Throughout most current political commerce, the field of discussion is a duality of agendas. Conservatives have their agenda, liberals has theirs, the Ruling Class, which includes the establishment of both major parties, have theirs. The most obvious examples of duality is what legislation, action, regulation proposes and what those same actually do.
Let’s take a couple of examples, the SEIU effort to unionize the fast-food industry and Obamacare. In the former, SEIU has sold a bill of goods to workers telling them they can get $15/hr, more than doubling the current minimum wage. What SEIU is NOT telling those potential strikers is that they can be replaced—permanently, if they go on strike.
By making the rallying cry about wages, the SEIU and its cohorts put strikers’ jobs at risk
By: LaborUnionReport (Diary) | August 21st, 2013 at 09:00 PM |
They’re loud. They’re boisterous. They’re the SEIU…and they’re not as bright as they think.
The fast-food workers who are being pushed by the SEIU to take to the streets in a “nationwide” strike on August 29th, as part of the SEIU’s four-year old plan to collect union dues from the fast-food industry’s 3.7 million workers, have placed themselves in a precarious position legally.
As part of its battle strategy to unionize the industry, in its 2009 blueprint, the SEIU declared that economic issues (wages) would be its rallying cry:
Use a living wage as a vehicle to excite, build momentum, build worker lists/ID potential leaders and potentially support collective bargaining. We believe we will have enough traction with an ordinance to use as a legitimate tool for organizing and potentially as legislation to raise standards.
One of the campaign’s main websites also makes it clear that wages–and nothing else–is the key issue.
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So, why is the fact that SEIU-backed strikers are pushing for higher wages important?
Very simply, for legal reasons, the fact that the SEIU–and now those who have become the SEIU’s ‘useful idiots‘ have now made their fight about “a living wage” or “Fight for $15″–is very significant.
In any strike, an employer has the right to replace (not fire) strikers. However, generally speaking there are two types of strikes: 1) Unfair Labor Practice Strikes, and 2) Economic Strikes.
In an unfair labor strike, while strikers can be replaced, they must be reinstated at the end of the strike.
However, due to a 1938 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in an economic strike, strikers may be permanently replaced and only offered reinstatement when an opening occurs.
Here is what the National Labor Relations Board states [in PDF] about economic strikers.
Strikes for a lawful object. Employees who strike for a lawful object fall into two classes “economic strikers” and “unfair labor practice strikers.” Both classes continue as employees, but unfair labor practice strikers have greater rights of reinstatement to their jobs.
Economic strikers defined. If the object of a strike is to obtain from the employer some economic concession such as higher wages, shorter hours, or better working conditions, the striking employees are called economic strikers. They retain their status as employees and cannot be discharged, but they can be replaced by their employer. If the employer has hired bona fide permanent replacements who are filling the jobs of the economic strikers when the strikers apply unconditionally to go back to work, the strikers are not entitled to reinstatement at that time. However, if the strikers do not obtain regular and substantially equivalent employment, they are entitled to be recalled to jobs for which they are qualified when openings in such jobs occur if they, or their bargaining representative, have made an unconditional request for their reinstatement. [p. 10, emphasis added.]
Now, while it is doubtful that any of the fast-food chains have the testicular fortitude to actually exercise their legal rights, here is how the August 29th strike could play out:
8:00 am (in some city)–As the SEIU bus pulls up with its astroturf protesters, the morning shift at Mickie D’s walks off the griddles and out from behind the counters, picking up picket signs and beginning to parade around on the sidewalk in front of the store.
8:01 am–A separate bus pulls up across the street and new Mickie D employees in fresh Mickie D uniforms walk into the store and assume the abandoned work stations.
8:10 am–Mickie D’s attorneys have noticed delivered (on the sidewalk) to each striker notifying him or her that, as each striker is engaging in an economic strike, by 8:20, the employer will have permanently hired all of the temporary replacement workers it needs and, by 8:30, will be converting said temporary replacement workers into permanent replacement workers. Further, there will no longer be a need for the individual strikers’ services, however, should an opening occur, they will be eligible for recall based upon their date of hire and qualifications for said vacancies.
Now, again, it is unlikely that any of the fast-food employers are willing to do what they have the right to do but, if they did, it could be that easy.
And, what could the SEIU and its astroturf friends do? What would they do?
They’d scream and gnash their teeth for a while. They’d call for boycotts. They’d get Jesse Jackson to go on Al Sharpton’s MSNBC show and scream about the evils of corporate America…everything they are already doing, by the way.
However, does anyone in the public really care? Would people really stop scarfing Mickie D’s because someone got replaced in New York? Really?
Most of the Lefties supporting the SEIU’s cause aren’t Mickie D’s customers anyway. They’re the earthy, crunchy, vegan types. [Okay, granted, maybe Michael Moore will stop eating Big Macs…for a while.]
The point is, though, if Mickie D’s and the rest of the fast-food operators wanted to, they could follow Barack Obama’s modus operandi: “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” And, if so, they could prevail in the long run.
That’s sage advice, by the way, from the President whom the SEIU put into office. Heck, the fast-food companies are already on the President’s Enemies List–or, at least his wife’s enemies list. So, no real loss there either.
If Mickie D’s or any other fast-food operator chose to do this, Mary Kay Henry and the SEIU (despite their cries) would have no one to blame but themselves.
It would be messy and it would be public…but, in the end, fast-food eaters the world over will still line up in the drive thru.
The article continues with the explanation that SEIU will continue following Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.
What the union promised, is not what it can deliver if the fast-food companies resist. Those companies are caught in the middle—controlling costs and expenses (wages) while still being able to market a product (‘burgers) with a price that meets their customer’s demographics. The union tell the workers that customers will still continue to buy ‘burgers. The companies have extensive research that tells them the maximum price their customers are willing to pay.
The unions know this as well. They care not if their individual members remain employed. No, they’d rather have a much higher turnover because with each turnover, the union collects a fee—a fee that may exceed any revenue the union receives through membership dues. In short, the union is lying to their potential members; their agenda is not what is apparent.
The other example of duality is Obamacare. There are so many examples of liberal claims versus what they deliver. The current example in the news is Obama’s claim, “You can keep your existing healthcare!”
That, folks, was an out-right lie. This news item about the recent UPS announcement proves Obama’s lie.
By Jose Pagliery @Jose_Pagliery August 22, 2013: 7:13 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
United Parcel Service is planning to drop 15,000 workers’ spouses from its health insurance plan, citing higher costs due to Obamacare.
In an undated memo to employees, UPS (UPS, Fortune 500) said it will discontinue coverage for all working spouses who are eligible for insurance with their own employer. That applies to about 15,000 spouses covered by UPS today.
The internal document was obtained by Kaiser Health News. UPS told the nonprofit news agency that the policy applies only to non-union U.S. workers. It hasn’t responded to questions from CNNMoney.
In the memo, UPS said it’s willing to take care of its own, but it won’t bear a burden that other companies can take on.
“We believe your spouse should be covered by their own employer — just as UPS has a responsibility to offer coverage to you, our employee,” the memo states.
Spouses of UPS employees who don’t work — or who are not offered coverage by their own employer — will get to stay on the UPS plan.
Most of the company’s workers, such as delivery workers and truck drivers, are unionized through the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and receive insurance under a different plan.
UPS blamed the move on several aspects of Obamacare, including mandatory coverage for dependent children up to age 26 and new government fees.
“We are making these changes to offset cost increases due to the [Affordable Care Act],” the memo states.
In the memo, UPS said its health care costs usually increase about 7% a year, but that it expects those costs to climb by 11.25% in 2014 due to Obamacare.
The company also said that 35% of companies intend to make the same changes to their plans, but didn’t cite specific market data.
A recent survey by consulting firm Towers Watson found that next year, 18% of employers will require that workers’ spouses buy insurance from their own employer before turning to the surveyed company for insurance.
The other impact from Obamacare is the growing practice of companies converting full-time employees to part-time. Employees who work 32 hours per week or less, may not receive benefits. If a company converts or replaces full-time employees with part-time workers, the Obamacare impact is reduced. There is no impact for those new part-time employees who are not eligible for company-provided health insurance.
We live in a world of dualities. Some of those dualities are unintended. Others, like the union and Obamacare examples above, are deliberate. In both cases, it is the dupes who allow those dualities to exist; who also fall for them. Later, perhaps, they, the dupes, will look back and wonder how foolish they were…and learn. Others, unable to admit their stupidity, will blame others. Not the ones who duped them, but the ones who disclosed the lies.
To paraphrase Dave Ramsey, “The stupid, we will always have with us.”
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