Posted on 09/14/2015 8:38:28 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) is proposing the elimination of federal employee unions as part of broader package of policies aimed at curbing the influence of unions across the country.
Walker rocketed to national prominence on the back of his own anti-union policies back in Wisconsin, so he’s looking to elevate that push to the national level as he works to rebound from slipping poll numbers.
The plan, released Monday morning, includes shuttering the National Labor Relations Board, a government agency that protects employee’s ability to join unions and rules on unfair labor allegations. Walker plans to call the NLRB a “one-sided proxy for the big union bosses — often at the expense of taxpayers and workers,” according to excerpts of a Monday afternoon speech at a Las Vegas town hall.
It also calls for a federal “Right to Work” law, a measure that prohibits compelling employees to join a union. Opponents of the policy criticize it for impeding collective bargaining rights.
“Any economic plan that does not bring our federal labor laws into the 21st Century is incomplete,” he will say.
“To grow the economy at a higher rate, requires a comprehensive approach and reform of the labor unions is a key part of the plan.”
States would be allowed to pass a law to overrule the national “Right to Work” presumption under Walker’s plan.
“Many of the nation’s federal labor laws and regulations have stood as a roadblock to fairness and opportunity, and instead have created rigid, top-down workplaces that don’t really work for Americans,” he said in a statement released with the plan.
“This will not be easy. Many—including the union bosses and the politicians they puppet—have long benefited from Washington rules that put the needs of special interests before those of middle-class families.”
The plan would also halt the practice of automatically taking union fees out of federal workers’ paychecks, bar unions from spending fees for political purposes, repeal the Obama administration’s labor regulations, and repeal a 1930’s law that forces the government to pay federal contractors the “local prevailing wage,” as determined by the Department of Labor.
The anti-union push mirrors the direction he’s taken Wisconsin, which has drawn both praise from supporters and the deep ire of critics. Walker helped shepherd a budget bill that restricted collective bargaining rights through the legislature in 2011, setting off wide-scale protests.
That prompted a 2012 recall election, which Walker won, and protestors continue to target Walker while he’s out on the stump.
Democratic National Committee spokesperson TJ Helmstetter panned the plan as “desperate and disgusting,” and amounts to Walker’s Wisconsin record “on steroids.”
“By seeking to dismantle unions – the backbone of the middle class that gave us weekends, paid vacations, and child labor laws – Scott Walker is again placing his political ambitions and the demands of his billionaire benefactors ahead of middle class Americans,” he said in a statement.
Walker has been battling slumping poll results over the past few months. He dropped from first place to tenth place in Quinnipiac University’s Iowa poll over a span of two months and now sits at seventh place nationally and in New Hampshire, according to RealClearPolitics’ average of recent polling.
I know you like another candidate.
But if you don’t defund the Left, you don’t shrink government and you don’t let freedom ring.
I agree with you on that 100%.
You’d think so but they’ll probably ask him about something totally irrelevant - but Walker will get it in.
First, I don't think there is any basis for this distinction at all....SEIU and some others have goobermint union thugs at all levels. Second, a President/candidate can do a lot to impact the discussion of unions in all 50 states.
OK so we have ISIS. We have Iran. We have expansionist China and Russia. We have half-trillion dollar budget deficits, issues with Obamacare, a worn-out military, and millions of people unemployed and under-employed. And with all that Walker has somehow concluded that unions is the issue to turn the conversation to?
No wonder he's at 3% and dropping like a rock.
I said I agree it’s an issue. At the federal level, it’s not THE issue, like it can be at the state level.
It’s in the top 50 issues, that’s for sure.
“Walker is doing his best to turn the national conversation from Trump and his circus to real issues.”
Illegal immigration and closing the border, for example, may not be a “real” issue for you, but it is for the vast majority of Americans.
If you want to get rid of Big Government and all that the Left is doing to push us into a European socialist state (including immigration - legal and illegal), you crush the Democratic Party source of money and muscle - deny them the ability to win elections.
I would say “top 50” is under selling it. Government unfunded mandates, at all levels, for retirement, health care etc - largely for gov union employees - is a major massive bubble that will make dot com bubble look like childs play. Ditto the housing bubble.
If not gotten under control, it can be as malignant as any other issue...and more than most.
So do you see Walker rising in the polls as a result of his highlighting the problem of federal employee unions?
But not something that can be solved at the national level. Individual states need to do that, and there's nothing preventing them.
The union centric efforts of Walker were his best efforts.
I agree with his stance on government unions.
This may help him, but I don’t think it will be enough to make a difference. I think he’s dead in the water, and I don’t honestly see any chance for that to change.
Strange thing about politics. When folks write you off, they very seldom come back for a second helping.
Thank you Mr. Rain cloud.
We’ll see.
FEDERAL PUBLIC EMPLOYEES.
Millions and millions of them.
And how is that a more important issue than ISIS, the deficit, Obamacare, immigration, etc., etc.
There are many important issues.
Walker has his healthcare plan, his Iran plan, his union plan, his immigration plan.
Sounds like a nice package.
Fair enough. Have a nice day...
And yet he has chosen this as the one to re-energize his campaign? Not ISIS? Not immigration? Not taxes or Obamacare or the budget? But unions?
Walker's nose-dive in the polls become more understandable with each passing day.
“snips”
“Walker’s plan would also make Right to Work nationwide, giving employees in both the public and private sector the choice of whether or not to join a union. Federal unions would be required to disclose the amount of money devoted to political activity, and unions would be prohibited from withholding those funds from members’ salaries. Walker would also force unions to disclose compensation paid to union officials, among other expenditures.
The plan would allow bonuses for employees who perform well, which current law prohibits. It would roll back current administration policies on paid sick leave and overtime, a move that Walker will say provides workers with more flexibility. He would “provide employees with the option of using overtime for time off from work.”
Walker will also propose that the government be able to contract non-union labor for federal construction projects, and eliminate the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires certain wages be paid to employees working on federal contracts. The setting of the speech, Las Vegas, is significant: It is a city with powerful labor unions.
The setting of the speech, Las Vegas, is significant: It is a city with powerful labor unions.
Walker will discuss the effort as an extension of Ronald Reagan’s legacy of trying to “drain the swamp in Washington, D.C.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/423980/scott-walker-reset-labor-policy-speech
I know you have another candidate and want to keep a lid on Walker's numbers but regardless of how you choose to frame it, this is a BIG issue to millions of Americans and to the economy, and toward bringing down the power of Democrats.
This is not small potatoes.
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