West Virginia Becomes a 'Right to Work' State
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  West Virginia Becomes a 'Right to Work' State
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Author Topic: West Virginia Becomes a 'Right to Work' State  (Read 3473 times)
SWE
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« Reply #25 on: February 07, 2016, 09:46:57 AM »

I honestly don't understand the problem. Why shouldn't you have the choice whether you join a union or not?
RTW has nothing to do with that.
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NerdyBohemian
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« Reply #26 on: February 07, 2016, 10:07:49 AM »

I honestly don't understand the problem. Why shouldn't you have the choice whether you join a union or not?
RTW has nothing to do with that.

Exactly. You already don't have to join a union. The union, however, negotiates for everyone, even non-union members so you still have to pay a fee. "Right to work" allows for rampant freeloading and eventually weakening the union so much that the unionized workers can be easily replaced.
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Chancellor Tanterterg
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« Reply #27 on: February 07, 2016, 12:22:55 PM »


This, although in fairness, I can't blame them for voting Republican given the Democratic party's policies with regard to coal (and I say that as someone who feels the Dems aren't doing enough to speed along the slow death of the coal industry places like KY and WV).  It'd be one thing if Democrats wanted to invest money in programs to help folks in Appalachia learn skills that will allow them to do things other than mine coal, but no one in the Democratic Party seems interested in doing that.  As a result, if your way of life depends on mining coal...well...why would you vote for a Democratic candidate (especially in a Presidential election)?

Good.

Deserved punishment for those backstabbing coal workers.

You vote Republican, you reap what you sow.

Yeah, if those dumb, uncultured, inbred rednecks knew what was good for them, they'd just do whatever enlightened liberals like MaxQue say without question.  This is what happens when you don't vote the way your betters want you to, amiright? 
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NerdyBohemian
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« Reply #28 on: February 07, 2016, 12:54:38 PM »

Good.

Deserved punishment for those backstabbing coal workers.

You vote Republican, you reap what you sow.

This is so ironic considering the reason they voted in Republicans in the first place.
^^^

Yes, it is great to see all the Democratic avatars on here again show that they don't understand why they vote Republican. Even better when most of the posters praising unions don't belong to one themselves, but know what's best for these people.

Sorry but I do belong to a union.
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YaBoyNY
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« Reply #29 on: February 07, 2016, 01:01:25 PM »

Good.

Deserved punishment for those backstabbing coal workers.

You vote Republican, you reap what you sow.

This is so ironic considering the reason they voted in Republicans in the first place.
^^^

Yes, it is great to see all the Democratic avatars on here again show that they don't understand why they vote Republican. Even better when most of the posters praising unions don't belong to one themselves, but know what's best for these people.

He shoots.

He misses.

I belonged to a Union for most of my early 20s.
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Clarko95 📚💰📈
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« Reply #30 on: February 07, 2016, 01:36:56 PM »

Good.

Deserved punishment for those backstabbing coal workers.

You vote Republican, you reap what you sow.

This is so ironic considering the reason they voted in Republicans in the first place.
^^^

Yes, it is great to see all the Democratic avatars on here again show that they don't understand why they vote Republican. Even better when most of the posters praising unions don't belong to one themselves, but know what's best for these people.

He shoots.

He misses.

I belonged to a Union for most of my early 20s.

The keyword was "most".

The decline of coal and manufacturing over the past 50 years has taken unions with them. West Virginians have no reason to vote for pro-union Democrats when they can vote for Republicans who are culturally aligned with them and pro-oil and gas, which delievers badly needed economic benefits.

The economy has changed, the country has changed, unions and coal are pretty much gone, and RTW, like voter ID, is a meaningless wedge issue.
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« Reply #31 on: February 07, 2016, 02:03:10 PM »

It is a poor electoral decision for the coal companies to endorse union-killing though. They're effectively ended bipartisan support for coal by trashing the pro-coal pro-union Democrats = and once you lose bipartisan support, your business model is in jeopardy. The reason why coal was such a powerful force is that the unions had transformed its model into a dignified source of reliable income for the rural poor. Now the coal companies, through their greed, have killed off that reliable constituency in favour of underpaid seasonal workers they have no political cover; and the chickens are coming home to roost. Literally every single coal comapny in the US is either bankrupt or heading that way.
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DS0816
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« Reply #32 on: February 07, 2016, 04:20:07 PM »

It sounds like the West Virginia electorate's next move will be to flip the governor's mansion to a Republican who can operate like Rick Snyder did with Flint, Michigan.
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MaxQue
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« Reply #33 on: February 07, 2016, 05:01:16 PM »

I honestly don't understand the problem. Why shouldn't you have the choice whether you join a union or not?

Because the choice is between "leave/don't join the union" and "be fired".
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Mr. Reactionary
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« Reply #34 on: February 08, 2016, 01:29:01 PM »

Malcolm X mostly made the point I was going to. It's really amusing watch some lefties lament the fact that these poor, unionized coal miners will soon be unable to force non-union miners to pay them protection money, while at the same time these lefties openly cheer for the destruction of the coal industry. It'd be like Bernie Sanders unionizing health insurance workers right before he eliminates private health insurance. West Virginia realizes that having a hard job is better than having no job. So when you have an administration whose EPA once talked about "crucifying" fossil fuel companies, who is unilaterally imposing a probable illegal plan to shut down a significant number of existing coal plants, who specifically singled out coal for unfavorable export status, and whose supporters openly refer to West Virginians as bitter-clinger, knuckle-dragging, stupid redneck racist hetero-normative cis-sexist inbreeding hicks who believe in a sky fairy, is it really a surprise they don't vote Democrat?
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Bandit3 the Worker
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« Reply #35 on: February 08, 2016, 01:36:35 PM »

Lesson learned to those who threw an Obama protesting tantrum I'm voting Republican!

Amazing that WV fell before Ohio and Kentucky on this though.

The reason for this is that Ohio and Kentucky have more big cities. The GOP is just a rural rump party now.
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Bandit3 the Worker
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« Reply #36 on: February 08, 2016, 01:37:55 PM »

Will the backlash from this help Democrats in the gubernatorial election?

Probably, but it should have helped in Michigan more than anywhere.
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #37 on: February 08, 2016, 01:42:56 PM »

Given that the historic strength of the labour movement in West Virginia was based on the UMWA and (to a lesser extent) the USW and given that the coal and steel industries are basically RIP with those unions really only existing as legacy organisations this is a primarily a symbolic blow. But a nasty one.

It is a poor electoral decision for the coal companies to endorse union-killing though.

Yes, but they did that decades ago. People always forget - I suppose because the region is so utterly peripheral - that the remaining large UMWA dominated mines in central Appalachia pretty much all shut in the 1980s and 90s.
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Rockefeller GOP
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« Reply #38 on: February 08, 2016, 02:51:44 PM »

Lesson learned to those who threw an Obama protesting tantrum I'm voting Republican!

Amazing that WV fell before Ohio and Kentucky on this though.

The reason for this is that Ohio and Kentucky have more big cities. The GOP is just a rural rump party now.

If the GOP were just a rural romp party, they wouldn't win any elections.

It's been really amusing to watch you go from a firy populist to some sort of arrogant rural-hater in like five years, all in the name of remaining a hack.  KY is a mostly poor, rural state, and its Democratic governors and legislatures over the years have done nothing to improve that over the years; why shouldn't they try something else?
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Bandit3 the Worker
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« Reply #39 on: February 08, 2016, 03:41:24 PM »

If the GOP were just a rural romp party, they wouldn't win any elections.

In urban areas, they rarely do anymore.
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Rockefeller GOP
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« Reply #40 on: February 08, 2016, 09:21:32 PM »

If the GOP were just a rural romp party, they wouldn't win any elections.

In urban areas, they rarely do anymore.

They haven't won urban areas, uh ... Ever.  Most Republican strength, in true numbers, comes from suburbs and exurbs.  Who cares if they win tiny rural counties with >70%?  No one lives in them.  The GOP flips states by winning suburbs.
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MyRescueKittehRocks
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« Reply #41 on: February 10, 2016, 07:43:28 PM »

Good work people of West Virginia.
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Cubby
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« Reply #42 on: February 10, 2016, 10:30:50 PM »

Good.

Deserved punishment for those backstabbing coal workers.

You vote Republican, you reap what you sow.
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Brittain33
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« Reply #43 on: February 10, 2016, 11:01:41 PM »

Lesson learned to those who threw an Obama protesting tantrum I'm voting Republican!

Amazing that WV fell before Ohio and Kentucky on this though.

The reason for this is that Ohio and Kentucky have more big cities. The GOP is just a rural rump party now.

If the GOP were just a rural romp party, they wouldn't win any elections.

It's been really amusing to watch you go from a firy populist to some sort of arrogant rural-hater in like five years, all in the name of remaining a hack.  KY is a mostly poor, rural state, and its Democratic governors and legislatures over the years have done nothing to improve that over the years; why shouldn't they try something else?

KY's Democratic governor implemented Medicaid expansion and Obamacare.
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Frodo
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« Reply #44 on: February 11, 2016, 10:44:36 PM »

Governor Earl Ray Tomblin has just used his veto pen:

Governor vetoes prevailing wage, right to work bills

His veto will soon be reversed tomorrow, though. 
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Bandit3 the Worker
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« Reply #45 on: February 12, 2016, 04:39:00 PM »

Already it's looking like West Virginia might be the next to REPEAL "right-to-work." The Democrats have recruited strong candidates for the legislature. If they win that, "right-to-work" is gone.
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Frodo
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« Reply #46 on: February 12, 2016, 07:11:14 PM »
« Edited: February 12, 2016, 07:15:29 PM by Frodo »

The deed is done:

West Virginia Republicans Just Delivered A Huge Blow To Unions:
Twenty-six states now have right-to-work laws.



Dave Jamieson
Labor Reporter, The Huffington Post
02/12/2016 02:05 pm ET | Updated 3 hours ago


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DINGO Joe
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« Reply #47 on: February 13, 2016, 12:10:51 PM »

Either way, nothing's going to save the coal jobs, especially in the CAPP.  Thermal production and jobs had already been eviscerated by natural gas and lower cost (longwall mining requires fewer miners) production in the NAPP and Illinois Basin.  The only saving grace was China and the boom in met coal (used for steel production) but that has collapsed and as the contracts roll off more and more CAPP miners will be out of work.

In fact, more than 2000 layoffs have been announced in WV since just the start of the year, virtually all in met coal mines.  It's very pathetic to read the articles because when you read them in something professional like Platt's, they talk about the global met coal market (at the peak of met mania, more than 75% of US production was being exported), but when you read the local articles the politicians and media talk about the coal as if it's being used for power production and MATS or the CPP (Obama) are responsible.  Are they really that stupid or just incredibly dishonest? Hard to have sympathy for them either way.

Obama did proposed a substantial plan to use mine reclamation money for economic development and retraining in his budget last year, but it was ignored by the Rs in Congress.  This year, at least Hal Rogers seems on board with the plan.

Neighboring Kentucky actually doesn't have any union mines left (despite being a right to work state) and they've lost coal jobs faster the WV over the last 8 years, though that's in part to having virtually no met coal and EKY being totally played out.  It's so bad that some thermal coal has been rotting on the banks of the Big Sandy that no one's willing to buy even at distressed prices.
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pbrower2a
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« Reply #48 on: February 14, 2016, 10:29:20 AM »

The Master Class wins again! The right-wing dream of a New Feudalism in the workplace is nigh!

Give the Master Class what it wants, and America will offer only a grim contest among workers to determine who will earn the privilege of survival by suffering the most for the least on behalf of people who know no limits to their self indulgence and their economic sadism.

 

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Bandit3 the Worker
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« Reply #49 on: February 14, 2016, 11:56:49 AM »

I read that there's a referendum on the ballot in South Dakota this year that will repeal that state's right-to-scab law. What are the prospects for that?
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