Posted on 02/14/2007 1:45:28 PM PST by RWR8189
President Bush will veto pending legislation aimed at boosting union strength, Vice President Cheney told National Association of Manufacturers members at a Wednesday breakfast meeting to kick off the group’s lobbying efforts.
The “Employee Free Choice Act,” currently making its way through the House, would change the process of union elections. Under the measure, if a majority of workers in a workplace sign cards authorizing a union, then the workers would get a union. Under current law, even when a majority of workers ask for union representation, their employers can force them to undergo an election process administered by the National Labor Relations Board. Supporters contend the proposal would strengthen unions against unfair management tactics. Opponents warn that the measure is an effort by unions to exert undue influence after years of waning support.
The manufacturers’ coalition seeks to kill the bill, among a list of four legislative priorities for the 110th Congress. The House Education and Labor Committee is scheduled to mark up the legislation Wednesday.
Cheney, who donned a pink tie for the Valentine’s Day address, also said economic growth would grow from private sector efforts, not the government.
“Nobody can sit in an office in Washington, D.C. and decide to create prosperity,” he said.
The vice president defended the Bush tax cuts as fueling the economy’s recovery over the past five years. During his 20-minute speech the crowd applauded Cheney’s vow that the Bush administration would continue to push for the end of the so-called “death tax.”
Pat Cleary, senior vice president for communications at NAM, told the crowd of about 200 manufacturers that their industry drives the broader economy, contributing 12 percent of the nation’s GDP and three-fifths of research and development.
“We’re not asking for a handout,” he said. “What we want is for government to get out of our way.”
In addition to blocking the union proposal, other NAM legislative priorities include energy policy overhaul, making permanent a research and development tax credit and free trade, Cleary said.
But he warned the crowd to be wary of promises extended by legislators.
“They’re going to tell you they’re friends of ours,” he said. “Some of them aren’t telling the truth.”
Tiffany Adams, head of corporate and public affairs for NAM, said about 600 members traveled to Washington for the three-day lobbying effort, the fifth time NAM has hosted the series since 1999.
I swear, some days you can't swing a dead cat in a crowd without running into a contrarian p^ick.
His first veto...I can understand that...He doesn't want all of his criminal aliens going union on him especially since he is owned by the people who are counting on the illegals at poverty wages...
Good point, so are the business corporations corrupt. Even private organizations, churches and clergy can be corrupt.
The idea of checks and balances does not imply that some parts of society are incorruptible, rather the reverse - when different interests are represented and have their own leverage, some degree of freedom and justice can be maintained.
I am all for trade unions.
And vetoing the bad ones would be his job, too, right? How many of those bad bills, stuffed with pork, did he veto?
True, that is how ran into you :)
Long live King George!!!!!
Memo to unions: This is the sort of thing that happens when you decide to put all your eggs into one basket.
The battle between two crooked monopolies.
But he just couldn't veto McStain's campaign finance reform? Or any of the wild porkbarrel spending?
You are sorely misinformed. California's energy crisis had nothing to do with EPA rules, environmental activists, or any of the other things you probably believe.
Perhaps if the big three American auto makers had spent money on R&D figuring out ways of complying with EPA rules instead of lobbyists pressuring politicians to reverse them, they wouldn't be circling the drain today. As one news presenter commented at the time, "while American auto makers are claiming its too hard, the Japanese are doing it."
Sounds like a case of lax enforcement.
Sort of like calling anyone who might suggest that unions might have a positive role to play, a communist?
"You are sorely misinformed. California's energy crisis had nothing to do with EPA rules, environmental activists, or any of the other things you probably believe." - lucysmom
You are sorely misreading...or failing to understand what was written. Cutting off the electricity **surplus** to California with CO2 rules that made (or would have made) profits larger in non-California markets is the issue.
Correcting *that* one issue could be a little different than solving California's entire energy crisis as you've somehow managed to fantasize.
More nitpicking from you. You ignore all of the good (see post #27), and focus only on errors...the bad.
Sometimes there's something worthy inside a pork-stuffed bill (e.g. funding for our troops), so you sign it anyway.
But you, you just criticize...never compliment. Instead of "emergency funding for our troops was signed" all we hear from you is "he signed a bill that had some pork it, impeach him!"
If you aren't a Left-wing troll, you must be some 3rd party hack.
Yes he can, it's called a tax cut.
Neither. I am not a kool-aid drinker either.
What you've written makes no sense, probably because you don't know what you're talking about.
I suggest that you re-think your methods of presentation, since they are very off-putting to those of us who support the President.
I have no favorite in the 2008 elections, but I am certainly looking at the caliber of supporters each candidate has.
The problem is not in what I've written, but in your reading comprehension skills.
Alas, even good writing can't fix that issue.
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