Card Check
One of the first orders of business for the newly empowered Democratic majority in Congress will be to do something for “the one that brought them.”
That most major of all Democrat constituencies is the union bosses.
The unions are upset that their ranks of members are declining in the private sector.
Never mind that this is occurring because unions have been using the same operating model since the 1940s. Never mind that they have been unwilling to adapt to the new realities of an increasingly competitive marketplace.
No, they want to use government to perpetuate their failed model. So, a bill known as the Employee Free Choice Act, has been introduced by Rep. George Miller, D-CA.
This legislation would require that the “card check” method of union organizing be used if the union wants it to. Under card check, there is no secret ballot for the union election.
The union has a period of many months (or sometimes years) to get employees to sign a “card” saying they support unionization.
Once an employee signs the card, they cannot change their mind.
The union can use all the intimidation and threatening methods of the ’40s to get an employee to sign the card alone anywhere they want.
If they strong arm,I mean convince,more than 50% of the employees at a given company to sign one of these cards, then, poof, everyone in the company now is a part of the union and has to pay dues.
Card check exists under current law, but only if the company agrees to it, which very few do.
Interestingly, the bill’s title,the Employee Free Choice Act,is exactly the opposite of what it does. What’s even more striking is that 226 House Democrats, or 97% of their voting majority, have co-sponsored this legislation.
Democrats will bring this bill up soon, and it will undoubtedly pass in the House.
But then, it will hopefully suffer the fate of much other legislation in the next two years. Either it will fail to get 60 votes in the Senate or the president will veto it.
Many people believe that the Senate is a majoritarian body like the House. But for most major legislation, 60 votes are required, which means at least 10 Republicans plus all Democrats and the two “Independents” (Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont).
But this won’t happen unless we all point out just what card check does.
The new majority will try to slip this one through quickly when no one is looking. We all need to be looking and make a big stink about this terrible policy.
Freedom may not be on the advance in the next two years. But we can keep it from retreating.
Rep. John Campbell
R-California, 48th District
Bush Politics
George Herbert Walker Bush recently received the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award in Simi Valley. I’m sure he knows wearing the medal is the easy part. I imagine the hardest part is knowing his son, George Walker Bush, never will receive the same award.
Make no mistake about it. The 41st president is a real American hero.
Bush flew more than 50 combat missions during World War II. After a successful career in business, he served as a congressman from Texas, ambassador to the U.N. and director of the CIA before being elected vice president as President Ronald Reagan’s running mate.
“I wish I had a little Ronald Reagan in me when it came to communicating with the American people,” Bush told the crowd at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Museum.
“Had I been blessed with my predecessor’s remarkable skill, I might still be employed,” he added.
As president, one of Bush’s greatest accomplishments was the liberation of Kuwait. The U.S. led a coalition of Arab nations, which ultimately contributed to the renewal of the stalled Mideast peace talks.
By contrast, the 43rd president is no liberator or hero. Never has been and never will be.
Witness his latest initiative in Iraq, to surge more than 21,000 U.S. troops into Baghdad. This plan is opposed by many.
So where does all this leave George 41? As a father and former commander in chief, he is in a difficult place to say the least. On the one hand, he wants his son to succeed. On the other, he has to bite his lip.
If Bush thinks George 43 is right about the surge, then he should say so. However, if,as I suspect,he disagrees with his son’s war policy, then he needs to make a public announcement.
Tragically, the late President Ford couldn’t find it in his political heart to disagree with the White House in his lifetime, so he left a note to be released immediately after his death.
Is this what George-the-former intends to do? If so, he should return the Reagan Freedom Award.
Given his long, distinguished record of service, George Herbert Walker Bush knows more about war and peace than most anyone in public life today. If ever there was a time for national heroics, it is now.
Mr. Bush, it is time to take another look at that medal of freedom you recently received. It will help to wear it the day you publicly break with George W. about Iraq. No one knows for sure, but I’m confident this is something Reagan, the great communicator, would do if he still was alive today.
Denny Freidenrich
First Strategies LLC
Laguna Beach
