CEI Weekly: New Report on Union Tactics to Intimidate Companies

Friday, May 25, 2012

Feature: The new report by CEI labor policy analysts reveals dubious union efforts to be rid of secret ballots.

FEATURE: New Report on Union Tactics to Intimidate Companies The secret ballot is invaluable to American workers voting in union elections. But labor leaders are trying to be rid of it, and they're using controversial tactics to do it. In a new report, Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio and Policy Analyst Trey Kovacs explain what union leaders are doing to intimidate employers and what workers can do to stop them. Read the report here. SHAPING THE DEBATE U.S. Principles at Stake as Government Keeps Growing Fred L. Smith's letter to the editor in Financial Times Regulators' Anti-Chemical Smear Campaign Will Breed an Unsafe World Angela Logomasini's op-ed in Forbes High Price of Cheap Drug Imports Greg Conko's op-ed in The Washington Times Overregulation Shackles Next Facebook John Berlau's op-ed in Newsmax A Tsunami of Bad Economics Ryan Young's op-ed in The American Spectator Improve Michigan's Economy With Alcohol Sales at Farmers Markets Michelle Minton's article for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy I Stand With ALEC--Amazon Didn't Iain Murray's post on National Review Online Has Ethanol Helped Lower Gas Prices Marlo Lewis's interview in OneNewsNow

CEI PODCAST May 24, 2012: Driverless cars Driverless cars are a new technology that could revolutionize the way we think about transportation. A prototype driverless car made by Google recently made the rounds in Washington, DC, and Land-use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner got to take a ride. He shares his experience, talks about the potential benefits for road safety and congestion, and the regulatory hurdles that driverless cars must clear before they can enter the marketplace. BEST OF THE BLOGS Carbon Tariffs Again in the Spotlight By Fran Smith Facebook's Fall and the Post-Sarbanes-Oxley "Cheers IPOs" By John Berlau MWAA: A Government-Authorized Fiefdom By Trey Kovacs Empty Cupboards: the Legacy of the Greatest Generation By Matt Patterson

NHDP - NH Rejects Job, Wage Killing So-called Right to Work Bill

Concord, NH - New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley issued the following statement on the House vote to sustain Governor Lynch's veto of the job and wage killing right to work bill, HB474.

"Despite all Speaker O'Brien's unprecedented ethically questionable efforts to pass HB474, today was a huge victory for New Hampshire working families, the New Hampshire advantage, and Granite State businesses and workers' right to freely negotiate.  In a stark contrast to the so-called right to work states, our New Hampshire unemployment rate is significantly lower and our median income is nearly 20,000 dollars per year higher.  

"Four times this year, New Hampshire voters have gone to the polls for a special election and each time they have overwhelmingly rejected both Speaker O'Brien's candidate and agenda.  Hopefully this latest defeat will finally deliver the message to the Speaker as well as the Republican candidates for Governor Ovide Lamontagne and Kevin Smith who have supported his disastrous efforts this year: New Hampshire voters don't support your job killing Tea Party agenda and it needs to stop immediately."

AFPNH - RTW Rally at the Capital

I am writing to ask that you and your members be part of an historic rally and reception at the Statehouse in Concord on Wednesday, November 30 at 8:00 AM. 

We will meet in the Café of the Basement for FREE Food and Coffee. 

As I am sure you are aware, Speaker Bill O’Brien has called the House into session that day.

This could be the day we have all been waiting for – the day of the Right-To-Work veto override.

While that is not for certain, what we CAN count on is that the unions and other liberal contingencies from across New Hampshire and other states will be present in large numbers at the Statehouse that day in an attempt to intimidate members of the House and influence any possible override vote.

We have to meet them with equal measure! This vote represents the culmination of months of hard work on the part of many to make New Hampshire the first Right-To-Work state in New England. The benefits to our state, our workers and our economy would be numerous. 

Unfortunately, after the recent defeat in Ohio the unions are likely to feel more confident than ever that their scare tactics and misinformation campaigns are working!

Please join me in showing the unions and the rest of the country that the wave of supporters who ushered in elected officials last fall who shared our commitment to fiscal responsibility and restraint and economic growth is still alive and well in the Granite State!

The union members, who will be paid to attend, have been pushing our House members around all summer in an attempt to keep New Hampshire workers trapped!

We cannot allow this to continue! We have to be there for all the people who rather than show up at the Statehouse that day will be showing up to their jobs!

I ask that you and all your members join us at the Statehouse on November 30.

In order to ensure an accurate attendance count for the reception and rally, please have your members visit this site to register for this historic event – https://nhaction.wufoo.com/forms/rally-for-righttowork/

Be present and be a part of history!

Sincerely,

Corey R. Lewandowski

State Director

Americans for Prosperity-New Hampshire

NH GOP CHAIRMAN MACDONALD DENOUNCES BIG LABOR'S ATTEMPTS TO DISRUPT VETERANS JOB FAIR

Concord, NH -- Proving just how out-of-touch and irresponsible big labor can be, union activists are putting together plans to protest -- and potentially disrupt -- an event to be held tomorrow by Rep. Frank Guinta that is focused on helping veterans find jobs.  A post on a pro-union website is calling on partisan labor organizers to picket outside tomorrow’s Veteran and Military Service Members Job Fair that Guinta is hosting at Manchester Community College.

"All Americans enjoy the constitutional right to express their opinion, but this goes too far.  Demonstrating and disrupting an event designed to help unemployed Granite State veterans find a job is disgraceful," said New Hampshire Republican State Committee Chairman Wayne MacDonald.  "With Veterans Day just around the corner, it is reprehensible that union organizers are attempting to hijack this important event only to further their partisan political agenda."

“We call on Joanne Dowdell, Andrew Hosmer, Carol Shea-Porter and NHDP Chairman Ray Buckley to denounce this inappropriate protest," Chairman MacDonald concluded.

Watchdog.org - Phoenix Labor Union Targets Former Trustee Who Questioned How Taxpayer Money is Spent

Mark Flatten 
Goldwater Institute 

Natasha Nimer had a simple question: As a trustee in a local labor union representing City of Phoenix employees, did she have a duty to check the books of a taxpayer-funded insurance account it managed?

So she asked the executive board of AFSCME Local 2960. The response was an emphatic “no.”

She dropped the matter and thought it would end there.

She was wrong.

In the months that followed, union officials tried to strip Nimer of her duties as a trustee and steward. They tried twice to force her out of AFSCME, only to have the international headquarters order her reinstated.

Eventually union executives went after Nimer’s job as a civilian employee in the Phoenix Fire Department. They demanded her city phone records, personal and work-related emails, disciplinary files and performance evaluations; even a list of all of the Web sites she had visited. They wanted her computers seized and the hard drives searched for evidence she was doing something wrong.

The insurance fund Nimer asked about is one of many taxpayer-funded benefits worth millions of dollars that Phoenix provides to the seven labor unions that represent city workers with no accountability. The salaries of top union officials are paid by taxpayers. So are other cash benefits paid directly to the unions. Yet the city does not audit union accounts or require union officials to document how the time and money is spent.

Read More at Goldwater Institute