Kaus: “‘Card Check’ Not as Bad as Thought! It’s Worse”
In the “card check” bill, if a newly unionized employer can’t reach an agreement with the new union, an arbitrator will step in and impose a two-year contract. I thought Jennifer Rubin must be wrong when she said that this arbitrator would be a government employee:
That’s what we are talking about here: a government official sent into a private workplace to order, in the absence of a voluntary agreement between labor and management, the employer to abide by a government-dictated contract. . . .
That seems like a parody of liberal Washington meddling. It’s one thing for employer and union to have to abide by the decision of a mutually selected third party. It’s another to have a strange bureaucrat from D.C. come and tell everyone how to run things–not just setting a minimum wage but setting wages and job categories up and down the hierarchy. I figured Rubin was being alarmist.
But it turns out Rubin is right. Or at least she might be right. The arbitration parts of the card check bill are so vaguely drawn that nobody knows who the arbitrators will be.
Emphasis in original. This ought to be great for business.
Adjectives fail me.
Techie (6b5d8d) — 3/1/2009 @ 5:36 pmMore Democratic ideas borrowed from Mussolini.
SPQR (26be8b) — 3/1/2009 @ 5:38 pm“Nice company youse got here. I’d hate to have recommend Ryan be your arbitrator. Ryan’s kinda gone loopy these past few years. Now, if you play your cards right, I can see that you get the best arbitrator the Feds can send. Of course, you’re under no pressure to ask for any “favors”. Kapish?”
Techie (6b5d8d) — 3/1/2009 @ 5:41 pmNothing to see here. Move along.
Yeah, it will lead to huge corruption problems. But – the corrupt payoffs will lead to extra sooper campaign donations to the party of Pelosi, Reid, and Obama.
What’s not to love?
steve miller (4bda12) — 3/1/2009 @ 5:45 pmThere can be no more corrosive effect on our economy than having the government set the exact wage of every worker. It is literally socialism.
SPQR (26be8b) — 3/1/2009 @ 5:47 pm#3 Exactly my reaction. Obama proposes “Chicago Style” arbitration and protection services. It’s just a coincident that all the arbitrators are Democrat hacks and/or relatives of Democrat congressmen.
Perfect Sense (0922fa) — 3/1/2009 @ 5:49 pmThis can’t be Constitutional cause if it is the Constitution is gay and we need a more better one.
happyfeet (71f55e) — 3/1/2009 @ 5:53 pmI’ve been over trying to debate with the children at Washington Monthly. I just don’t think the left will see any negative until their own jobs are gone. Since many are government employees, that may mean municipal bankruptcy. Los Angeles now has a $1 billion deficit so it may not be long.
All we can do is hunker down, pay stuff off, reduce consumption and watch the left self destruct.
It will be ugly.
My son says the litigation business is booming. I hope his clients can pay the bills when they come due. He voted from Obama so he must know what he is talking about.
Mike K (2cf494) — 3/1/2009 @ 6:03 pmKaus has another good link, to LA’s downward spiral
Once a primary destination for Americans, L.A. – along with places like Detroit, New York and Chicago – now suffers among the highest rates of out-migration in the country. Particularly hard hit has been its base of middle-class families, which continues to shrink. This is painfully evident in places like the San Fernando Valley, where I live, long a middle-class outpost for L.A., much like Queens and Staten Island are for New York.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 3/1/2009 @ 6:08 pmJust like the proposed budget. How convenient! It’s whatever I say it is: “I won.”
This is FDR stuff, only sneaky. Am I being paranoid to ask why he’s being sneaky?
Patricia (419c68) — 3/1/2009 @ 6:12 pmThis has to be a joke.
JD (0d1f38) — 3/1/2009 @ 6:13 pmI am afraid it is dead serious. Everyone has focused on the loss of the secret ballot but there are many aspects of EFCA that are bad for business. At my employer we are very concerned about this legislation and are anticipating rough times if it passes.
With the arbitration being binding there is little incentive for labor to find middle ground with the employer. Now they just have to hold out for the required window and then the “impartial government arbitrator” comes in and starts imposing conditions.
This will be bad for everyone but the unions.
Norman J (f75dd3) — 3/1/2009 @ 6:27 pmThe arbitration parts of the card check bill are so vaguely drawn that nobody knows who the arbitrators will be.
One gets the sneaking suspicion that these new bills are almost off the cuff….just push something out there, outline the gist of it leaving out the important details. It offers the appearance of doing something effective and meaningful while still allowing time for the inevitable sleight of hand as said details are figured out.
Dana (137151) — 3/1/2009 @ 6:27 pmActually, Dana, currently Congress has been writing some exceptionally incompetent legislation for some time now. The bankruptcy reform of 2005 is notorious among bankruptcy practitioners for its poor drafting. And over at Overlawyered.com they are covering the incompetence of the current Congress with respect to the CPSIA legislation.
SPQR (26be8b) — 3/1/2009 @ 6:29 pmOh, well, sounds like another great shot in the arm to our economy! Right up there with upcoming legislation that will remove secret balloting for employees voting on union representation, along with the imposition of cap-and-trade restrictions or new taxes aimed at the horrible, deadly, dangerous pollutant of carbon dioxide.
Mark (411533) — 3/1/2009 @ 6:34 pmI understand that SPQR, my comment was intended more broad brushed – things sort of seem to ‘evolve‘ these new days… I think Patrica @ 6:12 p.m., makes the point, “How convenient! It’s whatever I say it is: “I won.”
Dana (137151) — 3/1/2009 @ 6:37 pmI think that people see Barack Obama, who seems like a nice enough fellow (good sweet Lord, especially when he stands in front of Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden), as a reasonable sort.
Of course, they generally haven’t looked at his voting record.
But now he is in the spotlight. Even with the adoring press (and cracks are appearing, as should be expected), the pedestal will crumble and he will be seen as a Chicago Machine Pol.
Anyway, what people right now are forgetting is the most important rule of politics: imagine someone of the other party saying exactly what “your” politician is saying. Do you still think it is reasonable, or evil?
During the campaign, I saw many Republicans detest McCain. I didn’t see many Democrats (other than a few Clinton supporters, quickly muzzled) looking with a critical eye at Obama.
So here we are.
Just keep in mind that the precedents that Obama is setting can be used by other candidates, of other parties. The government that governs least, governs best—and the previous sentence is why.
Eric Blair (8d54e0) — 3/1/2009 @ 6:44 pmEric – This is the kind of incremental Leftism that is really damn difficult to make go away. Just like his behind closed doors universal healthcare parts of the “stimulus” bill. Just like the countless other social programs that were hidden in the “stimulus” package.
This noxious portion of the card check legislation turns a fuckin horrible idea into un de la mas grande fuckin horrible ideas. Getting rid of the secret ballot just shows how little the Dems really care about individuals. Viva la collective.
!Si se puede! Beeyotches.
JD (0d1f38) — 3/1/2009 @ 6:55 pmI would love to see Patterico or Karl do a piece on Andy Stern. He owns Obama and the Dems, and he is shady even in his dealings with other SEIU-associated unions.
Stern’s antics need to be made public, and need to be associated with this administration and this legislation.
MayBee (d9689f) — 3/1/2009 @ 7:14 pmOf course they could write a piece like that, but who else among the salons of the MSM would even pay attention? They’re too busy genuflecting and hushing any potential criticism of their guy.
Dmac (49b16c) — 3/1/2009 @ 7:19 pmHow can anyone image it is a good idea for a government employee to judge a business dispute between two parties?
imdw (de7003) — 3/1/2009 @ 7:19 pmMayBee!!!
JD (0d1f38) — 3/1/2009 @ 7:23 pmxoxoxo, JD
MayBee (d9689f) — 3/1/2009 @ 7:29 pmPolitico has had a few timid pieces about Stern. I bet they’d like a bigger one. Kaus would link to it. Indy would. Maybe The Blotter.
MayBee (d9689f) — 3/1/2009 @ 7:31 pmIsn’t it interesting that as the Congress becomes more and more captured by the legal profession, the quality of legislation diminishes.
AD - RtR/OS (0ac8fd) — 3/1/2009 @ 8:01 pmIn day’s of yore, Congress actually wrote laws with specificity. Today, they delegate huge areas of the law to be written by the relevant Federal Dept’s and Agencies. And then, we get these huge omnibus bills that have everything in them including the kitchen sink, that then take a platoon of Philadelphia lawyers years to flesh out, and decades of appellate case-law to determine.
The question arises:
Is the Congress, as currently constituted, and as it currently functions, a violation of the spirit and letter of the founding?
Government officials dictating what private citizens and private businesses do is a common practice in every communist country.
Scrapiron (4e0dda) — 3/1/2009 @ 10:00 pmO’Dumbo is converting the country’s laws to communism at a rapid pace. Only a shooting war will stop him.
I am sure ACORN has some good arbitrators.
And unfortunately, Noam Chomsky believes Libertarian Socialism is the next stage from Classical Liberialism. Where the libertarism is in all of this, I have no idea. Jeff Goldstein weeps.
Joe (17aeff) — 3/2/2009 @ 5:39 amActually, ACORN refuses to allow its employees to organize.
Rob Crawford (04f50f) — 3/2/2009 @ 7:58 am“Where the libertarianism is in all of this, I have no idea.”
Only in the propaganda. Considering his long history of denying and excusing leftist thuggery, its obvious that Chomsky would be delighted to happy hopey-changey propaganda while thugs crushed all who disagreed with him. After long bitter experience I have concluded that very few leftists give more than lip service to liberty. Freedom is a social good when leftists are in the minority, but an evil when leftists rule.
pst314 (672ba2) — 3/2/2009 @ 10:36 am