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TAKE ACTION: America’s Job Creators Are About to Be Sucker Punched & You Have Until Wednesday to Comment

by 1389AD ( 4 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Business, Democratic Party, Economy, Headlines, Regulation, unemployment, Unions, Unions at September 19th, 2011 - 9:15 pm

Big Government has the story:

(h/t: Bumr50)

You need to act before Wednesday. At a time when the Obama Administration is clamoring to save or create jobs, his Department of Labor is about to sucker punch America’s job creators with an unprecedented regulatory overreach—all to curry more favor with union bosses.

Obama in front of a UNION sign

On Wednesday, the public comment period will be closing on a Department of Labor proposal that the majority of America knows nothing about and even fewer understand.

If enacted as drafted, the union cronies within the Department of Labor will require every private-sector employer and service provider (whether or not they ever talk directly to employees) to file financial statements with the Obama Labor Department if the service provider’s services indirectly affect employees’ choice to unionize or not.

Unless you act by commenting here, this rule change will likely take affect. [See link to a downloadable sample comment below.]

Once the financial information—which includes the service provider’s entire company (or firm’s) receipts (even from other clients)—are submitted, it will become public information. It will then be published on the Department of Labor’s website and available to union bosses. What’s more, willful failure to file the financial information is a criminal violation, punishable by either imprisonment, a fine, or both.

In June, when the Department of Labor, at the behest of union bosses, issued a 160-page proposal to expand the interpretation of “advice” under a little-known law called the Labor-Management Reporting & Disclosure Act, few understood just how deeply the DOL’s proposed rule change could affect employers and consultants of all stripes–not just those involved in labor relations. Most still don’t understand it.

In addition to companies who hire attorneys to assist them with union issues, the Department of Labor’s broad expansion into areas that most would not consider remotely connected to unions, but because it could indirectly affect [read deter] employees’ choice to unionize, the Department of Labor will likely call this “persuader activity.”

Here are the types of vendors (and the employers that hire them or purchase goods from them) who will likely be caught up in the DOL’s new proposed rules:

  • Writers (or authors) who may write a website, publication, sell a book, or other material that may promote a positive employee relations culture, thereby dissuading employees from unionizing
  • Website designers who may be contracted to design and build a website to be used for internal communications with employees
  • Consultants who coach management on how to structure and effectively manage employee teams
  • Employee engagement consultants who help companies and employees with positive employee relations
  • Productivity consultants who design and implement quality, or any other type of teams that may give employees a voice in the success of their companies’ products
  • Safety consultants who help establish safety committees that give employees the ability to voice safety concerns to their employer to resolve safety issues
  • Human resources consultants that design, write, or implement employee handbooks or policies
  • Compensation and benefit consultants who design and administer any type of benefit, pay or incentive plans for companies
  • Consultants who conduct surveys to determine employee satisfaction at their jobs

Since the Department of Labor’s phraseology is: “…activities that have as a direct or indirect object to, explicitly or implicitly, influence the decisions of employees with respect to forming, joining or assisting a union, collective bargaining, or any protected concerted activity (such as a strike) in the workplace,” the type of activity that an employer and consultant may be required to report to the Department of Labor is almost endless.

Again, the public comment period closes on Wednesday, September 21, 2011. All comments must be received on or before Wednesday.

If you do not act by submitting a comment, it is likely this rule change will go into effect causing many job creators, instead of focusing on job creation, to spend more time and resources on more paperwork, or risk going to jail. Moreover, it will cause many unsuspecting service providers who currently do not know they will fall into the Department of Labor’s trap to either violate the law, or open their personal, company or firm earnings to the Department of Labor, the public and union bosses.

Here is a sample comment provided courtesy of the Labor Relations Institute. It is suggested that you download, individualize or personalize it before sending to the Department of Labor, then submit your comments to the Department of Labor here.

The choice is yours: You can act by submitting a comment, or you can give union bosses what they want–the ability to target more employers.


“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

Cross-posted on LaborUnionReport.com, RedState.com, and BigGovernment.com.


Pay Attention To New York – 9.

by Flyovercountry ( 59 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Election 2008, Elections 2009, Elections 2010, Elections 2012, Politics, Republican Party at September 13th, 2011 - 2:00 pm

The President, and Democrat controlled House and Senate, won their elections in 2006 and 2008 by pretending to be tax reforming centrist hawks. Once in power, they governed as flat out Socialists. What they learned in November of 2009, was that people’s attention spans are longer than what was previously believed. The warning bell was sounded when Massachusetts, the people’s republik which had inflicted us with Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, elected someone to the Senate professing Tea Party values and its first Republican Senator since the Civil War era. The other warning bell was in Virginia, where a Republican Governor handily defeated a one term Democrat Governor. The warning signs were ignored or dismissed as poor messaging. One year later, the Democrats lost an election in gargantuan proportion. It wasn’t just the 63 House seats which switched sides of the aisle, nor was it the net switch of 7 Senate seats, nor even the switch of 11 Governor’s seats, but it was all of the above coupled with the switch of about 700 State Legislature seats across the fruited plains. This election represented an unprecedented rebuke of the Democrat leadership of this nation on Federal, State, and Local levels. It should have sent shudders down the spines of Democrat Party Apparatchiks. Instead, it brought the usual blather about voters not paying attention, not knowing what was best for them, and poor messaging.

Here we are, one year later, and another special election to replace a House Member. This time, as in the case of 2009, it is in one of the most heavily Democratic districts in the Country. The last Republican to win New York 9 was probably in the Civil War era. The question is, how will it be interpreted. When the Republican, Robert Turner, defeats Democrat David Weprin tomorrow, how will our liberal friends react?  I believe the reaction may extend beyond the usual nonsense of, “it must have been the messaging.”  For some time now, I have met Democrats who, while alone and not in their usual habitat of political obfuscation and message spinning, have admitted that they are terrified of the destruction of their party by Barack Obama and the Moveon crowd.  We have seen already the former Clinton branch of the party try to fool us with the, “no labels,” nonsense.  This might just bring about something else entirely.  A loss here, will not be able to just be dismissed by the honchos who are considered Democrat Party Insiders.  Sure, the election is to replace Anthony Weiner, the man who put humor back into national politics, if only by the jokes afforded by his unfortunate name, but that is still a D + 5 Congressional District.  That, coupled with the fact that Weiner’s name is not actually on the ballot, should be enough to keep this from even being close.  Both candidates have worked to distance themselves from President Obama, and the only actual difference in their rhetoric has been the issues of Medicare and Social Security.  The Republican Turner is running on a platform of noticing that Social Security is a ponzi scheme, while the Democrat, Weprin, is using the age old Republicans want to put old people on the street and kick your puppy dog approach.  A loss here should cause wide spread panic in the Democrat establishment.  It would mean that the tried and true and once proven approach of demagoguery will have failed in a place where it should not even be a question.

What’s next then?  It is getting late for this, but in 1968, the Democrats forced LBJ, a man who 4 years earlier won in the largest landslide election to that date, not to run for reelection.  They instead put up Hubert Humphrey as a candidate and damn near defeated Richard Nixon.  There are many who believe that the Democrat Party would not be able to do this today, as Barack Obama is also our nation’s first Black President.  I am not sure that this is enough though.  The future relevancy of the entire Democrat Party is now at stake.  It will already be an entire generation before anyone falls for the old centrist Democrat gag again.  The old lie of, “I’m a fiscal conservative and a social liberal,” will not be believed by anyone not eating paste in elementary school.  That is the damage faced by the Democrat Party before November of 2012,  Imagine the consequences they face if they run President Obama next year.

We have already been treated to the insane ramblings of Debbie Wasserman Schultz as spokesperson for the Democrat Party.  She has touted the success of the stimulus package long after every other Democrat in the country, including President Obama by the way, has stricken the word stimulus from their vocabulary.  She has jumped on board of every insane theory of economics including the position that space aliens are coming to invade us because of the fact that Carbon Dioxide is present in our atmosphere.  We have been treated to commercials showing Republican meanies pushing wheel chairs off of cliffs, and commercials likening us to the actual Taliban.  Every bill introduced to Congress for the last 4 years has been given some Orwellian sounding name such as patient care affordability act, American jobs and productivity act.  None of these however will hold a candle as to what will begin on Wednesday of this week.  The Democrats are learning that the only way to win an election in 2012 and beyond is by successfully running away from Barack Obama, and it will be impossible to do that with Barack Obama’s name on the ballot.

Cross Posted at Musings of a Mad Conservative.

Herman Cain on the Economy and More

by 1389AD Comments Off on Herman Cain on the Economy and More
Filed under Barack Obama, Economy, Elections 2012, George W. Bush, Headlines at July 23rd, 2011 - 6:14 pm

Dick Morris TV Lunch ALERT! Herman Cain on the Economy

Herman Cain’s classic line “I LEFT THAT DEMOCRAT PLANTATION” – Watch Out Wannabe Master Obama!!

Herman Cain on Crazy, Nutjob, Racist, Babbling Idiot TX Rep. SHEILA JACKSON LEE playing RACE CARD!

Obama Boom: Why the Job Market feels Lousy

by Phantom Ace Comments Off on Obama Boom: Why the Job Market feels Lousy
Filed under Economy, Misery Index, Special Report at May 16th, 2011 - 11:00 am

The media is heralding what they call a very healthy job market. The reality is most jobs are low pay and the high wage ones are have many seeking them. Job growth has not been enough to create  net gain.

Why don’t American workers feel that the labor market is on the mend? After all, the May 6 jobs report could suggest that the labor market is improving. Nonfarm employment rose by 244,000 and employment growth over the last three months is averaging over 200,000 per month. With unemployment at 9%, employment is still down many millions from where it should be, but up from its recession lows.

The fact is the jobs numbers that create so much anticipation from the business press and so many pundit pronouncements do not give a clear picture of the labor market’s health. A better understanding requires an examination of hires and separations, or what the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data. Here are some surprising facts:

First, the increase in job growth that occurred over the past two years results from a decline in the number of layoffs, not from increased hiring. In February 2009, a month during which the labor market lost more than 700,000 jobs, employers hired four million workers. In March 2011, employers hired four million workers. The number of hires is the same today as it was when we were shedding jobs at record rates.

There is no Obama Boom or good job market. Most people aren’t believing the lie or the media spin.