INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana‘s Republican-controlled House of Representatives cleared the way Wednesday to become the first right-to-work state in a traditionally union-heavy Rust Belt increasingly targeted by non-union foes.
The House voted 54-44 to make Indiana the nation’s 23rd right-to-work state after Democrats ended a periodic boycott which had stalled the measure for weeks. The measure is expected to face little opposition in Indiana’s Republican-controlled Senate and could reach Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels’ desk shortly before the Feb. 5 Super Bowl in Indianapolis.
“This announces especially in the Rust Belt, that we are open for business here,” Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma said of the right-to-work proposal that would ban unions from collecting mandatory representation fees from workers.
But Republicans have struggled with similar anti-union measures in other Rust-Belt states like Wisconsin and Ohio where they have faced a massive backlash. Ohio voters overturned Gov. John Kasich’s labor measures last November and union activists delivered roughly 1 million petitions last week in an effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
Indiana would mark the first win in 10 years for national right-to-work advocates who have pushed unsuccessfully for the measure in other states following a Republican sweep of statehouses in 2010.
Hundreds of union protesters packed the halls of the Statehouse again Wednesday, chanting “Kill the Bill!” and cheering Democrats who had stalled the measure since the start of the year.
“We did better than anybody ever expected,” House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer told The Associated Press before debate began on the issue, adding that outnumbered Democrats fought the best they could in the divisive labor battle.
Republicans foreshadowed their strong showing Monday when they shot down a series of Democratic amendments to the measure in strict party-line votes. Democrats boycotted again for an eighth day
Republicans handily outnumber Democrats in the House 60-40, but Democrats have just enough members to deny the Republicans the 67 votes needed to achieve a quorum and conduct any business. Bosma began fining boycotting Democrats $1,000 a day last week, but a Marion County judge has blocked the collection of those fines.
The measure now moves to the Indiana Senate which approved its own right-to-work measure earlier in the week. Gov. Mitch Daniels has campaign extensively for the bill and said he would sign it into law.
Category Archives: Political
Reality?
Coming Event For 2013 Contract Negotiations?
Here is the latest tactic by employers to bust the Unions, or to get big concessions during contract negotiations.
You’re crazy if you don’t think UPS will resort to a lockout!
How To Avoid Taxes
Here’s a lesson for all you Zillionaires on how to Avoid Taxes
The Fairy Tale Story of Worldwide Grinding
Read the Fairy Tale Story of Worldwide Grinding
The Indiana Statehouse Protest
Old Butch
Old Butch
John was in the fertilized egg business.
He had several hundred young layers (hens), called ‘pullets,’ and ten
roosters to fertilize the eggs.
He kept records, and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot
and was replaced.
This took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells and attached
them to his roosters.
Each bell had a different tone, so he could tell from a distance,
which rooster was performing.
Now, he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by
just listening to the bells.
John’s favorite rooster, old Butch, was a very fine specimen, but this
morning he noticed old Butch’s bell hadn’t rung at all!
When he went to investigate, he saw the other roosters were busy
chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but the pullets, hearing the
roosters coming, would run for cover.
To John’s amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn’t ring.
He’d sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.
John was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the Renfrew County
Fair and he became an overnight sensation among the judges.
The result was the judges not only awarded old Butch the “No Bell
Piece Prize,” but they also awarded him the “Pulletsurprise” as well.
Clearly old Butch was a Republican in the making. Who else but a
Republican could figure out how to win two of the most coveted awards on
our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the unsuspecting
populace and screwing them when they weren’t paying attention.
VOTE CAREFULLY IN 2012, THE BELLS ARE NOT ALWAYS AUDIBLE!!!
What to Expect
Right to Work as Described by Daily Kos
But what is “right to work” and why are Republicans so determined to pass it? Briefly, these laws say that union members have to pay the costs of representing their coworkers who choose not to join a union. (Less briefly here.) Under federal law, no one can ever be made to join a union, but in states without so-called “right to work” laws, if there’s a union bargaining contracts for you and representing you in grievances, you have to pay a “fair share” or representation fee to cover those costs. What Indiana and New Hampshire Republicans want to do is to allow non-union members to be free riders, getting the representation their union coworkers pay for. Dean Baker bluntly describes this as an added tax on union membership.
Romney on Workers
SALEM, N.H. — Mitt Romney on Thursday branded President Obama a “crony capitalist” for making three appointments to the National Labor Relations Board without Congressional approval, suggesting the move was a reward to organized labor for its political support.
“This president has engaged and is engaging in crony capitalism,” Mr. Romney said. “It is happening with the Labor Relations Board.”
It was an unusually pointed and personal attack on Mr. Obama, whom Mr. Romney has long sought to portray as an overzealous advocate for labor unions, and it appeared deliberately timed to appeal to Republican primary voters in South Carolina: the state has relatively relaxed union rules and a labor board decision involving a Boeing airline plant there has stirred widespread anger.
Also too, please note one of the appointees is a Republican.
Okay, let’s just get out of the way that he has reversed the meaning of the phrase in trying to make his point:
Crony capitalism is a term describing a capitalist economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between business people and government officials. It may be exhibited by favoritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, and so forth.
since a government appointment is not one of the ‘rewards’. Yet he continues on this line of accusation:
“This president is a crony capitalist,” Mr. Romney said. “He is a job killer.”
The president’s relationship with organized labor has become the focus of Mr. Romney’s central critique of the Obama presidency: that it promotes an “entitlement society” driven by government spending and judgments, rather than the rules of the free market.
“You know he said he wanted to create green jobs,” Mr. Romney said of the president. “I don’t think we understood that he wants to give jobs to the people who gave him the green.”
Unfortunately Mittney fails to explain how supporting unions equates to being a ‘job killer’, something which Romney himself has been accurately accused of, just today.
I think we know who the job killer is, Mittney.