[Mosene]

Canada has a similar provision re card checks and union representation - as far as I can tell all hell has not broke loose.

Anyone who is familiar with union representation issues knows that employers that want to stay non-union have huge advantages in the law in terms of delay and other techniques to keep unions out between the time card checks are made and the elections. This is an effort to curtail those employer abuses. I know, as I have seen them first hand (working for the NLRB).

[mike777]

Mosene, on Oct 23 2008, 05:40 PM, said:

Canada has a similar provision re card checks and union representation - as far as I can tell all hell has not broke loose.

Anyone who is familiar with union representation issues knows that employers that want to stay non-union have huge advantages in the law in terms of delay and other techniques to keep unions out between the time card checks are made and the elections.  This is an effort to curtail those employer abuses.  I know, as I have seen them first hand (working for the NLRB).

I would hope enforcing current law against employer abuses would be a better step than passing even more laws.

Passing more laws and not enforcing them will not help the workers.
It would concern me if the NLRB knows of employer abuses and does not throw the employer in jail!

[Mosene]

By abuses I mean they take advantage of a weak law that has not real teeth. For example, the general penalty for violating the NLRA is to post a notice saying that you did it. Also, if you illegaly fire an employee for engaging in union activity the consequence is to re-instate the employee and provide back pay, but there are no damages. Also, you subtract any earnings the employee made in the mean time (between the illegal firing and the re-instatement) from the back pay award.

[mike777]

Mosene, on Oct 23 2008, 06:00 PM, said:

By abuses I mean they take advantage of a weak law that has not real teeth.  For example, the general penalty for violating the NLRA is to post a notice saying that you did it.  Also, if you illegaly fire an employee for engaging in union activity the consequence is to re-instate the employee and provide back pay, but there are no damages.  Also, you subtract any earnings the employee made in the mean time (between the illegal firing and the re-instatement) from the back pay award.

Having grown up in a union household in Chicago, I am rather shocked to hear anyone say unions and the workers operate under weak laws. Given the thousands of labor laws and govt mandated labor regulations I just fail to see how one more is going to help the average worker. If there is abuse, legal abuse involving union law, I call in my federal lawyer or call the mayor!

I note in the current bailout bill Congress tried to force union reps onto the BOD as many countries in Europe do. With the new Congress I think we may see this soon. It will be nice to see unions involved in discussions regarding employee pay and benefits at such a high level as well as critical capital allocation decisions.

As someone mentioned even Greenspan is shocked at how poorly the shareholders are doing running the company.


Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, said Thursday that the current financial crisis had uncovered a flaw in how the free market system works that had shocked him.

Mr. Greenspan told the House Oversight Committee on Thursday that his belief that banks would be more prudent in their lending practices because of the need to protect their stockholders had proved to be wrong.

Mr. Greenspan said he had made a “mistake” in believing that banks operating in their self-interest would be enough to protect their shareholders and the equity in their institutions.

[helene_t]

Back to original topic: wouldn't it be quite difficult for the next federal administration to eliminate election fraud? Obviously the authorities in some states want fraud. Don't they have the autonomy to have it their way? Can the federal government decide that local authorities must assure that this mess is cleaned up? And can they enforce it?

[mike777]

Obviously the authorities in some states want fraud. Don't they have the autonomy to have it their way?
1) NO
2) NO

If you think 1) states want fraud...2) you cannot stop it....3) just commit suicide now...keep things simple.

Let us take an extreme example.....chicago......
1) chicago is not a state
2) if state wants to stop it they can
3) if you think many states are same.......just commit suicide now...keep it simple

[helene_t]

suicide? cheer up, Mike, you make it sound as if somebody had hacked the bridgemates. It's only politics.

Anyway, if you say that the states can stop the fraud if they want then either you must be of the opinion that there is no fraud, or you must be of the opinion that the states don't want to stop it since otherwise they would have stopped it.

That's not my question, though. I was asking about the powers of the federal government. FWIW, if some EU member state made a mess of their elections for the EP I don't think the EU could do much about it, but of course things could be very different in the US. What do I know.

[blackshoe]

Who has the right to vote, and so on, is in the Constitution. If states are violating the constitution, enforcement of the provisions of that document is certainly in the purview of the federal government.

[luke warm]

blackshoe, on Oct 24 2008, 09:06 AM, said:

Who has the right to vote, and so on, is in the Constitution. If states are violating the constitution, enforcement of the provisions of that document is certainly in the purview of the federal government.

i agree

[inquiry]

This is bad... .

students blocked from voting

[jikl]

Quote

"This is about ensuring the integrity of our elections,"

This must be one of the best examples of political double-speak I have ever seen. I will refrain from using the language I wish to use even though this is the Water Cooler

Sean

[matmat]

inquiry, on Oct 26 2008, 11:37 PM, said:

This is bad... .

students blocked from voting

meh. what's so bad about it? the whole point of elections is to only allow your supporters to vote, right?

[PassedOut]

inquiry, on Oct 26 2008, 11:37 PM, said:

This is bad... .

students blocked from voting

The officials involved in these illegal purges should receive long jail sentences. The new attorney general should make sure that happens.

[mike777]

inquiry, on Oct 26 2008, 11:37 PM, said:

This is bad... .

students blocked from voting

Amazing to read such an article and have an article basically say NOTHING!

I blame the editors who must be idiots....

I did not read one thing in here that I did not read more than 50 years ago and over and over again the last 50 years.

If you read your history you can find articles that say the same thing hundreds of years ago. Andrew Jackson election stolen from him......see many others.


1) Voter data bases have errors...so what? They all do!
2) There are mismatches....well what the heck is a mismatch and why should we care or not care?!
3) Students in a College town may not be able to vote in the town? Shocking.....200 years ago.... lol old news!

Just follow these 3 simple rules:
1) If there is a vote Democrat...no voter fraud.
2) If there is a vote Republican there may be voter fraud.
3) If no vote for Democrat there may be voter suppression!

See the rest of the world where two babies born on same day same hospital and they grow up...One gets to be a full citizen and vote...other may or may not get to vote depending if she can past test.

[cherdano]

Mike, wtf is your point?
- A non-eligible (or non-existant) voter who gets to vote is a scandal, and
- An eligible voter that cannot vote despite registering correctly is a scandal.

Republicans and Democrats seem to agree that there are hundreds of thousands of such scandals around the nation (They might not agree under which of the cases most of these scandals fall, of course...)

If the "greatest democracy on earth" can't get this problem solved, this is a huge scandal. Just because such scandals have been existing since forever doesn't make it a smaller scandal.

[mike777]

I told you what my points where, in fact I broke them out lol. Reread the post!

Nothing new in article......write an article or post a thread that tells me something new or solves the problem.

In the meantime much of the rest of the world discriminates against babies born "in country" even more than usa ...

[matmat]

mike777, on Oct 27 2008, 01:29 AM, said:

I told you what my points where, in fact I broke them out lol. Reread the post!

Nothing new in article......write an article or post a thread that tells me something new or solves the problem.

no.. see... i think you just randomly typed some characters that have no cohesion and make no sense.

[onoway]

It's beginning to look more and more as though the economy is not the only thing down for the count in the U.S. these days....

[jdonn]

mike777, on Oct 27 2008, 01:29 AM, said:

I told you what my points where, in fact I broke them out lol. Reread the post!

Nothing new in article......write an article or post a thread that tells me something new or solves the problem.

In the meantime much of the rest of the world discriminates against babies born "in country" even more than usa ...

Judging by your posts (specifically the grammar, syntax, and points being made) I suspect you are an American election official. In other words, you are typing absolute gibberish. I would reread your posts, but it's very hard on my precious brain cells to decipher them the first time.

[jikl]

Quote

In the meantime much of the rest of the world discriminates against babies born "in country" even more than usa ...

Actually Mike, I think you are talking ***** again.

Here in Australia voting is compulsory. There are ways out of it (never registering in the first place at 18 years of age, or moving about 4-5 times so they give up on you but you may have a fine waiting for you if you do this. Yes, you do get a fine for not voting without a very good reason) This means you need less validation rules because you can't pretend to be someone else that is already registered. It also means you have less vote stacking. Don't base your world knowledge just on what is in your backyard.

Sean