There is no entity with closer ties to the Obama administration than the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). According to the White House visitor logs SEIU President Andy Stern and Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger visited the White House 58 times in 2009 alone, including 11 meetings with Obama and another with Vice President Biden. The SEIU is popular in the White House because no other union is as politically active as the SEIU. Stern told the Las Vegas Sun, “We spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama — $60.7 million to …
LIFTING THE PAY CAP ON 8 MILLION WORKERS Unions Cap Their Member’s Pay Setting a Wage Ceiling: Currently union contracts set both a wage floor and a wage ceiling. Unionized employers may not give productive workers pay raises outside the collectively bargained contract. Seniority-Based Pay: Unions usually demand that employers reward workers for “time served” rather than “hard work.” No matter how good an employee does his job, he cannot earn higher wages than what his union contract specifies. Holding Back American Productivity: This “seniority ceiling” keeps union members from …
This video highlights a danger in the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) that could be worse then taking away the secret ballot. EFCA gives government officials the power to impose contracts on employees if an “acceptable” contract with the union is not negotiated within 90 days. According former Union Organizer Rian Wathen says: If you put in the binding arbitration you remove any incentive for the union to be practical [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8kEwUDn7wo[/youtube]
Rian Wathen, Former Organizing Director for the UFCW, discusses card check. He discusses how union organizers can use corrupt methods to get people to sign cards that, under the Employee Free Choice Act, would authorize a union without a secret ballot election. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZhAvhEnO34[/youtube]
This Fox News story perfectly encapsulates why American workers deserve to keep a secret ballot for union organizing consistent with our democratic principles. Whether the union needs 51% of workers to sign on, or 75% of the workers to sign on; without a secret ballot, they will intimidate workers at their work, home and elsewhere until they get what they want. As the video shows, this method tears businesses, communities and friendships apart.
As President Obama and Congress are starting to learn, it isn’t easy running American businesses from Washington. This week AIG threw bonuses in the faces of their new CEO’s on Capitol Hill, after Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) specifically legislated that they could do just that. Senator Dodd is apparently wishing he hadn’t made that decision now. Now we learn that the auto companies that American taxpayers are bailing out an alarming rate are being forced into more bad decisions by lawmakers. Their new “bosses” on Capitol Hill are forcing them …
As conventional wisdom reminds us: You are known by the company you keep. So what is one to make of the AFL-CIO and Jobs with Justice, two labor-movement heavyweights, allying themselves with the International Socialist Organization (ISO)? According to the ISO’s North Texas branch, last night, the AFL-CIO and Jobs with Justice met with the ISO tonight to discuss “why we need the [Employee Free Choice Act] and how we can win it.” After all, the ISO hardly seems like the type of group Big Labor would want to have …
