquirer looked at the bill’s status and the political whispers around their home-state Senator’s role.
Luckily, ABC was there to add some employer perspective. After noting an EFCA proponent’s position, the Inquirer reports:
Not surprisingly, Jerry Gorski, national chairman of the Associated Builders and Contractors, disagrees. Not only is the bill unfair to workers and businesses, he says, but it also shows a mind-set that ignores the realities of the global economy.
“Why is the government saying, ‘Well, we need to make it easier to go back to that union model,’ instead of being progressive and helping develop what the new models are?” Gorski asks.
Workers and owners need flexibility, Gorski argues, not rules that say who can use a hammer and who can’t.
He says being flexible allowed his contracting business in Collegeville to avoid layoffs during the current recession, though that sometimes means carpenters painting or landscaping.
“We may be underutilizing someone’s skills,” Gorski says, “but everybody is working, and that’s the kind of stability and adaptability we need. . . . Legislation isn’t going to solve our workforce needs for the future.”
