Biden Administration Quietly Forcing Unionization

[Steve R.]

Ever since assuming office, the Biden administration has been quietly forcing unionization of the workforce through various legislative mandates and executive orders. This hasn't received much media coverage. Not too sexy. Several days passed before the linkage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to unionization finally emerged as a topic.

taxpayers, construction industry small businesses and climate change activists are sounding alarms about controversial labor policies in the legislation that will needlessly increase costs, reduce competition and undermine America’s swift transition to clean energy.

While the IRA has many well-documented problems, less-scrutinized language tucked in the partisan reconciliation bill forces private developers of solar, wind, hydrogen, carbon sequestration, electric vehicle charging stations and other clean energy projects to either hire union-signatory contractors and unionized construction workers or lose critical tax incentives that help grow America’s clean energy marketplace.

Although not an explicit mandate to use unionized firms and labor, in practice this policy is a brazen attempt to leverage federal tax policy to boost union membership while penalizing the 87.4% of U.S. construction workers who have chosen to work for a nonunion contractor and not to join a union.

Sweetheart union deal will undermine Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy agenda

Unions benefit from sweetheart deal buried in new Inflation Reduction Act. But construction firms and climate activist oppose the harmful regulations.

www.foxbusiness.com

Biden Directs Agencies to Do 6 Things to Promote Unionization in Federal Government. Ironically, for obvious reasons, the Biden administration abolishes ICE labor union which further documents that the Biden administration is further politicizing the government to favor the objectives of the Democratic party

Below printed on July 7, 2022.

Biden’s union pension bailout: What it means, and will it work?

President Biden on Wednesday rolled out a new plan for using federal taxpayer dollars to bail out hundreds of union pension plans at risk of insolvency.

www.foxbusiness.com

 

[Pat Hartman]

Having been forced to be a card carrying member of the Teamster's Union, I have nothing good to say about unions. Plus having worked in many unionized manufacturing companies, I stand by my opinion that unions do more harm than good. They have outlived their usefulness and now operate only to protect the incompetent. Especially, the teacher's union but also Including police unions.

 

[AngelSpeaks]

In my teens, for a year i worked for the transportation manager at a small company. He had to deal with two unions. The truck drivers and warehouse. Since union dues were a payroll deduction, noone was in arrears. I would hear the union steward always argue how the worker in trouble was a member in good standing. Yeah, right. Very entertaining. Idiots got the same defense as a good worker who made a mistake. My boss was a fair man. If the employee was a good worker, before the letter went out, he would make a deal with the good worker to stop the letter.

 

[ColinEssex]

I would hear the union steward always argue how the worker in trouble was a member in good standing. Yeah, right. Very entertaining.

Isnt that worker now the USA President?
Col

 

[Steve R.]

Seems that others have taken note of Biden's "forced" unionization. In response to the story below, a commentator humorously noted that the wall would probably have a union label on it. The wall also raises two suspicious questions: 1) it's extremely expensive and 2) will take a very long time to construct: "Construction of the fence began on Sept. 21 of last year and is expected to be completed by June 6, 2023." Nearly two years to construct a simple fence?!?!?!?!?!

Biden heads back to Delaware beach house, where he’s building $500K taxpayer-funded security fence

President Biden is building a taxpayer-funded security fence around his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with a price tag that has ballooned to nearly $500,000.

www.foxnews.com

 

[Pat Hartman]

Nearly two years to construct a simple fence?!?!?!?!?!

The workers get paid by the hour

 

[Steve R.]

The Democratic party's long march to eventually force unionization of all workers continues.

Stuart Varney: Biden's trying to shut down the gig economy

FOX Business' Stuart Varney says the president's plan re-classifying independent workers as employees attempts to "beat up" one of the most "vibrant" sectors of the labor force.

www.foxbusiness.com

"Think of the politics of this: Biden needs union votes, Governor Newsome depends on union votes, so they bring in the ‘Fair Labor Standards Act’ to beat up a vibrant sector of the labor market."

 

[Pat Hartman]

Since the unions make big contributions to the Dems, the Dems force people to join unions Why is there always an ulterior motive?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

While I am frequently against unionization in many industries, my step-son is a UPS driver and a member of the Teamster's Union. He is someone who needs his union because UPS is possibly one of the most unconcerned employers I have ever heard of. During the summer, UPS drivers were often developing heat ailments because UPS does not air-condition the trucks and because they lay out routes that require a level of effort that is perhaps not wise in that it doesn't take into account dehydration issues on heavily laden routes.

I'm not saying that all unions are good. Far from it. But there are cases where if there was no union, somebody's son or step-son would be lying in a hospital bed from heat stroke. Sure, there is a way to sue the company - but you shouldn't have to.

 

[AccessBlaster]

So he now has air conditioning?

 

[Pat Hartman]

I understand that there are situations where employers don't actively consider the effects of their decisions on the workers and UPS may be one of them. But having been forced to be a member of the Teamsters union when I was 19, I can say without a doubt, it was not for MY benefit at all. All it did was take money from me by force.

In my tenure at various manufacturing facilities, the union always seemed to be looking for ways to shirk duties or pad the payroll or cover for incompetent workers. For example, in the early days of desktop support when we were rolling out copies of dBase that were installed from 20 diskettes, I couldn't carry more than one box at a time the half mile from my office to the north end of the plant where most of my engineers were. The boxes were so awkward, even the guys couldn't carry more than 2. For me, it wasn't the weight. It was that my arms were too short to carry them in one arm So, I had the brilliant idea of bringing in a luggage carrier (this was before all luggage came with wheels). I could carry 3 or even 4 boxes at a time. Certainly much more efficient use of my time and the company's money but the riggers union would have no part of it. I was not allowed to use wheels to carry anything. In fact, I wasn't allowed to move a printer from one table to the next. I had to call a rigger to do it for me. I did so much walking on cement floors that year (always carrying something) that my shoemaker was making a mint rehealing my pumps every other month.

 

[Steve R.]

Citing outliers, such as the UPS driver's situation, is a distraction from the core theme. It also allows counter outliers to be expressed that again distract from the core them. In my counter example, a programmer that I used to work with was given an assignment. She refused claiming that she was not properly trained. Management offered her a training opportunity. She declined. Unbelievably, after going through the whole HR shtick, management was deemed to have harassed her. Totally unbelievable. Furthermore, in doing this distracting tit-for-tat the whole issue of forced unionization has been obfuscated.

A problem with citing outliers is that core theme of what the Biden administration is attempting to accomplish is being overlooked. The Biden administration is attempting to force people, whether they like it or not, to join a union just to work. One should not have to pay an "entry fee" to work. Unions are also exclusionary. As an example, it is my understanding that in-order to pick-up a container at one of the California ports, the trucker had to be a member of a union. Unions are also known to be corrupt. Why should you be forced to pay union dues when that money may be used by the union to support political causes that you do not support.

To conclude, should workers feel that they are working under harsh conditions and/or being cheated by management they do have a right to unionize. In the event that workers to not want to be represented by a union, they should have an equal right to toss that union aside. The government should not be an active proponent of unionization. (Also consider the known conflict of interest when unions contribute to Democratics who then formulate rules that support the unions.)

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Agree that government should not be pushing unions. However, unions are not a pure black-and-white issue. Shades of grey for sure.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Don't look at a specific union. Steve is right. We're playing "irrelevant" here. Unions aren't the issue. Some are good. Some are bad. The issue is that the government wants to be able to prevent you from working if you don't join a union. They have succeeded in many states including mine. When the union came in, I had a choice. Join the union or lose my job. For many people they don't have a choice. At 19, I certainly didn't and I didn't have the experience to understand how or even why to fight the issue.

 

[Isaac]

Seems that others have taken note of Biden's "forced" unionization. In response to the story below, a commentator humorously noted that the wall would probably have a union label on it. The wall also raises two suspicious questions: 1) it's extremely expensive and 2) will take a very long time to construct: "Construction of the fence began on Sept. 21 of last year and is expected to be completed by June 6, 2023." Nearly two years to construct a simple fence?!?!?!?!?!

Biden heads back to Delaware beach house, where he’s building $500K taxpayer-funded security fence

President Biden is building a taxpayer-funded security fence around his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with a price tag that has ballooned to nearly $500,000.

www.foxnews.com

Maybe the fence will be made of Hunter's artwork laid end to end.
Then again, if it were that, it would cost billions, of course, fairly!

I don't consider my expertise in labor law and economics, mostly, enough to be authoritative on this subject, but the concept of Unions rubs me the wrong way, philosophically.

You're worth whatever you're worth in the open market. If you think you're being underpaid, your redress is to freely quit and go somewhere else.
To leverage the government to DEMAND a certain wage practically erases the whole free market economy!

Obviously, too much attrition will drive up wages for companies who want to keep the good ones. Competition sets the pay.
Overall this seems to work relatively well, ESPECIALLY when you factor in the idea that pay can only go up so much before the consumer can no longer afford the product. Everything is attached nicely.

When you have an organization with special power to 'force' the issue, that seems to be an ingredient that confounds the natural harmony of all the rest. And for some reason it seems to be the lesser-skilled industries that always want to unionize. Common sense tells me they want to be paid more than they are worth organically.

I remember when my brother lived in Detroit (before its great fall, back when it was just a hideous place but still very much alive), he was awed when meeting father of friends who were being paid $80k/year (back in 2005) to put one bolt on another bolt all the day long.....We assumed it was the effect of Unions, and seems, on its face to be obviously ridiculous.

However, the simple concept of a group of employees coming together and saying "Let's quit unless they raise us 20%" - that seems totally legitimate to me, and certainly couldn't practically be outlawed without disturbing the freedom to contract.

Therefore the only thing left is: What bothers me is when the government's Labor Laws give unionized people special powers, which doesn't seem right. Let people informally negotiate, together or in groups, all they dang well please.

But never force or coerce a person to join a Union - and let's see which workers the market favors. Wanna guess?

Also, high minimum wage laws simply reduce the incentive to educate one's self and succeed on a greater level.
After all, if the Mcdonalds workers Los Angeles are coming dangerously close to the exact same wage as those who have gone to a 2-year trade school or even have a 4 year degree, then why go to college?

At some point parents will stop encouraging their kids to go to college if it no longer makes sense.

I never hear of a minimum salary for I.T. workers, why do all the lower paid people get it?

 

[Steve R.]

Obviously, too much attrition will drive up wages for companies who want to keep the good ones. Competition sets the pay.
Overall this seems to work relatively well, ESPECIALLY when you factor in the idea that pay can only go up so much before the consumer can no longer afford the product. Everything is attached nicely.

As a follow-up, very few people seem to comprehend that wages add to the cost of a product, especially for products that are labor intensive to produce. What this means is that government imposed minimum wages are inflationary. So we end-up in an endless cycle where people howl that the minimum wage is not a "living wage" and must be raised or their kids will starve. Well it gets raised by the government. The day after a new minimum wage is imposed, the wailing begins all over again in response to product prices going up. Our politicians never seem to comprehend this positive feedback loop. As a simple proof, Eat This,Not That!, listed the progressive price increase of a McDonald's Big Mac. During the 1960s the price was approximately $0.45. In 2020 approximately $5.00. A quiz question: at $20.00 per hour today for a fast food worker, how much would a Big Mac cost in the near future?

Still seeing all those help wanted signs? There is an interesting conjecture behind that. This speculation was quite rampant with the early Covid lock-downs were employees (the labor pool) were paid by the government to stay home. It appears that what the government paid these employees, exceeded the minimum wage. The consequence, especially for small business, was that they could not afford to hire employees because the government was paying people to stay home!! Or to express this differently: the government out-bid small business for the available labor. (This is an anathema to a capitalistic system.) Logically, why get a job when you could be paid to stay home. Whether this continues to be valid is unknown, but an indication that it is still occurring, to a degree, is that the labor participation rate is: approximately 62.3%. That means that approximately 37.7% of the people who could be working are not. Finally, as stated earlier, when a labor intensive business has to raise it's wages it also has to increase the cost of its products to the consumer. That is government caused inflation.

In conclusion there should be no government imposed minimum wage.

 

[Pat Hartman]

The earliest unions were called guilds and have been around for a thousand years. Unions came into prominence in the 19th century because of the way companies abused employees. They paid them very low wages and frequently it cost the employees more to live in company houses and shop at the company store than it was possible to earn which made them indebted to the company and therefore unable to leave their jobs. The Grapes of Wrath is about the abuse of the farm workers in the early part of the 20th century and a great story but a tearjerker. There was no care to safety either. The days of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire are long gone but not forgotten.

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The Jungle | Summary, Characters, & Facts

The Jungle is a novel by Upton Sinclair, published serially in 1905 and as a book in 1906. An exposé of the American meatpacking industry and the horrors endured by immigrant workers generated public outrage resulting in passage of federal legislation that improved food quality and working...

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Companies have to straddle a fine line. How to keep employees working at a rate that makes their wage profitable to the employer and yet doesn't harm the employee. Amazon is in the crossfire these days. The plants are huge and employees are running all over to pick stock and complain they don't even have time for bathroom breaks. The UPS drivers complain about no AC in the trucks. I never had a car with AC until 1978 and my old house didn't have central AC although we did have window units in the bedrooms.

There needs to be something of a separation between wages and working conditions but they seem to be inseparable.

There should also be a distinction between government unions and trade unions. I for one would abolish the teachers union in a heartbeat. They do far more damage than good.

Again, we are not debating the usefulness of unions. ONLY that the government doesn't want you to be able to work unless you join one.

 

[Steve R.]

The union dock strike kick-off the other day. Considering that the presidential election is going to occur in a few days, I was wondering why the dynamic duo of Biden/Harris have been silent. The silence has now been broken as both Biden/Harris have come-out in support of the union. This means that the federal government (under Biden/Harris) is endorsing a union!

Harris backs striking dockworkers, Trump blames labor stoppage on the Biden administration

Workers are demanding higher wages and restrictions on automation, shutting down dozens of major ports

www.salon.com

Normally, one would think (especially in an election year) that this labor dispute would have been resolved with negotiations before the strike actually occurred. But then Biden/Harris are pro-union. They are ideologues. Harris, in this election cycle, has beat the drums of price gouging and projecting anti-corporate demonization. With this as a backdrop, Biden/Harris are going to promote the union agenda.
Biden won’t step in to stop dockworker strike

Despite their (false) claims, Biden/Harris are not capitalists. If they were, they would not get involved.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

There are (or at least used to be) federal laws allowing the government to impose a "cooling-off" period to get people back to work. But of course the Democrats want unions to vote for them, so until they have another 4 years, they won't take any action to slow things down until after the election. By which time the economy will not be looking so good.

The unions fear automation but they don't seem to realize that if they demand wages so high as to bankrupt the company, they will lose jobs that the union can't protect. If they make their labor cost to the employers too high, they make automation more cost-effective - which means that when the NEXT contract comes around, the union will be busted - and they will have done it to themselves.

They paid them very low wages and frequently it cost the employees more to live in company houses and shop at the company store than it was possible to earn which made them indebted to the company and therefore unable to leave their jobs.

Just as an aside, does anyone remember Tennessee Ernie Ford's hit song from 1955? It was "Sixteen Tons" for which the refrain was

"Ya' load sixteen tons and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
St. Peter don't call me, 'cause I can't go,
I owe my soul to the company store."

Just to keep the record straight, Merle Travis wrote and first released that song in 1946, but Ernie Ford's magnificent melodic bass voice helped push that song into the national charts. If you check Wikipedia, you would find it was #1 on several different popularity charts both in the USA and the UK, for several weeks in each case.

 

[Steve R.]

here are (or at least used to be) federal laws allowing the government to impose a "cooling-off" period to get people back to work.

Taft-Hartely Act.

The unions fear automation ...

Union intransigence, is making the US non-competitive plus reduces innovation. Many years ago, when I was in California, the dockworkers at the Port of LA, opposed the use of scanners. Not only did it make the processing of containers slower, but it meant that X +1 employees were needed when only one person would actually be needed. As an other example of unionization hurting the national interest, during the Covid crises, the Port of LA restricted truckers entering the port to union members. Independent truckers were no allowed in!!!!

On the concern over Harris' price gouging (or is price gaging)?

ILA union boss living 'lavish' lifestyle despite leading port strike negotiations | Fox News Video

International Longshoreman's Association (ILA) President Harold Daggett reportedly makes $900k annually and is facing criticism for threatening to cripple the economy amid rampant inflation. FOX Business' Cheryl Casone reports the latest.

www.foxnews.com

Just as an aside, does anyone remember Tennessee Ernie Ford's hit song from 1955?

I actually enjoy listening to the socialist songs circa 1940s, with Pete Seeger as an example.