Even If You're Not Unionized, You Are Now

As if the health care takeover by the Obamacrats weren't enough to bankrupt the nation, the Department of Labor (DOL)--under Obamaic tutelage--is now forcing all companies vying for a government contract to treat their employees as if they were unionized--or not get the contract.

Which means, most likely, that only union companies will get contracts henceforth.

The DOL already dictates hourly pay for those under government contract using the principle of the "prevailing wage" in the industry and area where the work is being done. Of course, this is just shorthand for paying union wages.

On top of this, new criteria will now be applied to contract-seeking companies in the areas of paid days off, health care and other benefits.

The prevailing wage ploy already costs the nation about $10 billion a year extra that it wouldn't have to pay were true competitive bidding allowed.

Things on the labor front will now only get worse, even as health care gets scarcer and scarcer once the government realizes it can't pay its share (which it already knows from running Medicare, but the latest ruse is meant to cover that up until at least the end of Obama's hoped-for ((we hope not)) second term).

Welcome to the Endless Recession.

First GM and Chrysler (and California), Now USPS

First, our nation's glorious unions with their insatiable greed took down General Motors and Chrysler and forced them into becoming wards of the state (to say nothing of what they've done and continue to do to the State of California, which is essentially bankrupt), and now the United States Postal Service is about to go under as well.

Ending Saturday service is just a charade. Sure, it may save some operating costs, but the biggest problem with the USPS (and California and GM and Chrysler) is its unfunded, sky-high pension promises--all made to quell a restive union begging for ever-more handouts to justify collecting union dues and squandering them on political and personal power plays.

Here's a nice summary encapsualization of everything from the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

About half of the Postal Service’s 600,000 workers are eligible to retire in the next 10 years. They can’t be laid off, their growing salaries can’t be scaled back, and their pensions and health care subsidies are essentially a property right. Although new union contracts will be negotiated this year and next, Mr. Potter freely admits that next to nothing can be done to control Postal Service personnel costs.

Unions have hijacked the airline industry, sent automakers into a ditch and all but bankrupted states and local governments. Now they’re hastening the demise of this country’s mail service.

Union Approval Rating Plunges to 25-Year Low

You can dot the i's and cross the t's when viewing this graph showing poll results of public approval of unions, which has now hit a 25-year low, but think EFCA, Big Three, Congress and Barack Obama when doing so:

Dems Hope to 'Unionize' All Federal Contracts

If they can't get enough votes to pass the egregious Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), left-ish Democrats can get the White House and Department of Labor (DOL) to rig the rules so only union contractors get fed jobs.

The vehicle for this would replace the current institution of the prevailing wage, whereby the DOL dictates what wages must be paid for each contract, adjusted for the cost of living in the location of the work. However, this is evidently not enough for the left and its cronies in the unions. Now they want a "living" wage (presumably much higher than a prevailing wage), along with health and other benefits, sick days, and ad nauseum.

Here's a good explanation from what's called the EFCA Blog:

Labor and the White House are reportedly contemplating new rules – which have not yet been made public – to give unionized employers an advantage. Called the 'High Road Contracting Policy,' it would require the DOL (and all federal agencies) to create new bureaucracies to assess the labor-friendliness of bidding contractors. 'Prevailing wage' would be supplemented with standards of a 'living' wage, health insurance, employer-paid retirement benefits, paid sick days, and possibly more. Agency officials would give a subjective preference to contractors providing these higher levels of compensation. Applying these standards to those of area union contracts would instantly benefit union contractors.

Democracy in action.

Illinois Worst When It Comes to Raiding Pensions

Illinois (and I'm sure California is neck and neck) has been rated the worst state in managing (read: looting) its public employee pension trust funds--to the tune of $54 billion (which pales in comparison to the Feds' $1 trillion, reported here yesterday).

At least Ahnold in California attempted to convert public employees to 401(k)s like the rest of us, but for that he was lynched politically by the unions. Since that time in 2005, the trust funds must've rung up another $10 billion or so in unfunded liabilities, but do you think the unions care that the voters are going to have to pay for this with higher taxes? Nah....

Dems Continue to Loot Trust, Retirement Funds

In a startling post yesterday, it was revealed that Congress since 1983 has raided every penny--$2.5 trillion's worth--earmarked for the Social Security Trust Fund. Meaning that, starting in 2016 when Social Security taxes won't be enough to pay for those already drawing on their retirement, Congress will have to raise taxes, borrow more money, lower benefits, or end the program.

Worse, the Social Security Act grants Congress sole discretion to revise or cancel the program at any time, while the Supreme Court has ruled that no one is entitled to Social Security benefits.

Now catch this juicy bit of news.

Congress has likewise screwed federal government workers and military personnel out of their pension funds to the tune of $1 trillion. In the first three months of fiscal 2010, Congress looted $65 billion from these retirement trust funds while taking every penny of Social Security receipts as well. In all, in that one quarter the U.S. government looted or borrowed $400 billion.

All this, of course, is in the name of buying votes to stay in office.

Think you can retire? Think again. Uncle Sam wants you to die on the job.

Really.

EFCA by Stealth or Fiat?

In one of the few votes being taken this week in the U.S. Senate (due to inclement weather), Craig Becker was filibustered out of a chance to be voted into office with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), though I'm sure the cloture vote will be taken again, maybe many times.

Once ensconced at the NLRB, Becker hopes to issue diktats to implement the provisions of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), bypassing both Congress (where there aren't enough votes) and the Constitution (where it says you need Congress to vote).

Anyway, it all may be moot since rumor has it that the Dems have slipped EFCA language into the looming "jobs bill," which is probably not even a jobs bill but a bunch of pork for the cronies back home.

Anyway, I thought this cartoon pretty well summed up the consequences of EFCA and "card check."