West Virginia Becomes 26th Right to Work State

a lot of coal miners up there are rolling in their graves, John L Lewis was a cultural icon in W Va. I grew up there and remember every year on the 1st day of deer season and 1st day of trout fishing season there would be a strike. You could rely on it as sure as you would know the sun would rise in the east

 

The residents of West Virginia certainly have a right to work for less and starve if they so choose. After all this is America, land of the free!

 

They do that with Teachers now.....especially around Democrat ran States. Everyone knows its coming.

Winter Spring Summer, Strike, Fall, Strike......then make up winter days.

 

lol in WVa even all the mining supported industries such as rail, and trucking companies planned around a extra week of vacation every spring and fall

 

Their take home pay will likely be the same. Based on the auto industry they will have benefits but the cost per hour to the coal mining companies will be much less than that of a union worker resulting in the price of coal going down making it more competitive with natural gas and resulting in more jobs. The following is dated but shows the effect in the auto industry. Why do foreign car companies who build in the US locate in right to work states ??

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-true-price-of-auto-labor-costs/

 

This is an important observation. I have worked in Unionized environments and some things were really stupid. The union just had too much power and created inefficiency.

Unions were needed back in the day because workers had essentially been reduced to slaves.

There was a time when it looked like Unions were no longer needed because the worker had it relatively good.

That time has passed, the workers are again being reduced to a form of indentured slavery through oligopolistic/anti competitive practices (which reduce wage competition), through regulation (keeping the little guy from competing) and Tax law.

Back in the 50's the Corp/worker tax split was 50/50. Which is where it should be as both benefit from roads, infrastructure, police and so on. Try running a McDonalds without roads or police to protect your asset.

Now that split is 20/80. I for one am not real happy about paying McDonalds share of the taxes. This is a form of indentured slavery.

 

I agreed with everything until the last line. The split is really 0/100 - consumers pay the corporate income taxes. IMO corporate income taxes should be eliminated - why tax production ?? It's much better to tax consumption only - more stable revenue flow and maximum wealth creation.

 

We should keep burning coal, global warming is just a pinko liberal conspiracy! Record cold weather all over the East tonight.

 

And the public sector union game is totally rigged.

I mean, how fair is it for the taxpayers who foot the bill when both sides of the "negotiator teams" are sitting on the same side of the table?

 

We need to do something, that is for sure. Much of the cost of survival in the US is due to the fact that everything is way more expensive due to price fixing, anti competitive practices and anti free market practices due to "Oligopoly-Bureaucracy Fusion Monster" that runs this country.

Extreme socialism (communism) and extreme capitalism meet at the far end of the spectrum. In both cases you have a few elites controlling all resources and means of production.

Somehow we have managed to combine the worst of both worlds.

 

Yes, I'm in NM and the techs I manage belong to the CWA. And the movement to make this a right to work state died last year much to the angst of about half of my guys because they don't like the politics of the union or think they could do better without it. The union has told my guys to back Sanders and they want contributions from the techs above and beyond what they pay in dues, they even keep a list of those who haven't donated and hound them for money. About half of my crew is republican and the rest all like Clinton. Many of them aren't familiar with Sanders at all, these folks are not the political types.

No, I don't own the company, but if I had to pay the techs for what they're worth then some would make more than the $30 they currently make (which is very, very good for this area) others far less, and a number of them would be out of a job. The good workers are getting screwed because of the negotiated limitations and the bad employees are getting a free ride.

Right now the techs pay $68 a month for health insurance ( I pay close to $600 ) and it covers everything and with $5 or 15 co-pays, drugs are completely free. Believing Obama when he said Obamacare would really help people, in 2012 the union agreed to have their medical costs equal what management pays starting next year. They had no idea how bad Obamacare would be and now they're pissed because they're about to find out what much of America already knows and that is Obamacare sucks, it's expensive, and actually discourages people from seeing a doctor.

 

it doesnt, the ones that are converting are the cost effective ones but I already covered that in my post. Reread it for comprehension.

 

The cost effectiveness comes from gov regulation of coal and not from the cost of the energy content.

 

Thanks! Now I understand. I work for a fairly large firm (1,150+ employees) and thankfully we aren't unionized. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an anti-union person, it's just that it wouldn't be a great fit for our business model. I suspect the same is true for the firm you are with. Unions don't 'fit" everywhere, not without giving up some long cherished items, such as seniority rights for example, which I've never agreed with....,..

LOL, I can see the union backing the Democrats...but - Bernie? I have a hunch your guys will vote for whoever they want to - not who someone the union wants them to vote for.

I did read your governor wants to take another stab at right to work but, it's unlikely to go anywhere with a senate controlled by Democrats? That is what I gather from the article. Link below:

http://www.lcsun-news.com/story/new...vives-right--work-debate-new-mexico/78448176/

 

true but so what

 

Obama has moved the US toward the democratic socialism of Western Europe. We've moved from 4th place in 2007 to 11th place in 2016 according the the Heritage Economic Freedom Index - much of this is due to excessive gov regulation and crony capitalism which inhibits the wealth creation of free market capitalism. The action of the gov picking winners and losers is tantamount to socialism but with the ability to blame the corporations for all failures.

http://reason.com/blog/2016/02/01/us-falls-back-down-the-economic-freedom

 

just more right wing bubble

 

Over regulation of coal by the global warming alarmists in the Obama administration has resulted in the loss of jobs and possible higher electricity prices in the future. Thankfully the SCOTUS has put a hold on the "Clean Power" executive branch "War on Coal" action. Remember this:

But we now know that if all the coal fired power plants in the US were to be closed tomorrow it would have no practical effect on the global average temperature in 2100 and that the climate sensitivity to CO2 being used in the IPCC models is double what it actually is. The IPCC A1B scenario results in an increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration from 350 ppm in 2000 to 700 ppm in 2100 which is a doubling (2X). The IPCC AR5 lists the range of climate sensitivity to CO2 from the GCM models to be 1.5 to 4.5 deg C with the most likely per the UN experts ~ 3 deg C. However more recent models show that the sensitivity is ~ 2 and based on real world data the sensitivity is ~ 1.5. Based on the lower AR5 sensitivity range and the doubling of CO2 from 2000 to 2100 the increase in temperature range would be 1.5 - 2.0 deg C. That global temperature increase (if it occurs) can easily be adapted to with the wealth accumulated during the next 85 years. Assuming a 4% global gdp growth rate the global wealth will be ~ 30X what it is today.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/03/f...sed-to-bankrupt-coal-companies/#ixzz404uz4LmL

 

more right wing bubble

 

Actually IPCC AR5 "bubble".

 

Right to work for less, you mean. It's no surprise that a backwards, regressive state like WV would do this.

 

Except WV has some very progressive insurance/worker protection laws. This will more likely affect all the one grocery store in town towns than coal mining.

 

How do you justify calling WV backwards and regressive ??

 

Most of countries that are on the 2016 list had "freer" economies than the US in 2007. One they missed was China . I remember Jim Rogers (co-founder of the quantum fund, Soro's being the other) talking about how China had a freer economy back then.

This is not to say that Obama has not been a train wreck in terms of economic freedom but, the BS the Heritage foundation is trying to peddle is just that.

Both Red and Blue are puppets of the Oligopoly-Bureaucracy Fusion Monster that runs this country.

One very good gauge of economic freedom that the really good economic prognosticators use is global capital flows. If you had any doubt just look at Cuba and Russia - not much flowing that direction. Then look at China.

46% of crude going to US refineries is imported from over 70 different countries. We can import from like Canada, or Nigeria. A barrel of Canadian crude is hands down a way more environmentally friendly product than "Nigeria" and I can explain exactly why but, I want to focus on the economic differences.

Building the Keystone creates huge jobs in the construction phase and a fair number during operation. Increased oil activity benefits the US because we have lots of industry operating in Canada. Exxon, Haliburton and so on.

Further Canadians spend lots of their money in the US and on US imports. Last time I checked they owned Arizona ... escaping those cold winters - and half of Florida.

The big one though is this. What is the impact on Global Capital flows. TransCanada spent Billions up front on the auspicies that the US is not run by some third world puppet regime, that they would not make stuff up to scuttle the project at the last minute.

Think again.

One thing Global Capital hates is "uncertainty".

The US was already a hard place to do business due to regulatory and paperwork nightmare. The market for Global Capital is getting more competitive by the day.

Add uncertainty to the mix/"risk" and we are at that much more of a disadvantage.

 

The same way I would call the sky blue.