Yes, I supose the argument for our liberties is getting old. Let’s just all of us shut up and allow the conservatives to strip all our rights from us without a word of dissent….will that make you happy?

They were threatened with termination for trying to unionize? Where, when, who….that is illegal and you’re just make this s..t up!

The word “patriot” does not mean the opposite of what that bill put into law, and therefore in no way qualifies as Newspeak.
Calling this “free choice”, when it will end up being “coercion”, is clearly the opposite, and is a classic example of Newspeak.

The word “patriot” does not mean the opposite of what that bill put into law, and therefore in no way qualifies as Newspeak.
Calling this “free choice”, when it will end up being “coercion”, is clearly the opposite, and is a classic example of Newspeak.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! Card check or any variation of it MUST NOT PASS! Unions are DESTROYING this country! Look at SEIU! They’re responsible for pushing socialized medicine! UNIONS NEED TO BE OUTLAWED NOT SUPPORTED!

Leave it to a demoRAT to propose such a thing. 18 terms this guy has been in power!!!! Guess you californians think this is your choice next election. SAD

Just the opposite of H.R. 1176. Interesting that there are only Democrat Co-Sponsors of this bill. It is obvious to me who Owns the Democrat party.

Sorry, but in the real world; once they get the cards signed, the unions hustle their way in one way or another. The employees are screwed.

“Calling this the Employee Free Choice act is the double speak usually reserved for the naming of referendums in Washington State…”

The People would like to present exhibit ‘A’: The U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. ACT.

MichaelBN; I am middle class and I hate this thing. We do not need Detroit/Cleveland all over the USA.

Thank you Uncle Sugar !

That ain’t how it works, and you probably know it. Workers don’t go to “management” to get ballots. They bring in the NLRB to conduct a union election.

If you can afford bullets, you can afford to pay for a license and register your firearms. No one wants to take your firearms away, they just want to know if you are selling them to people who can not legally possess a firearm.

MichaelBN, I think this is part of the disconnect..A workplace is NOT a democracy. It is a workplace, an organization in most cases created to make a profit. If you were to open a business with say 100 manual laborers, do you allow those employees to set the wages, or the work hours? If all the employee vote to receive the same pay as you, do you allow that?

This bill doesn’t force unions on anyone. It doesn’t end the NLRB election.

Employees get to choose which method, card check or election, to use. If 30% of employees petition for an election, one is held. If not, then if a majority of employees sign the card, they can unionize. It doesn’t make anyone unionize, at least if you live in a right-to-work state.

heattherrm

What you don’t understand is the intimidation tactics the union thugs put on the unsuspecting employees. I’ve witnessed it personally. They come to the worksite; they act like friends until you don’t toe the union line; they call their homes; they go to their homes over and over telling them how “we’ve all got to stick together”. I’ve even seen them threaten the Latinos by telling them if they don’t get on board with the union they will call immigration. Even documented workers are always in fear of deportation. It’s disgusting what they do. And for what? Just to pay their salaries and put money in their coffers. They do nothing for the employee; the employer provides everything.

Yes, right, those who oppose this are scared, angry and close-minded, because we don’t agree with you! We’re sorry, please forgive us. The fact that this is organized labor’s number one, super-high priority at the moment, should not give us pause to consider. Organized labor is completely altruistic in wanting this legislation, right? Did it ever occur to you that you may be closed-minded, by willing yourself to be blind to the motivation of the groups behind this bill?

There’s nothing in that clause that bans the use of a secret ballot.

If the employees decide that there should be a secret ballot before bringing the card checks into the place, who’s to stop them?

My suspicion is that most of the people who oppose this bill really don’t much care about democracy among employees in the work place. It makes a fine populist sounding argument, though, and, as with all of the Newspeak being done these days by The Corporacracy and its supporters, it’s not surprising that middle class people, what’s left of us, once again working against their own best interest, as mentioned.

It must be how The State was able to get Syme so excited about working on that Newspeak dictionary.

This bill will make our country less competitive than ever before, and everyone knows it. The only reason why people support it is because they get elected by the poor people and the unions (who are the people driving this bill). If this bill is signed into law, our country’s economy will be destroyed.

Autotech64:

“We are dedicated workers and get paid only for the work we perform. We deserve the right to negotiate for fair wages, better benefits, a safe work environment and reasonable job security.”

“We get paid only for the work we perform.” Sounds right to me. Work = pay

This sounds like complete BS… “…Launched a major campaign of terror against these employees.” Puh-lease.

MichaelBN wrote:
“Finally, nowhere in The Employee Free Choice Act is it dictated that workers may not choose to vote via a secret ballot.”

Umm…yes it is. Right here…

“If the Board finds that a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed valid authorizations designating the individual or labor organization specified in the petition as their bargaining representative and that no other individual or labor organization is currently certified or recognized as the exclusive representative of any of the employees in the unit, the Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative described in subsection (a).”

Could you imagine if we elected our country’s presidents in this manner?

With the Union voted in for a particular labor group with an employer, the individuals within that group lose their ability to communicate directly with leadership. Everything from that point forward has to be mediated by a Shop Steward.

Regardless of what this bill changes or not, Unions mean less voice for the individual employee and a larger base from which to fund said organization.

I’m not sure about anyone else here, but I enjoy being able to speak freely to my boss without having my words filtered through someone else. You lose that privilege when a Union takes over.

Also, the FLSA in addition to several other Acts/Agencies (OSHA comes to mind) haved addressed many of the issues Unions were created to deal with in the first place. Hence, the validity of the statement “Unions were once beneficial, but their time has now past”.

This bill will add a huge burden to the good employeers, who fairly compensate their employees, forcing them to spend time and energy educating them on law and the concequences of signing a union document. This is going to smother the businesses and industries with exceptional work environments.

If you have money do you put in a bank account that earns 1% interest when another is offering 5% (assuming both are stable)? Likewise if an employer can get X production out of someone for $5 rather than X production out of another person for $25 which will he choose? You are implying that the best employees won’t be valued by the employer. The equation works both ways, if you can produce X for $5 from company A or X for $25 from company B which will you choose. Therefore if one employer is trying to “exploit” their employees then a competitor will be able to persuade their best and brightest to work for them.
Its called Capitalism and it works without Unions!

I can not support this bill. I hope you can’t either. At one time there was a place for Unions, but not any more! Any company that deals with Union workers will find themselves in the same situation as GM! They simply are bad news and are not necessary!

Look For The Union Label: MADE IN CHINA.

I really am having a hard time understanding the need for this legislation other than as payola to the unions for their unwavering support of the party in power. The premise here is so contrary to the basic tenents of our political system, it’s almost as if someone said, “Look, we can’t seem to get this done fairly, so let’s cheat!” The era of union’s actually contributing to the good of society has past. Time to look at them as nothing more than huge political organizations that will do whatever it takes to continue to exist past thier usefulness. ASK NOT WHAT YOUR UNION CAN DO FOR YOU, ASK WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR YOUR UNION.

In regards to the discrimination statement, if you file with the state EEOC it will not cost you a dime. The state will investigate and determine if any laws were broken. Also, I wonder how much of what you complained about here was ever formerly addressed with leadership directly? Or even HR for that matter?

Also, you say 75% of the techs there signed cards…what about the other 25% that obviously didn’t want (or know about) the Union? Your majority vote with card check would’ve overridden their say so without even allowing them to cast a vote.

Also, retaliation during an organization campaign is a violation that should’ve been reported to the NLRB.

congresswatcher,
And this is all why you are free to search for another job. No one says you have to quit one to search for another. When one employer is bad, the employees need to vote with their feet. There are plenty of good employers out their. If you can’t find one, then perhaps you need to look at your own record to see why that may be. Even with my own health issues and spotty attendance, I found two excellent employers back to back without Unions in either place, and that was fleeing a Union job which was one of the crappiest experiences it was ever my misfortune to be involved with. So you can imagine my dismay to think that a Union might try to horn in on my current action.

Ands thanks to the failed policies of the Republicans, there will be even more Democrats in 2010.

America thanks you.

this bill needs to pass to bring power back to the worker