Posted on 04/09/2014 11:56:13 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Richard Griffin, the new general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, wants to give unions a veto over a unionized employer's decision to relocate. If Griffin has his way, and he most assuredly will, some unionized businesses will be pinned in place at the discretion of their unions.
The change Griffin is contemplating is unnecessary and inconsistent with both the law and the dynamics of our free-enterprise system. It will upset the balance mandated by the Supreme Court and should send a chill up the spine of unionized companies contemplating relocating an operation.
Griffin's intent was disclosed in a memorandum he sent the agency's regional directors ordering them not to act on cases presenting issues "of concern" to him -- and there were many such issues -- without receiving guidance from his office. Griffin's guidance will be to order an employer to be prosecuted not on the basis of what the law is but on the law as Griffin would like it to be. This will give the board an opportunity to change the law (though the change will be prospective -- the employer who is prosecuted will not be punished for violating the new rule).
Under current law, it is perfectly legal for a unionized employer to relocate some or all of its facilities and eliminate bargaining-unit work if the move is motivated by economic gain -- not by a desire to retaliate against employees for their union activities and support. A desire to escape the consequences of unionization, particularly high labor costs, is considered an independent, innocent motivation, not an unlawful one. Big Labor loathes this law; Griffin intends to help unions nullify it....
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolicy.com ...
they will/close.
then go somewhere else and reopen.
freedom’of’association. freedom to make a living where you want.
It’s a simple game. You deny a company from moving...fine, they start up a new division in some state which is friendly. After a year or two...you bring in the union from plant one and note that you are down-sizing. Stagnant economy is always a good excuse. Lay off ten percent of the force. Six months later, twenty-five percent. Then a year later, lay off the rest. Market stagnation always works as a legal excuse.
The second company? Well...these days, you really don’t have to say much. Just as a gimmick, you could lay off a quarter of their force, just for effect (for six months), then resurge and increase the force at company two by double.
One way around it will be to never start a new company in a union state.
Or hire temps.
That works for new companies, but does nothing for someone already in business. What’s worse, the unions are pushing for new and creative ways to unionize people. If you really wanted to take things to extremes, this rule could eventually be used to prevent one-person small businesses like in-home childcare from moving their personal homes (recall that IIRC it was Wisconsin that was facing forced unionization of people like this).
Well, the unions wanted to keep supporting laws and regulations that results in their having fewer members (and hence ever-dwindling revenues), didn’t they. This is their bed that they made; they can’t lie in it now?
Over time though, I would expect more businesses in union states to go out of businesses, and more businesses in non union states to start and grow. This rule can’t stop it.
And then the same unions blame labor/manufacturing moving overseas on greedy capitalists. They should be forced to stay here and subsidize the entrenched anti-competitive socialist labor cartels.
Thanks to Mitch Mcconnell Unions have their commie at the NLRB.
More shades of 10-289.
“Directive 10-289
In the name of the general welfare, to protect the people’s security, to achieve full equality and total stability, it is decreed for the duration of the national emergency that:
Point One. All workers, wage earners and employees of any kind whatsoever shall henceforth be attached to their jobs and shall not leave nor be dismissed nor change employment, under penalty of a term in jail. The penalty shall be determined by the Unification Board, such Board to be appointed by the Bureau of Economic Planning and National Resources. All persons reaching the age of twenty-one shall report to the Unification Board, which shall assign them to where, in its opinion, their services will best serve the interests of the nation.
Point Two. All industrial, commercial, manufacturing and business establishments of any nature whatsoever shall henceforth remain in operation, and the owners of such establishments shall not quit nor leave nor retire, nor close, sell or transfer their business, under pentalty of the nationalization of their establishment and of any and all of their property.
Point Three. All patents and copyrights, pertaining to any devices, inventions, formulas, processes and works of any nature whatsoever, shall be turned over to the nation as a patriotic emergency gift by means of Gift Certificates to be signed voluntarily by the owners of all such patents and copyrights. The Unification Board shall then license the use of such patents and copyrights to all applicants, equally and without discrimination, for the purpose of eliminating monopolistic practices, discarding obsolete products and making the best available to the whole nation. No trademarks, brand names or copyrighted titles shall be used. Every formerly patented product shall be known by a new name and sold by all manufacturers under the same name, such name to be selected by the Unification Board. All private trademarks and brand names are hereby abolished.
Point Four. No new devices, inventions, products, or goods of any nature whatsoever, not now on the market, shall be produced, invented, manufacturered or sold after the date of this directive. The Office of Patents and Copyrights is hereby suspended.
Point Five. Every establishment, concern, corporation or person engaged in production of any nature whatsoever shall henceforth produce the same amount of goods per year as it, they or he produced during the Basic Year, no more and no less. The year to be known as the Basic or Yardstick Year is to be the year ending on the date of this directive. Over or under production shall be fined, such fines to be determined by the Unification Barod.
Point Six. Every person of any age, sex, class or income, shall henceforth spend the same amount of money on the purchase of goods per year as he or she spent during the Basic Year, no more and no less. Over or under purchasing shall be fined, such fines to be determined by the Unification Board.
Point Seven. All wages, prices, salaries, dividends, profits, interest rates and forms of income of any nature whatsoever, shall be frozen at their present figures, as of the date of this directive.
Point Eight. All cases arising from and rules not specifically provided for in this directive, shall be settled and determined by the Unification Board, whose decisions will be final.”
Stupid oppressive cartels
Keep hearing from commies and other anti-capitalists about how helpful unions are to the average worker and how they’d be screwed without them, then I see stories like this that demonstrate what happens when anyone and everyone but the owner of the business has a say in what happens to it.
And of course, when the inevitable happens, we’ll be hearing calls for even more union and government control, as if such things never existed in the first place.
Heh, if they try to pass something like that now, it wouldn’t go over quietly like it did in Atlas Shrugged. There’d be riots in the streets.
bkmk
This will kill businesses in union states or with unions. The market will not be mocked.
Time for Congress to do away with the NLRB.
Hope you are feeling better, 2nd.
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