In December 2007, the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association(SMWIA) filed paperwork with the Arizona Secretary of State to form the Arizona Homeowners' Bill of Rights Committee. The goal was clear, to  provide homeowners with improved rights to deal with construction defects and shady home sales practices that have been plaguing consumers across the country and in particular in the hot Arizona homebuilding market.  

Last month, the committee presented petitions with more than 260,000 signatures to the state to allow Arizona voters to determine the outcome of this issue in the fall.

Tuesday, a small group of powerful GOP-backed homebuilders filed a lawsuit looking to stop homeowners from having any say about the construction defects in their homes.

More than 500 union members and their families clad in golden "Hillary for President" t-shirts gathered at a Nevada union hall to show their rousing support for Hillary Clinton.  

The 500 union activists are part of the newly formed International Association of Sheet Metal, Air Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) were on hand to lend Senator Clinton their union's support in the weeks leading up to the first round of Democratic primaries.

Hurray for George Will.  In between smearing Senator Webb and his daily whines about the high cost of the minimum wage (it's hard to find good cheap help these days) - Will finds the time to take a shot at Americans who dare find a way to advance themselves with a voice at work.

There's a measure of irony to George Will's high minded opposition to workers having the freedom to choose whether or not they want to join a union.  Will is a syndicated columnist and as one, he enjoys a contract that mandates what he is compensated by the outlets that run his columns.  Then again, that is neither here nor there since in George Will's "civilized" world you do as he says and not as he does.

If local, state and national elections utilized the   election rules provided through the National Labor Relations Board, there would quite likely be rioting in the streets.  The 2000 Florida recount would look like a textbook example of Jeffersonian Democracy, and not the disaster it's looked back at as today.

There is only one way to get a true sense of how devastating the workplace voting system is for workers is in the United States today.  And that is by applying it within the context of a local, state or national election.

Imagine a world where a person gets beaten or shot by someone whose punishment is set by how long their victim remains in the hospital.  

A world where an assailant can be charged with a one week sentence - reflecting the hospital time his victim had to endure recovering from the trauma of a viscious beating.  Or one where a robber gets a reprieve from his or her punishment once the victim's insurance carrier makes up for the stolen items.

There is a world like this that exists for employers, a unique reality shaped by the policies and statutes set by the National Labor Relations Board.  The NLRA's penalties against illegal firing of union supporters are so minimal that employers treat them as a minor cost of doing business.  

The barefaced hypocrisy of the US Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, the Business Roundtable and other big business groups is astounding when you consider the double standards most business leaders compel upon the rest of America.  Especially when it comes to their opposition to contracts with their employees.
Journeying down memory lane, the recent uproar over the $210 million Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli took home with him is still fresh in our minds.  While ordinary Americans and shareholders reacted with unanimous outrage, you would have been hard pressed to hear hardly a word of this from the rest of corporate America.

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The barefaced hypocrisy of the US Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, the Business Roundtable and other big business groups is astounding when you consider the double standards most business leaders compel upon the rest of America.  Especially when it comes to their opposition to contracts with their employees.
Journeying down memory lane, the recent uproar over the $210 million Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli took home with him is still fresh in our minds.  While ordinary Americans and shareholders reacted with unanimous outrage, you would have been hard pressed to hear hardly a word of this from the rest of corporate America.

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