U.S. Politics IV

[Andriy Czarchenko]

[quote name='Inigima' post='1708995' date='Mar 5 2009, 14.45']Bill O'Reilly is notorious for cutting off his guests' mics and shouting over them too.


Tracker, the criticism being leveled at EFCA is that it removes the secret ballot, thus potentially making someone who doesn't want to unionize afraid to speak up. That seems like it's only a good thing if you think unions are the answer 100% of the time, which I don't. More importantly, I don't see any valid reason for doing that -- if people want to unionize, they should be able to, but I think anything that could prevent a freely made choice on the subject is a bad thing. Is this true and if so are there any mitigating reasons why I ought to support it anyway?

What I'm hearing about the EFCA is that literally the [i]only[/i] thing it can do is force people to unionize when they don't want to. It addresses a nonexistent problem -- under the secret ballot, there's nothing stopping people from voting to unionize. EFCA would remove the privacy of your decision, so if a bunch of your friends really want to unionize, or you think they do, you may feel pressured to vote with them if your vote is public.[/quote]
IIRC the only thing EFCA does is to take the choice from employers to employees. Currently employers can choose when to have the secret ballot and in the meantime harass or fire those who actively support unionization. EFCA just gives the choices of when and how to employees. If they want to have secret ballot then it´s gonna still be secret ballot. It´s their free choice.

[Nymeria Sand]

I know the discussion's moved on, but just a quick comment:

[quote name='Lord Tarnin Aragoth' post='1708146' date='Mar 4 2009, 16.30']The discussion of Arlen Specter is interesting, and emblematic of many of the GOP's problems. The Democrats have realized that someone like Jim Webb can win in Virginia, while someone like Ted Kennedy would get destroyed. The GOP, by way of comparison, seems hellbent on making itself into a strictly Southern and (to a lesser extent) Western party. [b]Pennsylvania is a moderate state. Toomey will never, ever win the general election.[/b] Giving him the primary nod is virtually the exact same thing as voting for the Democratic candidate.[/quote]
Bold mine. I don't know about that, Lord Tarnin. This is the state that elected Rick Santorum three times, after all. :drunk:

The moderate Republicans are rather upset with the way Specter's been treated.

[url="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09064/953271-110.stm"]http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09064/953271-110.stm[/url]

Third one down, [b]A Senator For All[/b]

[quote name='The Czar' post='1709015' date='Mar 5 2009, 08.11']IIRC the only thing EFCA does is to take the choice from employers to employees. Currently employers can choose when to have the secret ballot and in the meantime harass or fire those who actively support unionization. EFCA just gives the choices of when and how to employees. If they want to have secret ballot then it´s gonna still be secret ballot. It´s their free choice.[/quote]
This is the way I understood it, too. Now, even if you suddenly find yourself unionized and you personally don't want to be, you still have an out. You don't have to join. If your organization is closed shop and you don't want to participate you pay what's called an "agency fee" rather than full union dues. You can still file grievances, but you can't vote in any proceedings. You're technically not considered part of the union membership. (But they still take your money. Unfortunately, there isn't a thing you can do about that.)