Taxpayers Getting Railroaded — Big Labor gets the Dough

The below re-posted [from here]

The Obama Administration is championing the construction and subsidization of Amtrak and high speed railroad. Not surprisingly, Big Labor is a big beneficiary of the scheme through the implementation of Project Labor Agreements that drive up the cost of construction by nearly 25% — in order to payoff the union bosses. Michelle Malkin looks at the key players that will send billions of taxpayer dollars down the tracks.

* * * *

Click image to make larger



Post with graph [found here]

* * * *

Excerpt:

Anti-union measure draws a crowd and criticism from the corner office.

Debates over right to work laws in NH have a ritual quality. There are warring statistics:

“Private sector employment grew inby 9.1 percent in right-to-work states, compared to just 3.6 percent in non-right-to-work states.”

“In the states with the ten lowest per capita incomes, right-to-work states occupy six of the top ten positions.”

And there are diametrically opposed views of union-negotiated contracts:

“That price should be shared by all employees in the workplace who enjoy the fruits of the collective bargaining agreement.”

“I am not a collectivist. I fight my own battles. I don’t need anybody to do that for me.”

Specifically, this right-to-work measure would put an end to requiring non-union employees to pay a share of the costs of collective bargaining. Such laws are on the books in 22 states, mostly in the south and Midwest. No state has gone right to work in a decade. But bills are now pending in about a dozen states, and may even be taken up in such traditional union strongholds as Ohio and Michigan. The outlook for the measure here is far from certain. With 3 to 1 Republican majorities in both chambers, chances of passage may be as good as they’ve been since 1947. That’s the year NH enacted right to work, only to repeal it two years later. Dick Bouley, who’s lobbied for the Teamsters since 1985, says things this year are touch and go.

“I think it’s a problem, no question. They have more supporters in the house. I feel very strongly the Governor will veto it should it pass, but I think it’s our job to get the best vote we can.”

And Bouley may be right about the Governor. Lynch has already written the labor committee to register his opposition to right to work. But he stopped short of promising a veto. It’s unclear how Lynch’s posture might affect the vote. What seems certain though, is that if the bill emerges from the house with anything close to a veto-proof majority, the lobbying effort -- to say nothing of the already hot rhetoric --

“This is extortion and it has to stop. “

“This is a hammer and it’s a hammer that doesn’t even hit the nail on the head.”

will only intensify. [source]

* * * *

This blogger's email: stevengerickson AT yahoo Dot Com

http://judicialmisconduct.blogspot.com/2011/02/us-president-george-w-bush-fearing.html

http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2009/12/government-goon-unions.html

-