union

As the next Congressional fight over payroll tax extensions and unemployment benefits and pipelines gets set up in the next few weeks for either its final chapter or to be kicked down the road a bit farther, one or the other, you’re going to hear a lot from our Republican friends about how much they value work and workers; most especially, they’ll tell you, they value American jobs for American workers.

After all, they’ll say, creating American jobs is the most important thing of all.

But if we were to look back over just the last few months, some would tell us, we could quickly find examples of how Republicans promote ideas that don’t seem to value work or workers at all, much less American jobs.

Well as it turns out, “some” seem to be right; to illustrate one of those examples we’ll look back a month or two or three to a time some Republicans might wish was long, long, ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

The Democratic National Convention Committee has awarded six contracts, worth a combined $7 million. Of those, one went to a unionized firm.

One out of seven? Unfreakingbelievable.

Workers from all walks of life walked a picket line outside Rep. Renee Ellmers' (R-2nd) district office in Dunn, NC, today. We walked to remind the Congresswoman that North Carolina, like the rest of America, wants to work! Ellmers needs to focus on what matters - fixing our JOBS CRISIS. The top 1% can take care of themselves. We need Ellmers to represent the Other 99% for a change.

We gotta grow some jobs, and that’s a fact, and we probably aren’t going to be able to do it with big ol’ jobs programs funded by the Federal Government, what with today’s politics and all, and that means if this Administration wants to stay in the jobs game they’re going to have to find some smaller and more creative ways to do it.

They are also going to have to come up with ideas that are pretty much “bulletproof”, meaning that they are so hard to object to that even Allen West and Louie Gohmert will not want to be on record saying “no no no!”; alternatively, solutions that work around the legislative process entirely could represent the other form of “bulletproof-ery”.

Well, I have one of those “maybe bulletproof” ideas for you today, and it has to do with how “Made in USA” the things are that our Government buys.

To: ABC Board, Council & Committee Leaders

From: Art Odom, ABC PAC Chairman

ABC is under attack and we are only 3 weeks into the new administration. The Obama administration just issued 3 pro-union Executive Orders and we anticipate more.

Dear Triangle-area Supporters,

On Monday, April 16th at 7PM, former Smithfield worker Lorena Ramos will join a worker from a Tyson poultry plant and a farmworker to describe the unjust, dangerous and sometimes unlawful practices of Wal-Mart's food suppliers. This free, public event is part the the Wal-Mart Food and Agricultural Worker Tour. Don't miss your chance to hear stories behind Wal-Mart's everyday low prices! Sponsored by Duke Students Against Sweatshops and the Duke Muslim Student Association, this event will take place at 7PM in Old Chemistry Building, Room 116 (West Campus) on Monday, April 16. Here's a link to a campus map with the Old Chemistry Building highlighted: http://map.duke.edu/?bidw06

This started out as a comment over at this John Edwards diary, in response to this comment by SPLib.

Edwards: "...ban the hiring of permanent replacement workers."

So, workers should have all the freedom to come and go as they please, but a business cannot choose who to hire and how long they work for them?

If you want to strike, you take the risk of being replaced.

Sure, most people think they are irreplacable at their jobs, but what if everyone KNEW they couldn't be replaced? That sure is a non-motivator for excellence and productivity. Sounds like France.

To understand my comment below, I think you really have to understand my history with unions. I was raised in a coal mining county, everyone mined coal and the sound of Triaxles slowing down with their Jake Break was a constant backdrop to my life, as they flew down our mainstreet about every 10 minutes all day and all night long. The boom was great, the pay was great, everyone had a new car and went on vacations and painted their houses, pools were built, cookouts were common, all the kids had new cleats and baseball gloves each summer. Then, Reagan was elected. Steel moved overseas and with it the need for coal. Soon, even the power plants stopped asking for coal, because they found it cheaper to buy it from China. But, a few die-hard coal companies still existed, and even one or two still exist today as a shadow of their former selves. A company that remained was the one my dad worked for, and one day the Unions came to town. They wanted the workers to hold a vote on whether to allow a union rep on the premises to talk with the workers. The owner called my Dad in, who had worked his way up from a bulldozer operator to be a higher-level foreman. He told him, "Bill, if they vote yes, I'm shuttin' her down. I've got my money, I've got money put away for the kids, and right now we're just breaking even. I can't afford a union."