Trump is about to make America much crueler to unionized workers

[turbinetree]

Source: Think Progress

Since Election Day, unions have lived on borrowed time. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which has exclusive authority over many key questions of labor law, is still controlled by Democrats — thus shielding workers and their unions from attacks that became far likelier the moment Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2016 election.

But this period of interregnum is about to end. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) began the process of confirming the first of Trump’s two nominees to the NLRB on Monday. When both nominees sit on the Board, a swift rollback of union rights is likely.

As soon as this week, the Senate is likely to vote on Marvin Kaplan, the first of these two nominees. A former GOP Hill staffer, Kaplan drafted legislation—strongly supported by business lobby groups—which would have made it easier for employers to fight unionization campaigns.

Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/trump-unionized-workers-9bd4ee89346d

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And if anyone doesn't think that Unions are not the major players in wages and benefits, then look no further at what some state houses are trying to do to the federal minimum wage, they are tied to the NLRB. This picture does not look good and elections have consequences

[geek tragedy]

1. nice going, Rust Belt dumbfucks who thought Tr*mp would stick it to the 'elites' nt

[Chasstev365]

6. And Teachers who voted from Trump!

It blows my mind!

[LiberalArkie]

31. The ones who voted for Trump voted to stop paying union dues.

They have no idea where their health plans and pensions come from.

I don't know any IBEW or CWA workers who did not vote for Trump.

And it I consider it the Unions fault as most of the workers have no idea of losing the union might mean other than more take home pay.

[BigmanPigman]

34. I walked picket lines and was harassed by five consecutive principals

and the district for over 15 years as a union rep for teachers. This is in CA too. The newer teachers (yes, they ones continually getting pink slips and a fixed salary for 5 years) NEVER supported unions in any real way. They talk the talk fine though. Out union is very, very weak and their lack of support made it weaker. I marched with my dad during summer vacation in the 70's when AT&T went on strike. THAT was a real union. After Reagan everything changed. The only union that voted for him was the air traffic controllers and look what he did to them.

[lunasun]

39. I know some who didn't but they are in the Chicago area and black / brown . Plenty of trump union

types even in this area though . Disgusting what's happening they are going to go along with thier own destruction . CWA is already losing it
SEIU still seems solid pro Union, maybe others at least around here.

[Bengus81]

47. Hell,most of the dumbshits at Carrier voted for Trump..........

Now the first round of LAYOFFS have taken place with round two right before Christmas.

[RKP5637]

2. I bet most people in the US have no idea what the unions have done for them over years. n/t

[Eliot Rosewater]

4. THey dont and they wont care until they lose everything

I almost want that now, I want to see America the trump and GOP way.

If only so I can laugh at the dumb fucks, but that wont work either, they will never EVER admit they are wrong.

Every harm done will be blamed on ME and YOU

[RKP5637]

13. Sadly, that's often how it works and I feel history repeating, and rapidly. The outright stupidity

of Trump having been elected in this country is a horrifically ominous sign. Now NK is concerning and how he will use it.

[Eliot Rosewater]

15. He is packing the courts, we are so fucked for so many decades and

unless you pull the entire GOP out of power tomorrow, it cant be fixed.

[RKP5637]

18. SCOTUS is damn concerning. He might fill a couple of seats during his term. n/t

[Eliot Rosewater]

20. THE SC becomes moot if he packs all the lower courts.

America is about to get an education on how our system works.

Your boss fired you for being gay? No problem, no court will find for you because the DOJ and courts have deemed gay have no civil rights.

Your state made a law that prohibits black people from marrying white people? No problem, the GOP house and Senate have rewritten the civil rights laws and no, you cant.

I am bad at making the examples but a lawyer could do this , for instance the court that said NO to the prick over the immigration ban, those judges are about to be replaced by sycophant rightwing assholes.

This is so bad , SO bad.

[BumRushDaShow]

32. He's not going to be able to "pack the courts" as much as claimed

since Obama "packed" the appellate courts (life-time appointments) to the point where judges at that level appointed by Democrats control 9 of the 13 circuits (which is where many cases go to die because the SCOTUS can't take every case).

POLITICS 01/12/2017 07:00 am ET | Updated Jan 12, 2017
How Barack Obama Transformed The Nation’s Courts

He filled two SCOTUS seats and made the judiciary more diverse than ever. But the GOP stopped him from doing more.

By Jennifer Bendery

WASHINGTON ― Republicans cannot wait to begin dismantling President Barack Obama’s accomplishments, but there’s one thing they can’t undo, even with full control of Congress and the White House: his judicial legacy.

Obama will leave office with 329 of his judicial nominees confirmed to lifetime posts on federal courts. That includes two U.S. Supreme Court justices and four judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the two most powerful courts in the nation. Because of Obama, Democratic appointees now have a 7-4 advantage on the D.C. panel, and those judges will play a major role in deciding cases during the Trump administration related to environmental regulations, health care, national security, consumer protections and challenges to executive orders.

Obama also tilted the partisan makeup of circuit courts. Nine of the country’s 13 appeals courts now have majority Democratic appointees, compared with just one when he took office in 2009.

There is a caveat to his judicial success, however: When Republicans regained the Senate majority two years ago, they ground judicial confirmations to a halt. That has left 86 district court vacancies and 17 circuit court vacancies for President-elect Donald Trump to fill. That’s a huge number of court seats to fall victim to partisan politics. For some context: Obama inherited 59 district and circuit court vacancies when he became president. Trump is inheriting 103.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/barack-obama-judicial-legacy_us_586c1944e4b0de3a08f9eb1f

At present, Drumpf has only been able to get most of the higher level (Department) folks confirmed, although some of them have either bowed out or are talking about doing so... and not too many others have been confirmed (many were not even on their radar to nominate).

[Eliot Rosewater]

33. Good, the point remains he could have, and he would have been able to do it

because


ooops, I almost broke the rules again

[BumRushDaShow]

35. He doesn't seem to "like" the judicial branch

or is even willing to acknowledge it exists (outside of the SCOTUS because someone told him it was "important" )

This doesn't mean that if some "knowledgeable" staff ever gets into the West Wing, "someone" will try to get some nominations going. But for the immediate period, the Appellate Court has been striking down most if not all of his egregious pacts and just yesterday (per an OP in LBN that I saw this morning) an Appellate Court will be allowing state AGs to continue to argue for the government to make good on the ACA subsidies (the funding of which is in dispute as of a court case last year). This is major because it is obvious that the current administration wants to outright kill the ACA, period, and would no longer take up the Obama administration's argument that funding authority was provided upon passage of the ACA.

[Eliot Rosewater]

36. I dont drink anymore, so I need a substitute activity to do

when the celebration time comes.

Celebrating justice when trump and his entire family and team go to jail.

I cant smoke pot either, I love ice cream!

[BumRushDaShow]

37. Ice cream is good!

Maybe an orange creamsicle!

[raccoon]

11. They sure as hell don't in SC. I guess they think employers give good wages and benefits out of the

goodness of their hearts.

[RKP5637]

16. It's absolutely incredible!!! n/t

[Stonepounder]

22. I agree with you.

I have never belonged to a union, but I support them wherever they are. My son is unionized. He sometimes grumbles about the union when he can't get rid of a no-good employee, but I don't think he would ever want to leave the union. Unions (and Dems) are what have made the American worker strong and made the corporations pay decent wages.

I'll be interested to see how PINO supporters react when the orange shitgibbon does away with minimum wage jobs, gets rid of overtime pay, and trashes the unions.

[RKP5637]

23. Given the mentality of some of these people, Trump will tell them it's Obama's fault, he's done all

he can and they will believe him.

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. I know, sounds bad, right? Workers rights are gone, and that is bad, but at least

we dont have

oops

I almost said it AGAIN



jesus fucking christ

[ffr]

5. To those rust belt tRump voters. MAGA!

Thanks for your selfishness and for not seeing the bigger picture on election day. If you voted for tRump out of vindictiveness for your fellow man, this is your karma.

[dreamland]

7. Wow!! Was this the payback the unions were looking for, when they went all out support the RUMP.

I remember when police unions, and labor unions went all out supporting this piece of crud during his campaign. So far as to provide protection for his supporters during the rallies. Karma.

[Clarity2]

14. I still don't get that to this day

Anyone with a brain knew the GOP was planning on upending unions.

[Dustlawyer]

30. Union leadership has been fighting a losing battle

in trying to have their own members from voting Republican. These members have fallen for RW propaganda over the years and will have to learn the hard way, dragging us with them.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

38. Three unions endorsed Trump.

One was the Fraternal Order of Police, which is not affiliated with the AFL-CIO. The other two were the National Border Patrol Council, representing about 16K workers, and the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, which represents 5,000 ICE employees (out of 20K in the agency). Hardly "all-out."

[lunasun]

40. See post 30 it's not the union heads it's the unionized workers

[bucolic_frolic]

8. Everything he does is Un-American!

He has overturned 100 years of political consensus, arrived at through bipartisan legislative and executive action.
It's not an American agenda, it's a Russian agenda! Pollution, land give-aways, workers and voters rights, financial
safeguards, veterans support, women and children health and safety, health care for all, Social Security, safety net
for the weak, poor, old, indigent ... these are empathetic, humane things. All GONE!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

9. That'll show them damn "immigants" and darkies, yes sir! Oh wait..... nt

[Clarity2]

10. My husband is a Union worker

It ticks me off to no end. I do hope any rulings will be challenged in court. Re Right to Work laws: Union members need to use the honor system and pay their dues, even if they don't have to. Union members in states that implemented that and had unions busted were just too stupid & shortsighted to realize that.

My husband works for rail....union is ESSENTIAL for workers safety. They are the eyes and ears before FRA comes in. For other safety related jobs, it's absolutely not feasible for OSHA to protect them!!

Ironically my brother the Trumpster is also union, and can't be convinced that unions are at stake. And part of him knows he's retiring in a few years, and think he'll escape unscathed. It's the battle of "I got mine, who cares about yours", and also from the general population "I'm not part of a union, so therefore you shouldn't be".

In states like mine (NY) where cost of living is high, higher wages guaranteed by unions are just as important as in rust belt states where wages are low and employee safety is stomped on.

[woundedkarma]

17. Oh ... have news for your brother ...

My dad was in the UAW. When he retired he had a full pension and his health benefits were paid.

Then suddenly they weren't. They had made some contract specifically for the year he retired (I think) where his health insurance is no longer paid for. This was many years after he'd already retired. They literally went back and screwed him over after he worked his *ss off for the company for over 30 years and paid his UAW dues the whole time.

I believe in unions but I'm still disappointed in how he got screwed.

[Clarity2]

41. My brother is too far gone

to believe anything I say. He's said to me that Dan Rather is a "communist". Suddenly he's a conservative, but we were actually brought up in a rather forward thinking, liberal household. Somebody got to him, and I actually believe it is the company he works for.

But I've sent him links on retired union workers who had their pensions cut in half (or more?). I think that was a transportation union for truckers across the U.S. including our state? I had no idea the UAW did that to their retirees. It's truly terrible when you think you have that security and then its taken away - especially when you've made financial planning around that pension (i.e. put less or no money in 401K).

[turbinetree]

21. May I comment..................

I have been a union worker my entire working life , except when I was grocery bagger 15 thru 17 on a Air Force bases, does he realize, that if a company wants and has too file for bankruptcy, his retirement goes to the PBGC, at a reduced rate even if it is a government run program (the population can get a a governor and legislature , NLRB, to basically say and pass a law and say no more), and if they get really daring they can go to court just like they did in the coal mines and other places just throw out the pension plans.

My attitude is and was, when I was in the aircraft industry it was not I got mine, it was that we need to get more members, to fight, strength in numbers was and always has been the key, ask him to look at the Hay market Massacre, if you would, and if he doesn't want to, so be it, but, WisCONsin is a prime example of what a state can do to teachers and state government unionized workers

[Clarity2]

42. I agree

We had a supermarket chain in NY go bankrupt, and people who worked for them for decades pretty much walked away without their promised pension.

Like I said he's too far gone to believe any "liberal" or "MSM" media. I even sent him a link to his own union page to read what his union leader warned about right to work laws. He completely dismissed it.

I also have a teacher friend - friends since Jr. High. Also voted for trump. People have lost their mind.

[woundedkarma]

12. unions are the only real protection

My father was a member of the UAW. Until they screwed him in his last few years of life, they did a pretty good job of protecting him and my family. I firmly believe they made our lives better.

Unemployed atm and my field does not have unions but if they did, when I was working, I would have happily paid the dues and joined.

Others don't feel the same as I do. They've been taken in by the propaganda or they've experienced the actions of some unsavory unions. This is just the end result of all that.

[RKP5637]

19. The only recourse we ever had was go talk to HR. HR is often a joke! n/t

[riversedge]

24. Just look at what Gov Walker did to the WI unions. damn

[Doreen]

25. I think there are good unions and bad unions.

The union I once belonged to working for a school district was in bed with the school administration. When the district would start to screw us and we went to the union they just said to bad nothing we can do. They just wouldn't help us. What sucked is that we had no choice but to pay union dues. I hear that the Teamsters are still good.

[turbinetree]

26. And I forgot to mention in above rant look at one Neil Gorsuch

all one has to do is look at how the trucking industry was deregulated-------busted unions, greyhound busing busted unions, and this "guy" along with the other four are going to just have a heyday with unions

[Kennah]

43. Gorsuch is the fifth vote necessary for a 5-4 decision in Janus v. AFSCME

That's going to turn Public Sector Unions Right To Work nationwide in an instant. Next July, Public Sector membership plummets. We will be negotiating our 2019-2021 contract at that time, and I expect we'll be lucky to keep wages static and not lose anything.

[turbinetree]

44. I know

[world wide wally]

27. Face it...Americans are just plain stupid.

[DeminPennswoods]

28. Some of the labor laws

do as much to tie labor/union's hands as help them. When I belonged to a fed govt union, I was amazed at how many hoops we had to jump through to hold an election or do even relatively, simple, routine things. If labor is a 52 card deck, management holds about 50 of the cards.

[hadEnuf]

29. Americans really need to have their faces rubbed in the shit again, so to speak.

They have forgotten whatever they have been taught about how corporate America works concerning labor, and they have been being filled with RW anti-union bullshit for nearly 40 years.

Almost 2 generations have been subjected to the right's wall to wall propaganda on unions and everything else, and they aren't going to just forget about what they've been brainwashed to believe.

Unfortunately, it may take many having their economic livelihoods ruined before they figure out they have been had.

Shit, the German people stood behind Hitler and the Nazis until it was obvious they were losing the war and their cities were being bombed out from under them.

[StevieM]

45. This will be hard for union members. But at least they can take comfort in the fact that we don't

have a president who owned her own email server.

[Sunlei]

46. will the Federal minimum wage remain at $7.25 an hour for another 10 years? only congress knows.