What we don’t know:
What is the true cause of the BP oil rig explosion? Was it sabotage? The Obama administration made one of its only real decisions in this ecological disaster when it placed a moratorium on any “deep water” drilling in the gulf and elsewhere in the United States. Ken Salazar, of the EPA, did so by citing experts (who have all come forward to say he lied about what they said in their reports) and now a Federal Court judge has overturned the moratorium. The battle continues with the Justice Department ready to appeal the decision to lift the ban and the EPA stating it will just re-impose another ban to circumvent the court ordered lifting.
Did you know that 100% of the “deep water oil rig” workers are non-union. Did you also know that unions have tried, in vain, for decades to organize a union shop on these oil platforms and failed? It begs the question of how much of the EPA and Obama’s decision to ban further drilling has to do with this fact? The 6 month moratorium is to give the government enough time to complete studies and investigations and come up with recommendations for renewed operations. What is to stop the government from concluding that part of the reason for the “accident” (I use this term loosely, though the government uses it exclusively before any meaningful investigations are even begun) is because of non-union labor? I think that the Union/Obama relationship is well established in the eyes of the voting public and is not a stretch to see the oil industry nationalized to accomplish Union transformation.
We already see the Unions pointing to this when the President of the Seafarers International Union penned a recent Op-Ed:
“The offshore exploration, production and service industry in the Gulf of Mexico, to the best of our knowledge, is 100 percent nonunion and increasingly foreign. Past attempts to organize these workers have been met with bitter opposition — not from employees but from employers. These largely anti-union employers struggle in a volatile, hyper-competitive environment that has resulted in unsafe working conditions and unstable employment. Lack of union representation has denied oil-field workers a voice in the workplace, which in turn has created an out-of-control industry with little oversight or accountability. It is painful to see oil-soaked birds receive more media attention than injured, deceased or displaced workers. It is also painful to see the lack of an organized workers' voice in the legislative and regulatory processes contribute to 11 deaths and the worst spill in U.S. history. This clearly did not have to happen.”
What we know:
GM and Chrystler were in deep financial trouble and seeking relief through the US Federal Bankruptcy courts. If they were allowed to enter into bankruptcy, the company would have had the opportunity to “renegotiate” (through the courts) the UAW pensions that were the direct reason for the company’s financial woes.
May 2009 - "General Motors (GM) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, triggering the next stage in the ongoing fight to see who will bear the costs of making the company financially viable again. The bankruptcy process allows debts and other claims to be reduced, sometimes dramatically, in an attempt to create a reorganized firm that can actually earn enough to meet its downsized obligations. One large claim that could theoretically be cut back is the unfunded portion of GM’s pension liabilities."
In the end, the Government just took GM (70%) and gave the secondary share of ownership to the UAW (17.5%) and effectively killed the bankruptcy and in the end the shareholders were left holding the bag (along with taxpayers) for the UAW pension insolvency.
Obamacare has also ensured a “SEIU unionized” windfall of union membership.
The most recent jobs report show that while the private sector has lost over 2MM jobs the union government workforce has added roughly half a million net new jobs.
I would say this Administration is accomplishing much for unions who made it possible for Obama to accomplish his Oval Office victory.
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