Opinion Forum

Unions Are Good; Business Is Bad

April 21st, 2011

Thus spake the Obama Administration.

The Boeing [Aircraft] Company, having experienced a number of disruptive strikes at its assembly plant in the Puget Sound area, decided to open a new, non-union facility in South Carolina rather than a new unionized facility at Puget Sound. Boeing had made its intentions known to the relevant unions. By an order issued on April 20, the National Labor Relations Board directed Boeing Aircraft to show cause why it should not be ordered

to have the Unit operate its second line of 787 Dreamliner aircraft assembly production in the State of Washington, utilizing supply lines maintained by the Unit in the Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon area facilities.

That’s cool; it’s what the National Librul Reinforcement Board is for under the Obama Administration. Labor unions are ~~Democrat Party supporters~~ good and those selfish fat cat business goons are just horrid ~~Republican~~ meanies, trying to gouge the poor, hardworking but still hungry labor union members. Want proof? Just ask any beneficent labor union ~~thug~~ leader. That’s why private sector unions have grown so well in recent years.

Union density (or the “unionization rate”), the number of workers who are members of unions as a percentage of total employment, has been declining in the United States for over half a century. The share of U.S. workers in unions peaked in 1954, at just over one fourth of employed workers. For nonagricultural workers, the high-water mark—at more than one third of employed workers—came even earlier, in 1945. It would reach nearly the same percentage again in the early 1950s, before beginning a long and virtually uninterrupted decline. By 2010, the unionization rate for employed workers was less than 12%. The percentage would be even lower were it not for increasing unionization among public-sector workers since the 1960s. For employed private-sector workers, the unionization rate is now less than 7%.

As noted in the disgustingly conservative New York Times,

It is highly unusual for the federal government to seek to reverse a corporate decision as important as the location of plant. But ever since a Democratic majority took control of the five-member board after Mr. Obama’s election, the board has signaled that it would seek to adopt a more liberal, pro-union tilt after years of pro-employer decisions under President Bush.

Hey dude, President ~~Won~~ Obama won the presidential election and now he’s the boss. Elections have consequences except when they shouldn’t.

Continue reading this article at The PJ Tatler »

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: 787, assembly plant, Boeing, NLRB, Seattle, South Carolina, strikes, unions
Categories: News, Politics | Comments (3) | Home

3 Responses to “Unions Are Good; Business Is Bad”

Tom Carter | April 22nd, 2011 at 4:21 pm

This is absurd. If you read the NLRB document, it just gets worse with the details. It’s no wonder that businesses move operations overseas to escape unions and the government. Boeing, of course, can’t do that because of what it is and its government business. There are already problems competing with EADS, and before this is over our aircraft industry may go the way of our steel industry and so many others.

There may be very few private sector union members now, but they’re concentrated in places where they can do maximum harm to the country. Sad; unions were and still could be a good thing, but greed gets the best of us, I suppose.

Dan Miller | April 22nd, 2011 at 8:20 pm

Just think what this will do to create and save jobs! It will do a lot; outside the United States, but so what. Obviously, the United States doesn’t need any more and it’s our manifest destiny (as the Obama Administration must see it) to spread the wealth to help other less fortunate countries.

One small step for the Obama Administration, one giant step for India, China, Mexico and maybe even for various Islamic countries once they find the time to manufacture stuff instead of killing each other.

Now if only our friends in Zeta could put aside their more violent pastimes, go back to Mexico and get to work they could perhaps find a small bit of satisfaction. That would, obviously, held with our minor illegal immigrant problem.

Tom Carter | April 23rd, 2011 at 7:04 am

Interesting column by Kathleen Parker on this. She says:

Even though it is perfectly logical that businesses prefer nonunionized workforces, it is technically illegal to make business decisions in retaliation against union workers. Unionized workers in the company’s Everett, Wash., facility have gone on strike several times in recent years. …

The key question isn’t whether Boeing executives are trying to avoid strikes and maximize productivity and profits. Of course they are. The more compelling concern is whether unions should be allowed essentially to veto where a company locates and conducts business. …

…a couple of facts are worth considering: One, 2,000 jobs have been added to the Everett plant since the South Carolina project was announced, so job security seems to be a nonissue. Two, given that the South Carolina plant has been well underway for a couple of years, the timing of the NLRB complaint raises questions of motive.

If this was a calculated political move by the Democrats, then it’s a pretty stupid calculation. There will be a price to pay.