Marathon Pundit: NLRB overreach, union pension edition

Thursday, October 13, 2011

NLRB overreach, union pension edition

Chicago's Grant Park

Only in Illinois--from MSNBC:

A labor leader in Chicago is expected to receive pension payments of nearly $500,000 a year, while another could get about $438,000 a year, according to reports Wednesday.

The Chicago Tribune and WGN-TV, which obtained information about union pension benefits during a joint investigation, said at least eight union officials in Chicago were eligible for what were described as inflated city pensions on top of union pensions for the same period of employment.

The news organizations said this was due to "a charitable interpretation" of Illinois law by officials representing two city pension funds.

"Can you name any place in the world where someone can get two pensions for the same job?" state Rep. Tom Cross, a Republican, told the paper. "Even by our standards here in Illinois, it's beyond belief. It's insane."

Senate Republicans are proposing the Real American Jobs Act. From Politico:

The draft plan divides the proposal into sections titled: Spending Reform, Tax Reform, Regulation Reform, Domestic Energy Promotion and Export Promotion. And it borrows ideas from both wings of the caucus, from Maine moderate Olympia Snowe to Louisiana conservative David Vitter.

Under spending reform, Republicans call for the balanced-budget amendment as well as a bipartisan proposal to give the president line-item-veto authority. On tax reform, the senators call for reducing individual and corporate income tax rates to 25 percent.

On regulatory reform, Republicans will propose repealing the health care and financial reform laws and try to limit medical malpractice lawsuits. Any rule that would cost the economy more than $100 million would have to be approved by a joint resolution of Congress. In a shot at the president, no federal agency could issue regulations until the unemployment rate drops to 7.7 percent, the level in January 2009 when Obama took office.

It would target expensive mandates on states, whack an air-pollution rule that the GOP said would affect "farm dust" and overhaul the National Labor Relations Board. Offshore energy production would be ramped up by prodding the Interior Department to take action and coal mining permitting would be sped up.

From an op-ed in The Hill by Brett McMahon,VP of Miller & Long Construction:

While some may applaud the President's rekindled rhetoric on jobs, a closer look at his actual policies shows his Administration continues to put politics before people.

The case of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is a clear and compelling example. The allegedly independent board sided with the International Association of Machinists and AFL-CIO and is challenging the Boeing corporation’s right for trying to open a new $1 billion facility in South Carolina, a right-to-work state.

The NLRB also announced recently a series of union supported workplace rules allowing smaller groups of employees to demand union elections, and putting them on an even faster track. These heavy-handed tactics bolster union bosses at the expense of small business owners, non-union employees, and even union members themselves.

This week, a key congressional committee will hold a hearing on legislation aimed at rolling back the NLRB's union sponsored workforce rules. The legislation, introduced by House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline of Minnesota, would give employers at least 14 days to prepare their case for a NLRB election officer. It would also change the law so that no union election could be held until at least 35 days after a petition is filed.