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Card-check bill waitin’ on Al Franken
Vote in favor of Solis expected; ‘Dr. No’ seeks to ban funding of museums, parks, casinos in stimulus package
Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Washington — A top Democratic senator said Wednesday that the union-backed card-check bill will be taken up if and when Al Franken wins the contested Minnesota Senate race recount and joins the chamber.
Sun Archives
- Card check battle takes center stage at Capitol (1-31-2009)
- Big union reels as card-check fight looms (1-29-2009)
- Reid: Vote on card check bill, a labor priority, likely in summer (1-27-2009)
- Leaders of Culinary parent union embroiled in nasty lawsuit (1-27-2009)
- Card check issue stalls panel’s vote on nominee (1-23-2009)
- Left relieved by Obama’s words on card check (1-17-2009)
- Mum about card check, a key issue for labor (1-10-2009)
Sun Blogs
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, having been tapped by party leaders to usher the divisive bill through debate, said the Employee Free Choice Act could be under way on the Senate floor by spring.
After speaking at rally in favor of the bill, Harkin said that as soon as “we swear Franken in, this will be one of the first things we take up.”
The bill is highly contentious. Thousands of union workers descended on Washington this week to lobby members of Congress, carrying what they say are 1.5 million signatures of people who support the bill.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and groups that oppose the bill also have been active. One group released a survey showing little support for the bill, and the chamber is planning a lobbying blitz next month in Washington.
The bill would allow workers to form a union if a majority of them sign cards of support, rather than through a secret ballot election. Unions say management takes advantage of election campaigns to intimidate workers into voting no.
Management argues that the card-signing system gives union leaders a chance to muscle members free of competing arguments.
If approved, the system for organizing workplaces would revert to the kind that prevailed in an era of stronger unions, before Congress changed the law in 1947.
The bill easily passed the House in 2007, but died in the Senate on a nearly party-line vote, with just one Republican senator crossing over to support Democrats.
Democrats now have 58 seats in the Senate. If Franken is declared the winner in the continuing recount against Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, Democrats’ numbers would stand at 59. That is one short of the number needed for passage, assuming no Democrats break ranks.
But Franken’s victory is not guaranteed, and Republicans on Tuesday continued to assert that Coleman will prevail.
•••
President Barack Obama’s stalled nominee for labor secretary is expected to be approved by committee on Thursday and passed to the full Senate for confirmation, sources said.
The nomination of Rep. Hilda Solis for the Labor Department position had been held up in part after the California Democrat declined to fully express her opinions on the controversial union-backed Employee Free Choice Act during her confirmation hearing.
Solis had been a supporter of the bill as a congresswoman. But at her Jan. 9 hearing, she said she could not express her view as she had not yet discussed the issue with Obama.
Several Republicans on the Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee were not satisfied, and gave indications that the nomination could be in trouble.
But committee sources said the panel is expected to vote today. “She’ll likely get through,” said a Republican committee aide.
•••
Just to be sure the Las Vegas mob museum won’t get money from the economic recovery package, a Republican senator introduced an amendment to ban money for museums, casinos, zoos, golf courses or other “non-stimulative” projects.
Las Vegas wasn’t the only city eyeing the now $900 billion-plus economic package as a chance to get financial help to develop a museum dedicated to its storied past.
A Las Vegas Sun survey published this week found 43 museum projects across the nation were seeking $453 million from the package.
But Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, a medical physician known as “Dr. No” for his opposition to much Washington spending, is having none of it.
“These pet projects won’t stimulate the economy,” Coburn spokesman Don Tatro said. “Rather than highlighting the criminal history of the mob, the Senate should address the toxic mortgages that started this economic crisis.”
The senator found success this week on his anti-Hollywood amendment, which blocked $246 million from going to help Hollywood production companies. It was approved Tuesday night 52-45.
The museum amendment stipulates no funding appropriated from the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act could go to any “casino or other gaming establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, arts center, or highway beautification project.”
Writing in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, economic columnist David Leonhardt singled out the mob museum as the kind of potentially shovel-ready project that could actually stimulate the economy.
“For the bill to provide effective stimulus, it simply has to spend money — quickly,” Leonhardt wrote. “Even the construction of a mob museum in Las Vegas, a project that was crossed off the list after Republicans mocked it, would work to stimulate the economy, so long as ground was broken soon.”
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The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace Continues to Spread More Lies about the
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and groups that oppose the bill also have been active. One group released a survey showing little support for the bill, and the chamber is planning a lobbying blitz next month in Washington.
http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/200...
Employee Free Choice Now . Org
Educating The World on The EFCA.
Myth vs. Reality: The REALITY is the Employee Free Choice Act Helps American Workers and their Families.
Despite the need for reform, critics of EFCA continue to misinform the public about the bill and hide the serious shortcomings of current labor law. Democrats are committed to setting the record straight and passing this important legislation on behalf of American workers and their families.
MYTH: EFCA will prevent the use of secret-ballot elections.
REALITY: EFCA does not strip workers of their right to choose a secret-ballot election to decide whether to select -- or not to select -- a union representative. EFCA simply gives workers the additional option of selecting a union representative by majority sign-up.
For More Information on EFCA please visit our website and blog
http://www.employeefreechoiceactnow.org
http://efcanow.blogspot.com/
http://www.LaborUnionResources.Org
http://www.spfpa.org/UnionBusterPagemake...
http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/dmdo...
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1...
EFCANOW, you cut and paste this garbage all the time.
Isn't it a little early to be drinking.
Your hero Franken also owes the IRS money, sorry, I forgot, doesn't matter to the Obama crowd.
Let's unionize the world and watch it all burn.
The EFCA (Employee Free Choice Act) allows a union to get employees to sign unions cards and elect a union without a ballot election and even without informing the employer that they are attempting to certified an union. They even do not have to attempt to inform all the employees either that there is a secret union election going all, much less the employer.
Also, EFCA will require all unresloved 1st contract negotigations to go to arbitration immediately after a 90 day time period.
These laws smack of "comrade" USSR and do not belong in a democratic society.
Dr. Coburn is awsome, I wish we had more like him. Too bad Republicans were total scum when they held power.
The Employee No Choice Act is horrible. Unions wanted secret ballots to prevent intimidation but now that workers freely choose not to unionize more and more the unions want to use intimidation and force to create unions again.
And unions only help union members, they harm everyone else on the planet.
Franken has not been confirmed. I for one question the legitimacy of the elction in Minnesota....There are more votes than voters...Hmmmmmm! What stinks in that state?
Well, you're all here! THE UNION BASHERS! YEA!
Nance, getalife, kdr81/patrick, our panel of
union experts! You 3 should be in charge of everything, you are so SMART! And unbiased! Let's review;
UNIONS BAD!
OBAMA BAD!
LIBERALS BAD!
TAXES BAD!
BAD BAD BAD! BAD!!!
These laws smack of "comrade" USSR and do not belong in a democratic society.
What a joke! Where did you grow up in chicken coop? You're attempt at an intelligent posting is completely overwhelmed by the mashed potatoes that substitute for your brain.
And unions only help union members, they harm everyone else on the planet.
Seriously! I don't know where you pull your ideas from but the level of discourse on t his topic on this site is at a first grade level. You ought to hook up with jfnance maybe between the two of you you can put together half a brain.
midon
Is all you can come up with?
I know of 5th graders that trash talk better than that.
Of course, you have to trash talk because you are void of any meaningful statements that state actual facts or ideas.
I didn't say unions are bad. I said they were great for their members bad for everyone else.
Unions are the only entities on the planet, that I am aware of, that sometimes seeks to destroy companies and the jobs that come with them.
Sometimes if a company refuses to accept union representation or fails to accept a contract then they seek to destroy the company.
The company that is involved with the new city hall is a local example.
The Tropicana in New Jersey is another good example.
Union would want to slap on tariffs on imported cars and cause the consumer to pay higher prices for cars to protect bloated salaries and benefits of UAW workers.
And they have the balls to claim to be looking out for ALL working people!!!!!
One union job is better than 1,000 non-union jobs in the eyes of the unions.
A unions job is to protect their workers and provide them a good wage. This comes at the expense of workers outside the union.
To give high wages for members, unions push for laws that require union membership, artificially increase minimum wage laws (to price low-wage competition out) or set up trade barriers with foreign countries.
Take, for example, trade barriers. Unions do not support free trade because in some industries foreign workers can do the same job for less (and do so voluntarily I might add). Unions push for a trade barrier which effectively eliminates the demand for foreign labor, putting foreign people out of work.
This is why unions push for "fair trade" which sets arbitrarily high foreign wages, effectively eliminating the competition. Thus, unions can pretend to care about the poor in other countries while actually harming them.
"A unions job is to protect their workers and provide them a good wage. This comes at the expense of workers outside the union." KDR81
For some reason this is supposed to be wrong. Unions raise the wage rates of others outside the unions as well as the cost for doing a similar job increases.
I get a kick out of those who feel the free trade acts help workers outside of the US and accuse the the unions of harming people by "fair trade acts". What about the workers in the US - KDR81 doesn't seem to care about them and certainly not about union workers who are supposed to chuck it all in and work at Mexican and Chinese woirker levels. Please get real!
I suggest you check out the maquiladora project which allowed US companiues to set up on the Mexican border in order to exploit Mexican wage rates and lack of envirnomental laws. The wages were low even by Mexican standards and the purpose of keeping Mexicans inside their country (working at good wages so they would not have to come to the US illegally) was subverted totally by US corporations who simply took advantage of treaty to the detriment of both US workers and Mexican workers. You're simply wrong about this and I suggest you take a long hard look at the free trade agreements and what they have really done to the working people ofg this country.
"Unions are the only entities on the planet, that I am aware of, that sometimes seeks to destroy companies and the jobs that come with them." jfnance
This is really hardly worth commenting on but I will just to point out just how dumb you are. Unions spend lots of money organizing workers. What would be the purpose of driving the company out of business after having just organized? That companies put themselves out of business for fear that the union will raise wages and benefit levels is more to the point. Speaking of points does your head come to one?
"Let's unionize the world and watch it all burn."
getalife
How stupid - the firefighters union would have to put it out.
Mindon,
That is incorrect. Most studies show that Unions depress wages for workers in the same industry who are not part of the union. This is simple economics.
You can't just snap your fingers and make the market pay you extra for no reason without any consequences. The consequence for artificially higher labor prices, due to union lobbying, is the depression of wages for non-union people.
Trade barriers protect SOME American workers (But hurt ALL American consumers through high prices). We force American consumers to pay higher prices for foreign goods, effectively reducing demand for foreign made products. This in turn reduces demand for their labor which reduces the price they can charge for their time.
Thus, trade barriers artificially increase some labor at the expense of other people.
And yes, I care about the American worker, but it is unfair for some American workers to have a better life because I (as a consumer) and some foreign worker are forced to pay for it.
As for foreign workers, yes free trade makes the poor better off - in both countries. The companies setting up in Mexico now wouldn't be there without a reduction in trade barriers. Without those companies many of the Mexicans today would either be without jobs or in worse conditions in agriculture. As for their wages, their wages are actually higher in the these northern factories than they would have earned without the trade agreement.
Studies consistently show that free trade improves the wages and working conditions of foreign workers. For us first world people, it also has great benefits. We get cheaper products expanding our purchasing power as our economy changes and creates new jobs to reflect our ability to be more productive (thus until this recent government-induced economic collapse) the American economy has created far more jobs than it ever lost to free trade - and did so despite adding millions of new people - oh and did so while increasing wages without government direction.
In fact, we added nearly 30 million laborers over the last decade while decreasing the number of people WORKING ON THE MINIMUM wage by 50%!!!
Oh, and people are flocking from Mexico to the US because there aren't enough jobs down there - we don't have free enough trade, and the Mexican government is a heavy handed socialist kelptocarcy.
I believe that more than half of Clark County union firefighters take home over $100k a year.
I believe that more than half of Clark County union firefighters take home over $100k a year.
jfnance
Okay here's people who risk their life for the likes of you and you whine about their salary. Whine about it to the widows and children of the firefighters who gave their lives for others at the World Trade Center. All union men and women by the way.
Yes, it is crazy that over 50% of Clark County firefighters take home over $100k a year.
It is example of government out-of-control.
That is incorrect. Most studies show that Unions depress wages for workers in the same industry who are not part of the union. This is simple economics.
Please show me one study and then look at the auto industry and the need for the Japanese companies to keep wage rates as high as the non-union plants. It's really ashame that you feel that work shouldn't be rewarded rather than force all the wages down why not lift everybody up. You talk as a consumer not as a worker. Why not rant and rave about the thieves who have robbed this country blind rather than go after union workers some of whom do not make the money tyou think they make.
As far as free trade lifting the working conditions of foreign workers. This is about the biggest joke in the world. The NAtional Labor Committee has consistently documented the squalid conditions of foreign workers doing the work of American corporations. Check out Willie Tan of American Somoa who uses slave labor and gets the Republican seal of approval from the likes of Tom Delay.
What is the disconnect with people on this site? Unions are not illegal organizations but if you read some of the posts here you'd think they were bayoneting babies to squeeze a buck out of their employers. You know there are many reasons for unions not just money. Don't get caught in jfnance's screwball idea that everyone is a communist. Union members have fought and died for this country in every war - much more than the rich who, in fact seem to want everything while returning nothing to society. Unions are part of America having been in existence since before the Revolutionary War. You can't even comprehend what an insult it is when people start their ridiculous labeling of unions as anti-American or communist (as if they can even comprehend what that means). Your little slam at Mexico a a socialist kleptocracy seems rather foolish in the fact of the mess business and the conservative right have madde of this economy don't you think?
Yes, it is crazy that over 50% of Clark County firefighters take home over $100k a year.
Is your life worth that? - apparently not.
That is a crazy argument.
According to your logic, let's pay them 2 million dollars.
Is your life worth $2 million?
Apparently not...
midon, don't give me the 9-1-1 crap. Tell me one firefighter in clark county that was there that day.
They have good jobs, excellent part-time jobs, great days off and MILK the system.
They are paid way over the top for what they do. IF you ask a fireman why he does it they always say, to help people. Help people out of their tax money.
My hat goes off to the volunteer firefighters.
Mindon,
The biggest problem you have to overcome is understanding that the world is NOT western centric. Factories may have substandard working conditions by our standards but given the alternatives in their own countries, those working conditions are far better than they would get otherwise. Wages are far higher too.
If you take economy x which is vastly more wealthy than economy y and force the people of economy Y to buy all the same expensive things as economy x, people in economy y would find they have very little they can afford. In terms of labor, this means companies spend a fortune on upgrading working conditions to first world standards at the cost of hiring workers - this means more people become unemployed.
People only get paid what they can produce -- which is something else you need to try and understand. If worker X can produce $2 per hour he can only be paid UP TO $2 per hour. American companies come in, hire these people, inject capital into the country and competition for labor ensues. Wages rise, people learn new skills, new companies form, competition increases, wages rise, more capital comes in, increasing productivity, son on and so forth. (Now think, HOW ON EARTH DID WE AMERICANS GET SO WEALTHY? Did we just snap our fingers or was it a long process of increasing productivity and competition?)
So yes, first world unions want to increase costs on foreign competition to make hiring cheaper labor artificially more expensive.
You in essence are helping to contribute to global poverty.
But let me ask you this, without these corporations, where would these people be working?
unions also depress wages for their most skilled workers through step pay plans where you get paid based on longevity rather than skill. This means lower quality workers become overpaid and higher quality workers become relatively underpaid within the union.
This is common throughout most unions. However, the most effective means of increasing union wages is through laws which restrict jobs to union employees. The next most effective is artificial wage laws and working condition requirements which force artificially higher costs on non-union competition.
I'll also note that there is not a single major competitive enterprise anywhere on the world that is unionized and not subsidized or protected from competition by their government. In the long run unions not only hurt consumers and the poor, but they hurt the very company they work for because their main strategy is to reduce competition - this creates inefficiencies and retards innovation, thus providing consumers with substandard but overpriced products overtime.
The net effect of unions: great if you're a member, bad if you're anyone else. Really bad if you're poor and low-skilled.
Here is a source for you which lists other sources on the subject saying just what I said:
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Labor...
I should note, I missed the point about unions harming minorities.
The biggest case is actually with the Teachers Union where teacher certficiation requirements have effectivly cut the number of minority teachers available. Teacher Union mandated teacher certification programs (a cartel arrangement to reduce the supply of teachers) has the racist effect of reducing the supply of minority teachers.
In regard to Mexico and America, the United States is becoming more and more like Mexico as wealthy powerful special interest groups collude together to shape the dynamic American economy into a zero sum game where those with political influence win and everyone else loses. Again, that is socialism.
In Mexico state owned corporations or private companies with government granted market power dominate. Low-income Mexicans (Which also happen to be non-white) are over regulated and harassed by the state. Anyone actually making a go of the situation, surviving then thriving, is either bought out by the state or regulated out of existence to protect the state or politically well connected enterprise from the competition.
The effect has been to stifle economic growth, retard innovation, and really hurt the poors chance of getting ahead in life.
Bush and now Obama, seem content on following the Mexican model. Nothing protects the rich better than state socialism.
For those not aware with Mexican politics the dominant players in Mexico's government and monopolistic private corporations are White, European descendents. They've used state socialism to keep away competition from the indigenous population - the same people who cross into our borders looking for a job.
So basically socialism with a little racism keeps them poor, eliminates their job opportunities and forces them to go north. American unions, labor laws, restrictive trade agreements, and trade barriers are making the situation worse too.
Lotsa folks like to whine and bellyache about the wealthy union workers and their easy jobs and excessive number of benefits ... but .. my unanswered question to these naysayers is .. why don't you get a union job and start enjoying the good life?
Because I have scruples and I won't sleep at night knowing I make other people around the world starve...
Or that unions actively work to keep the number of available laborers low in order to keep wages artificially high.
The union model always breaks down when union employement gets to a certain level because the price of goods and services gets so high that it drives down demand and also productivity takes a nose dive. That usually results in higher unemployment. Also it has a harmful effect on the growth of GDP in the long run. In the long term, the average wealth of people goes down not up in countries where union employment dominates.
Libs do not understand that there is a limitation of resources.
how does a hundred thousand a year firefighter do a better job than a seventy thousand a year firefighter?
kdr/patrick... that last post of yours is the single most disingenuous post I've ever read.
Get real.
Sorry to hear that GMAG, but unions hurt the poor the world around. If you think helping the poor is disingenuous then what can I do but let you live your sheltered life.
Libs believe the world is like in Star Trek where there is no limitations to resources.
So they believe everbody on the planet should earn at least $20 an hour and get Platinum benefits.
"Libs believe the world is like in Star Trek where there is no limitations to resources."
That is one amazing statement Mr. Oil and Coal.
gmag "BAD BAD BAD! BAD!"
Yup yup yup yup! Incipid, wouldn't you say?
I was age 20 when this Al franken thing began,now I'm 32 ZZZZzzzzz
"Libs believe the world is like in Star Trek where there is no limitations to resources."
Any geek worth his weight in salt knows that there were severe limitations to precious resources in Star Trek... like dilithium crystals.
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Dilithiu...
Not trying to take us off-course, but can't help but point out how jfNance32's rhetoric continues to be HORRIBLY WRONG!
johvegas; indeed. To the point of jejune.
I am glad that ksand99 realizes that are limitations to resources and the whole planet can't be earning $20 an hour with platinum benefits.
Good for you!!!!
Yeah, who wants a good paying gig with decent bennies anyway. Heck, the whole idea keeps nance at his computer NONSTOP! And poor kdr81, union workers keep him up nights because POOR PEOPLE THE WORLD OVER are SUFFERING at the hands of these unionized workforces! Holy cow, if you are in a union, YOU HAVE NO CONCIENCE! And poor ol' getalife. Once a UNION SCAB! A real-life Las Vegas Linecrosser! He had bills to pay, man!
Yep, all unions are EVIL INCARNATE!
And heaven forbid we would let people in these United States of America CHECK OFF ON A CARD if they would like to be in a union. SATAN!
Unions are the only entities on the planet that I am aware of that activitely seek to destroy companies and the jobs that go with them, like the company associated with the new city hall project or the Tropicana in New Jersey.
gmag,
Thanks for the love, oh I forgot, union robots are incapable of showing human emotions and needs.