19 Replies to ““Indiana Senate committee passes Right-to-Work bill; Unions protest while Democrats boycott””

1. RI Red says:

   January 9, 2012 at 9:11 pm

   Live free or die v. join us or die. How in hell did the libs ever pass mandatory union membership (or more specifically, mandatory union dues deduction)? Rhetorical question, of course – we just weren’t watching.

2. newrouter says:

   January 9, 2012 at 9:12 pm

   he shortage of industrial skills points to a wide gap between the American education system and the demands of the world economy. For decades, Americans have been told that the future lies in high-end services, such as law, and “creative” professions, such as software-writing and systems design. This has led many pundits to think that the only real way to improve opportunities for the country’s middle class is to increase its access to higher education.

   That attitude is a relic of the post–World War II era, a time when a college education almost guaranteed you a good job. These days, the returns on higher education, particularly on higher education gained outside the elite schools, are declining, as they have been for about a decade. Earnings for holders of four-year degrees have actually dropped over the past decade, according to the left-of-center Economic Policy Institute, which also predicts that the pattern will persist for the foreseeable future. In 2008, more than one-third of college graduates worked at occupations such as waiting tables and manning cash registers, traditionally held by non–college graduates. Mid-career salaries for social work, graphic design, and art history majors are less than $60,000 annually.

   The reason for the low rewards is that many of the skills learned in college are now in oversupply. A recent study by the economic forecasting firm EMSI found that fewer computer programmers have jobs now than in 2008. Through 2016, EMSI estimates, the number of new graduates in the information field will be three times the number of job openings.

   There’s a similar excess of many postgraduate skills. Take law, which flourished in a society that had easy access to credit. Now, with the economy tepid, law schools are churning out many more graduates than the market wants. Roughly 30 percent of those passing the bar exam aren’t even working in the profession, according to a survey by the National Association for Law Placement. Another EMSI study indicates that last year, in New York State alone, the difference between the number of students graduating from law school and the number of jobs waiting for them was a whopping 7,000.

   link

3. Pablo says:

   January 9, 2012 at 9:22 pm

   This is fleebagging for the people! Now, let’s run against that obstructionist, do-nothing House!

4. happyfeet says:

   January 9, 2012 at 9:25 pm

   yay that’s very America

   Indiana may end up giving Texas a little competition in the jobs department

5. newrouter says:

   January 9, 2012 at 9:39 pm

   what happens when you find your family dysfunctional mr. santorum?

6. JD says:

   January 9, 2012 at 10:06 pm

   The unions are running some breath-takingly dishonest ads here. All the time. They have the audacity to claim that our current good business environment will be hampered by right to work, and cost jobs.

7. sdferr says:

   January 9, 2012 at 10:43 pm

   They see their end coming JD, and they are not wrong to be afraid of the loss of union power in the altogether. Sweet deal they had there for a time, as sweetly corrupt deals go. Time now to put a stop. Enough, already.

8. cranky-d says:

   January 10, 2012 at 12:29 am

   At one time unions were a force for good, I think, but they have outlived their original purpose and are now all about power and influence.

9. DarthLevin says:

   January 10, 2012 at 4:16 am

   JD, I wonder if the people behind your ads are the same fuckers who did the “We Are Ohio” ads for repealing SB5. Dishonesty coupled with a sense of entitlement, reslting in shamelessly fragrant bullshit.

10. Lost My Cookies says:

    January 10, 2012 at 6:58 am

    “The unions are running some breath-takingly dishonest ads here.”

    Down here, we’ve got some erstwhile “Well-respected former Republican congressman” writing letters to the editor telling us all that the “ATTACK ON THE WORKERS” is “uncivil”.

    If it wasn’t for the police blotter and high school sports, I wouldn’t get the daily local rag at all. It’s five pages of “Shut Up” written Jack Torrance style, sports, blotter, and classified ads for garage sales.

11. Mueller says:

    January 10, 2012 at 7:04 am

    #4
    Businesses in Illinois need someplace close by.

12. Ernst Schreiber says:

    January 10, 2012 at 7:45 am

    Down here, we’ve got some erstwhile “Well-respected former Republican congressman” writing letters to the editor telling us all that the “ATTACK ON THE WORKERS” is “uncivil”.

    I can’t imagine why he’s a former congressman, when he’s so well respected.

13. gailhap says:

    January 10, 2012 at 8:02 am

    All,all of a piece throughout:
    Thy chase had a beast in view;
    Thy wars brought nothing about;
    Thy lovers were all untrue.
    ‘Tis well an old age is out,
    And time to begin a new.

14. Squid says:

    January 10, 2012 at 8:05 am

    A common argument among opponents of the right-to-work bill was the comparison of union membership with U.S. citizenship. When a steelworker stated, “I’m an American…you don’t have the right not to pay taxes,” he was greeted with riotous applause.

    He’s half-right, anyway. I wonder if the steelworker would support a state law mandating that union dues be doubled for workers with seniority, and then redistributed to the junior members of the union. BECAUSE OF THE FAIRNESS!

15. geoffb says:

    January 10, 2012 at 9:27 am

    And like taxes, union dues are automatically withheld from his pay. Stop that part, it’s the heart of the union bosses control.

    From an email I wrote a few days ago.

    The Democrats are not a coalition of groups so much as a coalition of the heads of groups, a coalition of bosses, in which the general population of the group, those who make the group seem to be a political power factor, are by law required to be, or by law paid to be members. Wisconsin exposed this for one of the main groups, teacher unions. my short list of these “groups” would be unions, civil rights organizations, Greens for the traditional sense of “group”, plus some that may not be seen as organized in the traditional sense but which have an elite which serves the same purpose as say union bosses and have legalized control of something and/or someones that are used in a manner like the union bosses use the workers and the workers pay. These in my view are the higher education establishment which includes the professor-ate and the university administrations, the foundations and NGOs.

    The elites of the left especially move seamlessly between positions running these various groups/organizations and using them always for their own enrichment and empowerment and can continue to do so as long as they also feed money and help in maintaining the grasp on political power to the Democratic Party. All of this is only possible due to the laws, tax ones mostly but labor also, which set up the legal mechanism by which the money and power can be taken and used even against the desires of those who must/are forced to provide it.

16. Spiny Norman says:

    January 10, 2012 at 10:39 am

    Gathered protestors disagree, saying that job loss will inevitably follow if the legislation becomes law. A member of the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150-District 7 who wished to remain nameless, said, “You have [proponents] go down south to Arkansas, they got that right-to-work down there; you see how those people live, they can’t make it because the other companies come from different states and they take their work.”

    Can someone explain to me what this fucknuckle is try to say? Is he claiming that “right to work” laws attract more employers to the state and that causes unemployment?

    O_o

17. Spiny Norman says:

    January 10, 2012 at 10:42 am

    …trying to say, rather.

18. Spiny Norman says:

    January 10, 2012 at 10:49 am

    Oh, it gets better:

    One of the recipients of the greatest amount of pro-union epithets was a Danish-American businessman who owns a paddle boat-manufacturing company in Indiana. In his testimony in favor of the Senate bill, he said, “Unions are afraid of competition…if the unions are good, then they will succeed. That’s the American way.” His words were greeted by shouts of “Go home” from the viewing deck.

    Telling an employer to “go home”. Are they fucking serious?

    Labor unions were clearly necessary 80 or 100 years ago, but it is also abundantly clear that today they are a cancer.

19. SGT Ted says:

    January 11, 2012 at 8:34 am

    What this shows is that, when confronted with the need to make their case, the unions cannot muster a rational, coherent argument in favor of union membership. This is shown over and over again anytime they are challenged.

    Because it isn’t about “workers”. Its about the unions not getting workers money with no questioning allowed.

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