I’m excited. The Boeing announcement is one of the best events I’ve seen happen during my nearly 30 years in the S.C. Senate. It proves how far we can take South Carolina when strong leaders work together to push conservative reforms. The nation’s hardest-working taxpayers, efficient government, low taxes and a high quality of life have given us a study advantage in our goal to rebuild South Carolina’s economy and create new jobs for our working families across the entire state. But that’s not all.
According to news reports, a big reason Boeing agreed to expand its operations in South Carolina is that the company wasn’t comfortable with the demands a union at its Washington plant was making.
Boeing’s decision to expand its facility near Charleston says a lot about the business climate in South Carolina and serves as a reminder why we must protect our tough right-to-work laws. We are sending a strong message to the world: We want your business, and we’re committed to getting it. I want to continue sending that message by defending workers’ rights to secret ballots when deciding whether to unionize.
Union bosses and their friends in Congress are trying to pass something called the Employee Free Choice Act. If the bill were to become law, unions could organize a workplace simply by persuading a majority of workers to sign authorizations, a very intimidating process commonly known as “card check.”
Under card check, there would be no subsequent secret-ballot election – and no chance for management to present its case as to what unionizing might mean to the workplace and employees’ futures.
Organizations such as the National Federation of Independent Business oppose card check because it would affect small businesses as much as big corporations. A small repair shop in Gaffney is just as vulnerable as a Boeing manufacturing plant to union pressures.
Men and women struggling to make payroll, provide insurance for their workers, put gas in their fleet or advertise their goods and services could easily become targets for union organizers.
In this increasingly tough financial climate, the last thing we need is for Congress to pass a bill making life even tougher for small-business owners, especially in a state such as South Carolina, where small businesses employ most of the private-sector workforce.
That’s why Greenville’s Rep. Eric Bedingfield and I decided to author legislation that would protect a worker’s right to a secret ballot when deciding whether to unionize in our state.
The bill calls for a question to be placed on the 2010 general election ballot that, if approved by voters, would guarantee that a worker’s right to a secret ballot is protected in the same way as our votes for president, Congress or the Legislature. As majority leader in the state Senate, I have made this bill a top priority for the 2010 session.
The card check proposal in Congress would stack the deck in the unions’ favor and hurt small businesses and their employees. It also likely would kill our goals of bringing more industrial giants like Boeing to South Carolina.
Because of the union’s hard-line tactics in Washington state, South Carolina will get thousands of high-paying jobs over the next few years. I don’t know whether Boeing’s new employees here will vote to join a union, but I do know it should be their choice. We can’t afford to let Congress pass a law that would let organizers shove a union down their throats.
Let’s celebrate and welcome Boeing to South Carolina. And let’s protect workers’ rights and fight union takeovers in South Carolina, telling the entire world “we want your business.”
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Away with unions! The corruption is deplorable! ...
The Mack Truck news was great to when it came but ...
If card check is made effective, the 'right to wor...
The unions benefit a few at the expense of the man...
The Boeing news is great for SC...
I think it is fantastic that Boeing has decided to come to S.C. due to the hard work of our State Representatives. The Unions, as far as I’m concerned, contributed to the downfall of the automobile industry in this country. Because of the unions, this country has lost most of its industry to foreign countries. The hard workers in this country deserve to have a choice of not having to join a union if they choose not to and industries that are left in this country shouldn’t have to be unionized if they don’t want to be. The card check proposal in Congress is just another step by the Democrats to get control of our industry. The Unions are huge contributors to the Democrats and their take-over-of-everything agenda and the people who do not support their agenda must stand up and be heard NOW before it is too late. Do not pass the Card Check proposal in Congress…unless you are for the Unions taking over & ruining all industry in this country.
If we let the unions take controll, we will loose more than jobs. We will loose whole companies including Boeing. Unions should be outlawed in this state. We do not need them anymore.Card check is a killer.
Linda in South Carolina
I have worked in union shops before and have mixed feelings about them. On one hand a union can prevent the employer from bullying workers and taking advantage of them. On the other hand where ever there is a union there are always a bunch of people in suits that never seem to do anything except receive large salaries that are paid from the members union dues. These are the people that negotiate the rank and file worker’s contracts. These are also the people that seem to always get larger increases in pay than the members.
If you do away with the secret ballot there will be union “thugs” intimidating workers to sign membership cards. This already happens but when the secret ballot is cast the worker can vote his true feelings without fear of retaliation.
stop card check
The Boeing news is great for SC
The unions benefit a few at the expense of the many. In the long run their actions come at their own expense too as the auto industry is now seeing.
If card check is made effective, the ‘right to work” in SC is null and void. This means all business’s will be affected, large and small, in SC. Why get new business to come into the State, only to faced with the same problems they had before moving to SC. The entire job and work community will be damaged, with a loss of business and jobs. Hate to see the thugs come into our State. Keep us an open, safe place to live and work.
The Mack Truck news was great to when it came but look how far it got us!!!!
Away with unions! The corruption is deplorable! Thank you, Boeing, for choosing Charleston!