[Rhodes22-list] Warning - Brad's download takes 17 minutes - Political - very controversial

[Robert Skinner]

Agreed!
/Robert

Brad Haslett wrote:
> Ed,
> 
> I'm attaching (below) another article about an issue I have a great
> deal of experience with.  I am a proud union member.  In the early
> 80's, I helped organize a union at my employer, not once, but twice,
> because the first union vote was thrown out in a law suit.  I studied
> labor law in grad school under a labor lawyer. I've been through three
> unions with my current employer (the same one twice) and went through
> a ten year process to get the first contract.  This "Employee Free
> Choice" concept is a perfect example of Orwellian speak.  It is
> anything but free choice.  It is easy to intimidate fellow workers
> into signing a "right to act" card - I know, I was one of the better
> ones at the process.  The worst position a group of employees can be
> in is to have a union on the property with only lukewarm support.
> Collective bargaining is just that, a collection.  With barely 60%
> support (I've been through that twice) you are in the worst of all
> conditions of union v non-union.  Obama has been bought, lock, stock,
> and barrel by labor unions. Anyone who truly believes in the value of
> collective bargaining and has experience with it should know how awful
> this concept is.  For a good read on labor organizing, read
> "Confessions of a Union Buster" by Feldman.  Again, I'm proud of my
> union, I'm proud of their efforts, I support organized labor.  But,
> this is a horrible idea.
> 
> Brad
> 
> ---------------------------
> 
> 
> Obama's Payoff to Unions
> by Mark Skousen (more by this author)
> Posted 10/06/2008 ET
> 
> 
> "We're ready to play offense for organized labor. It's time we had a
> president who didn't choke saying the word 'union.' A president who
> strengthens our unions by letting them do what they do best: organize
> our workers. . . . I will make it the law of the land when I'm
> president of the United States. . . . " ~ Barack Obama
> 
> "We cannot be a party that strips working Americans of the right to a
> secret-ballot election." ~ George McGovern
> 
> If Obama is elected president, which is highly likely according to the
> latest political futures market Intrade (now a 65% chance of winning),
> get ready for a unionized America and the end of the worker's right to
> a secret ballot.
> 
> If he gets his way, Obama is ready to force millions of Americans into
> unions by eliminating, for all practical purposes, this fundamental
> American right.
> 
> This betrayal of a bedrock principle of U.S. democracy can only mean
> one thing: America will go the way of Europe, i.e., higher
> unemployment, slower GDP growth, a higher cost of living, and no new
> job creation. That's the history of highly unionized states like
> Michigan. Since the end of World War II, America has steadily moved
> toward a more dynamic, flexible labor market, which has resulted in
> huge job creation and a higher standard of living for all workers. But
> -- if Obama and the unions have their way -- that is about to change.
> 
> Obama is a strong supporter of the falsely-named "Employee Free Choice
> Act" (also known as the Card Check bill) sponsored by Ted Kennedy. It
> almost passed Congress this year and is certain to become law if Obama
> becomes president. Obama told the AFL-CIO this year, "I will make it
> the law of the land when I'm president of the United States."
> (President Bush has threatened to veto the legislation.)
> 
> What's so bad about the "Employee Free Choice Act"? The name is
> positively Orwellian: instead of preserving workers' ability to make
> the decision to unionize by secret ballot, it does just the opposite.
> The bill makes it much easier to create a union at a business -- the
> union bosses can publicly pressure a majority of workers to sign union
> authorization cards (thus, the name "card check"). There is no secret
> ballot -- workers sign the cards in front of other employees and union
> leaders, and union officials keep the signed cards until they obtain
> the required number. Under the watchful eyes (and arm twisting) of
> union organizers, workers will be intimidated into signing.
> 
> Union supporters deny that the secret ballot is eliminated. Once the
> union leaders are accepted as the exclusive bargaining agent for the
> workers, employees can then freely vote for or against the union in a
> secret ballot.
> 
> The problem is that the card check process creates heavy peer pressure
> to support the union publicly, even if workers have misgivings
> privately. As the Wall Street Journal editorialized, "Unable to
> organize workers when employees can vote in privacy, unions want to
> expose those votes to peer pressure, and inevitably to public
> intimidation."
> 
> Congressman John Klein (R-Minn.) has warned, "It is beyond me how one
> can possibly claim that a system whereby everyone -- your employer,
> your union organizer, and your co-workers -- knows exactly how you
> vote on the issue of unionization gives an employee 'free choice.'....
> It seems pretty clear to me that the only way to ensure that a worker
> is 'free to choose' is to ensure that there's a private ballot, so
> that no one knows how you voted. I cannot fathom how we were about to
> sit there today and debate a proposal to take away a worker's
> democratic right to vote in a secret-ballot election and call it
> 'Employee Free Choice.'"
> 
> The potential for abuse is enormous. Even long-time Democrat George
> McGovern is opposed to the Card Check bill: "To my friends supporting
> the Employee Free Choice Act, I say this: We cannot be a party that
> strips working Americans of the right to a secret-ballot election. We
> are the party that has always defended the rights of the working
> class. To fail to ensure the right to vote free of intimidation and
> coercion from all sides would be a betrayal of what we have always
> championed."
> 
> Happily, Sen. McCain opposes the pro-union bill. "I am strongly
> opposed to H.R. 800, the so-called Employee Free Choice Act of 2007.
> Not only is the bill's title deceptive, the enactment of such an
> ill-conceived legislative measure would be a gross deception to the
> hard-working Americans who would fall victim to it."
> 
> Business leaders should especially be alarmed about another aspect of
> H. R. 800. It gives unions the option to have federal arbitrators
> write the terms of a binding contract, setting wages, benefits, hours,
> work rules, and all other terms of employment if negotiations between
> the employer and union fail. And this contract has the force of law
> for two years.
> 
> Bernard Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot, warns that this legislation
> is so harmful that it is nothing short of a "hostile takeover" of
> American business and will result in making the United States
> uncompetitive in the global world and will ship millions of jobs
> overseas: "When I asked CEOs if they had heard of this attack on
> principles that form the bedrock of our democracy -- secret ballots in
> elections -- only 7 out of 100 raised their hands. And yet, this plan
> has the potential to redraw the political and economic landscape of
> America. CEOs, and for that matter all Americans, need to know how
> this legislation would jeopardize our system of free enterprise."
> 
> Spread the word: An Obama victory means a unionized America, higher
> cost of living, more unemployment, a static economy, and a lackluster
> Wall Street.
> 
> On Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 8:38 AM, Tootle <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
>> Brad posted this web site:
>>
>> http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k6KUDv1wzraWhwlBt1
>>
>> It takes 16.5 minutes to watch.
>>
>> Unfortunately, it has been several years since I saw similar material.
>>
>> Unfortunately, I know how real it is.
>>
>> Thank you Brad for finding this current edition.
>>
>> Unfortunately, this election cycle has shown a dramatic increase in
>> acceptance of Marxism by sheep, remember this:
>>
>> "In Germany they first came for the Communists
>>    and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
>>  Then they came for the Jews,
>>    and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
>> Then they came for the trade unionists
>>     and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
>> Then they came for the Catholics
>>     and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
>>  Then they came for me
>>    and by that time no one was left to speak up.
>>
>>  --The Reverend Martin Niemöller, a pastor in the German Confessing Church
>> who spent seven years in a concentration camp.
>>
>> Ed K
>> Greenville, SC, USA
>>
>> --
>> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Warning---Brad%27s-download-takes-17-minutes---Political---very-controversial-tp19838114p19838114.html
>> Sent from the Rhodes 22 mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>
>>
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