Category Archives: Unions

Primary Day! Go Vote!

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Today is Primary Day in Kansas and Missouri and probably a few other states, too, but, I’m only interested in these two. I was Facebook chatting with a friend earlier. We were wondering if the turnout would be high or low and whether one would benefit our folks more or less. In the end, we just didn’t know.

It did remind me of the first time I voted. The time was 1956. Adlai Stevenson was running against Dwight Eisenhower. My folks lived in southern Illinois. My mother was a grade school teacher. My father was a coal miner and part-time farmer. A few years later when the near yearly strikes by the UMWA permanently closed most of the coal mines, he became a full time farmer.

Being a miner, he was a member of the UMWA, the United Mine Workers of America. Dad remained a member of the union after the mine, where he worked for thirty years, closed. He wanted to retain his pension and health benefits. If he didn’t continue to pay union dues, he would lose pension and benefits.

Elections in coal country were a bit different from other areas of the country. There were highly organized affairs with the unions firmly in control. On election day, each poll would have a collection of union officials outside. Every union had a representative at every polling station. When union members arrived to vote, they checked with their union representative who, in turn, checked their name off the union roster. Heaven help the union member who didn’t vote or check in with the union before voting. Fines up to $100 was not uncommon.

In Illinois at that time, schools and many businesses closed on election day. Mom and Grandma had voted earlier. Dad had some chores to do. He voted later and I, nine-years old, went with him.

We arrived at the polling station that was set up in the yard of the township headquarters in West City, IL. Dad was recognized by a number of other union members and waved over. The union rep at that polling place was a man whose name I’ve forgotten. I do remember Dad calling him a ‘loud-mouth.’

Dad checked in, had his name checked as voting on the union roster and was given a ballot with all the union-backed candidates already checked off. There were few, if any, items on the ballot unchecked. Dad introduced me to Loud-mouth. I remember he hollered, “Another UMWA vote here!” and pushed a ballot into my hands. He told me to follow my father and put the ballot into the same box as did my Dad. I looked at Dad. He looked down at me and gave a slight nod of his head.

A few steps away were the election judges, both union men. One took my ballot and Dad’s and stuffed them in the ballot box. The other had my Dad sign the voter roster. He asked my name and I gave it. The judge wrote it on the voter roster just below my Dad’s name.

I had just voted in my first election, at age nine. It was the union and Illinois way. In parts of the county today, I’m told the voting practices haven’t changed in the near-sixty years since I first voted.

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SCOTUS Strikes Again

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The Supreme Court released two decisions this morning, both of them decided along liberal/conservative lines, 5 to 4.  The first decision, from Illinois health care workers against SEIU, sided against the union. It wasn’t unanimous but it was a rebuke to unions planning to expand at the expense of the public. On a 5-4 decisions, SCOTUS says that public service unions like SEIU cannot force non-members to pay dues.

Court: Public union can’t make nonmembers pay fees

By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court dealt a blow to public sector unions Monday, ruling that thousands of home health care workers in Illinois cannot be required to pay fees that help cover the union’s costs of collective bargaining.

In a 5-4 split along ideological lines, the justices said the practice violates the First Amendment rights of nonmembers who disagree with the positions that unions take.

The ruling is a setback for labor unions that have bolstered their ranks – and bank accounts – in Illinois and other states by signing up hundreds of thousands of in-home care workers. It could lead to an exodus of members who will have little incentive to pay dues if nonmembers don’t have to share the burden of union costs.

But the ruling was limited to this particular segment of workers – not private sector unions – and it stopped short of overturning decades of practice that has generally allowed public sector unions to pass through their representation costs to nonmembers.

Writing for the court, Justice Samuel Alito said home care workers are different from other types of government employees because they work primarily for their disabled or elderly customers and do not have most of the rights and benefits of state employees.

You can read the entire article here.

A lawyer friend of mine explained that the defense, the Illinois health care litigators, argued for an exception. Therefore, SCOTUS could only grant that exception. If the grounds of the argument had been wider or on other grounds, the decision could have been different—knocking down all union extortion of dues from non-members…or siding with the union. In any case it was a step in the right direction even it it does apply only to public sector unions.

The second decision announced today is one the religious and 1st Amendment advocates have been waiting for. It is the famous Hobby-Lobby, Mardel and Conestoga suit against HHS that would force these companies to provide contraception insurance against the company owner’s religious views.

Hobby Lobby Wins Contraceptive Ruling in Supreme Court

Jun 30, 2014, 10:25 AM ET

Companies are not required to pay for employees’ contraceptives for women if they have religious objections, the Supreme Court ruled today.

The justices’ decision came in a 5-4 ruling in the much anticipated case.

The court holds: “As applied to closely held corporations the HHS regulations imposing the contraceptive mandate violate RFRA”

Alito wrote that “RFRA applies to regulations that govern the activities of closely held for profit corporations like Conestoga and Hobby Lobby” and the “The HHS contraceptive mandate substantially burdens the exercise of religion.”

“The Government has failed to show that the contraceptive mandate is the least restrict means of furthering that interest,” according to the majority opinion.

Alito wrote that the onwers of Hobby Lobby believe that the coverage required of the health care law “is connected to the destruction of an embryo in a way that is sufficient to make it immoral for them to provide the coverage … HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] has not shown that it lacks other means of achieving its desired goal without imposing a substantial burden on the exercise of religion by the objecting parties in these cases.”

“Protecting the free-exercise rights of corporations like Hobby Lobby, Conestoga and Mardel protects the religious liberty of the humans who own and control those FRFR companies,” Alito wrote in the majority opinion.

The rest of the article can be read here.

Justice Ginsberg called Alito’s written decision, ‘radical’. She thinks the 1st Amendment is radical, too. She has said before that she believes the Constitution is not a good example for other countries.

It was not a good day for Obama and his union sycophants. It was a good day for the rest of us. Missouri HB 1617 was passed in this last legislative session and will be put before the voters in the November general election. HB 1617, also known as ‘Paycheck Protection’ will require public service unions in Missouri to acquire written permission to deduct dues and from state employee’s paychecks. The unions will no longer force the state to arbitrarily act as the union’s agent to collect union dues.

As a friend of mine says, “It’s a good day for Liberty!”

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Election Issue: Sales Tax Increase

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August 5, 2014 is the Missouri Primary. In addition to selecting candidates for the general election in November, there are a number of other issues added to the ballot. I’ve mentioned one Missouri Constitutional amendment passed in the legislature as SJR 36. That is Constitutional amendment #5.

There will be another issue on the ballot—raising the sales tax for Transportation. The state and counties like St Louis, has been wasting their highway maintenance money for decades. A couple of years ago, the state started repairing a number of small bridges throughout the state.

St Louis, on the other hand, did not. They just continued to whine for more state money. And…they have the unions and construction companies on their side; lusting after that tax money.

If you read the description from Ballotpedia above and scroll down the page, you will see the list of supporters for this tax increase. There is a wide spread surge of political ads across Missouri in support of this tax increase. Most of the funding is by MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC. This organization is a front created by the construction unions in Missouri.

I was given a link yesterday that disclosed the contributions to this orgranization. Here is the contributions for one day, June 25, 2014.

C131133 06/26/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC The Monarch Cement Company PO Box 1000 Humboldt KS 66748 6/25/2014 $10,000.00
C131133 06/26/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Central Plains Cement LLC 2200 North Courtney Road Sugar Creek MO 64050 6/25/2014 $25,000.00
C131133 06/26/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Ash Grove Cement Company PO Box 25900 Overland Park KS 66225 6/25/2014 $10,000.00
C131133 06/26/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Continental Cement Co LLC 10107 Highway 79 Hannibal MO 63401 6/25/2014 $20,000.00
C131133 06/26/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Pace Construction Company 1620 Woodson Road St Louis MO 63114 6/25/2014 $17,500.00
C131133 06/26/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Massman Construction Co PO Box 8458 Kansas City MO 64114 6/25/2014 $50,000.00

If you add the contributions, it adds up to $132,500 in just one day! If you want a real eye-opener, use the Advanced search option on that webpage, enter the month of June 2014 for the beginning and end search dates, with the Committee ID (MECID) of C131133.

Never let it be said the dems—and a few RINOs, never saw a tax increase they didn’t like. Especially if they can grab some of it for themselves. Unions are having trouble justifying their exorbitant pay scales. Here, they have a captive supplier and they see an opportunity to seize taxpayer money and they’re willing to spend millions to get it.

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Yawners…

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As expected, and as I noted in yesterday’s post, Ben Sasse won his primary race for Senate in Nebraska and Shelly Moore Capito won her primary for Senate in West Virginia. Both are expected to win in the general elections in the Fall.

Sasse will replace retiring Senator Mike Johanns (R). Capito will replace Jay Rockefeller (D) adding one more Senate seat to the ‘Pubs.

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Tales of Gloom and Despair! That is what one pundit is prophesying for the dems in the elections this year. Michael Barone, writing in the Investor’s Business Daily, mulls the future for the democrats.

Demographic Trends Aren’t Necessarily In Favor Of Democrats

By MICHAEL BARON, Posted 05/13/2014 06:24 PM ET

Michael Barone

Michael Barone

Demography is destiny, we are often told, and rightly — up to a point. The American electorate is made up of multiple identifiable segments, defined in various ways, by race and ethnicity, by age cohort, by region and religiosity (or lack thereof), by economic status and interest.

Over time, some segments become larger and some smaller. Some prove to be politically crucial, given the politics of the time. Others become irrelevant, losing cohesion and identity.

From the results of the 2008 presidential election, many pundits prophesied a bleak future for the Republican Party, and not implausibly.

The exit poll showed that President Obama carried by overwhelming margins two demographic segments that were bound to become a larger share of the electorate over time.

He carried Hispanics 67% to 31%, despite Republican opponent John McCain’s support of comprehensive immigration reform. Obama carried voters under 30 — the so-called Millennial Generation — by 66% to 32%.

But over time, Democrats’ hold on these groups has weakened. In Gallup polls, Obama’s job approval among Hispanics declined from 75% in 2012 to 52% in 2013 and among Millennials from 61% in 2012 to 46% in 2013.

The recent Harvard Institute of Politics poll of Millennials showed Democrats with a big party-identification edge among those over 25, but ahead of Republicans by only 41% to 38% among those 18 to 20.

The older Millennials came of political age during the late George W. Bush years and were transfixed by the glamor of candidate Obama in 2008. The younger Millennials are coming of political age in the middle Obama years and are plainly less enchanted and open to the other party.

There are other rifts in what some saw as the emerging eternal Democratic majority. National Journal analyst Ronald Brownstein often contrasts whites and nonwhites, but nonwhites are not a single homogeneous group.

Hispanics tend to vote more like whites than blacks, with high-income Hispanics trending Republican.

When California Democrats tried to use their legislative supermajorities to put on a ballot proposition repealing the state’s ban on racial discrimination in state college and university admissions, Asian-American legislators withdrew their support.

They got hundreds of calls from parents concerned about their kids’ chances to get into Berkeley and UCLA.

Campus-based Asian activists maintained solidarity with their fellow “people of color.” Asian parents with their families’ futures at stake saw things differently.

Union members were long a key Democratic constituency. But there are increasing splits between public sector and private sector unions.

In New Jersey, Democrats with private sector union backgrounds have backed GOP Gov. Chris Christie’s fiscal reforms. In Nevada, the state AFL-CIO is opposing the teacher unions’ drive for more than doubling the business tax to pay for education spending.

On the national level, Laborers International Union president Terry O’Sullivan has spoken out bitterly against the Obama administration’s refusals to approve the Keystone XL pipeline.

The column continues at the IDB website. It explores the splits in unions over the Keystone pipeline versus, “billionaire Tom Steyer’s pledge to spend $100 million against the pipeline.”

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Hundreds trapped underground after explosion, fire at Turkish coal mine

OFFICIALS SAY ‘hopes are diminishing’ Wednesday as rescuers struggle to reach more than 200 miners trapped underground after an explosion and fire at a coal mine in western Turkey kills at least 205 workers during a shift change.

This headline strikes close to home. I grew up in coal country. My Father was a coal miner as were our neighbors around us. Dad was in two mine explosions when he was much younger. After the second, he changed jobs to work above ground where he operated a loader filling railroad cars with coal.

Mine explosions used to be fairly common. It was one area the UMWA worked with mine owners to improve safety. No one, not the miners, the union, nor the mine owners, wanted explosions. Not only did it kill people, it disrupted production and repairs were costly. More than one mine was closed, never to reopen, after an explosion.

I had a personal experience with one large mine explosion. I still remember the event to this day.

Night of the Big Bump!

http://img.groundspeak.com/waymarking/display/11664886-d188-4e01-853d-1f9a628b1c0f.jpg

Miner’s Memorial, Benton, Illinois

On December 21, 1951 at 7:40PM, an explosion occurred at the Orient #2 coal mine in West Frankfort, IL. The explosion occurred at a depth of approximately 500 feet and about 2 1/2 miles from the shaft head—almost directly under our farm.

Read more here…

 

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Coup…Counter-Coup

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All is not well in the state of Maryland. The officers and the members of the Board of Directors of Wicomico County Education Association (WCEA) have become dissatisfied with their upstream counterparts, the Maryland State Education Association and the National Education Association. In brief, the local union felt and still feels that they are not getting their money’s worth when they send their dues upstream.

They have scheduled a vote to disassociate themselves with the state and national union. Those parent organizations were not pleased. Like any third-world dictator, they struck back.

Maryland Teachers Union Shop Steward Stages Coup

posted at 9:21 am on April 22, 2014 by Mike Antonucci

My apologies if this ends up sounding like a dispatch from some war-torn Third World country, but it really is a tale from southeastern Maryland.

The elected officers and members of the board of directors of the Wicomico County Education Association (WCEA) scheduled a rank-and-file vote for the 1,000-member local union to end its affiliation with the Maryland State Education Association and the National Education Association. The issues were the usual ones in such cases – the local officers felt an awful lot of dues money was going up the line to the parent unions in exchange for not much in services for the local. After last week’s events, that vote – scheduled for April 28 and 29 – is very much up in the air.

Upset by the actions of WCEA’s board, Gary Hammer, a union site representative at Bennett Middle School, began circulating petitions to recall all the WCEA officers and members of the board, and to suspend them from office until the recall took place. Hammer and his supporters claim to have gathered 700 signatures, which would constitute a majority of the bargaining unit.

Last Tuesday, Hammer and others “entered the WCEA offices, changed the locks and codes, removed or altered office equipment and purported to illegally fire the Association’s only employee.” According to WCEA president Kelly Stephenson, “These actions were not taken in accordance with the governing documents of WCEA or in accordance with the law.”

Stephenson insists the disaffiliation vote will go on as scheduled.

As any good coup plotters would, Hammer and his associates seized the radio station, er, union web page. They have posted this message while deleting much of the site’s previous content:

On April 15 a majority of the members of the Wicomico County Education Association stood together and took necessary steps to prevent a small minority of members from dismantling the union with attempts to disaffiliate from our state and national Associations. The members have spoken and have declared that we are stronger together, and the support we have from the Maryland State Education and National Education Association adds to that strength. We have collected the necessary signatures to recall the officers of WCEA and have put an interim board of managers in place, effective immediately. This board will assume day to day operations of the Association and will move to conduct an election of a new slate of officers. These actions clearly reflect the wishes of the majority of our members who are anxious to move forward and who remain committed to giving Wicomico County’s public school students the excellent instruction and service they deserve.

It seems almost beside the point to note that there is no provision in WCEA’s by-laws to remove the union’s entire elected leadership with a single petition whose signatures have not been verified by any independent authority. Nor is there any provision for the summary displacement of elected officers by an unelected “board of managers.” Nor have the charges contained in the recall petition been examined to see if they meet the recall requirements set out in the by-laws.

It is beside the point because the legality of such actions becomes secondary once you have succeeded in pulling them off. The American Federation of Teachers has turned into an art the recapture of rogue locals, with one such incident being declared illegal by the U.S. Department of Labor, and moot at the same time. A similar disaffiliation vote will take place next month in Modesto, California, though the California Teachers Association does seems to regard it as a legitimate election.

A legal battle will almost certainly arise out of this, but if the WCEA officers want to retain office, they had best respond to the coup’s tactics in like manner.

This is just another, among many, example of thuggish behavior by unions. This time it is the unions sending union goons against their own members to oust legally elected officers and Board members. It matters not that the actions of the state and national unions were illegal. If the local union doesn’t act quickly, it will become moot. The national unions have the force and assistance of the NRLB behind them.

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Missouri Governor Jay Nixon is all in a twitter. Those nasty Republicans are planning on cutting taxes and he’s vowed to veto the bill if it arrives on his desk. He’s so upset that he and his budget director will tour the state today to announce his response against those evil Republicans who want to cut taxes.

From PoliticMO Newsletter, April 22, 2014:

NIXON’S NEW TAX MESSAGE — A FATAL LAW. Gov. Jay Nixon dispatched his legal counsel and budget director to carry a new line on monday that Senate Bill 509 carries a fatal flaw that could cost the state billions. The issue is with Line 43 on Page 2, which reads, “The bracket for income subject to the top rate of tax shall be eliminated once the top rate of tax has been reduced to five and one-half percent.” Counsel Ted Ardini: “The bracket for income subject to the top rate is… over 9,000 dollars… Once that hits 5.5 percent, this provision tells us to eliminate the top tax bracket. Once you eliminate the top tax bracket, it becomes over #8,000 and under $9,000… If your Missouri income is greater than 9,000 you have no tax bracket and no tax rate. … By the elimination of the over 9,000 tax bracket, there’s no where to go.”

State Representative John Diehl responds:

HOUSE MAJORITY FLOOR LEADER JOHN DIEHL: The “Governor’s contention of #SB509 flaw is laughable. MO SupCt would never take his position on that reading of that bill.” “It’s a pattern of scare tactics and deception to avoid the real issue… Never once did they identify some hole in the bill.… We were and are confident that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this bill.” — PoliticMO Newsletter, April 22, 2014.

Jay Nixon has never met a tax he didn’t like.

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In my opinion, Rasmussen is and has been one of the most accurate polling groups in the country. They are not always right, but on the average, they are correct more than any of their competitors. Each week they present a rolling poll on Congress…which party is more preferred. Historically, the dems usually have the edge by a percentage point or two. In fact, I cannot remember when the ‘Pubs were on top.

This week they were.

Generic Congressional Ballot

Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 41%, Democrats 40%

Republicans have edged ahead of Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, April 20.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 41% of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for the Republican in their district’s congressional race if the election were held today, while 40% would choose the Democrat instead.

The last time this switch occurred was during the week of February 4th, 2014.

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An article appeared yesterday in the American Thinker. Mark Levin spent some time discussing it on his program and his FB page. It is an analysis of John Boehner and it isn’t, by any means, complimentary.

But Seriously, Just How Slow-Witted is John Boehner?

By C. Edmund Wright, April 21, 2014

As he moves from lobbyists to the golf course, from press conferences to the tanning bed, he remains oblivious to all that is around him. He has power, incredible power, and yet to this day he has no understanding of the election that made it so. Moreover, all around him are astonishing opportunities for him to be an historic figure — one who could and should be the man who did more than any other single person in turning back the red tide of Obama. It’s all there for Speaker of the House, and yet John Boehner manages to miss it all — as he guarantees his spot as the most spectacular failure in the history of Speakers of the House.

So seriously, just how dense is this guy? I’m not being flippant, or overly dramatic. His performance, in light of the momentous circumstances, necessitates just that question in the most literal and serious sense. Mr. Boehner, I frankly think you’re sort of stupid. Either that, or you are plagued by an amazing lack of situational awareness.

Consider: For months, the IRS has done their best to guarantee that they are known as nothing but part of the Democratic Party election machine.  Lois Lerner remains such an unsympathetic figure that the last public photo of her might as well have been a set of legs with red slippers sticking out from under a house. Elijah Cummings has been exposed as a corrupt and inarticulate embarrassment, and an email trail is emerging that would make Nixon’s use of the IRS look like child’s play. This one scandal is an incredible teaching opportunity of the inherent evils of the liberal bureaucratic political state. Donald Rumsfeld understands this. Boehner? Not so much. He’s talking about immigration deform.

If that weren’t enough, there is another epoch-making story unfolding in Nevada, as the Bundy Ranch is being invaded by an army of militarized bureaucrats that most of us didn’t know exists — working for a bureaucracy that is apparently in charge of more land mass than the majority of world governments. Who the hell are these robo-crats, and who is paying for and authorizing their intimidating and dangerous cross-dressing? Apparently, in this case, the boy king of this hidden empire is a former political aide from the office of Harry Reid. Again, a silver platter of an opportunity has presented itself.

But no, Boehner would rather work behind the scenes to spoil the efforts of the Tea Party groups.

Oh, and while we’re at it, the Bundy story is far more than just some delicious viral YouTube videos. It brings up some very important questions, such as why does the Federal Government own more land in Nevada than everybody combined owns in the United Kingdom? Why does the BLM control one eighth of the entire landmass of the country? And just how many dirty Harry Reid deals are going on everywhere while most of us had no idea how big the BLM was and how little of our own country the rest of us own?

Uh, Mr. Boehner, these are questions of stupefying importance, and while millions of Americans are asking them, they will not get the traction they deserve until someone in a position of power asks them. You know, like a Speaker who is in the opposition party?

The column continues at the website. I urge you to follow the title link or the link here to read it in full. I cannot disagree with anything the writer has penned.

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Lawfare. If you have listened to the news today, the NC Attorney General has requested a delay in the latest lawfare suit filed in federal court against the state of North Carolina. The suit complains that the state’s anti-same sex marriage ban is unconstitutional. The tactic many such groups are using around the country with, frankly success, is known as Lawfare.

Lawfare is a recently coined word not yet appearing in the Oxford English Dictionary,[1] a portmanteau of the words ‘law’ and ‘warfare’, said to describe a form of asymmetric warfare.[2] Lawfare is asserted by some to be the illegitimate use of domestic or international law with the intention of damaging an opponent, winning a public relations victory, financially crippling an opponent, or tying up the opponent’s time so that they cannot pursue other ventures such as running for public office,[1][2] similar to a SLAPP lawsuit. Other scholars see it more neutrally as a reference to both positive and negative uses of law as an instrument of warfare or even to the legal debates surrounding national security and counterterrorism.[3] — Wiki.

Lawfare is a particularly vile tactic. It does, however, have a large degree of success by cherry-picking cases that incrementally enhances the agenda of its practitioners.

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Escape

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It’s snowing at Casa Crucis…light snow mixed with a bit of sleet. It’s the middle of April! Yeah, it won’t stick, but still…

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http://www.americanthinker.com/assets/images/AT-ten-tears-large.jpg

The American Thinker

An article in The American Thinker echoed, to an extent, with an experience of mine. It was some time ago. I was a contractor working for AT&T on a software project. One of the people I had to work with was Mark (I don’t remember his last name now, the events occurred twenty years ago.) Mark was a Unix system administrator and a proud member of the CWA, the Communications Workers of America.

I was a database administrator and had to work closely with Mark to insure database changes were implemented quickly and accurately. In a usual work day, I would spend a couple of hours with Mark—listening to his continuous tirade of AT&T oppression against the union, unfair wages, too much work, long working hours, etc., etc., etc. It grew tiresome. By my second day, I was disgusted with his litany. As a contractor, I wasn’t union. Mark gloated that the union would soon force me to pay union dues.

It didn’t happen. The union went on strike, for other reasons, and all of a sudden, I was assigned to do Mark’s job. I did his and my jobs together. Not only did I keep pace with the project, I eliminated a back-log of tasks Mark had neglected.

Three weeks later, the strike was over. Due to wage hikes, some administrative positions at AT&T were eliminated. Mark was one whose job was eliminated. He had not been aware his position was considered, ‘administrative.’ His tasks were assigned to a contractor. Mark had two weeks to find another job or be laid off.

A by-product of the strike was my project. It was over-budget and behind schedule. It was canceled and I was off to another contract.

Fast forward ten years. I was now employed at Sprint as a middle manager. My group had to work with a team in Texas. My team would develop software, the other team would support the servers for the production system. I scanned the names and saw a familiar name—Mark’s.

AT&T was union. Sprint was not, except for the Local Division, the former United Telephone Company that was the end-user local telecom provider in several states. Mark was employed by Sprint in a non-union position.

Early in the project, we spent a few minutes catching up. Mark had not found another union position within AT&T—the union had all such positions locked by contract. Mark was laid-off a few weeks after my contract with AT&T ended and he found another UNIX administrator job near Dallas, TX, a non-union job. Suddenly, Mark’s outlook changed. He was being paid less than when he was employed by AT&T, but now his take-home pay was more. Texas was also a Right-to-work state.

Mark shifted jobs. Each one paying a bit more until he joined Sprint. His attitude had changed. The CWA still tried to unionize Sprint and each attempt failed. Mark was no longer a union advocate. Instead, he was now strongly against the CWA and unions in general. It was surprising the change in environment, moving from a union to a non-union job and moving to a Right-to-Work state can make in a person.

What has this to do with The American Thinker? This article.

Escape from Liberal Despair?

By Andrew Thomas, April 14, 2014

If you want to understand why there are so many liberals in New York City, listen to the story of a couple I know all too well.  Donna and Frank, earning six-figures in salary, lived in relative squalor in Brooklyn, NY, as I related to AT readers in February.   They resided in a dark, dingy, rat-infested one room apartment.  Their neighborhood consisted of streets of dilapidated industrial buildings and sidewalks littered with trash and makeshift habitats for the homeless.  This was punctuated by the deafening traffic noise and exhaust fumes from the elevated expressway that ran overhead.

Like flies in the proverbial vinegar jar, they believed it was the sweetest place on Earth.  However, there was a subliminal anger dwelling deep within them, a vague feeling that some outside force was waging war on their existence.

Frank joined the local chapter of ISO, the International Socialist Organization.  There, he learned to cultivate his anger and resentment, and focus it on a hatred for capitalism, evil corporations, and greedy CEOs.  Donna was easily drawn into this dark cloud of bitter antipathy for all things capitalist and conservative.

Here I have to confess that Donna and Frank are more than just friends, they are family.  I am stuck with them.

Whenever they would come over for a visit, there was tension in the air.  Although Donna was upbeat and loquacious, any mention of conservative values or beliefs would set her off.  Frank was always in a bad mood.  He would stomp into our house without saying a word, sit in a corner with his arms crossed and wait for someone to light his fuse. 

With teeth clenched, Frank once told me that he had been oppressed all of his life.   I couldn’t help but laugh out loud, since I knew that he had led a relatively blessed upper-middle class existence since childhood.   Note:  He is not a blood relative, so his oppression fantasies are not my fault.

…

In January, Donna received a job offer from a company in Orlando, offering approximately the same six-figure salary as she was making in Brooklyn.  She accepted, and they moved immediately.

All of this is prologue to our latest encounter.  A dramatic change has taken place with Donna and Frank since their move.  They appear to be genuinely happy, and at peace with the world.

My wife and I took a long vacation to Orlando in March.  We spent a lot of time with them, and I was struck by the absence of tension in our relationship. 

Their new apartment is beautiful.  Everything in it is brand new, clean, and brightly lit.  The view from their balcony of the Orlando skyline and Lake Eola is breathtaking.  Their rent is about half of what they paid in Brooklyn. 

We walked to the downtown Church Street area for dinner.  The streets were filled with young, upscale professionals dining at the sidewalk cafés and dancing at the clubs.  The environment was vibrant and life-affirming.  I have never felt so old.

At dinner, Donna talked about her new job.  The work ethic of Millennials is atrocious, said Gen-X’er Donna.  They demand shorter work hours and flexible schedules.  She was appalled by their lack of commitment, and has had to fire several of them.   As a Boomer, I had to chuckle at the irony.

Frank seems totally different, as well.  He hasn’t yet found a job in teaching, but he is definitely upbeat about the future.  He talked about the horrors of the Common Core curriculum, and the difficulties in dealing with the latest generation of students.

With an enthusiastic, positively energized voice, he spoke about the promise of Orlando’s future and the vast opportunities available for entrepreneurs and investors there.   Frank has developed a passion for real estate, and has done some intensive research on potential areas of growth and development in the city.  As we drove through downtown, he pointed out several properties he thought I should purchase for investment.

I was amazed.  The anti-capitalist angst and negative energy I had felt from the two of them has been replaced with an optimism and an inner peace that is a stunning transformation.

I credit the “broken windows” theory.  A deleterious and toxic environment, such as the one Frank and Donna experienced in Brooklyn, is a cancer to the soul.  The result is a darkness that produces envy, frustration, and a hopelessness that is the foundation for a distorted leftist political philosophy.  As a growing, less-regulated and more free-market environment, sunny Orlando has been their repaired window.

Frank reminded me of Mark. Mark may not have been as rabid as Frank in the article above but they did have similarities. When we worked together at AT&T, Mark was at a hair-trigger, ready to take offense and ready to denounce any opinion that didn’t align with his.

Like Frank, when I next met, well, spoke with Mark, he had changed as radically as had Frank. A new environment, a new home in a conservative state, out from under the union thumb, Mark now had a new attitude, a new and much better life than the bitter one I had seen a decade earlier. I never met Mark again after we separated at AT&T but we spoke nearly every day while on that project and became friends.

Environment does impact life. Perhaps not in the way many assume. It is not the old ‘nature vs. nuture‘ argument, but similarities exist. It still takes an open mind to change. Unfortunately, given our government schools and massive welfare, all too many have no desire…nor need, to change while existing off the labor and money of others.

That life of dependency can and will change. At some point, to quote Margaret Thatcher, “You will eventually run out of other people’s money.” What will they do then?

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Busy Week

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And a busy week it will be! I’ll not be posting today, nor Thursday. Thursday is the annual 2nd Amendment Rally in Jeff City. I’ll be leaving early (groan!) with a couple of friends and will be spending the day in Missouri’s Capitol.

My excuse for not posting today is…well. I don’t have one. Nothing in the morning news stream is appealing. I did get word late last night that the Pay Check Protection bill passed Missouri’s House. Dems and RINO union goons say it will kill unions in Missouri. More lies. The bill just won’t allow unions to extort dues from non-members. That’s an outrage for them. Imagine, not being able to steal from non-members!

House Passes Paycheck Protection 83-70

Here’s a blown up photo, courtesy of Eli Yokley:

paycheckprotectionvote

Republicans who voted against passage:

  • Rep. Jay Barnes
  • Rep. T.J. Berry
  • Rep. Doug Funderburk
  • Rep. Elaine Gannon
  • Rep. Ron Hicks
  • Rep. Galen Hidgon
  • Rep. Jeanie Lauer
  • Rep. Nick Marshall
  • Rep. John McCaherty
  • Rep. Chris Molendorp
  • Rep. Jim Neely
  • Rep. Myron Neth
  • Rep. Donna Pfautsch
  • Rep. Caleb Rowden
  • Rep. Ron Schieber
  • Rep. Shelia Solon
  • Rep. Chrissy Sommer
  • Rep. Noel Torpey
  • Rep. Paul Weiland
  • Rep. Ann Zerr

Just FYI, the names above are the Rogue’s Gallery of RINOs and union goons who voted against the bill. Let’s do our best to remember them come the primary and November elections.

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