I appreciate the clarification. I shouldn’t have assumed.

I’ve never identified myself as a Republican. The truth is that my political identity tends to fall along conservative lines, but I still reserve the right to vote for the best person for the job.

Or, at least, the best person out of the people who actually want the job.

It’s served them well for almost 100 years.

The facts here, that workers are well aware of, are that manufacturing jobs move away from the Rust Belt to the Southeast, as the companies that do move are all too cognizant that that particular region of the country is less likely to be unionized. From there they move to Mexico/Caribbean basin/South America, because typically those workers cost less than those in the American Southeast… isn’t that your neighborhood, Doc?

To be fair, some companies find the lack of education and mechanical skills in those areas to be an insurmountable obstacle, and end up moving back to the American Southeast, much like GE Medical Systems did at their plant near Columbia SC. They were having issues teaching Mexicans how to machine their medical products, and last I checked, they had moved the entire operation back to South Carolina.

Unions haven’t helped anyone in the past 50 years. They’ve priced their labor over what companies can afford, driven up legacy and health care costs, and offered little, if anything, in return for their “services” to the country. They may have been necessary in the times of the robber barons, but they’ve outlived their usefulness. Now, they introduce this legislation as their last gasp for relevancy, and in doing so, trample over a time honored tradition of democracy; the secret ballot.

I’ll ask the question again: how can anyone be FOR the demise of the secret ballot?

As a general question of clarification, what happens when the workers discover that the union hasn’t served them well, or that they simply haven’t gotten their money’s worth? Can the workers vote the union out?

Again, this bill obliterates the idea of a secret ballot.

Further, of COURSE the unions favor this bill. It is their last ditch effort at drumming up union members in the days of flagging membership. The fact that there would be no more secret ballots in union elections is specifically designed to strong-arm holdouts who wouldn’t necessarily want to be in the union in the first place. It circumvents the democratic process in union elections! How can anyone be FOR this bill?

Further, I find it appalling that Democrats support this bill. How can you call yourselves “Democrats” when this bill is clearly contradictory to democratic principals?