labor reform – Moe Lane

As everyone reading this probably already knew, long-term funding of the FAA has been a political football since the last time that it expired in 2007. Well, they finally passed a bill… and in the process stuck it to various Democratic interest groups:

The labor unions were probably most badly hit, given that they had some privileges rolled back on them. The rules were changed in 2010 by the Obama administration to make it much easier for unions to organize (essentially, they stopped treating not-voting as ‘no’ votes). The House bill called for reversing that provision entirely; they instead compromised so that unions would need to have majority support (instead of 35%) in order to call for an vote to organize. Big Labor shills are predictably livid about that.
No new taxes on jet fuel. Greenies will not be happy.
The House version funded 60 billion over four years; the Senate version funded 70 billion over two. The final version was 64 billion over four. Government bureaucrats hardest hit.

Continue reading #rsrh FAA bill moves out from Senate to Obama’s desk.

The bill is SB5, and it will limit future collective bargaining for Ohio state employees to base salary: it passed the Ohio Senate with a one-vote margin (all hail the power of having a strong enough majority to allow you breathing room: elections matter, folks*). The bill now goes to the House, where the GOP has a 59-40 advantage: and a simple majority constitutes a quorum in the Ohio legislature, which means that the bill will likewise almost certainly pass there with sufficient margin to permit a defection or two. Governor Kasich will of course sign the bill once it is law.

While this is all of course good news for advocates of reform generally, it does also have a bearing on the specific situation in Wisconsin. The time has come for union leadership and other Democrats in that state to ask themselves what they want to do. To wit: do they want to start an armed insurrection against the legitimate government of Wisconsin? Or do they want to start preparing their supporters for what promises to be a crushing defeat of their (misguided) hopes? Continue reading Collective bargaining reform passes Ohio Senate.