Posts Tagged ‘unions’

But But I thought the Koch’s were evil?

Posted: March 31, 2011 by datechguy in economy, opinion/news
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In the Wisconsin battle the Koch Brothers have been portrayed as evil incarnate, liberals are ready to try to go after him financially but the Unions who actually work for him, suddenly say, not so fast:

A number of organizations are advocating a boycott of the products that come from companies owned by the Koch family. This is problematic for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it could potentially hurt the wrong people.

The Koch brothers own Georgia Pacific. It is an American consumer goods company that makes everyday products like facial tissue, napkins, paper towels, paper cups and the like. Their plants are great examples of American advanced manufacturing. Incidentally,

GP makes most of its products here in America. The company’s workforce is highly unionized. In fact, 80 percent of its mills are under contract with one or more labor union. It is not inaccurate to say that these are among the best-paid manufacturing jobs in America.

This presents a dilemma and a paradox. While the Koch brothers are credited with advocating an agenda and groups that are clearly hostile to labor and labor’s agenda, the brothers’ company in practice and in general has positive and productive collective bargaining relationships with its unions.

While some companies are running from investment in American jobs, The Koch brothers’ Georgia Pacific just reached agreements with its primary union in the paper industry to invest more than a half a billion dollars in capital to essentially create two state-of-the-art machines that conserve fiber and energy at two separate union mills.

But….but they’re evil! They want to break unions, they are greedy corporate guys who like conservatives, this can’t be true, this can’t be true, la la la la I don’t hear you.

Expect the left to ignore this plea to protect actual good paying American jobs. This isn’t about jobs, it’s about political power and left long ago stopped caring about the actual jobs of actual union members.

This is why Wisconsin is going to hurt democrats

Posted: March 16, 2011 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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Because when people have a secret ballot they vote against this:

Leftist thugs harassed and then superglued the doors of a popular Wisconsin grocer after it was discovered that individuals at the store had donated to Scott Walker’s campaign last year.

and this

Police are increasing patrols near the Brookfield home of a state tea party leader who has pushed for greater health and pension concessions from public employees after he received a veiled death threat over the weekend.

Wisconsin Tea Party Patriots State Coordinator Michael Hintze told police when he answered a call on his cell phone about 2:30 p.m. Saturday, a male voice “asked if he was wearing a bullet-proof vest” and then hung up.

And of course those who were chanting about democracy has a rather distorted view of it when practiced by their opponents:

Protestors both for and against the recall showed up. Even though they initially kept their distance, Holperin supporters engulfed the recall effort, and that’s when the situation turned tense.

“They circled around us, and they’re bullying us. They have a loud horn and they’re trying to intimidate people that would like to come and sign the petition,” said Kim Simac, recall leader, “I do think that this is an intimidation ploy.”

Simac says protestors even got involved with their petitions.

“We had a lady come up and write profanity and rip some of them right on our table…. so I guess that’s what democracy looks like to them.”

And it looks like the officers have taken a “liberal” view of serve and protect:

The policemen who were there, and who were standing in close proximity to these events as they unfolded, did nothing to assist those collecting the petitions as they were being destroyed, despite such an action being a Felony under Wisconsin law. Police also did nothing to clear the walk way for citizens that wanted to sign the petitions. Recall Committee members received many phone calls the following day from Merill area citizens who stated that they showed up to sign the petition, but were too afraid to get out of their vehicles and approach the recall table.

Kim Simac, leader of the recall effort, who has also received numerous personal threats, has now declared that enough is enough. “Tomorrow we begin taking the necessary steps to put a stop to this kind of behavior.”

As much as the national media would like to ignore these things the people of Wisconsin are not going to forget them. Add to that the sheer nonsense of the class struggle business:

The protests have been on behalf of well-paid people with excellent jobs — better jobs than the average Wisconsinite’s. And the protesters got massive extra doses of freedom to express themselves in the state capitol for over a month, without any threats of violence or even arrest for the crimes they committed in full view of the police. I mean, I know they have their complaints, but they are not even the bottom sector of the Wisconsin economy. If there were to be a class struggle here, they would be taken aback to find themselves in the role they actually have in this economy: the oppressors!

The left is right, this is looking more and more like Egypt. They are playing the role of Mubarak’s thugs.

Update: It is apparently even worse.

Update 2: The underground conservative lays it down:

Sad to say, I agree. There will be an ugly incident with violence, either toward individuals or toward perhaps a business that doesn’t support Da Union. And it will happen sooner rather than later.

Many of these union goons are trying to provoke an incident. Getting in people’s faces, as Der Fuhrer has urged, literally — such as the goon who literally blew a whistle in the face of Meade from Althouse or the thugs who are trying to steal phone cameras from anyone trying to record protests — will eventually provoke a physical response from someone.

At that point, it’s on. Eventually our side will have to fight back against the type of physical intimidation and Gestapo tactics that are being used by the Left. We have a case of a Madison bank branch forced to close because union thugs threatened the safety of the bank’s customers and employees.

And I seriously doubt if law enforcement will do the job we trust it to do. Clearly the sympathies of most law enforcement officers are with their union brethren instead of the public.

This is the most dangerous party of all of this. If public confidence in those who are sworn to protect them disappears then what makes America different goes away. Public safety unions should think long and hard before continuing down this path.

A footnote on Wisconsin but an important one

Posted: March 13, 2011 by datechguy in opinion/news, the courts
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POWIP noticed something from Mickey Kaus that I didn’t:

It appears the Democrats had not accepted the concessions outlined by Walker in an email to some Dem senators (an email his office released). These were discussed below. They allowed collective bargaining over a broader range of issues, but kept the provision ending mandatory union dues checkoff, which is arguably the change unions fear the most. emphasis mine

Walker was accused over and over of trying to bust the union but was willing to compromise on collective bargaining but that’s not what the unions fear. What the unions fear the most are their members.

Why do you think they were so insistent on card check? Why do you think they were so interested in eliminating the secret ballot? It is all about the ability to intimidate. If union membership actually provided enough of a benefit to the majority of their members they would not worry about the state forcing dues collection. People would be anxious to join and willing to pay. The truth is for many union membership has become all about supporting the leadership that supports the democrats and gains the majority of the benefits therein. Johnny Friendly lives!

Their latest move is not all that impressive either.

There are many Kloppenburg signs at the march and, as I’ve noted before, although it’s supposed to be a nonpartisan election, some people try to make it very political. I’ve seen many people out at the protests stressing the need to make Kloppenburg a Supreme Court Justice so that she can vote against the GOP budget repair bill and do other things that will help the party that lost the elections last fall get something back in the judicial process.

As the left becomes more desperate expect to see more and more of this kind of thing.

Yes E.D. Kain Wisconsin is the Republican Waterloo…

Posted: March 11, 2011 by datechguy in opinion/news, politics
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…they are playing the role of Wellington.

Was it only 48 hours ago that liberals buoyed by polls and news reports were convinced that Scott Walker and the republicans were about to back down?

Now not even one day after they were proved spectacularly wrong the left has decided on a new meme to replace the old one that didn’t seem to work. Apparently now this vote is a case of political suicide for Republicans. E. D. Kain is convinced this will be their doom:

And now conservatives have chosen public-sector workers and teachers as their hill to die on. They have followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and elected Scott Walker, Rick Scott, and various other Tea Party candidates. Heavily funded by big campaign donors like the Koch brothers and other corporate interests, the Republican party has made a concerted effort across the country to take on unions, public pensions, and social services for the poor.

It is to laugh. Apparently E. D. hasn’t figured out that the “interest” that public unions fight against is…”the public” that is the taxpayer.

Richard Trukma is also playing the lemons into lemonade game as Jennifer Epstein reports:

While blasting Walker and Wisconsin’s Republican legislators for their “absolute corruption of democracy” in passing an anti-labor bill, the leader of the nation’s largest union group thanked the governor for getting activists fired up. “We probbably should have invited him here today to receive the Mobilizer of the Year Award,” Trumka said Thursday morning while speaking to the National Press Club in Washington D.C. “Wisconsin is the beginning — it’s pushing the start button” for pro-labor activism.

Right, he mobilized people so well that unions had to bus in supporters and were unable to match anything near tea party numbers in national rallies across the country.

Let’s cut to the chase here. The unions went all in here because they understand what is at stake, not bargaining, but the political clout that the union monies bring the leadership and the democrats who reward them with those monies. This is was what the unions were defending. That’s why they were willing to give up so much to avoid this vote.

Think about what it has cost the Democrats/unions:

1. War Chests: The three weeks of protesting had to have been a drain on both union and democratic funds. The monies they claim to have raised are not insignificant but they have not reported the expenses of their national campaigns. I would not be surprised if the funds raised are not sufficient to cover what they’ve already spent. In fact they will need the extra money to fight in all the other states that, seeing the union defeat in Wisconsin, will find themselves willing to take them on.

2. The schedule: Unfortunately for democrats this took place at the beginning of the term of Governor Walker. This means that this plan will have time to make the difference in the state economy meaning the voters will be able to see actual results by the time he is facing re-election. The unions are making a lot of fuss about recall efforts forgetting that recall efforts are also being placed against democratic lawmakers who actually fled the state as well. Those efforts will not reverse the bill nor did they manage to intimidate the lawmakers in question.

3. Voting with their dues: Even worse for the unions is the reality that the state is no longer obliged to collect union dues for them. The compulsion is gone. Legal Insurrection has it nailed:

The vote will be taken with the feet of tens of thousands of Wisconsin public employee union members, who will have the choice for the first time in memory of deciding whether to join the union and pay the union dues, which have been estimated in the $700-1000 per year range.

The public employees will have to make a choice, take a pay increase or pay the union.

I think we know how that vote will turn out, and whether the employees — once given a choice — will buy what the unions are selling.

I think the unions knew how this vote will come out too. That’s why they decided to die on this hill. They understand that where union membership is not compulsory it has dropped like a rock. They understand that this vote will be before any election and will signal nationwide how weak and narrow their actual support is within their own ranks.

4. Public Opinion: That’s the other card that the unions and the media tried to play. I’m going to make the wild assumption that the office holders of Wisconsin are no more brave that other office holders across the nation. If they actually believed that they were going to suffer the public harm that the unions and the media insist they are going to get, don’t you think that they would have backed down? I think they didn’t back down not because they were any more courageous than other polls, I think they knew how to count and saw the protests for what they were and acted accordingly. As I’ve said, if the unions were convinced it would have resulted in a huge turnaround (particularly in an election year with Obama on the top of the ticket) they would have acted differently.

5. The visuals: This is the big one. The visuals of this protest favored the tea parties and the governor from the start and continue to do so. People don’t like to see their capital occupied, or doors handcuffed shut or people threatened with death, or their legislators running away. There is supposedly a big protest with Michael Moore this weekend. Yup Michael Moore and Jessie Jackson are really going to be able to sell this nationally. As I said in my examiner piece yesterday:

There has been an awful lot of video shot of the Wisconsin protests, there has been even more taken of both tea party protests and tea party meetings. The question becomes: which set of images are more likely to elicit the support of the majority of the American Populace? We will find out in 2012.

The only thing the Wisconsin democratic protesters and the tea party protesters have in common is both will likely be prominently featured in GOP ads in 2012. I’m sure the death threats against the Wisconsin legislators and those against Scott Walker (some actually signed on twitter) are going to go over real well come election day.

6. Bigger Events: Even if the unions want to keep the pressure on unfortunately for them bigger events are overtaking them, the rising costs of Gas, the war in Libya, and the national budget battles are going to trump any attempt to keep the furor up in anyone except for the truest of true believers.

E.D. Kain is trying to pull the Albert Sidney Johnston who with insufficient military to stop a union advance, used propaganda to keep the enemy thinking he was stronger than he was.

My advice to the Republicans? It hasn’t changed: Ride right through them, they’re demoralized as hell!

Update: Yup that should have said Albert Sidney Johnston, thanks to Edward for the Catch.

Update 2: Unsurprisingly the NYT doesn’t get it but Obi Wan does.

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