Democrats Casting to be More Like Europe

Yep, Europe's model is something the Dems appear to want to emulate here. More power for the Unions and more paid time off.

Let's start with the Unions:

For the last dozen years, Capitol Hill hasn't been the friendliest place for organized labor. But that's changed with the new Democratic-controlled Congress, and labor is pressing its agenda.

That was apparent Thursday as the House approved a bill to make it easier to form a union — a longtime priority of labor, an important Democratic constituency. The vote was followed by a victory celebration in the House speaker's office attended by the president of the AFL-CIO.

The Senate, meanwhile, is considering a bill to give airport screeners collective bargaining rights. Another labor priority, the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade, is expected to clear Congress within weeks.

"This is just the beginning," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said in an interview Thursday. He listed planned labor offenses on healthcare, trade policy and an immigration overhaul.

Labor Unions have been losing out hugely as of late, and frankly it's because they don't help their members after they have managed to damage the industries that they effect. They aren't the sole cause of business issues, but they certainly don't help. I love that first bill mentioned. You know, it's the one that eliminates the Taft-Hartley act's secret ballot requirement. At least some in the press are printing OpEds on the unfairness to this.

Voter privacy is a fundamental human right. Americans know this in their heart and soul. We take it for granted. The standard television image on election days is of voters --from presidential candidates to regular citizens--stepping inside a voter booth and closing the curtain so they can vote privately. Voter privacy is as American as the Stars and Stripes.

Incredibly, legislation is advancing in Congress that would obliterate voter privacy in American workplaces because that basic human right has been construed by some in Washington to collide with their ambition of expanded unionism.

The legislation would institute a "card-check" system, stripping workers of their longstanding right to vote privately in union elections, turning the clock back 60 years to a failed process that was rife with widespread intimidation of workers. Currently, if 30 percent of a workplace petitions for union representation, then the National Labor Relations Board supervises an election and the determination is made by the majority of workplace voters, having cast their votes privately.

I've seen the spouting by the representatives that big business is complaining about this when in fact it is the workers who are complaining. It's not retribution from the employer that they are worried about, it's retribution from the Union leadership should they have voted against it. The original act made it so the Boss can't make your life hell, but this removes that protection and hands it to someone that has even more questionable motives. With labor movements dwindling across the country, it's really no wonder they want a big lever to threaten those that don't want to play. Just as the courts have handed the unions the right to charge non-union employees for services questionably provided. (I still wonder why they don't set up counter unions to push back, but there probably is some law that makes that illegal.)

Then there are the benefits, some which are just amazing.

To the extent that there is a unified labor agenda in Washington, it includes legislation to expand paid sick leave, child care, healthcare and pension protections.

Democrats have proposed new bankruptcy legislation that would protect workers' health and pension benefits. They also want to expand the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act to provide at least six weeks of paid leave for workers to care for themselves, their children or other immediate family.

Democrats also are drafting legislation to reinforce workplace safety and prevent corporations from avoiding pension obligations.

Six weeks? What is this France? I suppose they want all the holidays and regular vacation time on top of that. No doubt the pension protections are called for, but then, they already have those. Remember the Pension Protection Act where companies "buy" insurance from the Fed and then can dump their pensions into the federal system if they feel they need to steel the money that they were supposed to be protecting. The Airlines and Auto industry has already dumped lots of pensions on the public dole.

And now to the Economic Isolationism.

Democratic leaders are hoping to wring concessions from Republicans before they consider renewing Bush's trade promotion, or "fast track," authority, which expires July 1. The free-trade wing of the Democratic Party appears to be shrinking, with more legislators like Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) demanding that the administration incorporate labor protections into trade agreements.

All but three of the 42 House Democratic freshmen recently sent a letter to their leadership calling for a new direction on trade, including an end to what they describe as "job-killing agreements."

Capitalism obviously doesn't work, so let's shut down globalization and force the public to buy locally manufactured products. I'm betting this is to help save the poor afford the basics, and crush out those evil Bastards in Walmart. "Job-killing agreements" is a perfect indicator that the newbies are bloody clueless. What's next tariffs?