Arkansas Blog

Of course the article is one-sided, but certainly has valid points.

A couple of months back, Max and I traded a couple of posts on this topic. My objection to the Employee Free (or Forced) Choice Act was the removal of the secret ballot. I strongly objected to this... my mother worked in sewing factories around Arkadelphia and Amity in the early 1950s where unions used strong-arm intimidations to get employees to sign the cards (her tires and radiator hoses were slashed because she didn't sign the card.)

My father worked his way up through AP&L first as union, then management. He told me stories about how BOTH sides were underhanded.

Not all unions are squeaky clean (ask Jimmy Hoffa) so the unions have GOT to be above board on this one. The secret ballot has GOT to be there, but on a fair playing field. No 3 month waits for the vote... once 51% have signed, then a ballot in a week or so. Major legal penalties to BOTH sides for intimdating voting workers.

Yes, management has certainly had the upper hand on job intimidation... but my family has expeience with both sides. Letting unions strong-arm people isn't any better. If the unions want support, they need to be above board.

According to a story out this morning [link at blue name], nine of banks among the biggest recipients of bail-out money paid more than five thousand (5,000) employees bonuses in excess of one million dollars ($1,000,000) each in 2008. It brings to mind an editorial comment I read in the Cleburne County weekly paper about seventy years ago about people on the privileged side of a huge income differential during the 1930s: people "who never produced a single necessity of life in all their pampered lives."

Apparently the Dum-Guyz editorial goons think differently as they toss out scare balloons with bogey faces painted on them. Contrasting the Begala's employee reality with their anti-worker fantasy and his well-reasoned and crafted argument versus their propagandistic repeat-the-lie approach and it's easy to see who is using ham-fisted Mafia tactics.

And to think that they try to conjure up the Nazis as specters on the side of the unions when history proves just the opposite. The Nazis broke unions, lowered wages, abolished overtime pay, decreased business taxes and increased business subsidies. Their program bears a strong resemblance to the Republican agenda in this country.

Excellent article! As usual Paul B has a way of keeping it simple for us.

Whatever happened to the top !% tax increase to 39%. Personally I believe the increase for all those poor bankers getting 1 million plus bonuses from our bailout money it should be 110%.

BWC, I am in COMPLETE agreement with you. Companies being propped up by the Fed (and screwing our children and grandchildren with the deficits we're taking on) should be FIRING their management, not paying them.

Want to REALLY get mad about bank bonuses? Do the clicky...

I say if it is good enough for Congress then it should be good enough for the rest of us. If Congress allows its staff to fall under the Free Choice Act, then so be it. If Congress is covered with the health insurance plan being voted on, then so be it. The Congress should follow the same rules as the voters.
Hell, make the White House follow the same rules that the citizens will have to follow.

"3) it says that once workers have voted for a union, employers have to come to agreement with workers on a contract."

Having someone hand me a card and asking me to check the box is not a vote.

I imagine this legislation would pass easily if the card check provision was replaced with a secret ballot. The resistance to that is a little troubling, and it concerns me that insistence on providing potential for intimidation is preventing passage of vitally needed reform