Posted on 11/06/2008 11:43:52 AM PST by Fred
ATLANTA, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Home Depot Inc's (HD.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) top executive said on Thursday that the retailer opposes the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would let unions be certified once a majority of employees signed union authorization cards, rather than holding a vote.
"We feel very strongly that our associates ought to have the right to a secret ballot," Frank Blake, the retailer's chairman and chief executive, told Reuters after attending an event in Atlanta.
U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama, who won election to the nation's highest office on Tuesday, was an original co-sponsor of the bill. Corporate America is bracing for a bold offensive from organized labor, which strongly supported Democrat Obama, to push for passage of the legislation. [ID:nN05455538]
Unions say the Employee Free Choice Act would enhance workers' rights to organize, but companies complain it would take away employees' rights to cast a confidential vote on whether to unionize.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world's largest retailer, has also stated its opposition to the union bill.
Blake said he expects the president-elect to take steps to improve housing when he takes office. Results at Home Depot, the world's biggest home improvement retailer, have weakened as falling home building, the subprime mortgage crisis and a credit crunch have led homeowners to cut spending.
"The underpinning of this crisis starts with housing. I'm sure the administration will address that," Blake said.
Blake spoke to Reuters after attending a press conference at the metro Atlanta American Red Cross seeking to raise $3 million in the state of Georgia for the charity's Disaster Relief Fund. Home Depot has donated $250,000 to that fund-raising effort.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Just how does that “Card check” work anyway?...............
A little late to be bitching about the adjenda of the people you helped to elect!
Union thug knocks on your door during supper.
“Hey RB;
Nice lookin’ family you have here, hate to see anything happen to them while you’re at work. Wouldn’t you like to sign this Union card? Yeah, thanks, I thought you did, good choice.”
Do that to 50% of the workers and the Union is in.
Well, they ought to have a whole lot of influence since Joe Biden is always hanging out there.
Union thug knocks on your door during supper.
“Hey RB;
Nice lookin’ GUN you have there......see ya!..........
The employees would go UNION in a flash if they had the chance! HD has been and still is beating the employees down and down! Management does not care about them at all!
Less they can pay the better!
“Hey, RB - you can’t be with them ALL the time and still go to work. Meanwhile, us Goonion thugs are available for duty any time.”
And, they will be protected by the government in their thuggery.
And they tie them up at night to keep them from going to work anywhere else, don’t they?
You should have given Millions to 527’s BEFORE THE ELECTION.
My wife can shoot the eyelash off a gnat...............
When companies sign onto unions employing Barry’s ‘in your face’ forced votes we must begin to compile ACORN-type actions for union busting like boycotting the businesses.
HEHEHEHE! Thats a good one! HEHEHEHE!
me too
If this passes, what’s to stop the ‘rats from forcing down some “Free Voting Act” (or some crap like that) that could essentially do away with secret ballots in all elections?
HAHAHAHA! Another good one. HAHAHAHA!
As I expected,
the union apologist has no logical defense for his support of unions.
Currently, unionization votes are done in so-called "laboratory condition" secret ballot elections. Employees vote anonymously, so no one knows who supported or opposed unionization.
Card check means that there will be a public sign-up card that you put your name on if you want to unionize your workplace. So, until you sign your name, you're going to be pressured by the union, and large men with nicknames like "The Chin" and "Knuckles" until you "decide" to sign the card. Once a certain number of workers sign the card, the workplace becomes unionized.
Card-check is a wet-dream for the unions.
Well, having no job is a far bigger pay cut then what HD pays now.
When employees unionize, automation replace them. I have been in these huge HD stores where you drive you car into the warehouse and move the large stock into the car, checkout at a gate with one guy and then I am done. Expect more of this and smaller stores.
Also more and more HDs have self checkout
Question:
If a company had employees sign an employment contract stating that for employment or continued employment they agreed not to unionize or if they did unionize it could only be by secret ballot, wouldn’t that hold the force of law and wouldn’t that derail the liberal agenda?
After all, we are being told that because the guys who bankrupted their companies had the bonuses in their contracts, the taxpayers are still obligated to pay them.
I don’t support unions, I support people. As a matter of fact I hate unions!
So see you read it wrong! I was there and saw what was going on inside HD.
Two pills every four hours not four pills every two hours.
Card-check is a wet-dream for the gun owners. REAL HUMAN (kinda) TARGETS!..............
So? The employees, like I said, can quit and work somewhere else. When HD has trouble getting/keeping quality people, they'll lose money and have to treat them better. That's the way a free economy/market works. No coersion. Get it?
Thats not an HD store you are talking about. Those are contractor stores that HD does not own any longer! Small stores will not be automated they need the prople to advise the customer how to do the task!
You would really be suprised as to how they treat their employees! They want $3.00 an hour people with no skills!
Wish what you are saying was true!
Yeah, the unions sure have done a bang-up job for the auto workers.
End unions and I dare say all union members in America would realize a $1000 to $2000 instant pay raise per year as that is what they are paying in dues. Think of what an economic stimulus that would be to the economy.
I was kicked out of the union for asking a question during a meeting. I would cross a picket line in a minute and have!
GO GET ANOTHER JOB in another industry. GO BACK TO COLLEGE AND GET RE-TRAINED.
I have had to do this for years. Get up and take care of it. All the opportunity is out there.
The HD jobs are brain - dead.
Act like an American not some indentured Frenchman.
Be realistic. Few, if any, gun-owners are going to resort to shooting people over this.
And it doesn't have to be intimidation- peer pressure works pretty well, too. Card-check is tailor made to increase unionization by giving unions a whole host of tools to pressure employees into unionizing.
You get a card with a red bulls eye on it that you staple to the the back of a union steward’s shirt.
I’m sorry, which part isn’t true?
That the employees can’t leave?
That high turnover would be detrimental to HD profits?
That they’d have to change policy if this occurred?
Such a contract would violate Federal law. Anyway, card check would override any such contract- you can't fire employees for following Federal law or for voting to unionize.
Bingo! I worked the last CWA strike against PacBell in 1989. During the strike, the old SxS switches were replaced with ESS remotes (5ESS and DMS100 switches). The room full of 9 track tape drives in the IBM and Amdahl shop was replaced with robotic silos. The COSMOS UNIX servers had their 9 track tapes swapped for 8mm. When the strike was over, hundreds of positions had been eliminated. The company kept the strike going long enough to ensure the wage expenses saved exceeded any concessions made during the strike. Not to mention the service improvements that came with the automation.
I've seen the vandalism done to company property by those on strike. What galls me is that the company never criminally prosecutes them. They just write it off and repair it. As long as that kind of spineless reaction is the norm, the vandals and thugs will be emboldened to repeat the action.
True. But if someone threatens me or especially my family, they likely would not be leaving my house in a vertical position.............
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