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RICHMOND
Virginia's overwhelmingly Republican House is poised to take a final vote on legislation to ban contracts for state projects that prescribe labor done by union workers.
The bill, sponsored by the entire House Republican Caucus, advanced on a voice vote to a definitive recorded vote as early as Tuesday.
Democrats argued bitterly that the legislation is unconstitutional, unnecessary and certain to trigger lawsuits if it becomes law because it could affect existing state construction project contracts.
They noted that compelling union membership in Virginia, a state that already aggressively asserts its right-to-work law, is already illegal and has long been.
But Republicans, who control 68 of the House's 100 seats, said the bill would clarify state policy, say it will save Virginia hundreds of millions of dollars.
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Lost control
Virginia politicians are upset that their inept bungling has cost them control of the whole Dulles project. This will end up in Federal court.
This is politics as usual and most of you don't see that this
was a bone thrown to the democrats. The only attorney's that will be filing suit are democrats and you can bet they can already see the dollar signs. The republicans pass a law against unions which makes their constituency happy and the democrats rail against the inhumanity of it all. Meanwhile back in reality the democrats can now get donations from the unions to fight back and can also get hefty fees from representing union members in the courts. Everybody wins.
There are some companies that invite unions because they treat their employees rather badly. On the other hand once an union gets established things like school bus drivers in Ohio being paid $118,000.00 per year happen.
My grandparents generation saw something happen...
when unions got established in America. They saw a middle class created.
Now my generation is watching unionization rates fall to below 11% and the middle class continue to shrivel.
The union density in this nation hasn't been this low since the 1920s and economic inequality is worse now then in 1900 when 9% of the people owned 75% of the wealth. If unions were really the nation's economic problem, then why are things getting worse instead of better as unionization has declined from 38% in the 60's to 11% now. The lame bogus Republican propaganda doesn't hold water except to the ill informed.
Unions
My experience with unions is that they are not cost effective. They protect lazy and unproductive workers. Real life experience I am speaking of. Spend a day or two in the Ngnn shipyard for proof.
A non union job worker will be fired for non performance if he performs like a ngnn yard worker.
You can call it what you want. I call it unproductive. Both union and non union workers receive similar wages and benefits. Both are equally certified to perform their work. My non union workers out produce the shipyard union workers daily. They do not feel overworked or unappreciated.
This is one example of why union work typically costs more. Another issue is unions only protect certain employees. They are corrupt political organizations in 2012.
You really expect us to believe that the millions of workers
across this nation represented by unions are all just a bunch of lazy oafs and they all just gravitated together into unions?
Tell that to the union fire fighters and policeman who lost their lives in 911 and the union iron workers, laborers, crane operators etc. who worked day and night at ground zero under terrible conditions cleaning up the mess.
And all the hundreds of union contractors who do not have to stay union year after year, but do so for whatever reason, be it a moral consciousness to do right by their employees or whatever?
Your blanket statements show you anti worker bias. All workers, union and non-union are the back bone of this nation and are to be commended.
Good to see!!!!
Looks like Democrats are going to have to find a another way to launder Union dues into their re-election funds.
I don't know what Unions are so afraid of except accountability.
Unions aren't afraid of accountability.
The finances are discussed openly at meetings and democratically voted on by the members for approval. There are also Federal oversight laws which regulate items such as pension funding. Unions are accountable to their pension funds unlike the General Assembly which consistently fails to meet its obligations.
Now lets talk about unaccountability. Lets talk about the closed secretive meetings of too big to fail banking, wall street and mortgage lender executives boards and shareholders which obviously, from the crash and recession directly attributable to their shady business practices, aren't accountable to anyone. Lets talk about the bailouts at taxpayers expense and the continued fat bonuses. That's unaccountability.
Right-on!
Right-on! It's about time!
Don't let the Unions Bully you Virginia.
Glad to see it! Unions have Bullied their way around this country long enough driving hard working companies to the ground to see a State stand up to them and say we don't need your business warms my heart. And I'm sorry but Unions do not save cost or have anything to do with getting it done on time or under budget as a matter of fact, they are usually the cause of just the opposite. Being from Michigan I say go look what your beloved unions have done to Detroit. How many jobs have been lost becasue the company refused to go union or plants that could not open because they were going to open in a right to work state. Union my foot I say gangster. Greed is a wonderful thing for the few.
Bunch of Malarkey
Toyota, a non union automaker, consistently uses PLAs here in America and touts the success and cost savings to the company.
A non union contractor can bid on a job with a PLA and if they are the low bidder, they receive the job. But what they can't do and what they hate is that they cant exploit their labor force on a PLA job. They have to pay their workers the fair prevailing wage and benefits for the local area where the job is taking place.
PLA jobs consistently come in under cost and on time and in public projects this saves the taxpayer money. What the Republicans can't stand is that PLAs cut into the profit they make exploiting their workers.
Class warfare pure and simple.