Peoria Pundit

I rather doubted that the Obama administration would play hardball with union government employees. So I guess I ought to be not surprised about this exchange captured in the New York Times’ article on today’s Ray LaHood confirmation hearings:

Mr. LaHood, in his testimony, made several important points. When Mr. Rockefeller asked about modernizing the air traffic control system, Mr. LaHood said his top priority was making labor peace with the controllers. He said he wanted the system run by people who “like going to work every day.”

The Bush administration imposed a contract on the controllers that eliminated some pay increases, required them to spend more hours at their work stations and made other changes. After the contract went into effect, many of those who were eligible for retirement left their jobs sooner than the agency had planned.

What say you, Peoria-area union members? Was LaHood pro union as a Congressman? Anti-union? Or was it sort of a wash? Give examples please.

Remember the 1980s? Reagan fired the air traffic controllers, setting the tone for the GOP’s attitude toward organized labor for the next 28 years. A Democrat held the White House for only eight of those years, and the Clintons had their noses buried to far up Wal-Mart’s butt to be considered really pro labor.

The combination of Obama int he White House and Democrats controlling Congress might, just might, bring about a more balanced relationship between labor and management, but labor has to make might like Hell to make sure the Dems don’t backslide, as they tend to do once they get in office.

Some of my conservative leaning friends really hate unions. So they are no doubt grinding their teeth at the idea of a union coming to the Bloomington Pantagraph.

I’m the first to admit that unions aren’t perfect. But a union is nothing more than the sum of it’s part. If your union sucks, you have the opportunity to change it. If you look at the union as some sort of outside agent that you hired to so you don’t have to worry about getting raised, benefits and a fair grievance policy, then you will be disappointed. Unions DO NOT work that way.

Joining a union won’t make the staff at the Bloomington Pantagraph suddenly overpaid. But it’s the only real way workers have to exert their rights. I wish them luck.

An informal survey of area union members says 70 percent of them support Democrat Colleen Callahan, with 30 percent supporting Republican Aaron Schock.

This survey was done after Schock released a statement claiming endorsement from nine labor organizations.

Expect a more detailed statement from the Callahan campaign before the end of the day.

From today’s Business File in the Peoria Journal Star, a boosterish column about how there is yet another reason for everyone to get behind taxpayer-financed efforts to build a museum on the site of the former Sears building:

The memo is between Caterpillar Inc., the Museum Collaboration Group and the West-Central Illinois Building Trades Council. It promises that any and all construction work will be performed by local contractors using local labor.

And:

It will keep 250 to 300 construction workers on the job each month for two or more years (an estimated 420,000-plus man hours), keep the projected $77 million in total construction costs – including an estimated $45 million in wages – in central Illinois and serve as a renewed commitment to Peoria by its largest employer.

“This is huge. It’s unprecedented. This is a real local effort the likes of which I’m not sure we’ve ever seen here,” said Mike Everett, president of the Building Trades Council.

Oh, brother. I used to write for the LABOR Paper, owned by the building trades council. I’m hardly anti-labor. But is the standard for deciding whether or not to raise taxes is whether or not some of the money goes into the hands of local workers and local construction companies.

If it was … well then why not just skip the middle man and take that tax money and just hand it to people with a union card in their pocket?

Or why not use this money to build things like roads, bridges, sidewalks. Last time I checked, union workers did most of that sort of work in Illinois anyway.