-By Frank Hyland
While this message applies to virtually all labor union members, it is especially applicable to the younger members, those whose futures – and whose families’ futures — are being stolen by the older members of the unions, especially the leadership.
Thinking back to when you have voted in union-led, union-conducted elections, it didn’t take long for you to figure out that what was being called an “election” was, in fact, a sham. The results already had been decided by the union’s leaders long before the “voting” even began. What you’ve been going through is called “Majority Sign-Up” or “Card Check.” At least under the present White House, there won’t be any change in the way that your union elections are conducted. Your local leadership will continue to sit in front of you and watch as you fill out your ballot. Union leaders like Richard Trumka will continue to visit the White House, travel in first-class style, and receive their handsome salaries ($283,340 in 2010) plus expenses, of course.
You can be thankful, though, that not all elections are like those conducted by your union. I’m speaking of the upcoming general election on November 6th. You’ll be treated as a grownup with a mind of your own, not a tool for the union leadership to maintain their hold on you and your dues. As I hope you’ve done in the past, you’ll again walk into a private area/booth and mark your ballot in secrecy, not in front of watchful union leaders. You won’t even need to glance at the piece of paper that union leaders, in a blatant insult to their members, give to members as instructions on candidates and ballot issues for which to vote. Union leaders aren’t even allowed to remain in the polling place, much less sit at the table and watch how their members vote like they do during Card Check.
What needs to sink in to the minds of union members, especially those not yet near retirement age, is that the path that you are on ends at the edge of a cliff and you’re going over. Your health, your safety, and your working conditions are legitimate issues to be negotiated with your employer. Your income also is a legitimate issue to be discussed with your employer. The unions’ lock on the membership and the union dues, though, needs to be unlocked.
Top union leaders have already promised that the union membership will support the reelection of the present inhabitant of the White House. Has anyone asked you if you plan to vote to reelect President Obama? I seriously doubt it. They don’t feel the need…you’re just a union member, a tool. Meanwhile, the administration’s policies have prevented thousands of union members from getting jobs by stopping the Keystone pipeline. They, along with everyone else, including you, are paying ever-increasing costs for gas in your car and food in your fridge while the administration hands out more and more money to solar energy companies that fail. Make sense to you?
The situation has gotten so bad that it is no longer about Left and Right, Red State versus Blue State, Republican or Democrat. It is now about your wallet, pure and simple. Thankfully, there is a simple solution – for whom you will cast your vote in November. More and more union members will vote for ABO…Anyone But Obama.
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Frank Hyland is a long-time Writer/Editor who has written for The New Media Alliance, and also for The Reality Check and has appeared weekly on Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Conservatism on Sunday evenings on Blog Talk Radio, along with Babe Huggett and Warner Todd Huston.