EFCA

Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - NLRB - President - Right To Work - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Washington D.C.

Obama’s Union-Sold Regulatory Agency Goes Even Further for Unions

June 23, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

With one regulatory decision after anther, Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has repeatedly abused its position and lent its powers to come to the material aid of Big Labor. This week we see the NLRB coming to the aid of unions yet again by changing rules to fast track union votes in businesses not yet suffering under union control.

The NLRB has ruled that unions trying to strong arm their way into businesses will now be afforded a sort of fast tracked voting process meant to give both businesses and employees far, far less time to learn about and understand the issues surrounding a vote in favor of unionization.

Currently when a union wants to get itself certified in a new company the NLRB takes between five and six weeks to conduct the elections. Under the NLRB’s new rules that time period will be shorted to a scant 10 to 21 days.
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Obama’s Union-Sold Regulatory Agency Goes Even Further for Unions”

Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - EFCA - Government - Jobs - Labor Law - Liberals - Ohio - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Senate - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Washington D.C.

Ohio Senator Brown: Card Check is Dead

March 25, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Hill newspaper has an interesting quote from Ohio Democrat Senator Sherrod Brown. He says the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), of the Card Check bill is a dead issue in the senate this year.

Senator Brown was being interviewed on WVIZ radio in Ohio when he was asked what he thought about the success of the EFCA in the Senate for the 112th Congressional session. “It’s not going to happen now,” the senator said.

If this is true then Big Labor should be extremely upset with President Obama and the Democrat leadership in congress. Will they take out their anger by withholding their enthusiastic support of Democrats in 2012?

One would think that this singular failure of the Democrats to get Big Labor’s most wished for legislation passed would be a deal breaker for labor. After all, labor has spent over $400 million in the last few years on getting Democrats elected and it seems that all that money went for no benefit to them. Labor’s loss of power has grown commensurately with its expenditure on Democrats, anyway.

Like old dogs that cant learn new tricks, though, it is likely that they will double down and try to pump more money than ever into the pockets of pliant Democrats. Like a beaten wife they keep coming back, it seems.
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Ohio Senator Brown: Card Check is Dead”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Free Trade - GOP - Government - Jobs - Liberals - President - Republicans - Taxes - Transparency - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

How Obama’s Big Labor Pals Warp the System

February 17, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last September the Senate refused to reverse a rules change made out of pocket by Obama’s National Mediation Board. The rule change reversed a 75-year-old practice and made it possible to unionize a company even if less than half of its employees wanted to be unionized.

Previous to the rules change, any company in the transportation industry (rail, airlines, etc.) that had employees wanting to unionize had to count 51% or more of its employees voting in favor of the union. It seems only natural, after all, that a union should not be able to force itself on employees unless the majority wills it, right? As it happens the union stacked NMB summarily changed the rules so that a company could become unionized by a majority of those voting at the time instead of a majority of a company’s employees. That means if a company has 100 employees but only forty were present at the vote, then only 21 employees voting yes would force a union on all of them.
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How Obama’s Big Labor Pals Warp the System”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Constitution - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Liberals - NLRB - PLA - President - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Now a Regulation Slayer? Hardly!

January 19, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Tuesday, President Obama had an op ed published in the Wall Street Journal. In it Obama insisted that our economy has been hurt by “unreasonable burdens on business” and that the regulatory sector had “gotten out of balance.” He promised that he’d make efforts to trim away regulations costly to business. While the sentiment is certainly a good one, it strains credulity to imagine that Barack Obama would be the one to make those cuts especially in light of the huge regulatory state that Obama has spent enlarging at every opportunity over the last two years.

To be sure Obama needs to gain the confidence of the business community. After all, as far s the business sector is concerned Obama has considered them his number one enemy since he began running for president back in 2006. The economy has stalled precisely because everyone is afraid of what punishment via his regulatory powers that Obama will next mete out to them.

But Obama claims he’s going to change all that and just in time for him to ramp up his 2012 reelection campaign, too. He’s signed an Executive Order, he says, in order to “strike the right balance” between regulation and business success.
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Obama Now a Regulation Slayer? Hardly!”

Arizona - Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Card Check - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - DOL - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Nanny State - NLRB - President - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Right To Work - South Carolina - South Dakota - Taxes - Unions - Utah - Warner Todd Huston

Obama to Sue States to End Worker’s Right to Secret Ballot

January 19, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Barack Obama has given more payoffs, sweetheart deals, and new favorable regulations to Big Labor than any president in history. They should love him for his incredible largess. Next, in his never ending quest to harm the business community, defy the will of the voters, and give his pals in Big Labor paybacks, Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) — a federal labor regulatory agency — is about to sue any state that dares attempt to protect the right of workers to have secret ballots in their workplace elections. The states have made the mistake of sponsoring worker’s ballot protection laws.

Recently the NLRB announced its intentions to sue Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah because those states had the gal to implement constitutional amendments to their state constitutions guaranteeing that workers have a right to a secret ballot in union elections.

With this the Obama administration is moving to deny workers their right to a secret ballot, a right that has been sacrosanct in democracies for hundreds if not thousands of years. Why does Barack Obama want to take away the right to a secret ballot? Because his union pals don’t want workers to feel safe voting against a union.
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Obama to Sue States to End Worker’s Right to Secret Ballot”

Budget - Capitalism - Card Check - Democrats/Leftists - EFCA - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - NLRB - President - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Using Regulatory Power to Force Card Check

December 14, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Congress has failed to pass Big Labor’s long sought after card check bill, the Orwellian named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The reason congress has not passed this destructive law is because the voters have repeatedly spoken by urging their representatives and senators to stand against it. The voice of the American people, though, does not interest President Barack Obama because he is gearing up to use his power to control America’s regulatory regime to force card check on the people anyway.

One of the chief provisions of the card check bill eliminates the secret ballot and would force workers voting on union representation to make their vote publicly by signing a card that everyone can easily see. This procedure certainly leaves workers open to intimidation as union bosses learn just who voted for them and who voted against them.

There are also other bad parts to the EFCA. One of them is that the government will force automatic arbitration on union and employer alike if no contract has been arrived at in the very short time that the government is forcing on them by law.
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Obama Using Regulatory Power to Force Card Check”

Business - Capitalism - Card Check - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - EFCA - Elections - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Liberals - President - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Secret Ballot Protection Wins Big in Four States

November 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Is card check dead? Not completely, but if the recent votes on various state ballot initiatives of four states is any indication it sure seems to be on its last legs.

Little noticed by the Old Media, the ballot initiatives of these four states is an important bellwether of how little support Big Labor’s favorite law will have going forward. On November 2 four states voted by great margins to protect the secret ballot and these reasserted protections would tend to deliver a blow to one of the Democrat’s important provisions of card check, a provision that would eliminate the secret ballot for prospective union members.

Card check is one of the main parts of Big Labor’s Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The provision would eliminate a secret ballot for prospective union members as they decide on representation. Under the EFCA, votes for union representation would be an open issue. Every employee’s vote would be clearly known by all involved. This open voting (or the public checking of a vote card or ballot) would clearly leave employees open for harassment by union officials who would be fully aware of each employees individual votes, if they voted for or against the union. For that matter, even the employer would have knowledge of who voted for what under the EFCA.
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Secret Ballot Protection Wins Big in Four States”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - EFCA - Elections - Government - Jobs - Labor Law - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Right To Work - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

As America Votes, Obama Angling to Take Vote Away From Workers

November 1, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As Americans prepare to head to the polls to exercise their right to a secret ballot on election day, the Obama administration is poised to roll back that right in the workplace. By Obama’s orders, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is looking over a policy change that would undermine the protections for a worker’s right to a secret ballot vote in union elections in the workplace.

This elimination of a secret ballot is one of the policy changes that Big Labor has been pushing for several years now and is a chief component of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) — better known as card check – a policy that Big Labor has been desperate to force Congress to pass.

Card Check would take away the right that workers have to a secret ballot when considering whether or not a union will be awarded representation at the workplace. This elimination of the secret ballot would leave workers open to the intimidation of union operatives who would be able to identify precisely which worker does and which worker does not support them. The secret ballot is one of the oldest, democratic rights in free and fair elections but unions want this right summarily taken away by federal order.
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As America Votes, Obama Angling to Take Vote Away From Workers”

American Enterprise Institute - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Card Check - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Labor Law - Liberals - President - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unemployment - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

AEI: More Unions Means Fewer Jobs

July 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In April Lee Ohanian of the American Enterprise Institute published a paper on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) that is a must read. But this month he published a shorter piece that is just as interesting. In it, Ohanian claims that if we increased unionism as the Obamaites want to do, we’d actually lose jobs; 4.5 million of them to be precise.

Obama has spent his entire year in office (hard to believe this much destruction only took a year) looking for ways to pay unions big dividends and despite that Congress has been dragging its feet on unions’ most cherished legislative agenda, the EFCA, Obama has been bending over backwards for them (as we discussed here).
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AEI: More Unions Means Fewer Jobs”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Card Check - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - EFCA - Elections - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Sen. Harkin Promises Return to Card Check

June 25, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Hill is reporting that Iowa’s leading Democrat, Senator Tom Harkin, is promising that the lame-duck Senate will again take up Big Labor’s favored Employee Free Choice Act, (EFCA), the famous card check act that is neither good for employees nor one that facilitates “free choice” of any kind.

Apparently, what’s bad for the nation is easier to push when Democrats already feel that the 2010 election will erase their giant majorities in Congress so they want to launch a last ditch effort to sneak this through before the people can speak at the ballot box.

And isn’t that just the thing, here? The people did speak in 2006 and 2008, after all. They spoke in favor of Democrats. Yet, even with all that support Harkin and his far left cronies couldn’t lead their overwhelming majority to pass the jobs killing bill. Even their fellow Democrats were against it because they knew the voters stood against it.
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Sen. Harkin Promises Return to Card Check”

AFL-CIO - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - EFCA - Elections - Government - Liberals - Media - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

A Couple of Union Stories in the News

March 13, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Three interesting stories on unions have hit the media this week that should be watched.

#1- Bush’s Union Transparency Rules Retracted Under Obama

The Washington Times reports that Obama is still giving favors and pay back to Big Labor. This time Obama is eliminating the transparency rules that Bush had put in to try to keep unions honest and legal. Saddly, Obama doesn’t care much if unions are held to the rule of law.
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A Couple of Union Stories in the News”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Economy/Finances - EFCA - Free Trade - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - President - Senate - Socialism - Warner Todd Huston

‘Restoring’ Unions ‘Right’ to Bargain Collectively

March 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Not long ago union advocate Stewart Acuff penned a piece for the Huffington website that was filled with soaring rhetoric about unions “creating the middle class” and pleading for voters to pressure Congress to pass the absurdly named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). He claimed that this piece of… legislation would “restore the right to form unions and bargain collectively.”

Despite Acuff’s urgent pleading, however, he misses an elephant in the room. No one has taken anyone’s “right to collectively bargain” away from them. Of course that wasn’t the only thing that Acuff was factually incorrect about.

Why is it that union folks have to lie about everything, anyway?

Acuff starts out with a whopper.
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‘Restoring’ Unions ‘Right’ to Bargain Collectively”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Media - President - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

AP: Unions Stymied Under Obama?

March 1, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press posted a story lamenting that Big Labor has failed so far to get Obama to heel by their commands. Big Labor has said “jump” and Obama has but skipped. The article is correct, though, that Big Labor has failed in its two biggest goals: socialist healthcare and card check. At least, they’ve failed so far.

A third failure has also been forced upon Big Labor. As a result of newly seated Republican Senator Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts, Big Labor was not able to install Craig Becker as the head of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Becker was Big Labor’s back up plan in case Congress didn’t pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), or the card check bill. Being a former Big Labor lawyer and activist, labor groups expected that if installed as NLRB chief Becker would change rules, alter processes, and invent systems that would implement card check through the back door instead of through actual legislation.
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AP: Unions Stymied Under Obama?”

Conservatives - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Liberals - Republicans - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Right To Work Prez Calls Out Newt’s Hypocrisy

October 31, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

National Right to Work President Mark Mix is calling on Newt Gingrich to rescind his endorsement of Dede Scozzafava, the liberal candidate chosen by New York’s GOP powermen for the special election for the 23rd District Congressional seat. The reason? Scozzafava is a supporter of the Employee Free Choice Act and Newt has said he isn’t.

Liberal Republican Scozzafava has announced her support of the EFCA and its card check feature, a bill that will give unions a free hand to intimidate workers during the election period for voting on union representation. On the other hand, Newt Gingrich is in such opposition to card check that he once sponsored a petition against the EFCA.

Back in March, Gingrich created a video for American Solutions decrying card check and informing the viewers that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost with card check. Newt strongly supported the American Solution petition drive titled Freedom Not Fear drive.
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Right To Work Prez Calls Out Newt’s Hypocrisy”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - President - SEIU - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Pledge to Help SEIU ‘Turn The Nation Purple’

October 13, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you want to know how “connected” the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is to the White House, a video of then candidate Obama’s appearance at an SEIU campaign rally event is revealing. Obama revealed his intimate connection to the SEIU (from even before he ran for office) and promised to “turn the nation purple,” in an allusion to the SEIU’s corporate color scheme.

This is how close President Obama is to the SEIU and how engaged SEIU Local 880 is in politics in Illinois.

Join us and Say NO to ACORN.

Sign the petition and tell Governor Quinn that you want a real investigation to end corruption for good.
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Obama’s Pledge to Help SEIU ‘Turn The Nation Purple’”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Chicago - Congress - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - House of Representatives - Illinois - Jobs - Liberals - President - SEIU - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Economic Freedom Alliance Targets EFCA

October 13, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A rather new group called the Economic Freedom Alliance (economicfreedomalliance.org) is now taking on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) by erecting billboards to target five key Democrat congressmen in hopes of getting their constituents to urge them to drop support of the EFCA.

In one section of Illinois, for instance, the billboards say simply “DoNotLetBillFosterKillJobs.com.” Bill Foster is a Democratic Representative from south west of Chicago who now holds the seat that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert once occupied.

Other Democrats that the billboards are targeting elsewhere in the country are Democrat Representatives Debbie Halvorson (Ill.) and Ike Skelton (Missouri), as well as Democratic Senators Evan Bayh (Indiana) and Claire McCaskill (Missouri).
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Economic Freedom Alliance Targets EFCA”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Race - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Is Union Favored Legislation ‘Racist’?

September 17, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Professor Harry G. Hutchison of George Mason University recently took a look at the union favored Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and made a startling conclusion. He believes it will harm minorities.

Saying that the EFCA is “arguably the most transformative piece of labor legislation” since 1935, Hutchinson warns that it will seriously harm the rights of workers and the status of minorities alike.

To start, Hutchinson summed up the provisions of the bill.

One of the newest attempts to transform labor relations is the EFCA. The first to disappear under the EFCA would be a system of union democracy whereby unions could only obtain the rights of exclusive representation for firms if they could prevail in a secret-ballot election. Second, the EFCA would eliminate the necessity of a freely negotiated collective bargaining agreement between management and labor and instead substitute compulsory arbitration.

The results of these provisions, though, would prove disastrous as far as Hutchinson is concerned.
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Is Union Favored Legislation ‘Racist’?”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - California - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Security/Safety - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Governator Vetoes Union Bill Again

September 4, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The United Farm Workers union wants to enshrine in law a new way for potential members to vote in representation. For years now, the UFW has tried to push Sacramento to OK a plan to allow potential union members to cast their vote away from their workplace.

The union claims that if union representatives can visit possible members at their homes to gather their vote it will prevent farm owners from “intimidating” their workers out of casting a yes vote.

But, the truth is that this will give the union representatives full reign to themselves be the intimidators. Not only that, but if union reps can go to voter’s homes to gather votes there won’t be anyone to guarantee whether those union reps were intimidating the voters or not. It’ll just be the worker and the union rep who will know for sure. Not only that but this bill will effectually eliminate the worker’s secret ballot and voter privacy.

Fortunately for the integrity of workers Governor Schwarzenegger has vetoed this abomination… again.

Good for the Governator.
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Governator Vetoes Union Bill Again”

Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Media Bias - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Was Card Check a Trojan Horse?

July 23, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yesterday a warning from TheTruthAboutTheEFCA.com was published that, despite the news reports, card check was not a dead issue. Dead, weakened, whatever, at least it looked as if the widening disdain for the card check feature of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was a step in the right direction. But, some are beginning to wonder if card check was merely a tactic all along.

A recent National Review editorial thinks that the loss of card check would be meaningless if its removal from the EFCA meant that passage was easier. After all, the EFCA is far more egregious and economy killing than just the destruction that would be wrought by the card check feature. We’ve said as much here on the blog, as well.

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Was Card Check a Trojan Horse?”

Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Jobs - Liberals - SEIU - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Small Victory, Card Check Slashed from Bill

July 18, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We can at last mark one small victory against the Orwellian named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The card check feature of the bill has been successfully cut out of the bill in the Senate.

The card check feature would have allowed unions to eliminate the ages old democratic practice of allowing prospective union employees the benefit of a secret ballot to vote “yes” or “no” for organizing their work place.

Removal of this feature of the EFCA proves that our Senators can be moved by pressure from constituents. But, let’s not imagine that the war is now won. This one small victory still leaves a bill jammed full of anti-business, economy killing aspects and we need to keep the pressure on to kill this mess.

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Small Victory, Card Check Slashed from Bill”

Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - History - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Contributed to Failure of FDR’s New Deal

July 15, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new article on Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies has been published by the Milken Institute Review. The piece reveals how FDR’s strengthening of labor unions contributed to the continued economic downturn experienced during the Great Depression and how the country’s disastrous economic condition was exacerbated by the failure of the New Deal. As time passes more and more honest economists and historians – those not sold out to Roosevelt sycophancy – are coming to terms with the simple fact that FDR was a failure as president with everything except his prosecution of WWII. Here is yet another historical review in that vein. (See .pdf file of article)

The Article, titled “Where the New Deal Went Badly Wrong,” was written by Harold L. Cole and Lee Ohanian. Harold L. Cole, Ph.D. Economics, University of Rochester, 1986, is a professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Lee E. Ohanian, Ph.D. Economics University of Rochester, 1993, is a professor of economics at UCLA.

The pair have noted that the New Deal strengthened unions and gave to them powers for striking that brought industry to its knees just at a time when the country needed as many new jobs as it could get to tug itself out of depression. Unfortunately, the power given unions caused the depression to last far longer than it needed to last.

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Unions Contributed to Failure of FDR’s New Deal”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Rasmussen: Most Americans Oppose Union’s Card Check Ideas

July 15, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the main premises of the Orwellian-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is the card check feature. This feature eliminates the right of potential union employees to have the benefit of a secret ballot when they vote for or against organizing under a union.

Recently, Rasmussen did a poll on the basic concept to see what the prevailing feelings were and it looks like the union position comes out heavily on the losing end of the stats with this one. What’s more, most people agree with the Republican position that opposes the union’s.

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Rasmussen: Most Americans Oppose Union’s Card Check Ideas”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

And Another Bad Part of the EFCA…

June 24, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Of course we’ve talked endlessly about the fact that the Democrat’s Orwellian named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) eliminates the employee’s free choice to vote for or against unionization using the ages-old democratic practice of a secret ballot. Who hasn’t, right? In fact, we’ve talked about it so much that even Democrats are turning against this aspect of the act and this is one of the reasons that the bill has not been able to muster enough votes to get passed. So, we can mark that as a tentative victory.

But there is more in this horrible legislation that needs to be highlighted. Here is something as egregious, but perhaps not as flashy as the elimination of a secret ballot. It is the forced arbitration clause. Let’s call it the Back Seat Driver’s clause because it is essentially a rule that says government takes away any say in unionization from BOTH the union, the workers, and the employer.

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And Another Bad Part of the EFCA…”

Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Jobs - Liberals - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Dem Pols Make Out Like Bandits With EFCA

June 11, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Hill has news of a new report that will show that Democratic Politicians will make out like fatcats if they are successful in passing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) this Congressional session.

It is being estimated that unions would gain an additional $320 million to spend on political campaigns and much of this money would go right in the campaign accounts of Democratic politicians in D.C. and elsewhere.

“EFCA’s passage into law could generate billions of additional dollars for unions to spend on political activity to advance their agenda,” a WFI memo says. “And for those union leaders whose pension funds have been mismanaged, EFCA’s passage would also amount to a massive government-engineered bailout of their financial mismanagement.”

The report cites a claim made by Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern who estimates that the EFCA could enlarge union membership by as many as 1.5 million members.

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Dem Pols Make Out Like Bandits With EFCA”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - Socialism - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Fake ‘Comments’ Supporting EFCA Posted All Over the Web

May 17, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Recently, an effort to post all across the web fake comments supporting a key union cause has been discovered. In Internet activist talk, this is called “astroturfing.” The term describes a campaign of fake comments posted on multiple websites where articles are discussing any particular issue about which the “astroturfers” want to have their position known. In this case the issue is the discussion of the woefully misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and the “astroturfing” is an effort by union supporters to explain away the dangers this act represents to the American worker. The end result is supposed to be that when regular web users come to a page and see the pro-union message they imagine it to be from a “real” visitor. In truth it is an organized campaign to spam comments sections with a canned comment misleading readers into thinking “real people” support the position being “astroturfed.” (i.e., since astroturf is fake grass, this laying on of a fake “covering” explains the reference)

A website named The Truth About the EFCA, discovered the astroturfing effort in the form of the exact same comments in favor of the EFCA on at least three different sites posted under three different names. The site was alerted to this fact because its own site was one of the astroturfed sites.

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Fake ‘Comments’ Supporting EFCA Posted All Over the Web”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - Socialism - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

EFCA: This is Lunacy

May 17, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Patrick McIheran has a short piece on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s website that is a pretty good read. I think you should all check it out in its entirety here.

The piece has several links to other articles in it, but the main point is about the overgenerous and unfunded pension plans that unions all across the country have been foolishly allowed to negotiate. These pensions are simply untenable and always were but most businesses and unions kept kicking this can down the road until it is finally hit a dead end.
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EFCA: This is Lunacy”

Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Card Check: Seeing Unicorns and Rainbows in Hades

April 23, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The New York Times is attempting to spin gold from straw, telling us unicorns are real, expecting the Tooth Fairy to bring a windfall. At least, that is what it seems if we are to believe the Times’ fantasy card check union story from April 20. You see, the Times believes that an overwhelming anti-union vote held via secret ballot is proof that card check is necessary.

This pretzel logic insists that the employer in question was so underhanded that even a secret ballot was corrupted by the efforts by the employer to scare off employees from supporting the union. But, here is the thing that makes no sense: if the ballot is secret, since no employee’s name was connected to the vote, and if the employer was that mean to the workers, WHY did they still vote against the union?

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Card Check: Seeing Unicorns and Rainbows in Hades”

Business - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The Corruption of Card Check: Ohio Union FAKES Member’s Signature Cards

April 22, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the more objectionable features of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is the card check feature wherein a union can simply gather publicly signed cards by employees agreeing to become unionized, thereby eliminating the secret vote for the workers. Opponents say this process is ripe for union abuse leaving workers open to any sort of intimidation and quashing their vote of conscience.

If any more evidence of how corrupt the card check system could be were needed, one need only look at a recent union organizer in Ohio to see the abuse that will happen with card check.

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The Corruption of Card Check: Ohio Union FAKES Member’s Signature Cards”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Going After Wal-Mart Again

April 18, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Most lefties claim that “no” means “no,” but not where it concerns unions that have lost the organizing argument over and over again. We can see that refusal to listen to the workers in the case of Unions vs. Wal-Mart. Repeatedly Wal-Mart workers have generally refused to unionize, yet instead of taking that as an answer, the unions continue to push. And they are at it again.

The United Food and Commercial Workers is stepping up its efforts to organize Wal-Mart workers yet again.

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Unions Going After Wal-Mart Again”