[Vision2020] [SPAM] Re: Restoring Democracy in the American Workplace

[Nick Gier]

Hi Kai:

I bet if you matched the list of corporate villains and the dollar 
amounts of their corruption over the same period, it would far exceed 
this list.  The housing market debacle is just one of them and it 
will be difficult to calculate the loss surrounding 100,000s of homes 
standing empty being robbed of their innards and lost to the tax rolls.

With regard to this bill, this is the one time that I wish that the 
president had a line-item veto.  The funds should be restored but 
only if Senate Republicans agree to a majority vote on the Employee 
Free Choice Act.  Why should the 60 million worker who want to vote 
for a union be punished for the sins of the few.  If they think 
unions are so corrupt (their employers will certainly tell them so), 
they will vote accordingly.

The vote has to be fair, not under the coercive conditions that union 
representation votes now occur.  Employees report twice as much 
coercion during union elections as they do during card signing 
drives, which current law allows employers to waive in favor of 
elections that don't even come close to the elections that you and I 
participate in.

Thanks for the dialogue,

Nick
Hi Kai:

>This is typical anti-union screed that applies to unions of 
>yesteryear.  There is far more corruption in 8 years of the Bush 
>administration than there has been in any union during that time.
>
>The Hart Associates poll indicated that 58 percent of non-managerial 
>workers want to vote for a union.  Why aren't they being allowed to 
>vote?  Study after study demonstrates that it is employer 
>intimidation, coercion, and outright firing of employees.
>
>Nick
>
>cAt 11:14 AM 9/3/2008, you wrote:
>>It's funny how you left out well-documented incidents of union 
>>coercion and intimidation, that union management became just as 
>>greedy, and more corrupt, than company managers and bullied their 
>>way into contracts that essentially spelled doom for the unions and 
>>the companies. Union rules made companies bloated and slow, unable 
>>to compete with sleeker, more efficient companies from abroad. 
>>Union finances aren't open to public scrutiny making that money 
>>ripe for the picking by unscrupulous leaders and mobsters. I doubt 
>>anyone in their right mind would disagree about organized crime's 
>>influence on the unions. Gallons of blood have been spilled and 
>>many bodies lay in unmarked graves because of unions, and not 
>>because they were striking for better pay or conditions, but over 
>>who controls the cash. Las Vegas was built with cash union 
>>employees paid in dues and entrusted to their leaders, who were in 
>>cahoots with mobsters. What did the average Joe on the factory 
>>floor get out of it? Not one dime, but some kids got to "Grow up 
>>Gotti". Unions have broken the trust of the people over and over 
>>through the years, they can blame corporations and presidents for 
>>their decline, but they need to take a close, hard look into the 
>>mirror and admit they were equally culpable. Until unions operate 
>>openly and honestly and regain the trust of those they were formed 
>>to serve, they will continue to decline. 
>>--------------------------------------------------
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