Posted on 03/07/2015 11:45:25 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
In America, you have the right to remain silent, the right to rise—and soon the right to work. At least that is if you live in Wisconsin, or one of the other right-to-work states that allow private sector workers to opt out of union membership.
Next week, it is expected that Gov. Scott Walker will sign legislation making Wisconsin the 25th state to pass right-to-work legislation. Interestingly, Walker didn't actively push for this legislation, but his signature will nonetheless guarantee one more feather in the cap of a Republican governor who has helped transform his state in recent years.
You have to marvel at just how lucky Walker is. While some governors have a hard time documenting any accomplishments, Walker seems to have his purple state working on autopilot.
So is this a big deal? Does Walker deserve credit?? And is this the kind of thing that would buttress the resume of a presidential candidate???
I posed these questions to the always quotable Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform. Reached for comment abroad, Norquist emailed me this approving response. (I like to think of it as a kind of Haiku):
Walker led with Act 10 reforming government unions in Wisconsin.
He wisely didn't do Right to Work at the same time.
He has now won three elections. The state has watched Act 10 work.
... Next week he signs Right to Work...in Wisconsin
for heaven sake.
He did public sector labor reform.
Tax cut.
Expanded school choice
Concealed Carry legalized.
Reduced regulation on mining....big deal up north.
Now right to work in private sector.
And...public university reform in this year's budget.
Message: Not a one trick pony. Still reforming in
the middle of a campaign.
Walker can create a news event. Not a speech. Real progress.
The only thing Jeb Bush can sign is a check...
Why can't all sources be like this?
Norquist makes a compelling case for Walker, but this also serves as a reminder of one of the stark contrasts that exists in our nation. And it's not just the right vs. left divide; it's also the national vs. state divide. While some Republicans are (perhaps not unreasonably) worried they might not ever win another national election, they now control more state legislatures than ever (including both houses in the Wisconsin legislature).
And while social conservatives may lament losing the culture war, on the fiscal front, the collapse of organized labor has been nothing short of remarkable. To many conservatives, unions are a symbol of violence, strikes, socialist influence, voter intimidation, and general thuggery. They provided the money and ground troops for Democrats. And even though some conservatives might have hated them, there was a time in the 20th century when to attack unionization was to attack mom, apple pie, the flag, and blue collar America in general.
But times have changed. Dramatically. In 1953, almost a third of American employees were union members. Today, in Wisconsin, only about eight percent of private sector employees are unionized (and one expects that number will begin declining).
As such, Walker didn't so much deliver a coup de grace as he committed a mercy killing. And in this regard, he stands on the shoulder of giants. There are various cultural and economic reasons for the decline of unions in America, but one can't help thinking the political strategy and messaging employed by conservatives has at least been a major contributor.
Language is important, and you know your framing has worked when your opponents use it, too. “Right to work is desperately wrong for Wisconsin,” Wisconsin's Democratic leader in the Assembly recently complained.
His battle was lost before he finished saying it. Who could be against the right to work?
What did he do this for?
Who benefitted?
People don’t have to pay dues to a union to get work.
Ok I don’t want to argue w the freepers.
My question is what was his motivation
Period.
period.
Everyone. The unions now must *prove* to potential members that they are worth joining and have their members’ best interests at heart instead of sitting around, screwing their members for ever more posh accommodations for their leadership.
In other words, unions have to do their ostensible jobs again. They can’t make a job pay-to-play before you can get hired in. They no longer get to take unwilling members’ money to spend on things they don’t agree with. Other unions can compete for members because potential members’ money isn’t automatically sent to one union or another.
Workers benefit as well - unions can’t lock out someone who disagrees with them, or who they just don’t like.
Freedom.
Jobs.
Prosperity.
....”And while some unions have banded together, reinvigorated by a sense of betrayal by Republican lawmakers, they recognize that it might take decades to completely recover from the blows.
‘‘You’ve got to fight back, but this kind of thing is going to be a generational process,’’ Jerry Papa, a 62-year-old bus driver from Milwaukee, said during a rally against right-to-work on Thursday. ‘‘It’s going to take 25 to 40 years to correct problems Scott Walker’s done in 4½ years.’’....
...“I thought that the guy was too nice to ever be successful in politics,” Satran said. Now, Walker is governor, and Satran — having worked in politics for years — is a bartender at J. Paul’s in Georgetown. “Turns out I was wrong.”....
More to the point - politically, this screws the Democrats. One of their huge sources of footsoldiers, advertising, funding and warm bodies in photographs is now bleeding out. See what happened to the public unions in Wisconsin - once they couldn’t mandate automatic payments from everyone and had to get people to sign checks, their membership (and power) tanked.
ALL STATES RIGHT TO WORK.
NO COMPULSORY UNION DUES.
OUTLAW ALL FEDERAL EMPLOYEE UNIONS
OUTLAW WITHHOLDING OF UNION DUES FROM WORKERS PAYCHECKS
NO EARLY VOTING
NO FELONS VOTING
VOTER FRAUD MINIMUM 25 YEAR SENTENCE.
THROW OUT ALL REGISTRATIONS, NEW NATIONAL VOTER ID CARD REQUIRED TO VOTE.
INVESTIGATE , INDICT, AND IMPRISON ALL MARXIST CROOKS IN THE CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS AND THE AFL-CIO.
DEFUND THE CPUSA!
EXTERMINATE THE MINIMUM WAGE!
DEFUND THE NLRB!
ERADICATE THE INCOME TAX! STOP TYRANNY!
RESTORE AMERICA'S BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS!
LET FREEDOM RING!
Democratic Politicians, that's who.
‘In 2006, Walker favored giving undocumented immigrants the right to work and legalizing their status as part of a larger — and ultimately unsuccessful — immigration reform package crafted in 2005 by the late Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain.’
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/scott-walker-amnesty-illegals-Kennedy/2015/02/19/id/625623/#ixzz3TmZ83PkA
Urgent: Rate Obama on His Job Performance. Vote Here Now!
Who benefitted? Are you serious? Let me give you my experience...
In the early years of my career, one of my first jobs was at a certain electronic corporation. Several departments were exclusive "union shops". I didn't want to join the union, but was FORCED to.
So I refused to sign their paperwork, refused to buy their lapel pin, mailed their newsletters back to them. I worked there for several years. They took money from me for the union dues AGAINST MY WILL. The legal term for this activity is THEFT. Perhaps up to a thousand/year for several years. Bloody thieves.
To make matters worse, the corporation at that time was complicit in the theft by deducting union dues automatically via payroll. This type of accessory to crime is despicable. If unions want their dues, they should bill for them, and members must cut them a monthly check. This way, members are regularly and constantly reminded of the thieving going on. If I had a lot of money, I'd hire a Larson E Whipsnade to sue their a$$es for that period of time.
This is a great law and should be national.....for all workplaces...including the government.
LESS GOVERNMENT SPENDING
LESS REGULATIONS
STOP THE SPYING AND INTRUSION INTO PRIVATE LIVES OF CITIZENS.
LOWER TAXES.
PAY DOWN OUR NATIONAL DEBT.
ADOPT ZERO DEFICIT BUDGETING. PASS A LAW: THE GOVERNMENT CANNOT BORROW ANYTHING, ESPECIALLY MONEY.
DUMP THE U.N. AND ITS POWER HUNGRY PROJECTS: LIKE AGENDA 21, "ONE WORLD ORDER", LAW OF THE SEA, IPCC, KYOTO, ETC.
GOVERNMENT HANDS OFF THE INTERNET! IT MUST BE COMPLETELY FREE, UNFILTERED, NO SPYING OR MONITORING.
STOP GLOBAL WARMING TAXATION, GW IS A U.N. MANUFACTURED HOAX INTENDED AS A TAX GRAB, AND REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH.
PROMOTE PRIVATE HEALTH CARE, THE ONLY SOLUTION FOR THE IMPENDING BANKRUPTCY OF THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM.
REDUCE IMMIGRATION QUOTAS, FUTURE CITIZENS MUST READ/WRITE E AND/OR F, HAVE A JOB-PAYING SKILL, BANK ACCOUNT >$50K
PLUG THE HOLE OF STUDENT VISAS BECOMING JOBS OR AUTOMATIC CITIZENSHIP. STUDENTS MUST RETURN TO THEIR HOME COUNTRY AFTER THEIR STUDIES FOR A PERIOD OF ONE YEAR.
YOU MUST SHOUT?
Asking government to ignore what’s happening on the internet is stupid, as are people who expect anything they put out there not to be public.
Other than defending Boeing, a crony capitalist company, Ted Cruz has said very little about ending public sector unions or allowing right to work nationwide.
Why is Ted Cruz so quiet on this issue? Could he be a closet pro-union RINO?
(you see, it is easy to attack a good conservative with nonsense as so many FReepers do to Walker)
If nothing else, now a union member can tell his union to stop donating to a party that is trying to ban his guns and pushing queer marriage. If they don’t listen to his demands he can dump them.
Before RTW about 50-60% of bluecollar union members would complain to the union about those and other issues, and the reply was always...yeah we agree but the RATS do other things for us.
Would you want to donate $75 a month to someone you hate just to keep your job? Don’t forget, it’s not your employer that signs your paycheck making that demand, but a parasite that feeds off you.
It’s like a PETA member being forced to donate to the National Association of Factory Farms, or the Catholic Church being forced to donate to an abortion mill.
I’m against right to work laws and I’m against laws that give unions a gun to aim at business owners. Employment should be an issue between workers and employers, with the government only stepping in to protect individual rights.
Nothing to do with Walker.
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