This is a news clip of a bunch of nurses and technicians from Temple University Hospital throwing a tantrum over reduced benefits.
Let me tell you why this totally pisses me off. These union nurses, instead of getting their usual 14.5% raises, are only going to get 4% raises. And they are furious about this. That their RAISES have been reduced. Not their PAY, mind you. Their RAISES.
But that’s not even what they’re maddest about. They’re mad because a tuition reimbursement plan FOR THEIR KIDS has been eliminated. They will still get all the tuition reimbursement they want for their own studies. But they’re mad because Temple University Hospital, which serves mostly low-income patients through Medicare and Medicaid (and as one nurse says, the most gunshot wounds – nice!), has to figure out a way to cut expenses, and is no longer going to send the nurses’ KIDS to college.
THE AUDACITY of that hospital. Can you imagine a worse crime against their employees than ONLY giving them a 4% raise and not paying for their kids’ college?
I hate unions. HATE.
Speaking of unions, have you guys read Dave Bego’s book yet? Because you really should, if you want insight into how union thugs will try to infiltrate private businesses like termites. Buy it and read it!
Hey – remember when I told you guys about meeting Dave Bego, author of Devil At My Doorstep? Well, have I got a deal for you! Dave is offering Chicks On The Right readers a discount on his book! Over on the top right corner of the page, you’ll see a picture of his book cover, and if you click on that to get to the ordering site, and use promo code devil9, you’ll get a copy of his book at a discount, just for being a Chicsk On The Right reader.
And I’m here to tell you, the book is kickass.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t know how well a book on union organizing would be able to hold my interest. But you guys – it’s REALLY GOOD. It’s all about Dave’s personal experience owning a successful business and fighting off a really aggressive attack by union thugs, and you just won’t BELIEVE the depths that those thugs sink to in order to get his company into their fold. There were times, when I was reading it, when I actually was aware of my own jaw dropping. THAT is how ruthless and shameless the unions are.
Anyway, the book is awesome, and you should read it, especially since you’re getting a discount.
So just recently, I got a crash course on the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s an issue near and dear to my new pal Prada’s heart, but one, admittedly, I didn’t know much about. Happily, my entire professional career has been union-free, and I hope it always will be. Unions, like affirmative action, have TOTALLY outlived their usefulness.
Anyway, I recently met David Bego, author of The Devil At My Doorstep and CEO of EMS, a cleaning and maintenance company, which fought off a brutal unionization attempt for YEARS. I’m hoping that we’ll get a chance to interview David at a later date, but in the meantime, check out his book! I’m going to send him a link to this post as well, and if we’re reeeeeally nice and reeeeeally lucky, he might even post a comment or two to answer questions or provide more detail. So be sure to give nice shout-outs to Dave Bego in the comments!
After my brief meet/greet with David Bego, and after hearing about some of Prada’s efforts to bring more public attention to the EFCA issue, I asked our good pal J if she could break it down for me in regular person terms. She told me that the Employee Free Choice Act has absolutely nothing to do with Freedom OR Choice. It’s more commonly referred to as “card check” and if passed, this legislation will make it nearly impossible for businesses to stay union-free.
So I said to J, “I don’t get it. How would Card Check work?” And here’s what she said:
“For the purpose of iillustrating how Card Check works, (and just for fun) let’s use the fictitious company, Chicks’ FABULOUS Shoes, a chicks-on-the-right-owned business that designs and produces absolutely to-die-for footwear and accessories.”
Naturally, I was instantly intrigued.
She went on to say, “So – the way your fabulous shoe company might get unionized NOW looks something like this:
1. Union targets Chicks’ FABULOUS Shoes for unionization, and sends paid union employees known as ‘agitators’ to directly contact the employees of the business.
2. Union agitators gain access to employees by getting someone hired on at Chicks’ FABULOUS Shoes, or by identifying a key employee who becomes their inside contact. Since they can’t openly conduct these recruitment campaigns during work hours, agitators will follow employees home from work, or go to employee’s homes—often repeatedly—to get the necessary number of signatures on the union cards. There are often complaints of harassment, intimidation and repeated contact by agitiators as they work to gain the signatures of at least 30% of employees of Chicks’ FABULOUS Shoes. There are no restrictions on what the agitators can or can not say or do, and employees often report later that they were given misinformation.
3. Once they have the required number of signatures, the union can petition the NLRB to hold a secret ballot vote within a pre-determined period of time (current law – within 42 days).
4. Prior to the vote, the company is allowed to conduct an information campaign to educate employees on the realities of unionization. Employees have the opportunity to change their minds about unionization, and cast a NO ballot during the vote. If there is a YES vote when the secret ballots are cast, and a majority of employees express their desire to enter into collective bargaining, the company can no longer negotiate with its employees—all negotiations are conducted through the union. This includes everything from salary and benefits, to work hours, vacation days, or job assignments.
5. Chicks’ FABULOUS Shoes management and union officials begin negotiations to determine a contractual agreement.”
So I said, “That sounds totally sucky as it is.” And J said, “If you think THAT’S sucky, compare that with how unionization would work if the EFCA legislation gets passed:
1. Agitators contact employees of Chicks’ FABULOUS Shoes (following them home from work, showing up at the employees’ homes) to get the necessary number of signatures on the union cards.
2. Once agitators have the signatures of at least 50% + 1 of employees of Chicks’ FABULOUS Shoes, the business must enter into negotiations with the union. After the company is notified of this, they are prohibited from talking with their employees about anything concerning unionization, labor contacts, or benefits.
3. There is no election. Employees do not have the opportunity to change their minds.
4. If an agreement is not reached between the union and the company, a government appointed arbitrator (who most likely won’t know the company’s industry) determines the contract and the company AND EMPLOYEES are forced to comply for a period of 2 years. Employees could even come out worse on the other side. At least under current law, employees could vote against the current contract.”
So I said, “Yeah – that sounds SUPER sucky.”
“You have no idea,” J said. “The full effect of EFCA is hard to imagine as businesses up and down the supply chain are slammed with rising costs. Add to that, the increased costs of this administration’s other proposals, such as Health-Care Reform, and Cap and Trade, and you soon realize that our economy can not sustain these ‘reforms.’ Clever wording makes this sound like something good and creates a positive spin on this legislation…’Free Choice’….sounds great, right? Kind of like ‘Hope’ and ‘Change?’ It’s yet another example of ‘what you see, is not what you get’, as this legislation takes away choice and freedom from the individual.”
“So,” I asked J, “what does that mean for other chicks on the right who just want to buy a new pair of awesome fabulous shoes?”
And J said, “The cost of all goods will increase dramatically. They have to. Businesses have to make a profit to survive, and as the cost of doing business soars in this county, it is not difficult to imagine a mass exodus of jobs to countries around the globe. You don’t need to look any further than the auto industry to compare a unionized and non-unionized business model. While American auto makers were going to bankruptcy proceedings this summer, Honda, Subaru and Toyota have sustained sales and profits.”
J is very wise about this stuff, as you can tell. And EFCA got some attention from the WSJ this week. And now I’m bringing it to YOUR attention, because we all need to be fighting this legislation every bit as hard as we’re fighting Cap and Tax and Obamacare. You can learn lots more about EFCA at this awesome site, too.
In conclusion, unionization is sucky. And EFCA makes unionization super sucky. Tell all your friends!
UPDATE: David Bego gave me some more information on the phone, and I’ve updated this post to reflect that as well as this video he shared with me – which is a FABULOUS display of the thug tactics used by unions to get what they want. It’s also a great example of SEIU’s relationship with ACORN.
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