Bar Fight in the Blue Ridge: Screwy Responds

Screwy Hoolie has taken up the gauntlet thrown by John Armor.

This could get interesting should John respond.

Here is a partial response by me…

Here is more information on Union Card Check procedure that Screwy leaves out:

The union is conducting a “card check” organizing drive at my workplace, and I am not interested in union representation. What are my rights?

If a union collects signed “authorization cards” from 50% plus 1 of the employees in a particular bargaining unit, your employer could declare that the union is the exclusive representative of all employees without a secret ballot election. Thus, it is vitally important for employees to know that signing a union authorization card will likely mean that they will never get to cast a secret ballot for or against the union.

Be sure to read more at this website.

And beware that going Union will cost your employer a competitive edge, as it has with GM (to pick an obvious example):

Healthcare costs alone impose an average cost of $1,500 per GM vehicle. Unlike most U.S. private-sector workers, GM’s unionized workers do not pay deductibles on their health coverage. According to the UAW contract in force until 2007, GM’s hourly workers pay only 7 percent of their total healthcare costs, compared to 27 to 32 percent paid by the average U.S. salaried worker. Recent “concessions” by GM’s unions will slow the hemorrhaging, but they may be too little, too late.

In contrast, most foreign-owned auto plants in the United States are non-unionized. Their workers are not as generously compensated as GM’s workers, but they are relatively well-paid with good benefits. And because their employers are not saddled with the uneconomic pension and healthcare costs of a UAW contract, they can produce cars at a more competitive price, creating more opportunity and job security for existing workers. Michigan-based GM’s toughest competition these days is not from Japan, but from Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, South Carolina and the other states where foreign-owned auto companies have established production facilities.

Source: CATO Institute