The Heritage Foundation - Leadership for America

March 11, 2009 Spiritof76, New Hampshire writes:

Time for revolution in this country.
Imagine these same people that re hissing, booing and throwing things in the Senate hearing room are the ones will be visiting the home of an ordinary worker and use whatever means necessary to use the card check.
The country is getting out of control.

March 11, 2009 Dirk, Illinois writes:

Tom Harkin is a Democrat, not a Republican. As far as the actions of the union members present, does this surprise anyone? We have become used to this type of uncivil, unintelligent behavior from unions. From what I have learned from people I know who belong to unions the neanderthals there were probably coached beforehand to react that way.

March 11, 2009 Pug Scoville, Tennessee writes:

I don’t think Senator Tom Harkin has EVER been a Republican. Correction, please.

March 11, 2009 tcgop, frisco, texas writes:

Tom Harkin is a Democrat, not a Republican like you have above.

March 12, 2009 Bronson, Ca writes:

It is precisely this behavior that secret ballots exists.

If this is how the Unions treat congressional members, imagine how they will treat coworkers and subordinates after the repeal of the secret ballot.

March 12, 2009 Joanne writes:

The drive to create a Unionized America is scary. The Feb. 6th Executive order practically mandates States and Federal projects be done by Union Companies. This will push many non-union Companies out of business, and drive up the cost to all such projects. The push to deny workers a secret ballot, can lead to union intimidation, which is not a thing of the past, as witnessed by the obnoxious behavior shown to Sen. Alexander. This is all is counter-productive to getting the Country back on a strong economic foothold. It is also prejudicial to many of us who are small business owners, who have as much right to work or be in business as the Unions.

March 12, 2009 markelder texarkana texas writes:

second ammendment folks..Like a bully on the play ground they are pushing us into a corner.

March 12, 2009 David, Wisconsin writes:

Isn’t Detroit a good enough example of where unions will get you, aparantly the congressional majority wants that for all of our industry, or for what they have not already chased out of the country anyway.
Wealth is produced primarily in manufacturing, we desperately need more of it. Between card check and cap and trade, American industry will become extinct.

March 12, 2009 Gene from the great state of texas writes:

the actions of union goons at the senate hearing remind me of the actions of the goon squads of our early immigration days.also reminisent of the actions taken by the early hitler youth organizations to take control of the people. god forbid that unions take control of this great country.they have already broke some of the greatest companies with their greed.we do not need unions to further bankrupt us.

March 12, 2009 ra,ohio writes:

The union ran a glass plant out of our town.
The company told the union that it could not afford the salary increase the union was demanding and still keep operations here.
The union resisted, the company moved it’s operations to India, and 1200 people lost their jobs.

This scenario has been repeating itself across this country for years.
Obama said during the campaign that he would raise taxes on the companies that moved operations overseas. He is an IDIOT preying on IGNORANT people that will try to put him back in office in 4 years.
God help us to help ourselves.

March 12, 2009 Barb -mn writes:

They’re despicable. They’re ignorant. They’re immature. Surely, they’ve been denied a proper upbringing and education. The country is out of control. The government is out of control, most every state is out of control. They have limited brain ability not called intelligence. Where their only strategy is thievery! They aren’t qualified! They deny equal rights, they deny equal opportunity. They deny FREEDOM. They (obama and his bunch)are not fit to run a FREE country!

March 13, 2009 Mike B. writes:

Unions now more than ever !!

Folks, I’ve got news for you. If companies did what was right for their employees in the first place, they would not be reaching out to labor.
But we all know, that companies will do right by employees out of the goodness of their hearts, right ? And oh, please don’t blame Detroit and the UAW for chrysler and GM’s woes…when toyota and Honda were designing practical cars, Management at GM & Chrysler were bragging that
….IT’s GOT A HEMI’…c’mon ! Did you know that it takes 7-10 yrs. for the average american worker to get 3 weeks vacation…Ridiculous Thank labor that we even get that!! and thank labor for: the weekend, overtime pay, vision , dental, cost of living increases, etc, etc, etc.

I know this will probably not be posted because it is a counter point but hey, I tried. Thanks.

March 13, 2009 Spiritof76, New Hampshire writes:

Mike, union membership in private industry (what is left of it) is about 10% of the total workforce. I had worked in an industry with union membership. I can tell you that if we get 4 hours worth of work in an eight hour day, you are lucky. The problem with the union is that they force work rules that protect the dead beats and don’t care about ensuring productivity by just doing their job and be flexible to help out.
Toyota and other imports located in states with right to work and pay far less than the Big Three in Detroit. UAW is certainly responsible for the destruction of the US auto industry. Who pays for the job bank? The GM cars carry at least $2000 cost over the imports due to the union rules. The management was inept as well and should have forced the union to back down by simply closing all the Detroit plants one by one. Caterpillar did the right thing when struck by the union and did not back down. They are not looking for a bailout.

March 13, 2009 Barb -mn writes:

Obviously unions play a significant role in the closing of business when they demand more then the business can afford. Unions are a cost who’s only job is to intimidate, dictate and force. May have been needed once, but they are nothing but corruption today. Unions are a part of the Obama bunch getting the job done…

March 23, 2009 L B Wilkes writes:

I have personally managed union shops in the Automotive businessw and have experienced both the worst effects and the better benefits. Do to the organized National Union the company was in dire economic straits. The employees fought for closed ballots in the Labor cout and won. They then organized their own In-House Union and negotiated with the company benefits that were reasonable. They saved the company and their jobs. While doing this, their in-house union dues were used to create a $.25 cent Good Lunch System for the workers Several times through the years the National Union tried to get BACK BUT THE WORKING PEOPLE wanted nothing to do with them. Government cannot manage Congress except for political greed, what makes you believe they can manage a shop with 10 people in it.