"A wise and frugal government which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." (Thomas Jefferson)
It is hard for most of us to understand why the Obama Administration thinks their hardline attack on Boeing through the NLRB is going to create jobs in this Country. Boeing has spent millions of dollars to get the plant in South Carolina ready to operate full time and along comes Obama and his union thugs through the NLRB filing a complaint against Boeing. Maybe Boeing should have opened their plant out of the Country so not to have to deal with the union thugs. After striking Boeing for three years, why would Boeing ever want to do business having to use those thugs?
This article details what is going to continue to happen if the NLRB gets their way -- jobs will fly out of the Country so the companies don't have to worry about work stoppage. Like so many of the Obama Administration groups, the NLRB is out of control this time in favor of the unions who fund the democrat campaigns.
Boeing Case: How Unions are discouraging companies to set-up business in America
There is no point in coming back to the chronology of the IAM-NLRB-Boeing case nor to the underlying interests of some stakeholders in the SEIU – Sodexo case anymore than we already did. What we would like to do in this article is to open the debate on the consequences of these events on the American business.
Entrepreneurs (both Americans and foreign ones) know that our American principles have been based on two pillars: free enterprise and a free country. Recent events in our country could change this perception. In the IAM-Boeing case, the NLRB filled a complaint against the airplane manufacturer on the basis that the company’s decision to locate its second production line had not been made on rational arguments (e.g.: diversifying its production centers) but had been a retaliation against past strikes led by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers at Boeing’s plant in Everett, WA. Following the fuss made by the complaint, the NLRB felt obliged to explain that it did not order Boeing to relocate the second production line to Washington – yet this explanation was hardly convincing. A state agency that tells a company where and what to manufacture was the model adopted by some countries but had never been in place in America until now.
The NLRB and the unions do not think on a long-term basis. The impact of the IAM-Boeing case is huge. If a company cannot choose where to locate its production in the US, the question will be raised whether to locate it abroad. Boeing could have chosen to locate the second production line in Mexico but they picked up South Carolina, creating 1,000 jobs by the way.
In the SEIU-Sodexo case, the union has been going after the company to become the representative union of its 120,000 employees (which means collecting the 120,000 annual memberships). To do so, the union has tried to tarnish the company reputation, to make it lose contracts and put it under increasing pressure. What they do not tell is that when a client decides to terminate its contract with Sodexo, employees’ contracts are also terminated or they are put under a probationary period as this is going to be the case for all non-managerial employees of Sodexo at the Western Washington University in the coming weeks. In the end, the SEIU is weakening American workers, putting them at risk of losing their jobs.
In both cases, American jobs are being jeopardized at a time when the economic crisis is not over yet and unemployment rate is still high. We should rather fight for our jobs instead of destroying them and our economy as unions are doing, for their short-term profits.
Since 1947, states have been allowed to vote for Right to Work but today we only have 22 states who have passed Right to Work. What does that say about the power of unions in the Democrat blue states that a vote doesn't even come up for the people of the state to vote in recent years. Now the NLRB at the request of Obama is flexing its muscle to say that Boeing is not allowed to move manufacturing to South Carolina a Right to Work state from Washington State, a Union State. Does that mean the Obama Administration was to violate the Taft Hartley Act of 1947?
State laws permitted by section 14(b) of the Taft Hartley Act of 1947 that provide in general that employees are not required to join a union as a condition of getting or retaining a job.
Right-to-work laws forbid unions and employers to enter into agreements requiring employees to join a union and pay dues and fees to it in order to get or keep a job. Twenty-one states, mostly in the South and West, have right-to-work laws.
Oklahoma became the last Right to Work state on September 25, 2001, after a vote of the people. The right of the people to vote on Right to Work was due to our current Governor Mary Fallin. As Lt Governor she took over the gavel in the Senate to break the logjam of the Democrats stifling the right of the people to vote. The Democrats had shut off the electricity to the Senate chamber but that didn't stop Mary and others from getting the Right to Work bill passed to put it on a ballot in a special election.
The money and union thugs from out of state poured into our state at an alarming rate. The Clintons were part of the management of the group trying to defeat Right to Work. Over 90% of the donations to the Right to Work side came from within Oklahoma while over 90% of the donations to its defeat came from outside of Oklahoma. The ads on the TV against Right to Work were so full of lies that almost anyone could see through them. The day of the election the out of state thugs were in some areas but not in ours -- our Sheriff at the time would have arrested them on the spot if they did anything outside the law so they stayed away from our County. With all the poll watchers and lawyers ready to come in at a moments notice, we won the battle to make Oklahoma a Right to Work state.
Now the union people here keep putting out that Right to Work didn't bring jobs to Oklahoma. Tell that to the people who have been hired by Boeing with all the jobs they have transferred into Oklahoma to be closer to the depot at Tinker AFB or other companies that have brought jobs to the State. We have airplane hangars that have been built at the Tinker AFB Mall from various companies to repair aircraft right here in Oklahoma instead of in other states.
Is the NLRB going to be at our doorstep next? EPA has a lousy track record against Oklahoma with our Senators so bring on the NLRB to go toe to toe with Senators Inhofe and Coburn. My money is on our two Senators.
Has the fact Oklahoma is a Right to Work state affected campaign donations to Democrats by the unions? Absolutely! The passage of Right to Work in September 2001 along with term limits passed in the early 90's by voters led to the House being taken over by the Republicans in 2004 and for the first time in history Republican control of the Senate in 2010 in spite of ACORN trying to steal two Senate seats. Now Republicans for the first time in history also control all statewide offices as well with the 2010 elections.
The tactics of union leaders is legendary starting with the Longshoreman in NY with support of the Mafia. Now word comes the union thug tactics has struck the town of Costa Mesa in Orange County, CA. Here is the latest on that situation where a union thug leader intercepted emails to find out what the opposition (city council) was doing:
VIDEO: AFL-CIO Leader Admits To ‘Intercepting’ Emails In Dispute With Costa Mesa City Council Bernardino ”GATE”
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Berardino”GATE” – Enter Nick Berardino, the AFL-CIO’s General Manager of the Orange County Employees Union; the stereotypical “thug” that speaks of his Italian heritage and jokes about showing up at Orange County Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh’s home’s when upset with him, “and I don’t want to go there to deliver cannoli and a little bit of wine.” Mr. Berardino it seems, not only likes to joke about these physical taunts but apparently likes to “intercept” other people’s email in an effort to know all the covert moves of his opponents. Also on the video below Art Pulaski, an Officer with the California Labor Federation, says “I have seen the memos from the leaders of Costa Mesa to the leaders of Orange County and beyond.” It appears Nick the thug and Art keep in communication.
Costa Mesa like many municipalities in America are going through difficult fiscal times and hard decisions by elected officials must be made to prevent insolvency. What the citizens of Costa Mesa don’t need, and I dare say, the city workers of Costa Mesa don’t need, is Nick Berardino and Art Pulaski doing things that would make Nixon blush.
When asked about the “intercepted” emails comment made on video, Costa Mesa City Councilman Jim Righeimer said, “Someone gave me a copy of the video and I immediately gave it to the Orange County District Attorney’s office for investigation. People have a right to privacy that we need to ensure is not being violated here.”
My guess is the next move of the Democrat Party/Union (let’s face it they are the same entity now) is to call in THE PLUMBERS. Maybe they should flush Nick Berardino out of the system first.
It gets pretty bad when the unions feel so threatened that they take on a city council with thug tactics. When are more states going to follow the lead of the 22 Right to Work states and give the people a chance to vote on Right to Work?
You cannot argue with the facts:
A recent study by the staff of Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., pointed to some revealing data: Between 1993 and 2009, right-to-work states created jobs twice as fast as states where forced unionism is permitted, and enjoyed 10 percent faster growth in personal income. Right-to-work states account for only 40 percent of the U.S. population but hosted 60 percent of the nation's new businesses during that same period.
Such data contrasts mightily with facts like this: Unions spent $400 million to elect President Obama and Democrats in 2008 largely because of promises to use the federal government to restore labor to its former position of strength. The centerpiece of that effort was card check, which would have abolished secret ballots in workplace representation elections, but it failed in Congress.
So now the Obama campaign to rescue dying unions is focused on the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB, which is run by Obama appointees, has filed a complaint against Boeing Aircraft Co. for expanding its manufacturing operations into DeMint's right-to-work state. Obama is only trying to help his union campaign donors -- as usual -- but this effort is bound to backfire. Right-to-work states are demonstrating daily that workers, their families and taxpayers all benefit when employees have the freedom to choose whether to join a union. There are 22 such states now and odds are more are coming, which will be good economic news for them -- and the country.
The following information made me chuckle when you learn that the Obama Export Council Chair is none other than the CEO and President of Boeing Corporation, Jim McNerney. How fitting that the Obama Administration is going after the company that their Export Council Chair is the head. Talk about being tone-deaf -- that is Obama and his Administration as they do the bidding of the labor unions.
NLRB takes another Boeing hit as Obama’s Export Council chair criticizes labor board’s plans
President Barack Obama remains silent on the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) actions against the Boeing Company’s recently-finished $2 billion production plant in South Carolina, but his Export Council chairman Jim McNerney, who’s also the president and CEO of Boeing, ripped the NLRB in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Wednesday morning.
“The NLRB is wrong and has far overreached its authority,” McNerney wrote. “Its action is a fundamental assault on the capitalist principles that have sustained America’s competitiveness since it became the world’s largest economy nearly 140 years ago. We’ve made a rational, legal business decision about the allocation of our capital and the placement of new work within the U.S. We’re confident the federal courts will reject the claim, but only after a significant and unnecessary expense to taxpayers.”
Anyone want to bet that the management of Boeing will not be in line to give political donations to Obama and Democrats this time around? Looks like Obama and his union thugs put the unions ahead of Federal Law once again as Obama bends over backwards to court the unions for campaign donations as his latest fundraisers have not gone well.
Stay tuned for more updates as Boeing and Senate Republicans take on the NLRB.
Yesterday it came out that the Obama Administration wants to require companies submitting proposals for contracts to include their campaign donations. We thought that was blatantly illegal, but today we seeing the further grab of private industry since the Obama National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) wants to tell Boeing where to locate their new plant when the plant is South Carolina is almost finished.. Why? Obama and the NLRB want Boeing to put the plant in the non-Right to Work, Blue State, Washington. They have given no thought to the fact the plant is almost finished in Right to Work, Red State, South Carolina.
Is Obama trying to further alienate Red versus Blue states. In the process he is going to find that some of the states who went Blue for him in 2008 are going to come back solidly Red in 2012 like Florida. With this type of coercion against companies, we look for more than just Florida to turn red. Americans are fed up with Obama telling private industry what to do. We expect a huge backlash from the voters against the socialist tendencies of Obama and his cronies in 2012.
What right does Obama or any Administration have to tell a privately held company where to locate a new plant? Did Boeing not give enough money to Obama for his campaign or is it the fact they don't want to give this time around? It is all about the campaign now as Obama lines up his union supporters.
The Obama Administration is doing more of a power grab by the day and quickly writing off states. Now it is all the Right to Work States who will not be allowed to lure any business from companies in Blue non-Right to Work states because of union demands. Looks to us like the union leaders are telling Obama to do their bidding in exchange for their help in 2012. How much voter fraud plus illegal donations did the unions provide to Obama in 2008?
When it dawns on you that the plant is virtually complete but Obama still wants them to relocate to Washington, you get the sick feeling that this President does considers himself a dictator now. Over the years Boeing has lost almost $1.8B since 1989 because of the every three year strikes by Boeing union members but that is okay because Obama wants to reward union members who try to take down the evil management of a company.
Obama is once again going against the vast majority of Americans who believe union workers are coddled and go on strike to take time off. Since OSHA came on the scene to protect workers, what are the reasons for the unions to strike as it not worker safety. The GM plant in Midwest City was closed because they kept doing unsanctioned strikes. Until the building was turned over to the Government for Tinker AFB, some of the union members played cards all day for their full pay.
We have witnessed the mess union members leave behind in Wisconsin with their litter and damage to buildings because they didn't like a law that was being discussed. Will someone tell me why we have teacher unions to start with? Never could believe their striking when their job is to educate our children.
Now we have this latest from Obama and NLRB telling a private company, Boeing, who has almost finished their facility in South Carolina that they are going to have to pick up and move to a Blue State which does not have Right to Work. Has Obama crossed the line? We believe he has.
Federal labor board seeks to ground BoeingBy: Examiner Editorial 04/21/11 8:05 PM
Can federal bureaucrats tell a private company where to build a factory?
Members of President Obama's National Labor Relations Board think they can. In a decision that even the New York Times is describing as "highly unusual for the federal government," Lafe Solomon, who was appointed to the board by Obama, filed a complaint on behalf of the NLRB on Wednesday seeking to force the Boeing Co. to build an assembly line in Washington state instead of South Carolina. The NLRB action stems from Boeing's October 2009 decision to build a new factory for its new 787 Dreamliner airplane near Charleston, S.C. Boeing first sought to build the new plant near its existing facility in Puget Sound, but negotiations with the International Association of Machinists broke down when the union refused to agree to a long-term no-strike clause. The IAM had struck four times since 1989, costing Boeing at least $1.8 billion in revenue.
That's when Boeing chose South Carolina, a right-to-work state where, unlike Washington, workers are not forced to join unions. As a result of this policy, only 6.2 percent of South Carolinians belong to unions. Construction of Boeing's new Charleston factory is nearly complete, and the company has already hired more than 1,000 new employees, drawn mostly from within the immediate region. And back in Washington, Boeing has actually increased employment at its Puget Sound plant by 2,000 workers. But that isn't good enough for the IAM or the Obama White House. After suffering major defeats in Wisconsin and Ohio, the labor movement is looking for a scalp. Obama's NLRB is trying to turn Boeing into one.
The NLRB is hanging its case on a senior Boeing official's statement to the Seattle Times that "The overriding factor [in transferring the line] ... was that we cannot afford to have a work stoppage, you know, every three years." The NLRB absurdly claims this is "unlawful employer speech" that infringes on "a worker's fundamental" right to strike. But the Supreme Court has long held that firms may consider the economic effect of strikes when making business decisions. Also, Boeing's existing collective bargaining agreement with the IAM allows Boeing to build facilities at other locations. An administrative law judge will hear Boeing's objection to the NLRB's complaint June 14, so there still is hope sanity will prevail. But a decision in favor of the IAM would be a disaster not just for Boeing, but for American workers everywhere. A ruling in favor of Obama's NLRB would make it presumptively illegal for any unionized firm to invest in a right-to-work state.
At first, this would mainly hurt right-to-work states, as they would no longer be able to lure new businesses from existing unionized firms. But over the long run, this policy would hurt unions and all Americans. Why would any domestic company choose to build a factory in a forced-union state if it knew that meant it could never expand to a right-to-work state? Why would any international firm invest anywhere in this country if it knew the White House would favor political allies?
The NLRB isn't protecting workers, it is setting them up for eventual unemployment.
This latest attempt by Obama to tell private industry where to build their plant is one more reason for Republicans to field a strong candidate in 2012 to take down Obama. That candidate is not any candidate who ran in 2008 in the GOP Primary because if they couldn't beat McCain how does anyone think they will beat Obama. The only one who had the capability of beating Obama, Rudy, couldn't get over the hurdle of the GOP primaries.
Soon after May 22nd, a candidate will announce who will change the dynamics of the race. Stay tuned!
Arrogance of NRA is simply stunning - for an organization who used to be about gun safety now the bottom line for gun/ammo manufacturers trumps all as the NRA lobbies for them.
According to Think Progress, “NRA: Practice Range” is billed as a “network of news, laws, facts, knowledge, safety tips, educational materials and online resource” for the organization.The National Rifle Association released a new app on Sunday that includes a gun range equipped with coffin-shaped targets, and the option for players to simulate using a military-grade sniper rifle.
The app includes what it calls “9 true to life firearms,” and allows players to download an MK-11 sniper rifle setting for 99 cents. The rifle can shoot 750 rounds per minute.
Dems/GOP Fighting -- Will they Finally Work Together for the Country? Will replace this image when they do. (11/07/2012)
Quotes
"We will be told that the causes of such violence are complex, and that is true. No single law, no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society, but that can’t be an excuse for inaction. Surely we can do better than this." President Barack Obama, Newtown, CT, 12/16/2012
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"I don't think that the way to correct a spin from the left is to try to impart a spin from the right.... [A]n information flow distorted from the right would be just as much a disservice as distortion from the left. What we really should be after... is accurate information. And I don't see what any conservative or anybody else for that matter has to fear from accurate information." M. Stanton Evans
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Former Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY)
“For heaven’s sake, you have Grover Norquist wandering the earth in his white robes saying that if you raise taxes one penny, he’ll defeat you,” he told CNN back in May. “He can’t murder you. He can’t burn your house. The only thing he can do to you, as an elected official, is defeat you for reelection. And if that means more to you than your country when we need patriots to come out in a situation when we’re in extremity, you shouldn’t even be in Congress.”
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"We are are an American family and we rise or fall together as one nation.
John Stuart Mill was a 19th century political philosopher:
"I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it." John Stuart Mill.