Bfgrn
New member
I guess Grover Norquist never got the memo...
"We're going to crush labor as a political entity"
Grover Norquist - Republican economic guru and co-author of the GOP's 'Contract with America'
Right to work...for LESS
- Thread starter Bfgrn
- Start date
I guess Grover Norquist never got the memo...
"We're going to crush labor as a political entity"
Grover Norquist - Republican economic guru and co-author of the GOP's 'Contract with America'
signalmankenneth
Verified User
How the Bitter Losers of 2012 Rammed Through a Union-Destroying Bill in Michigan
December 12, 2012 |
The lightning-quick adoption of union-busting ‘right-to-work-for-less’ legislation in Michigan this week by an outgoing, lame-duck Legislature was a political coup led by vengeful Republicans as payback for their corporate patrons, including the billionaire oil baron Koch brothers and their front group, Americans for Prosperity [3].
There is no other way to interpret the events of the past few days other than to see it in the starkest of Hobbesian terms: while the state’s GOP still held legislative power, it enacted a bill to undermine the fundraising ability of organized labor—an obsession among right-wingers dating to the 1940s South, when states enacted similar laws to prevent organized labor from helping civil rights activists.
The package of three bills introduced late last week and quickly passed and signed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder makes it illegal for employers and unions to negotiate contracts that require non union-members to pay a fair share of the costs of the union's representation. About 17 percent of Michigan’s workforce is affiliated [4] with a union.
Fast-forward to 2012 and the apparently stalled fiscal-cliff talks in Washington—where GOP House Speaker John Boehner cannot satisfy the Right in another lame duck body—and what emerges is a political landscape as bitter as the worst moments of the 2012 campaign.
Indeed, the outcome of the 2012 elections—nationally and in Michigan, where the GOP resoundingly lost—was irrelevant to those still in power in Michigan. That is why the ram-rodding of the union-busting legislation is a political coup, achieving by fiat what could not pass muster at the voting booth.
Let’s go through these points in more detail to better understand what’s happened.
1. A Bitter Swipe By 2012’s Losers
Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney in Michigan by about 10 percent of the vote—almost a half-million voters—despite millions spent by the Koch Brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity and other pro-corporate political front groups. Republicans also lost seats in their Legislature, which will take affect in January when new lawmakers are sworn in.
The Democratic gains in large measure depended on the get-out-the-vote efforts by the state’s labor unions, which, as was the case in other Midwestern states, were less visible than the GOP’s front groups that mostly spent millions on TV advertising. The unions' role in the ground game—identifying and registering voters, knocking on doors and making phone calls, and finally getting people to the polls on November 6—was a striking reminder that organizer labor remained a potent grassroots political force.
Thus, Gov. Snyder’s surprise announcement last week that he was reversing [5] his former position that he would not pursue ‘right-to-work’ legislation was a political declaration of war against opponents who had beaten the GOP fair and square on the electoral field.
2. Right To Work’s Southern Segregationist Roots.
As PRWatch’s Lisa Graves points out in this analysis [6], the Orwellian-named right-to-work (RTW) laws first emerged in the post-World War II years in southern states that wanted to thwart the civil rights gains made by returning African-American soldiers and labor unions during the war. Twenty states passed RTW laws in the following decades, including many that saw the laws as a tactic to stop unions from helping civil rights organizers.
In the past 25 years before Michigan's coup, only three states have adopted RTW laws: Idaho in 1995; Oklahoma in 2001; and Indiana in 2012. Indeed, as PRWatch points out, the “2012 presidential election map of ‘red’ states looks strikingly close to the RTW map. But the vast majority of ‘blue’ states, like Michigan, have not embraced” the union-busting reform.
3. Championed by 21st Century Corporatists
It’s no mystery where Michigan’s RTW legislation came from. The aggressively pro-corporate American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC, is a policy clearinghouse that recruits newly elected state legislators and meets with them (and long-standing members) and corporate sponsors in private to draft ‘model’ legislation that can be introduced [6] at a moment’s notice in state legislative chambers.
The Center for Media and Democracy has reported that “key provisions of the Michigan RTW bills (for instance, HB 4054) are taken almost verbatim from the ALEC template,” reported its December 11 analysis [6]. “That agenda is part of a corporate wish list of Charles and David Koch, the oil billionaires who have spent millions trying to popularize extremist ideas and move them from the fringes into binding law.”
The Koch Brothers have been pushing anti-union legislation for decades—ever since the passel of mostly southern states stopped passing RTW legislation in the 1980s. One of their former groups, Citizens For A Sound Economy, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, pushed for international trade agreements in the 1980s that forced American labor unions to lower their standards to meet those of overseas trading partners.
Their 21st century front group, Americans for Prosperity, played a leading role in the Wisconsin battles in 2011 and 2012 to strip public employees of collective bargaining rights (with the notable exception of police and firefighters—as their unions tend to support GOP candidates). Those battles led to the unsuccessful campaign to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and other top GOP lawmakers. Tellingly, Michigan’s package of RTW legislation also exempts pro-GOP police and firefighter unions.
4. A Political Coup In Plain Daylight
Perhaps the most important point about what just happened in Michigan is that is an authoritarian power grab by partisans who are completely dismissive of the electorate—as expressed in the Democratic electoral victories one month ago—and are willing to wield power in a take-no-prisoners fashion akin to recent Third World coups.
The power dynamic that just unfolded resembles the arrest and dismissal of Mali’s prime minister by a military junta—which also happened this week—or the recent presidential decrees in Egypt that placed that county’s new president above the rule of law. These power grabs happened because those enacting them could get away with it—at least temporarily.
It’s very telling that such political abuses of power come before newly elected legislators are poised to take office—in what’s known as ‘lame-duck’ legislative sessions. Perhaps the thinking of these outgoing legislators is that they have nothing to lose by striking at foes in a manner that they could not achieve at the ballot box.
That viewpoint also seems to be very much at play in Congress right now, as well, where right-wingers are ignoring the results of the 2012 presidential election and pushing for another long-held corporatist agenda item: dismantling safety net retirement programs.
By Steven Rosenfeld
December 12, 2012 |
The lightning-quick adoption of union-busting ‘right-to-work-for-less’ legislation in Michigan this week by an outgoing, lame-duck Legislature was a political coup led by vengeful Republicans as payback for their corporate patrons, including the billionaire oil baron Koch brothers and their front group, Americans for Prosperity [3].
There is no other way to interpret the events of the past few days other than to see it in the starkest of Hobbesian terms: while the state’s GOP still held legislative power, it enacted a bill to undermine the fundraising ability of organized labor—an obsession among right-wingers dating to the 1940s South, when states enacted similar laws to prevent organized labor from helping civil rights activists.
The package of three bills introduced late last week and quickly passed and signed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder makes it illegal for employers and unions to negotiate contracts that require non union-members to pay a fair share of the costs of the union's representation. About 17 percent of Michigan’s workforce is affiliated [4] with a union.
Fast-forward to 2012 and the apparently stalled fiscal-cliff talks in Washington—where GOP House Speaker John Boehner cannot satisfy the Right in another lame duck body—and what emerges is a political landscape as bitter as the worst moments of the 2012 campaign.
Indeed, the outcome of the 2012 elections—nationally and in Michigan, where the GOP resoundingly lost—was irrelevant to those still in power in Michigan. That is why the ram-rodding of the union-busting legislation is a political coup, achieving by fiat what could not pass muster at the voting booth.
Let’s go through these points in more detail to better understand what’s happened.
1. A Bitter Swipe By 2012’s Losers
Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney in Michigan by about 10 percent of the vote—almost a half-million voters—despite millions spent by the Koch Brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity and other pro-corporate political front groups. Republicans also lost seats in their Legislature, which will take affect in January when new lawmakers are sworn in.
The Democratic gains in large measure depended on the get-out-the-vote efforts by the state’s labor unions, which, as was the case in other Midwestern states, were less visible than the GOP’s front groups that mostly spent millions on TV advertising. The unions' role in the ground game—identifying and registering voters, knocking on doors and making phone calls, and finally getting people to the polls on November 6—was a striking reminder that organizer labor remained a potent grassroots political force.
Thus, Gov. Snyder’s surprise announcement last week that he was reversing [5] his former position that he would not pursue ‘right-to-work’ legislation was a political declaration of war against opponents who had beaten the GOP fair and square on the electoral field.
2. Right To Work’s Southern Segregationist Roots.
As PRWatch’s Lisa Graves points out in this analysis [6], the Orwellian-named right-to-work (RTW) laws first emerged in the post-World War II years in southern states that wanted to thwart the civil rights gains made by returning African-American soldiers and labor unions during the war. Twenty states passed RTW laws in the following decades, including many that saw the laws as a tactic to stop unions from helping civil rights organizers.
In the past 25 years before Michigan's coup, only three states have adopted RTW laws: Idaho in 1995; Oklahoma in 2001; and Indiana in 2012. Indeed, as PRWatch points out, the “2012 presidential election map of ‘red’ states looks strikingly close to the RTW map. But the vast majority of ‘blue’ states, like Michigan, have not embraced” the union-busting reform.
3. Championed by 21st Century Corporatists
It’s no mystery where Michigan’s RTW legislation came from. The aggressively pro-corporate American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC, is a policy clearinghouse that recruits newly elected state legislators and meets with them (and long-standing members) and corporate sponsors in private to draft ‘model’ legislation that can be introduced [6] at a moment’s notice in state legislative chambers.
The Center for Media and Democracy has reported that “key provisions of the Michigan RTW bills (for instance, HB 4054) are taken almost verbatim from the ALEC template,” reported its December 11 analysis [6]. “That agenda is part of a corporate wish list of Charles and David Koch, the oil billionaires who have spent millions trying to popularize extremist ideas and move them from the fringes into binding law.”
The Koch Brothers have been pushing anti-union legislation for decades—ever since the passel of mostly southern states stopped passing RTW legislation in the 1980s. One of their former groups, Citizens For A Sound Economy, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, pushed for international trade agreements in the 1980s that forced American labor unions to lower their standards to meet those of overseas trading partners.
Their 21st century front group, Americans for Prosperity, played a leading role in the Wisconsin battles in 2011 and 2012 to strip public employees of collective bargaining rights (with the notable exception of police and firefighters—as their unions tend to support GOP candidates). Those battles led to the unsuccessful campaign to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and other top GOP lawmakers. Tellingly, Michigan’s package of RTW legislation also exempts pro-GOP police and firefighter unions.
4. A Political Coup In Plain Daylight
Perhaps the most important point about what just happened in Michigan is that is an authoritarian power grab by partisans who are completely dismissive of the electorate—as expressed in the Democratic electoral victories one month ago—and are willing to wield power in a take-no-prisoners fashion akin to recent Third World coups.
The power dynamic that just unfolded resembles the arrest and dismissal of Mali’s prime minister by a military junta—which also happened this week—or the recent presidential decrees in Egypt that placed that county’s new president above the rule of law. These power grabs happened because those enacting them could get away with it—at least temporarily.
It’s very telling that such political abuses of power come before newly elected legislators are poised to take office—in what’s known as ‘lame-duck’ legislative sessions. Perhaps the thinking of these outgoing legislators is that they have nothing to lose by striking at foes in a manner that they could not achieve at the ballot box.
That viewpoint also seems to be very much at play in Congress right now, as well, where right-wingers are ignoring the results of the 2012 presidential election and pushing for another long-held corporatist agenda item: dismantling safety net retirement programs.
By Steven Rosenfeld
Cancel 2016.11
Darla
I can't wait to read it! I bet that's some interview!
Disillusioned
New member
I love the phrase "rammed through" a bill, it's not as though if you shout loudly enough your minority becomes a majority. When the majority passes a bill, it is passed. That's kind of what "taking a vote" means.
Now on to the topic of the unions. When I am divorced from my money I would like to know where it is going, when the government takes it's slice, I see streets, laws, police, fire fighters, you know things that prevent me from living in a cave. Now I am not a union member but may end up being one one day, and then I would like to see where my money goes, it's interesting to think that because I would like to work somewhere I have to pay money to an organization of other people who work there so that they, after handing me the jobs they don't want to do, can "improve my job". Now the wonderful question, is the amount of improvement they're going to do, worth the slice of cash they take?
Let's do a little math:
Say I get 5,000(125 an hour) a month, we'll use easy numbers because I know math is confusing.
The union wants, call it 200 of that each month. Say one year they go on strike, I have to go too, because I'm stuck with the union and they get to obligate me to strike with them. I lose maybe 500 while I'm not working, and eventually they get my salary up to 3 dollars more.
Now boys and girls, lets do the math.
5000 this month, + 120 that I get for the new raise, then I'm out 500 for the time I wasn't working, and out another 200 for the union dues. I lost more money fighting for that raise than I got from the raise itself. And, if you did the math, I'm still going to lose more money in union dues than I got for the raise.
How is this helping me?
Now on to the topic of the unions. When I am divorced from my money I would like to know where it is going, when the government takes it's slice, I see streets, laws, police, fire fighters, you know things that prevent me from living in a cave. Now I am not a union member but may end up being one one day, and then I would like to see where my money goes, it's interesting to think that because I would like to work somewhere I have to pay money to an organization of other people who work there so that they, after handing me the jobs they don't want to do, can "improve my job". Now the wonderful question, is the amount of improvement they're going to do, worth the slice of cash they take?
Let's do a little math:
Say I get 5,000(125 an hour) a month, we'll use easy numbers because I know math is confusing.
The union wants, call it 200 of that each month. Say one year they go on strike, I have to go too, because I'm stuck with the union and they get to obligate me to strike with them. I lose maybe 500 while I'm not working, and eventually they get my salary up to 3 dollars more.
Now boys and girls, lets do the math.
5000 this month, + 120 that I get for the new raise, then I'm out 500 for the time I wasn't working, and out another 200 for the union dues. I lost more money fighting for that raise than I got from the raise itself. And, if you did the math, I'm still going to lose more money in union dues than I got for the raise.
How is this helping me?
Dixie - In Memoriam
New member
Where in that statement does he state that he seeks to dismantle unions?
Dixie - In Memoriam
New member
Here's an interesting FACT:
You can NOT outlaw unions under the 1st Amendment of the Constitution freedom of association.
It's not possible without repealing the 1st Amendment.
Read that fact again, pinheads... What you are claiming is IMPOSSIBLE!
You can NOT outlaw unions under the 1st Amendment of the Constitution freedom of association.
It's not possible without repealing the 1st Amendment.
Read that fact again, pinheads... What you are claiming is IMPOSSIBLE!
PostmodernProphet
fully immersed in faith..
oddly, you think that's a bad thing....
Paul Siraisi
Verified User
Unions are necessary in the face of corporate power. But unions are a more dangerous thing than corporate power, and need to be strictly regulated.
USFREEDOM911
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN
Bfgrn
New member
Grease and friends
Q: What is conservatism?
A: Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy.
When you understand this and view their words, ask the question; will this lead to some form of an aristocracy?
The answer is always YES...
Liberalism is trust of the people, tempered by prudence; conservatism, distrust of people, tempered by fear.
William E. Gladstone
Bfgrn
New member
Ask an adult to explain the connection Dixie Lou.
Bfgrn
New member
Yea, those unions are dangerous things. Imagine working people organizing. And they have demands that are dangerous to our nation! Decent wages, a safe work environment, no outsourcing of jobs...
We need to step on this kind of UN-Americanism!!!
"Labor is the United States. The men and women, who with their minds, their hearts and hands, create the wealth that is shared in this country—they are America."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dixie - In Memoriam
New member
Yeah, because asking YOU certainly wasn't any help, was it?
The man simply did not say what you tried to claim he said. PWNED!
Dixie - In Memoriam
New member
Bfgrn
New member
Only a MORON would not understand what Norquist was referring to. But that is the typical right wing denial mechanism. He didn't say "We're going to crush unions"
He said: "We're going to crush labor as a political entity" and ultimately “break unions,”
Worse Than Union Busting
Mary Beth Maxwell
October 25, 2006
Mary Beth Maxwell is executive director of American Rights at Work, a national labor policy organization in Washington, D.C. The organization recently launched a website: antiunionnetwork.org.
A television ad playing in Michigan this September seemed innocent enough: an adorable little girl in braids, a schoolroom filled to the brim with the latest, colorful learning aids and enthusiastic students eager to learn. But wait; the pigtailed girl is giving a report on union malfeasance. The teacher appears shocked to hear that her union dues support worker-friendly political candidates. Seriously?
The nationwide arrival of commercials like this one—often accompanied by full-page newspaper and radio ads—should raise eyebrows. This isn’t a promo for a new parody on the next installment of "Saturday Night Live" or "The Daily Show." The TV spots are the handiwork of a powerful, well-financed web of extremist, conservative organizations and well-paid spin doctors on a mission to dismantle labor unions.
The ads beg the question: Who’s willing to invest millions to undermine the right of teachers, nurses and other workers in America to earn a decent living and protect their interests in the workplace? The answer is far less innocent than ponytails and reads like a page torn out of Christopher Buckley’s bestseller, Thank You for Smoking .
The over-the-top mudslinging by the Center for Union Facts, the National Right to Work Committee and other anti-union groups is nothing more than an attempt to pull the wool over our eyes, hiding the real crisis in the American workplace. Too many workers in the U.S. still can’t adequately provide basic necessities for their families, protect themselves from workplace hazards or take care of themselves when they get old or sick. The firings, intimidation and harassment that often befall workers attempting to exercise freedoms of speech and association by forming unions are threats to our democracy. When faced with union organizing drives, 30 percent of employers terminate pro-union workers, 40 percent threaten to close a worksite if a union prevails and 51 percent coerce workers into opposing unions with bribery and favoritism.
The motives behind assailing organized workers are both financial and ideological. Union-busting is big business. Just ask Center for Union Facts founder and D.C. mercenary lobbyist Rick Berman. He’s the mastermind behind the ads and has earned a living attacking other public interest groups—like Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Centers for Disease Control—for clients including the alcohol and fast food industries. Although he won’t reveal who is bankrolling CUF, attacking unions seems to be the source of his latest windfall.
And Berman isn’t the only one profiting from conspiring to bring about the demise of worker-built organizations. Search for “union buster” on Google and peruse over 3 million hits. The proliferation of “union avoidance” consulting has resulted in 82 percent of employers hiring help to fight worker organizing drives.
But the assault on unions goes deeper than the dollar. It is bolstered by a long-standing conservative political objective to eradicate unions. Right-wingers know something the rest of us seem to have forgotten: Workers still want unions because they are a powerful deterrent to poverty and unfettered corporate greed. When conservative political strategist Grover Norquist says, “We’re going to crush labor as a political entity” and ultimately “break unions,” it isn’t because unions aren’t relevant anymore. The right knows that unions act as the nation’s conscience by advancing civil rights, environmental protections and other causes of equality, justice and fair play far beyond the workplace.
If worker-built organizations weren’t powerful, the right wouldn’t invest so much time and money to dismantle them. And Berman’s supporters would be less concerned with obscuring their support from public view.
So the next time you come across a slick television, radio or newspaper ad pedaling anti-union propaganda, ask yourself who benefits when workers are prevented from joining together to represent themselves. Question what’s at stake when democratic rights are limited in the workplace.
The anti-union network’s vision for the workplace is out of sync with what we value in America.
Dixie - In Memoriam
New member
I still don't see where he says we're going to "dismantle unions" and you can repeat the same shit over and over again, he still did not say what you claimed. Sorry, it's just fucking not there. He said "crush labor as a political entity" and I agree with him on that, the unions should be crushed as political entities, the same as PACs and corporations. Still, the point is made, it is against the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution to "dismantle unions" because we have the right of association. You've simply NOT supported your statement.
Bfgrn
New member
What part of "break unions" don't you understand Dixie Lou? Now you have moved the goalposts because Norquist didn't say "dismantle unions"
Not only are you a pin head, you are a dishonest piece of shit.
Isn't it ironic, when liberals and Democrats propose legislation, it gives people new rights or increases rights they had previously gained. When conservatives and Republicans propose legislation, it takes away people rights or restricts rights they fought for generations to gain.
Conservatism has become a cancer on our society and our people. It is more dangerous than any terrorist organization, because terrorists are honest in stating their hate for America. You right wing scum spit in the face of our ancestors, men and women who fought for labor rights. Some of them even lost their life in that cause.
"Labor is the United States. The men and women, who with their minds, their hearts and hands, create the wealth that is shared in this country—they are America."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Jarhead6012
Verified User
Leftist pea brain propaganda from a leftist pea brain.
Bfgrn
New member
I provided well researched, footnoted and well documented facts. You provided an emote. Your jar has one pea...LOL
zappasguitar
Well-known member
Or you could have joined Socrtease and voted for the LIBERTARIAN candidate and proved to everyone that your words aren't just more empty rhetoric.
Nope...all you proved is you TALK a good game, but when it came time to back up all that blustery talk with some actual action, you folded faster than a cheap lawn chair.