Comments on: The Employee Free Choice Act Can Help Us Avoid a Depression http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/ Firedoglake weblog Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:29:11 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: sona http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1703037 sona Wed, 29 Oct 2008 03:24:54 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1703037 <p>You raise an old old issue that both Maggie Thatcher in the UK and John Howard in Australia championed. When labour unions were struggling against the odds dating back to 19th century England and became more of a force to reckon with in the early 20th century, open ballots, ie, not secret, were regarded as a mark of solidarity. Both Howard and Thatcher forced through secret ballots. I remember, however, as late as the early 1990s in Australia when we had an open show of hands at union meetings. Secret ballots take a lot more organisation, time and expense and when you consider union members as productive employees, including union organisers and shop stewards, it saves time. To this day in Australia, an open show of hands is far more popular. It provides a forum for discussion of issues face to face, often during unpaid personal times, not working hours - it’s a question of solidarity rather than divide and rule strategy where every man/woman is for him/herself. It does not, in my experience, discourage dissent or encourage a herd mentality.</p> You raise an old old issue that both Maggie Thatcher in the UK and John Howard in Australia championed. When labour unions were struggling against the odds dating back to 19th century England and became more of a force to reckon with in the early 20th century, open ballots, ie, not secret, were regarded as a mark of solidarity. Both Howard and Thatcher forced through secret ballots. I remember, however, as late as the early 1990s in Australia when we had an open show of hands at union meetings. Secret ballots take a lot more organisation, time and expense and when you consider union members as productive employees, including union organisers and shop stewards, it saves time. To this day in Australia, an open show of hands is far more popular. It provides a forum for discussion of issues face to face, often during unpaid personal times, not working hours – it’s a question of solidarity rather than divide and rule strategy where every man/woman is for him/herself. It does not, in my experience, discourage dissent or encourage a herd mentality.

]]> By: Chasman http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702929 Chasman Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:18:28 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702929 <p>Does US law have the equivalent of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rand_formula" rel="nofollow">Rand Formula</a>? Will the EFCA provide or buttress this?</p> Does US law have the equivalent of the Rand Formula? Will the EFCA provide or buttress this?

]]> By: dosido http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702927 dosido Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:11:19 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702927 <p>lol. that kinda captures the essence of the moment, doesn’t it. beautiful. </p> <p>And thanks. I forgot how much work it is to crawl through a sentence by Faulkner! </p> <p>:]</p> lol. that kinda captures the essence of the moment, doesn’t it. beautiful.

And thanks. I forgot how much work it is to crawl through a sentence by Faulkner!

:]

]]> By: Bluetoe2 http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702926 Bluetoe2 Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:10:09 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702926 <p>The unions started going downhill in the 40’s & 50’s when they purged their best leaders and organizers who just happened to be socialists and communists.</p> The unions started going downhill in the 40’s & 50’s when they purged their best leaders and organizers who just happened to be socialists and communists.

]]> By: dosido http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702924 dosido Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:08:30 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702924 <p>What a lovely person! /s</p> <p><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/2006-07-31-lobbyist-usat_x.htm" rel="nofollow">I found this on him to educate myself. yikes!</a></p> <blockquote><p>A longtime labor union official calls him Dr. Evil. The director of a consumer group says he’s “sleazy” and “sophomoric.” And a liberal newspaper columnist wrote that the tobacco, booze and gun lobbyists portrayed in the movie Thank You for Smoking were a “pale imitation of the reality of the Beltway’s most outrageous advocate.” </p></blockquote> <blockquote><p>Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a favorite Berman target, puts it another way: His clients “have PR problems and can’t express themselves as nastily as he can.”</p></blockquote> <p>Wow. Just in time for Halloween! Thanks again, Michael. I learn a lot here at the Lake.</p> What a lovely person! /s

I found this on him to educate myself. yikes!

A longtime labor union official calls him Dr. Evil. The director of a consumer group says he’s “sleazy” and “sophomoric.” And a liberal newspaper columnist wrote that the tobacco, booze and gun lobbyists portrayed in the movie Thank You for Smoking were a “pale imitation of the reality of the Beltway’s most outrageous advocate.”

Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a favorite Berman target, puts it another way: His clients “have PR problems and can’t express themselves as nastily as he can.”

Wow. Just in time for Halloween! Thanks again, Michael. I learn a lot here at the Lake.

]]> By: Hugh http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702923 Hugh Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:05:17 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702923 <p>I was looking around for this passage from Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust and the google kept coming up with some idiot piece by George Will. Anyway this is the passage and I found it in good old wiki:</p> <blockquote><p>For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it’s still not yet two o’clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it’s all in the balance, it hasn’t happened yet, it hasn’t even begun yet, it not only hasn’t begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it’s going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn’t need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose than all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago.</p></blockquote> I was looking around for this passage from Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust and the google kept coming up with some idiot piece by George Will. Anyway this is the passage and I found it in good old wiki:

For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it’s still not yet two o’clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it’s all in the balance, it hasn’t happened yet, it hasn’t even begun yet, it not only hasn’t begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it’s going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn’t need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose than all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago.

]]> By: nahant http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702922 nahant Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:02:43 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702922 <p>Unions have been busted ever since Ronnie RayGun broke the Airline Controllers Union by Presidential fiat in the 80’s. And ever since the wages of the middle class has lost ground if adjusted for inflation. All these increases in productivity has only benefited the CEO’s and the stock owners of the companies! Unions are good for the middle class, they forced non union companies to pay competitive wages!</p> Unions have been busted ever since Ronnie RayGun broke the Airline Controllers Union by Presidential fiat in the 80’s. And ever since the wages of the middle class has lost ground if adjusted for inflation. All these increases in productivity has only benefited the CEO’s and the stock owners of the companies! Unions are good for the middle class, they forced non union companies to pay competitive wages!

]]> By: LouCostello http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702921 LouCostello Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:02:06 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702921 <p>But…but…BUT <em>Grandpa says:</em> </p> <p><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/28/mccain-obama-unions/" rel="nofollow"><strong>Employee Free Choice Act Is A ‘Threat’ To ‘Democracy’</strong></a></p> But…but…BUT Grandpa says:

Employee Free Choice Act Is A ‘Threat’ To ‘Democracy’

]]> By: Jane Hamsher http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702920 Jane Hamsher Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:58:50 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702920 <p>John McCain has added anti-EFCA rhetoric to his stump speech. Sheldon Adelstein calls EFCA “one of the fundamental threats to society.” The corporatecrats are scared to death of EFCA, with good reason.</p> <p>Great post, Michael.</p> <p>Please <a href="http://digg.com/business_finance/The_Employee_Free_Choice_Act_Can_Help_Us_Avoid_a_Depression" rel="nofollow">Digg</a>!</p> John McCain has added anti-EFCA rhetoric to his stump speech. Sheldon Adelstein calls EFCA “one of the fundamental threats to society.” The corporatecrats are scared to death of EFCA, with good reason.

Great post, Michael.

Please Digg!

]]> By: Bluetoe2 http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702919 Bluetoe2 Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:56:53 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/28/the-employee-free-choice-act-can-help-us-avoid-a-depression/#comment-1702919 <p>Agree completely Norske. Now treat yourself to this video if you haven’t seen it.</p> <p><a href="http://dailykos.com/" rel="nofollow">http://dailykos.com/</a></p> Agree completely Norske. Now treat yourself to this video if you haven’t seen it.

http://dailykos.com/

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