-By Warner Todd Huston
And it begins. President of the National Treasury Employees Union, one of the Federal government’s largest labor unions, has drawn up her demands for president-elect Obama to fulfill as payback for union support for his candidacy.
Colleen M. Kelly has announced her demands and two of them are quite controversial. The first, that the employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) get unionized, shows that unions want to be in a place to impede our national security. The second, the firing of all current members of the Federal Service Impasses Panel, shows that unions want to eliminate any oversight that might hinder union corruption and give them a freer hand to hide their own illegal activities.
Thus far, the Bush administration has succeeded in stopping the unionization of employees of the TSA and for good reason. Should the TSA be unionized, this would eliminate any possibility that the government could fire or even regulate the people that are supposed to be making sure our airlines are safe and free of terrorists. This would not only add another layer of distance between government (and therefore we the people) and its employees, but it would also make it harder to control the security of our airports. In fact, it would make it impossible for government to control the safety of our airports.
The second is even more obvious. If all current members of the FSI Panel are dumped and labor friendly shills put in their place, we will be handing unions a free pass to indulge in as much corruption as they wish to get away with. Currently the board as well as the Office of Labor Management Standards are a target for elimination by unions as these government groups monitor and punish unions for criminal behavior.
Obama took millions upon millions of dollars both in direct contributions as well as in campaign assistance from unions and unions expect payback for their generosity. But if Obama indulges them he will be proving that he is against security at our airports and soft on union criminals.
We’ll have to see what he does. But we will be watching.
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, Human Events Magazine, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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