Why a Conservative opposes "Right to Work" laws

There are many reasons to oppose the leftists who now control most of this countries international unions. There are also many changes which would free union members and workers who are not union members from exploitation by unscrupulous misleaders of labor. There should be "pay check protection" a concept advocated by president George W. Bush. This would ban the spending of dues dollars on political campaigns and allow only money voluntarily donated by union members to be used for political purposes. Furthermore, workers who oppose the union should be able to designate that a non profit charity should receive the money they have paid in dues. 

Workers covered by a union contract are currently able to "decertify" the union whenever the contract expires. However, the process is complex and fraught with complex legal issues. There should be a simple up or down vote each time a contract expires. Neither the union nor the employer should be allowed a role in the process. Furthermore, so-called card checks supported by the Obama administration should be prohibited. These would substitute the presentation of cards signed by the majority of workers in a bargaining unit for a secret ballot election when deciding whether workers will be represented by a particular union. The clearly violates the rights of workers to be free of coercion and to have a secret ballot to votes on representation.

Finally, article 20, the clause in the AFL-CIO constitution which prohibits any international union from representing a bargaining unit which has ever been represented by another international union, should be outlawed. The effect of this clause is to give members of a union the choice between no union or staying with a union they distrust or dislike. Imagine if corporations agreed that they would never serve customers who had ceased to do business with another corporation. That is what article 20 provided for unions. 


Having advocated measures that would earn the hatred of any union official or activist, why do I oppose "Right to Work"laws? The answer is Coercion I do not want an individual to be coerced by either the union or the employer in his decision to be represented or not represented by a union. Right to work laws force each individual worker to publicly declare his support for a union in order to support it by paying dues. Just like the card check process, this makes him or her subject to coercion. In this case from the employer who does not wish to deal with a labor union.


I would urge conservatives to support the right of individual workers to be of coercion from either employers or unions when deciding whether or not they wish to be represented by a trade union.

KKK founding

A great video all Americans should see.

My friend Anthony forwarded to me a video document I want to share with as many people as possible. It sheds light on U.S. political history for those brought up to see the Democrat Party as the champion of African American and the Republican Party as the opponent of African American progress. As a young Civil Rights worker I knew that the Democrat Party was the home of southern racism, even though I was a Democrat at that time. Unfortunately, people raised since than are unaware of the facts. I, therefore, urge everyone who sees this blog the view the embedded video and to post their responses. I could say much more but I won't.

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Education reform requires more than blaming teachers unions.

Many of my fellow conservatives begin and end comments on education reform by blaming all the problems in education on teachers unions. This is not a program. At the national level, the union role is the worst. Even there they are part of a larger coalition that seeks to black all attempts  at serious effort to change our educational  system, for the better. By the way, the late Al Shanker was an advocate for reform and was hated by liberal elements in the AFT (the American Federation of Teachers) because of this. 

At the local level the unions are the least of the problems. This is especially true in the urban districts where the schools are the worst.Many conservative innovations would be welcomed by most teachers, even liberal ones. They and the students they teach are the most victimized be the bureaucratic blight, that begins at the top. Boards of education from the state board on down are a major hindrance to the improvement of our schools. They are political. not educational entities.

 the local school district bureaucracy is usually overstaffed and under competent. In many Cleveland schools the internet was still nonfunctional two weeks after the beginning of the school year.

In one school, I know middle school students, many of them gang related, have been shoved into an elementary school where they are terrorizing children in lower grades and destroying the school's new computers. The computers were obtained through a grant, applied for, by two elementary teachers  working on their own time.The system was designed for elementary students but unsupervised middle school students are trashing the computers, scrawling obscene graffiti on them and trying to download pornography. His response was to berate the grant writing teachers for calling upon him to take action.
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As is usually the case, the principal is a failed teacher who makes pronouncements and does little else. Principals like this are the norm not the exception. In over two decades in one school, my wife has encountered one competent principal. He lasted one year. One with whom I am familiar does nothing to correct school secretaries who fail to do their jobs. He takes no action to correct grossly incompetent teachers.  In fact he made the teacher with the worst test scores in the school, " Teacher of the year". Contrary to popular opinion, it is not the union which prevents the dismissal of bad teachers. It is the failure of the principal to document their failures and discipline them appropriately.

 He is paid to spend the month before teachers arrive to make preparations for the new school year. He blamed his failure to do anything on "Negotiating a new union contract". Of course, he had nothing to do with that process and the negotiations ended amicably, with no disruptions. Those of my fellow conservative who advocate giving more autonomy to principals are asking that the fox have autonomy in the hen house.

The Unions deserve to get their share of criticism, for their role in blocking education reform.  However, when we blame unions alone for the sorry state of education. We are just providing  excuses, for the malfeasance and misfeasance of school district administrators at all levels. At the local level, they are the prime culprits. I welcome your comments on this topic. If you disagree, let me have. Your criticism is my brain food,

John McCain; In Perspective

Sen. John McCain fended off Republican challenger J.D. Hayworth in the Arizona Senate primary Tuesday. Many Conservatives were dismayed and anxious. Some  are bitterly disappointed that J.D. Hayworth will not be the GOP candidate this November.

One of my "Facebook friends" summed up the concerns of many. He said; "He never stays conservative after an election".  Another said, "He is a confirmed political opportunist and seems to compromise his core beliefs at times". One person spoke for many frustrated Conservatives. when he said, " Please retire John".

I think these comments leave out something important.  To be completely fair to John McCain, more needs to be said.  There are some issues he has always been solid on. Spending, military strength, national security and fiscal responsibility. However, John McCain is not consistent on several Conservative issues which are dear to me. We conservatives often spend too much times denigrating inconsistently conservative politicians when the hard left is storming our gates.

Some wonder why Republicans in as conservative a State as Arizona keep voting for McCain. Arizona has always cherished its heroic warriors. John McCain has certainly earned that. He has never backed down on being pro-life, He has always stood up for the patriotism and the defense of his country.

John McCain was unswerving in his support of the war in Iraq. His only criticism was when he did not believe it was being fought vigorously enough. He was the father of "the Surge". He has always fought for smaller government and less spending. 

He does some things that drives conservatives , including myself crazy. In my 63 years I have learned to be wary of everyone but G-D. None the less, I will never confused friends, whose cooking I do not always want to eat with the enemies who are trying to poison me.

 I am glad John McCain was challenged in the primary. I will be just as glad when he beats the Democrat in November.

The Real Obstacles to education.

Too many of my fellow Conservatives deal with the issue of education reform by simply blasting teachers and their unions. I have many issues with the teachers unions, especially on the national level. However, they are not the major culprits undermining our educational system, especially at the local level. The Education departments of universities indoctrinate teachers with doctrines, methods and priorities which are counter productive.  Legislators appease interest groups and enact mandates that detract from the teaching of core subjects. They also try to turn schools into social work agencies instead of educational institutions. School administrators divert money from the classroom, to fund bloated bureaucracies and wasteful programs. Lazy and Incompetent principals mismanage schools and fail to take appropriate action to deal with teacher misconduct and lack of teaching skills. They fail to app;y progressive discipline and then blame the unions for the presence of bad teachers.

In two decades, teachings at the same inner city school, my wife has seen it all and done her best and more. In all of that time, she has seen one capable principal and he lasted one year. Together with a colleague, she wrote the grant  that provided replace the school's patchwork of computers with a state of the art educational computer  system. Of course, she got no compensation and no recognition. On the other hand she did get abundant criticism and interferences with the grant's implementation, from the principal on down. I will address the education issue further. For now I truly want your input suggestions and criticism. I hope to hear from you soon
Charles Perkel

Put Government on a Leash.

At all levels governments should do less so that people can do more. The highest levels of government are farthest from the people. Their behavior is worse because they have less supervision.  What government behaviors would you most like to stop, if you controlled the leash?