Republicans have been fighting a bailout of the Big 3 automakers* because they don't want to help union labor, even though they have no trouble bailing out Wall Street investment bankers and funding their multi-million dollar golden parachutes.
Now the GOP is stepping up its offensive against "Card Check" organizing. From a NRCC mailer, subject "Help stop big labor's power grab":
Card Check legislation will make it easier for unions to organize......we cannot let the big unions and their liberal friends in Congress pass Card Check. That is why I need you to make an immediate contribution to our Republican Stop Card Check campaign.
Making it easier for employees to organize and enforcing tougher penalties against union busting both seem like good ideas.
But I've been on the fence regarding the Employee Free Choice Act (which Obama says he supports), because I'm not sure about eliminating secret ballots. Having experienced intimidation from both the labor and management sides first-hand, this doesn't seem like a good idea. I'm also not sure about arbitration, but I guess the argument is that it levels the playing field?
Anyway, when the GOP thugs come out so aggressively against something, plus throw out the "L" card, it tends to help clarify who is really on the side of working people.
Based on all that, the bill seems like a step in the right direction, but maybe it could use some fine tuning. I don't really know enough about it at this point. What do y'all think?
(*I'm still undecided about a Big 3 bailout. My inclination is to let the boards, shareholders, and executives go through the cleansing process of bankruptcy and let employees buy in to ownership of whatever emerges. They can't do any worse than current management.)
|
|
Discussing:
- SoKno what have you done? (1 reply)
- Vote! Thursday is election day. (4 replies)
- The Odyssey (3 replies)
- AI backlash - Justin Pearson (1 reply)
- U.S. Commerce Dept. Going Socialist? (2 replies)
- Publix Greenwise Organic Berry Recall (4 replies)
- Clayton partners Townsend properties with national company (1 reply)
- Open AI escapes, hacks competitor (2 replies)
- What's going on with Chattanooga? (3 replies)
- Oil company benefits from Middle East war? (2 replies)
- Senate Homeland Security Meeting - Harassment of Anthony Fauci (1 reply)
- Tennessee paying $637 million over 5 years for voucher software program (3 replies)
TN Progressive
- View from the Overlook (Whitescreek Journal)
- Alcoa property taxes will probably not go up (BlountViews)
- Smith & Wesson not a good fit for Blount County (BlountViews)
- Pellissippi Parkway extension delayed again (BlountViews)
- Blount County early voting record turnout (BlountViews)
- WATCH THIS SPACE. (Left Wing Cracker)
- America As It Is Right Now (RoaneViews)
- A friend sent this: From Captain McElwee's Tall Tales of Roane County (RoaneViews)
- The Meidas Touch (RoaneViews)
- Massive Security Breach Analysis (RoaneViews)
- (Whitescreek Journal)
- My choices in the August election (Left Wing Cracker)
TN Politics
- Congressional approval not needed for White House ballroom, Trump tells high court (TN Lookout)
- Local officials in the dark about contract naming Adams as ICE call center site (TN Lookout)
- DOJ targets 3 more states in effort to axe in-state tuition for immigrants (TN Lookout)
- Stockard on the Stump: Special session talk on tax appraisals rears its head (TN Lookout)
- ICE to outfit agents with electric shock gloves from KY company in $20 million no-bid contract (TN Lookout)
- How abuse in a Tennessee businessman’s juvenile prisons remained under wraps (TN Lookout)
Knox TN Today
- Sunday Conversation: What sound says East Tennessee to you? (Knox TN Today)
- Community Snapshot: Sometimes the best view Is on the way Home (Knox TN Today)
- Lady Vols soccer opens 2026 season with win (Knox TN Today)
- Daily Connections: Your East Tennessee Guide | August 14-16 (Knox TN Today)
- Hummingbird Festival at Ijams + First concert @ Music in the Grove + Master Gardeners ++ (Knox TN Today)
- Help Zoo Knoxville name its newest red panda cubs (Knox TN Today)
- Close to Home, Far from Ordinary: History lives at Carson-Newman (Knox TN Today)
- Weekend Scene: Glow in the Dark to Yacht Rock Concert (Knox TN Today)
- Treasures and Tales: What in the world is this? (Knox TN Today)
- Hiking with Harrington: Old Sugarlands Trail shows late-summer color (Knox TN Today)
- Food City continues its longtime commitment to local schools (Knox TN Today)
- Meet Charlie Hatcher + $350M med school upgrade + Bill Lyons + Nikki Davis + Rick Scarbrough ++ (Knox TN Today)
Local TV News
- Knoxville Weather: Dangerous heat and humidity continues (WATE)
- Woman dead after single-vehicle crash on Adair Drive, Knoxville Police investigating (WATE)
- 'The Standard is the standard': Maryville begins new era under Kenny Cobble (WATE)
- Northview football feeling comfortable and confident in offense (WATE)
- Campbell County residents scramble to buy bottled water amid contamination scare (WATE)
- Dollywood's $60-million NightFlight Expedition coaster welcomes 1st riders (WATE)
News Sentinel
State News
- Dear Abby: Former spouse accused of murdering one of her offspring - Chattanooga Times Free Press (Times Free Press)
- QuoteWorthy: ‘A man who’s lost everything loses the hope to live’ - Chattanooga Times Free Press (Times Free Press)
- Hargis: TFP’s new year-round $10 per-month subscription benefits prep sports - Chattanooga Times Free Press (Times Free Press)
- Football won out for Cleveland’s Tate O’Bryan, now a UTC tight end - Chattanooga Times Free Press (Times Free Press)
Wire Reports
- Trump’s legal team shrinks - Politico (US News)
- US top Middle East commander visits deployed aircraft carrier, and other Mideast news - AP News (US News)
- Supreme Court emergency docket roars back - The Hill (US News)
- Instagram vowed to crack down on Meta glasses creeps. A month later, it was easy to find dozens of the videos still up. - Business Insider (Business)
- He Was a MAGA Patriot. ICE Took His Wife Away. - The New York Times (US News)
- Hawaii records 140 mph wind gust as Hurricane Lala bands pound islands - San Francisco Chronicle (US News)
- Waymo gets regulatory approval to scale up robotaxi service across California, enter 2 new markets - Fox Business (Business)
- Suspect captured after Virginia State University shooting - NewsNation (US News)
- Powerball winner in Illinois, Florida: Results, numbers for Saturday, Aug. 15 - Treasure Coast News (Business)
- Live flood updates: President Trump approves emergency declaration - IndyStar (US News)
- Cyclospora spreads through human waste — so how did it get on food? - PBS (Business)
- US Democrats finalise major shakeup to 2028 presidential primary calendar - Al Jazeera (US News)
- Massive egg recall in US south and south-west due to salmonella outbreak - The Guardian (Business)
- Bond Traders Are Agonizing Over $70 Billion of Shadow Credit Backstops For AI Companies - Bloomberg.com (Business)
- Goldman says these stocks are top ideas in the wake of their 2Q earnings - CNBC (Business)
Local Media
Lost Medicaid Funding
Search and Archives
TN Progressive
Nearby:
- Blount Dems
- Herston TN Family Law
- Inside of Knoxville
- Instapundit
- Jack Lail
- Jim Stovall
- Knox Dems
- MoxCarm Blue Streak
- Outdoor Knoxville
- Pittman Properties
- Reality Me
- Stop Alcoa Parkway
Beyond:
- Nashville Scene
- Nashville Post
- Smart City Memphis
- TN Dems
- TN Journal
- TN Lookout
- Bob Stepno
- Facing South

Shouldn't we be able to
Shouldn't we be able to build a card check system that's secure and secret?
Liberty and justice for all.
My home
Determining motivation
It's clear the GOP opposition to a big 3 bailout has to do with unions and little else. They were eager enough to help out the high stakes financial industry gamblers but oppose helping out where it would mean preserving real jobs for real Americans. Meanwhile the financial industry continues to behave badly and to shed thousands of jobs, the jobs of taxpayers who bailed their sorry asses out. Perhaps some wingnut can find a way to justify the GOP on this matter?
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Hunter S. Thompson
Doing what they had to do
Perhaps some wingnut can find a way to justify the GOP on [the auto industry bailout]?
Until we knew they wanted a bailout, the wingnut narrative was that the Big Three were the innocent good guys. They had to build SUVs and giant pickups, you see, because the buyers demanded them.
I wasn't aware of the EFCA. Eliminating secret ballot doesn't seem to be an improvement, I agree, but also agree that almost anything the GOP opposes to this degree re unions must be good. It's especially easy when they come right out and say it's bad because it would make organizing unions easier. That sounds like plenty reason enough to try and counter all the collusive acts governments and corporations have employed over the last few decades to bust unions.
Hate the Card Check aspect...
the secret ballot must be preserved. Neither union organizers nor employers should ever be in a position to know how any individual voted on an issue like this. The rest of the bill is perfectly okay with me, but the loss of privacy that is necessarily associated with checking card signatures is unconscionable to me. This isn't a pro-labor or anti-labor question. It's a human rights question. The right to privacy ought to be sacrosanct in a vote like this.
card check
Workers should be able to form a union without being subjected to management threats, harassment and intimidation. "Secret ballot" elections require a process that allows for that to happen. Even if the actual "vote" is safe and secure, the process preceding it is heavily weighted against a free choice to unionize.
Management threats...
then change the process leading up to the ballot. The only way to address a problem is to address the problem, not by trying to make things "equally" unfair.
Misleading
Your post is misleading. It is not the GOP that's keeping the bailout for the auto industry from happening. Please remember that Congress is run by the democrats.
Harry Reed said two days ago, "the votes aren't there", does not mean that only republicans are not in favor of the measure.
In fact, the democrats will have a hard time even with a democratic president and congress. WHY? Because of the blue dog democrats. There are a lot of elected officials that come from RED states. And if they want to get reelected, they better vote "conservative" not democratic or republican!
It's not going to be that easy for you.
"Up or down vote! Up or down vote!"
And please forget that when the Republicans ran Congress (from 1994 - 2006), and the prurient dreams of the permanent Republican majority were accepted as gospel truth throughout the Establishment, the all-powerful "liberal agenda" was tying their hands from getting anything done - like shutting down the government, pursuing a specious presidential impeachment, starting a war based on false intelligence, unbridled spy authority, etc. etc. etc. Poow widduw powuhwess Weepubwicans. Always victims.
(First rule of "bipartisanship:" Majority/minority status notwithstanding, it's always the Democrats' fault when the Republicans don't get their way. Heads, they win. Tails, you lose.)
____________________________
Dirty deeds done dirt cheap! Special holidays, Sundays and rates!
YOU’RE LOPSIDED from that
YOU’RE LOPSIDED from that huge chip on your shoulder.
All I said was that the democrats have all the votes they need to pass the bailout, why don’t they and don’t blame the democrats.
Your post is bias and offensive. You're very small minded and short sighted.
Sorry.....don't blame the
Sorry.....don't blame the republicans......
six more weeks
Six more weeks and we have a chance to turn things around.
The markets love Obama it seems. People are learning you can't trust a Republican with your money.
And as for blame, who is currently the defacto leader of the GOP? Can you say Dubya? One president and leader at a time. Step forward Dear GOP leader and tell your party to fix this problem! What? No cojones? Blame the Dems again? What a cop out!
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Hunter S. Thompson
Do you mean Jefferson Davis conservatives?
Sorry.....don't blame the republicans......
Except they oppose it more widely than Dems. The new Congress in Jan. could have the votes not there now, especially if they're not voting on Bush's plan to rob fuel efficiency funds for the bailout.
...they better vote "conservative" not democratic or republican! ... It's not going to be that easy for you.
It's already tough for you, apparently. Having to cling to an ever narrowing group to try and identify with must be hard.
None of them need bailing
None of them need bailing out. Breaking the union though would be the thing to ever happen to the American automobile industry. Why is it that only the "Big 3" are needing help?
If Oregon can vote by mail...
... there's no reason card check couldn't preserve the secret ballot.
Liberty and justice for all.
My home