Comments on: Siding With Big Business, Cheney Announces Bush Will Veto Workers’ Rights Bill

By: Best And Cheapest Auto Insurance Rates

Best And Cheapest Auto Insurance Rates — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:33:12 +0000

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By: Support The Employee Free Choice Act! - Page 5 - Truckingboards LTL Trucking Forums

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 12:02:05 +0000

[...] A good start BUT Cheney says Bush woll veto; see 2nd story below ——— Last ditch efforts by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in the final days before yesterday’s vote on the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800) failed to stop the U.S. House of Reps from passing the labor law reform legislation. Some 241 members, including 13 Republicans, supported the bill. "Hard-line business groups were tripping over each other and sparing no expense to bully lawmakers, misinform the public, and oppose free choice for workers," says American Rights at Work Executive Director Mary Beth Maxwell. In a relentless effort to defeat the bill, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce purchased radio ads in 51 districts to target lawmakers. In an article earlier this week about the expensive ad buy, Congress Daily quoted a U.S. Chamber spokesperson who said, "We’re making people feel pain." In the weeks preceding the House floor vote, a well-financed and coordinated message machine that included industry associations and right-wing think tanks flooded the public debate with misinformation about the bill’s provisions. Conservative pundit George Will was a late recruit to help obscure the existence of employer coercion during union organizing campaigns. "House members got a taste of the relentless attacks workers endure every day when they stand up for themselves and support unions," says Maxwell. "Can you imagine how a nurse with kids to feed feels when faced with this kind of intimidation? This is exactly why workers need the EFCA." American Rights at Work: Press Center ——- Siding With Big Business, Cheney Announces Bush Will Veto Workers’ Rights Bill Roll Call reports today, “Deep-pocketed corporate lobbying groups have joined together to defeat” the EFCA. Speaking before a business lobby group this morning, VP Cheney announced that Bush will veto the EFCA legislation. Think Progress » Siding With Big Business, Cheney Announces Bush Will Veto Workers’ Rights Bil… [...]

By: Eye on Williamson » Rep. Carter Calls Worker Legislation A Joke

Eye on Williamson » Rep. Carter Calls Worker Legislation A Joke — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:18:41 +0000

[...] little chance of becoming law. It will either be filibustered in the Senate or vetoed by President Cheney [...]

By: DesperatelyObvious.com - An Antiwar Blog » Blog Archive » Bush Vs. Workers

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 06:22:44 +0000

[...] has on wages, benefits, human rights, and other indicators. These observations have already been well documented [...]

By: U-Mail » Bush Will Veto Worker’s Rights Bill

U-Mail » Bush Will Veto Worker’s Rights Bill — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 17:53:35 +0000

[...] Think Progress for the story. Posted by <ADMINNICENAME> [...]

By: fiskhus jim

fiskhus jim — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 21:44:54 +0000

So Whaddya want?

Cheney is a criminal, his wife is a liar, and his daughter (no, not the gay one) lives by dint of nepotism and graft.

By: michael walsh

michael walsh — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 21:22:53 +0000

We stole this post, using it almost verbatim. Usually, we just provide links to matters of interest like this one, but most people don’t click the link and then miss the story, which we want to get out. Your were credited in a hat tip. Let us know if you want the post on our blog removed.

By: Merrilyn Romen » Blog Archive » Cheney Announces Bush Will Veto Workers’ Rights Bill

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 19:02:44 +0000

[...] the House Education and Labor Committee begins markup on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which has strong bipartisan backing in Congress. The EFCA would make it easier for workers to form [...]

By: Todd

Todd — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 13:39:01 +0000

Those who manage this system that always and everywhere puts the needs of business and private property ahead of the people, that always find money to fund wars that benefit the rich of this country rather than meeting peopleâ€™s needs should be held responsible and accountable. The real problem however, is not with the managers of the system, but with the system itself. They call it the “free market”. It is the economic and social system of plutocracy, the system of deregulated modern capitalism, of, by, and for the rich that in words declares itself to be of, by and for the people.

By: Art

Art — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:41:38 +0000

bush, bush, bush,,,,big deal. As someone above mentioned, Reagan kicked off open and state supported class war in America when, in 1981, he summarily fired more than 11,000 striking air traffic controllers.
Govt. response to that PATCO strike – – certainly helped (further) embolden employers, the same group being simultaneously subsidized via provisions of the 1981 Tax Act which, for a period of years, provided some of this nation’s largest firms with negative effective tax rates.

NPR reported last year that: “Prior to PATCO, it was not acceptable for employers to replace workers on strike, even though the law gave employers the right to do so…
The PATCO strike eased those inhibitions. Major strikes plummeted from an average of 300 each year in the decades before to fewer than 30 today.”

There can be no surprise that inflation adjusted median hourly wages have – other than a short period in later 1990s – stagnated and been pressured down, with dependence on multiple jobs, multiple wage earners, credit, seeing upwards pressures.

Actual International Working Class Solidarity is more required than ever before.

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 04:22:44 +0000

When I was in college I worked summers in a union shop at a foundry. At the time, being stupid and young, I was upset that I had dues taken out of my paycheck. Now looking back at what I was making at the foundry compared to what I made working at McDonald’s on weekends, I appreciate what the union did for me. I could have been making minimum wage at both places, but, thanks to the union, I made over twice minimum there, but only the minimum at McDonald’s. Since I worked the graveyard shift, we made up for our miserable pay by making enough extra leftover burgers and shakes so that we each went home at midnight with a big bag of food. Those people who are complaining about how unions are a ripoff and that we should entrust our well-being to the tender mercies of the CEO and his henchmen would never pass a urinalysis or else are CEO’s and henchmen.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 04:08:55 +0000

Funny thing about the”Bush NLRB”…I worked in the building that office is in and came out one day to find many of the staffers picketing about their working conditions!
Not funny, really. There are all manner of very serious and wide spread problems with working in this country that go way back. Unions helped a lot for a long time but they reached a point where it became more important to the top leaders to be a part of the “powers that be” than to continue to do things that made working in America better. In my memory, that point was reached in negotiations between the UAW and the automakers (late 70’s?) when the leaders “bought” the corporate plea that they were in such bad straits (”foreign” “competition”) they simply couldn’t afford much of a wage increase but they could offer health insurance instead. That started a series of concessions and bumped up benefits in lieu of cash across all unions leading to an “entrepeunural” rush to the gold mine of selling benefits.
Unions, if health insurance were that important to them, could have set that up themselves with the dues instead of spending it on luxuries. That would have been a real advance for the whole country.
But they didn’t.
Since then, they’ve been losing members, money and prestige. At the same time, our economy has changed from heavily manufacturing to heavily “white” collar, “professional”, college education needed on the one hand with, on the other, so-called menial labor, seasonal and otherwise which it is said, Americans aren’t willing to do anymore so we have to have immigrants instead! Even the term “worker” is disappearing or morphing. And a lot of the good things unions did in influencing pro-worker legislation have been severely restricted in practice without people really noticing. All the while, corporations figuring out one way or another to relieve themselves of America’s laws, such as they are, and going to where “labor” is cheapest, etc., etc.
It’s a good thing Congress has decided to give the matter of unionizing some attention but what they’ve done is just a drop in the bucket compared to the size of the problem. And there is a lot of “I Want to be President” politicking going on behind it.
As for Bush vetoing it–that’s just politicking too!

By: Steve Jarvis

Steve Jarvis — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 01:14:23 +0000

I only hope people can do something about these fascists before they steel the rest from us. I can see very easily, as I hope many can, that these guys and our lobby representatives are not for us. I would hate to see as I did in Argentina military on every street corner and people disappearing. With the laws they have changed and the lack of a TRUE response to the last election? And thier plans to use all volunteer enlistments hear at home, as with so many other changing govermant actions, it gives me great pause. If they are not working for us than who are they representing. Iran may help us find this out. Yes, money trumps lives, oil trumps countries and foriegn lives. Maybe the largest genoc… in history. Paid and worked for by the people, so they can continue to work for the companies that needed it so. Until then- more tax breaks! Unions have not been to innocent, some reinvention is needed. Workers paying the union to rep for the Co. ? The list goes on and on. The people pay every time. Until history repeats itself and the gap becomes to great.

By: tom baker

tom baker — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:52:14 +0000

#65 – Please name a union leader that gets paid 400 times more than the workers he/she represents.

By: Yesca_Again

Yesca_Again — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:10:04 +0000

So there is no question about expertise on this, I worked as a paid Union Representative for 25 years. Been through social & economic changes for decades. And, have heard this bull about we do not need Unions, from those who have not had to struggle for a decent remuneration for their life’s energy, because the Union had held the line. Making the non-union companies pay comparable wages.
Personally, I had to refinance my home four times to be able to afford to stay in the fight. Only got a 5% increase over 6 years. Those I represented made 2 to 10 times what I did/do. Nevertheless, someone had to make it work; nothing men do ever is perfect & always needs fixing. We have become a nation of self-interest & greed, even when it destroys ourselves.
My niece & her husband argued it was not fair that fair they paid $600 a month for minimal Health Insurance, while their friends paid $100 in a unionized job. They feel that everyone should be paying $400+. If they live in poverty then everyone else should too.
WOW, they didn’t see that the problem isn’t their friends, but that they & their non unionized peers haven’t forced their employer to pick up a fair share, from the very “growing’ profits they were earning for the Boss, by the expenditure of their life energy.
Profits are growing from the blood & sweat of the workers, yet Employers are making larger profits every year, eliminating retirement plans or eliminating them.
Paris Hilton is a role model for our daughters?
As for the evil autoworkers, they never were the ones to decide what models were produced or sold for or dropped, the quality of the cars they made, or what technologies were held back, what & how mileage was set, etc. No! The Bosses do that. Oh yeah, the shareholders & investment community always demanded higher profits, but who owns the majority of stock? If you look it up, it is a very small number of the population, like 5 – 10%, who holds controlling interest in Health Care Corps, that set the $$$ for services, or the Insurance Companies, who set coverage & premiums, the same 5-10%. Who really owns the energy Companies, the Investment Firms, that are moving American jobs off shore, etc., same guys. Who is the real major contributor to Republican Party, Democratic Party & Presidential Campaigns, lobbyists, and support for the war on terror?
Unions are the only real form of Democracy left, with the ‘dues’ comes the franchise, but seems everyone’s to busy to get involved, but can complain when the boat rocks. Just like America is doing now about Iraq, Global Warming, etc.
As for the laws, well, the Congress & Presidency has since Regan, allowed the Labor Dept to shrink not only in budget, but in staff, allowed the appointment of Corporate puppets, & judges, bought & paid for by, oops, here they are again, those 5-10%.
If American produced goods & services, cost more then raise wages & the standard of living, if foreign produced goods are cheaper, why? Guess you want to work for a $1.00 a day, 7 days a week, and if you get hurt on the job, burned alive or blown up, because the boss did not want to fix the safety problem, ala BP Texas, so we can compete in the global economy. Wake up this is all a sham that 5-10% feeds America. Moreover, America has been gobbling it up.
We are a great nation that can have our cake & eat it too, everyone can share in the prosperity, in freedom, in democracy but we all need to do it together, with an internalized sense of community & the sweat and creativity we have shown in the past.
By the way, universal free Public education up to & including Universities, social security, OSHA, etc. were Union dreams & were fought for in actual blood & lives lost. Laws were violated, protests were bloody, people starved, but you knew that, huh.
This particular Act that our VP has condemned is only to allow card signing by a majority of the workers in a place, whether a Union remains is still the real decision of the workers, not the Union or the employer. The disadvantaged now are the American workers, not the advantaged Employers, who are you guessed it that 5-10%, hum?
“We the people in order to form a more perfect Union….”
Are we any less now, yes, we can be more!

By: big papa

big papa — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:07:29 +0000

Comment by Disinterested Person #75

Disingenuous Pest,

…yet sh*t-fer-brains inbred idiots like yourself…

…see nothing at all wrong with one person earning $400 million a year…

…go lie down…

…and let something grow over your dumb a*s…

…and for your edification…

…insurance costs (imposed by the rogue middle men)…

…are a major factor in why businesses are going out of the country and renegging on pensions and such…

…get rid of the insurance robber barons (for starters), and you’ll solve a lot of the problems between business and labor…

By: Disinterested Person

Disinterested Person — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:00:46 +0000

Somehow I think a lot of the people here want Union representation for things that aren’t quite in the spirit of free enterprise. Kinda like $20/hr auto workers who are now out of work because the drove the companies out of business demanding more and more.

Maybe you should read the bill first and see what it really contains…

By: www.buzzflash.net

www.buzzflash.net — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 19:54:36 +0000

Cheney Says Bush Will Veto Workersâ€™ Rights Bill…

It’s simple: if a majority of workers want a union, they should have one. Right now, the law is sketchy. BushCheney don’t want this law, workers do….

By: Disgusted American

Disgusted American — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 19:04:57 +0000

The Bush/Cheney need to get thrown out of office before they totally ruin our whole Country. They fired so many State Supreme Court Judges who were doing their job and put in their cronies, what is America coming to with those outlaws in office. Lets get them out of the White House for good.

By: Margo

Margo — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:55:44 +0000

Cheney & Co are a bunch of black-hearted greedy bastages that would like nothing less than to see American’s treated as slave labor to fulfill their wildest wallstreet wet dreams!