Red Clay Citizen

Another Cost of IllegaI Immigration Discussed

While open border advocates continue to push blanket amnesty for illegals aliens in hopes that these newly minted citizens will impact the electorate, more talk is zeroing in on an effect of our unenforced border laws:  the impact on blue collar employment.

Blogger Clayton Cramer really gets at the heart of the native worker issue with this article. 

"However, unskilled illegal immigrants who have flooded across our Southern border the last few years aren’t driving down the wages of well-paid professionals. They are lowering the wages for unskilled U.S. citizens and legal residents. It might not be much, but even a dollar per hour matters for people who earn hardly above minimum wage. For some, it’s the difference between self-sufficiency and needing government assistance."

Rather than taking the jobs that Americans don't want, turning a blind eye to illegal immigration for the sake of good business has resulted in giving illegals jobs that Americans won't want to do for the low pay given to their competitors from south of the border.

This grand coalition that the liberals hope to put together by giving citizenship (and the resulting voting rights that come with citizenship) is really an attempt to force two groups together that have competing economic issues. Low skilled, blue collar workers already have a tough enough time competing for the dwindling good paying manufacturing jobs that their parents and grandparents raised their families on. 

And if you are a felon looking to get hired by a company? Forget about it.  Why hire someone with a criminal record when you can hire an illegal for less pay despite the fact that they have an undeterminable criminal background as well as a questionable identity.  That's right employers, don't ask the questions that you don't want the answers to.

Thank goodness our education establishment has tried to shoehorn every kid in high school into college and an unreasonable career path.  That policy seems to have dovetailed nicely with the arrival of masses of unskilled workers that don't complain much.  American exceptionalism and our sovereignty are at risk, but don't let it get in the way of making a buck.

What $2.2 Million Buys You

Apparently, it's enough to buy you a Governor who will go out and stump for job approval killing tax increases to protect your special interest group.

If you'll recall, the national teachers' union (NEA) spent $2.2 million (Download NEA 2008) in 2008 helping Bev Perdue get elected Governor.

It is reported that Governor Perdue had a rally today with the NC teachers' union (NCAE) at the Capitol pledging to fight for higher taxes to support education.

In particular, Perdue said revenue should be raised so that the state would not have to lay off teachers or increase the number of children in classrooms.

Brave move by someone who's approval numbers are in the tank.  But apparently she knows where her bread is buttered.

Pseudo Right-To-Work State

 North Carolina is one of the 22 right-to-work states in the United States, though is it truly right to work? Right-to-work laws are laws that do not require an employee to join a union in their industry, nor require them to pay union dues.

It seems that many licensing statutes and bills, like HB 291, form a different kind of union, a government-based union. These licensing statutes require that all citizens that wish to practice in a field with a licensing board must join pay the licensing fee and be licensed. While great in theory, this is yet another government ideal that has been taken too far, venturing into the field of hair braiding. These licensing boards were initially made to protect citizens from fraudulent or harmful practices, but one cannot argue that they do not regulate industries. This regulation, intentional or not, is wrong for the government to be mandating. Becoming licensed should be the choice of the provider and choosing to use a non-licensed provider should be the choice of the consumer.

All of these regulations that limit competition should concern the voters of North Carolina, for it is competition that makes our Capitalistic system work.

“Who is John Galt?”

Organized Labor Making Its Push

Two bills to radically shift the landscape of organized labor in North Carolina have popped up on the legislative calendar for tomorrow.

First, a new piece of legislation, H 1651 was introduced today.  This bill would set up a mechanism for collective bargaining rights for public safety employees.

Second, a bill to grant collective bargaining rights to all municipal and state employees (H 750)is scheduled to be heard in the House Judiciary II committee tomorrow at 10 am.

At a time when state and local governments are facing some of the toughest economic challenges in decades, these bills would only exasperate the problems.  Granting collective bargaining rights will only increase costs at a time when tax revenues are declining rapidly.

Just imagine the Governor and General Assembly having to attempt to deal with the current budget crisis with labor contracts in place limiting the ability to control labor expenses through layoffs or furloughs.  North Carolina would be facing the near bankruptcy situation that other states like California are currently facing.

Collective bargaining for government employees is a bad idea.  It's an even worse idea in tough budget times.

Card Check Reality

Our friends at the Heritage Foundation put together this video with a former union organizer to demonstrate the lengths the unions will go to in order to get signed cards.

Paycheck Protection Act Introduced in NC Senate

Kudos to Senator Andrew Brock (R-Davie) for filing a North Carolina version of the Paycheck Protection Act which was recently upheld by the US Supreme Court. 

This bill (S 1032) would protect state employees from being pressured into signing up for payroll deductions for political activities of a labor union.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, SEANC SEIU Local 2008 collected in excess of $400,000 last year from state employees for political activities.

Sen. Brock was ranked as the most conservative Senator in the initial Civitas Action rankings.

Majority of NC House Sponsor Resolution Opposing Card Check

62 members of the North Carolina House are listed as either sponsor or co-sponsor of a resolution introduced today (H. Res. 831) opposing card-check. 

The main text:

The North Carolina House of Representatives expresses its opposition to any effort to enact the "Employee Free Choice Act" or any similar act aiming to remove the secret ballot from the union organizing process.

10 Democrats joined with all 52 House Republicans in standing against this job destroying legislation.

Hopefully these same 62 will stand together to hold the line and fight attempts to give collective bargaining rights to state employees as well.

A Taste of Their Own Medicine?

Looks like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is running into a bit of a quandary in its attempts to reduce its staff by 75.  According to the WaPo:

The staff union's leaders say that SEIU is engaging in the same kind of practices that some businesses use -- laying off workers without proper notice, contracting out work to temp firms, banning union activities and reclassifying workers to reduce union numbers.

"It's completely hypocritical," said staff union President Malcolm Harris. "This is the union that's been at the forefront of progressive issues, around ensuring that working people and working families are taken care of, but when it comes to the people that work for SEIU, they haven't set the same standards."

Looks like SEIU is engaging in many of the same practices that they often criticize employers for doing.

Harris said SEIU leaders have made clear that the laid-off employees will not be guaranteed jobs at local chapters. In the case of organizers who are rehired by local chapters, he said the SEIU national office would still subsidize their salaries and help supervise them, but by classifying them as working for local chapters, they would no longer be covered by Harris's union.

So SEIU is basically jerking people around in order to avoid dealing with them as union members.

Anyone find this as hysterical as I do?

Shock! Fitzsimon Embraces Corporate CEOs

It's good to see resident progressive Chris Fitzsimon come full-circle and now realize that big business CEOs are worthy individuals and most knowlegable in creating jobs.  No more "greedy, lying, worker-rights destorying CEO" rhetoric from Fitzsimon.  Nope, he is now taking them at their word when it comes to the business climate in North Carolina.

On his blog, Fitzsimon points to today's article in Chief Executive Magazine which released a survey of CEOs across the nation ranking North Carolina as the 2nd best business climate in the nation.

Fitzsimon chooses to highlight the CEO's ranking of North Carolina tax and regulation structure as being friendly to business.  Somehow he thinks this is an indictment of the free-market system and those of us who stand for it.

However, Fitzsimon misses the point, as usual.  What exactly does he think these CEOs are talking about when they say regulation?

Let's try and help him out.

What do the states ranked in the top 5 have in common:
Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee

Ok, for a little help, I'll give you the bottom 5 ranked states for comparison:
California, New York, Michigan, New Jersey, Massachusetts

So what "regulation" could these CEOs be referring to when comparing these 10 states?
Hmm... maybe labor policy?

The top 5 are all right-to-work states.  The bottom five -- forced unionization.

So if Fitzsimon is now trusting CEOs to best manage our economy, does this mean he will swear off the anti-business rhetoric he normally pens?  If he truly believes that "the CEOs who run manage corporations every day" know better than "think-tanks" what's best for North Carolina businesses, I welcome him to the fight to keep North Carolina from becoming more heavily unionized.  I'm glad to see he now agrees that it is best to just leave it up to CEOs to decide the best business practice and not have undue influence from labor unions.

It's good to see that we now have allies on the left that see the crippling effects that labor unions have on the economy and job creation in North Carolina.  I look forward to working with Chris to support our corporate CEOs in keeping North Carolina a right-to-work state for many years to come.

Unions vs. Walmart

What happens every time a union tries to put a collar around the neck of the largest employer in North America?  One of two things:  The union vote fails or the vote passes and Walmart shuts the doors on that store.  Why, you may ask?  Because Walmart knows that setting up a third party as a defacto staffing agency and giving control over your company to a leadership team concerned only with continually increasing union dues is bad for business. 

Question:  Have you ever seen any butchers in Walmart?  Several years ago you might have until the butchers voted to unionize whereupon management decided to sell only precut meat in the stores.  So what do you do if you are a union and you can't crack the Walmart nut through secret ballot elections?  You get rid of the secret ballot via card check.

 As usual, Red Planet Cartoons has a picture that says a thousand words: