The House Republicans are upset with the National Labor Relations Board is enforcing the law so the House will have a vote this week on restricting its abilities to close plants, even if those plants were open in states to retaliate against workers. Of course Boeing moving to South Carolina is the proximate reason for this, but anything that helps their corporate masters, the Republicans support.
Still, as long as there are right to work* states and states that respect people’s rights to form a union, there are going to be problems. Companies are going to use the threat, and the fact, of moving to right to work states to extract concessions. So it seems the best solution would be to stop states from becoming so called right to work states. Make sure that there are strong, federal, protections for unions.
* And by the way, is there a bigger misnomer than “right to work”? It sounds like the state guarantees you a job no matter what. “The factory closed? Well that’s too bad, but we’ll put you to work until you get back on your feet.” That would be awesome. Right to scab is a better description.
Republicans want to go farther than that; they want to abolish the NLRB (and EPA).
“Right to work” is an example of a very common conservative tactic of naming something the opposite of what it is, so that people will support it. “Patriot Act” comes to mind, too. What’s patriotic about shredding the Bill of Rights?
Having been in SC I think it’s kind of strange the same IAM who wants all 787 work in WA State and at the same time trying to put 1000 people out of work, has been in SC trying to organize and unionize the potential 1000 workers in North Charleston.
BTW isn’t this the same NLRB who recently proposed shortening the time from 45-60 days to 10-21 days after the union gathers enough signatures for an organizing petition to call a formal vote by workers to form a union and have the election? What would happen to the administrative discussion period that always occurred between the workers and their employer over the issues with this new rush to vote? Seems another powerplay by Obummer’s sadministration!
Bottom line… killing 1000 jobs is A-OK! They would vote for Obummer anyway.
@3 Killing 1000 SC jobs creates 1000 WA jobs. Why do you hate Washington?
Bank of America Ordered to Pay Whistleblower $930K
“The U.S. Department of Labor said today that Bank of America (BAC) improperly fired an employee who had reported ‘pervasive wire, mail and bank fraud’ at the lender. The department ordered Bank of America to pay the whistleblower $930,000 in back wages, interest, damages and legal fees.
“‘The employee … revealed widespread and pervasive wire, mail and bank fraud involving Countrywide employees. The employee alleged that those who attempted to report fraud to Countrywide’s Employee Relations Department suffered persistent retaliation,’ the Department of Labor said ….”
http://blogs.barrons.com/stock.....OL_hpp_stw
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Republicans don’t think there should be a Department of Labor and would like to abolish it. Republicans hate OSHA. They think government “interference” with business is costing the U.S. jobs. (It appears to me that management interference with employees is costing jobs — RR) Republicans want to take away our right to sue crooks, jerks, and assholes no matter what they’ve done to us. When they say they want government to “get off the backs” of business, what they really mean is they want business to have a free hand to lie, cheat, and steal from the rest of us; and to abuse their employees, especially those who rat out lawbreakers in the executive suites. Who in their right mind would vote for Republicans?
Good points, Roger. The Republican party learns from Corporations though and sells a different product to the low information likely Republican voter. That keeps them distracted with side issues, and scare tactics (those other guys will take away your guns and make your daughters have sex). The Tea Party is the conglomerate organization sold as a grassroots movement specifically for the stupid who think the Republicans have their interests at heart.
@6 “and make your daughters have sex”
What’s wrong with that? Believe me, their daughters want to have sex! See, e.g., Bristol Palin, who has transformed unwed teen pregnancy into a lucrative cash cow. Not to mention the sheer pleasure she got from it!
I’ll tell you what really bothers Republicans. I can say this because, despite my notoriety as a Democratic party hack and liberal propagandist, I have Republican friends. In fact, lots of ’em. You know what bothers them?
In most cases, their kids repudiate their parents’ political beliefs, and vote Democrat. I know this because their kids come up to me and tell me, “Don’t worry, I’m not like my dad, I’m a Democrat.”
Show me a Republican and I’ll show you a parent and grandparent of a whole nest of young Democrats.
That’s why I still have hope for America.
I Bet This Guy Will Get Fired Dep’t
“Switzerland’s UBS [Bank] said on Thursday it had discovered unauthorized trading by a trader in its investment bank had caused a loss of some $2 billion.
“UBS AG announced … it is to axe 3,500 jobs to shave 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.3 billion) off annual costs ….”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44436166
Roger Rabbit Commentary: One jackass. Three thousand five hundred jobs go poof. This guy, all by himself, is a one-man recession.
How Bad Is The European Debt Problem?
Bad. Real bad. But not hopeless. Yet.
“Billionaire investor George Soros has warned Europe’s debt crisis risks triggering another Great Depression ….
“Soros … says policymakers must prepare for the possibility that Greece, Portugal and perhaps Ireland will have to default and leave the euro zone. ‘It appears the authorities have reached the end of the road with their policy of “kicking the can down the road”,’ he says. ‘Even if a catastrophe can be avoided, one thing is certain: the pressure to reduce deficits will push the euro zone into prolonged recession. …’
“A growing number of … economists, are convinced it is a matter of time before Greece … will have to default.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44528630
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Whatever you think of Soros’ politics, the guy has made billions by being right. The Economist, a conservative pro-business U.K-based news/opinion magazine, has been saying for over a year that a Greek default is inevitable. I scour the pro-business, very conservative, financial press every day and I’m seeing lots of commentary to the effect of “stay in cash” because the shit is gonna hit the fan. Now, Soros has come right out and said a Great Depression is gonna happen unless European political leaders do things they don’t want to do and so far have refused to do.
I’ll let you form your own judgment. What I can tell you is many economists and financial pundits are saying that if this goes down, it’ll be worse than 2008, because governments and central banks have few arrows left in their quivers. There’s not much the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, or anybody else can do except watch. The scared masses, who don’t crunch data on supercomputers, sense this and are piling into gold. I’m not a goldbug, but I’m still sitting on nearly all of the cash I raised earlier this year by selling some of my stocks. So far, August 10 has been the low point for most of the dozens of stocks I’m currently tracking, but if the European debt crisis turns into a Chernobyl-style financial meltdown, they’ll be giving away stocks — if that happens cash will be worth more than the key to Queen Guinevere’s chastity belt.
Which reminds me of an old joke I heard in college. King Arthur was marching off to war and entrusted his most prized possession — the key to Queen Guinevere’s chastity belt — to his most trusted knight, Sir Lancelot, who was staying behind because he had a bad flu. The king hadn’t made three kilometers down the road before Sir L. came tearing up on his charger crying, “Sire! Sire! You gave me the wrong key!”
A stray cat picked up in Manhattan and being held at an animal shelter has been identified from a microchip as the same cat that disappeared from a Colorado family’s home 5 years ago and 1,600 miles away.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/.....d_animals/
RR @ 8: I don’t know the facts about this guy who lost 2 billion USD in “unauthorized trading”. But I do know that lots of businesses, including stock firms and banks, set unrealistic goals for their employees, and establish rules designed to protect the executives when employees go outside the rules.
The rules, of course, make sense to protect the firm. But a lot of time it’s simply covering the executive’s rear-ends. They want their traders to take risk and skirt the rules – if things go well the executives benefit and nobody cares, but if the trades turn bad they simply blame it on a “rogue employee”.
You see this all the time in the retail industry. Local store managers don’t have the authority to change prices, have sales, select location, purchase product. The only control they have is over their own staffs. So when corporate insists on same-store-sales increasing 10% per year, and expenses to decrease by at least 5% per year, the only thing the manager can do is pass the buck on to the employees. Employees are ostensibly prohibited from working overtime, but the manager makes sure all employees know that they must all get the job done with fewer paid hours, and the most “inefficient” will be fired.
So employees come in early, skip breaks, work through lunch, and spend unpaid time after the store closes for staff meetings, closing out the till, re-stocking shelves, cleaning the store, etc. Employees will also be required to have split shifts – coming in for two hours a day during lunch hour, and then three hours a day between five and eight p.m.
In this way a worker earning $8.00 per hour for a 20-hour week (on paper) is actually working for $4.00 per hour for a 40-hour week. When someone ultimately complains to the state, the company claims that it is the employee who violated the policy, and the company is blameless. If that doesn’t work, they play the “rogue manager” card, laying the blame on him for not enforcing the “no overtime” policy. The executives, however, are bullet-proof.
And you get this from where Roger DOPEY Rabbit?
Yeah LauraMae, and it has to be all those science doubting, gun toting, southern NASCAR loving, pickup truck driving, black man hating, evangelical bible-thumping, uneducated, backwoods conglomerate organizing tea party types were the reason Obummer and DUMMOCRAPTS lost NY-9, right?
You crack me up eating up Roger DOPEY Rabbit’s rancid pellets.
T A S T Y ! ROTFLRHMBBAO!
@12 If you can’t figure it out, I can’t see how trying to explain it to you would do any good.
Definition of Right to Work:
Right-to-work laws are state laws that prohibit both the closed and union shop. A right to work law secures the right of employees to decide for themselves whether or not to join or financially support a union
Wow, that sounds so evil…..not.
Definition of F.U. Manchu:
An idiot who has his head so far up his ass he can see his small intestine.
Ekum would know all about asses….
any response to your M4M add on the Thwtanger yet?
Hey FU,
What are M4M and Thwtanger? Must be something you are very familiar with, my guess.
Definition of F.U. Manchu:
A man who has never had any form of sex with a woman
Definition of F.U. Manchu:
A man who is too cheap to buy his own goat
The Republican Party talks all the time about “creating jobs”, but the end result would suggest they must think the word actually means “profits”.
Republican politicians have never voted for a “job creation” program. They only vote for two things: (a) tax cuts for the wealthy which have little or no relationship to actual job creation in the U.S., and (b) tax cuts, deferrals, and corporate subsidies which steal jobs from one state and send it to another.
Not a single job gets created, despite their protestations otherwise. This is particularly galling to hear Republican Presidential candidates brag about job creation. Since they are opposed to infrastructure spending, the best they can do is shift jobs from one state to another like a shell game, with the workers getting less pay, benefits, and protection with each movement.
[i]3. Puddybud, traveling again visiting great American cities spews:
Having been in SC[/i]
I’ve been to South Carolina also back when I was in the Army. The thing that struck me was that few there ever hurried for anything.
These were not the kind of people I’d trust to build safe airplanes no matter what wage they worked for.
Seattle Times
The Port of Seattle short haul drivers’ median income in 2006 was $28,000 per year and they work 11 hours a day.
Such are the benefits of “Right to work.”
I’m all for tax breaks for the job creators.
Anybody know who they are?
Walmart has created lots of sub 20 hour per week jobs with pay so low they qualify for state assistance.
I wonder what percentage of the Walmart work force who had good, solid middle class jobs quit so they could work at Walmart for starvation wages?