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| Home of Robert K. Kutz, Jr., President of the Blair-Bedford Central Labor Council a chapter of the National AFL-CIO a pro union organization. |
Lately here in the 79th legislative district I have noticed a lot of Rick Geist yard signs popping up everywhere. Which isn't uncommon considering the primary election is April 24th. But on my way home from work today, this particular house caught my attention. The picture above is the home of Robert K. Kutz Jr. the current President of the Blair-Bedford Central Labor Council a local pro union organization.
I know Bob Kutz from volunteering at various community service events throughout the years and I have nothing against him personally, but I just couldn't help notice that he has a re-elect Rick Geist sign infront of his house.
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| It's Union YES for Geist! |
This just struck me as quite odd. I guess the world of politics has a way of making strange bedfellows. A local union leader supporting a self proclaimed conservative for re-election? Mmm. Something just doesn't add up here folks.
The general perception in conservatives circles is that Representative Rick Geist has been secretly pro union during his long stint in Harrisburg. Something that raises red flags with conservative voters like myself. Infact, many local union leaders including Mr. Kutz himself will tell you openly that Rick Geist has been a friend of local union organizations over the years.
Now this is troubling, if you are a conservative who desperately believes that Pennsylvania needs pass Right-to-Work legislation and scrap the current Prevailing Wage laws that only benefit big union labor.
Currently state agencies, local governments, and local school districts continue to struggle to keep their operating budgets in the black during difficult economic times while providing essential services. Add the additional costs of Prevailing Wage law projects and you get the picture. Pennsylvania taxpayers are simply at their breaking point and can no longer afford to pay double the cost for public works projects.
In this race Geist has been silent on his support for Right-To-Work legislation and to my knowledge has never made a public statement on the matter either way something his challenger John McGinnis quickly points out every chance he gets.
Geist's lack of position would naturally lead conservative voters to believe that he does have some sympathy for unions and the prevailing wage. Add in the fact that local union leaders are putting up yard signs to help him get re-elected we have to assume that the perception has become the reality Mr. Geist.
For more information on John McGinnis's candidacy please visit www.mcginnis2012.com.
I have sympathy for the McGinnis campaign and I'm inclined to vote for him. But if the salient point of the campaign is to bash Geist's alleged "secret" support for unions, he'll lose.
ReplyDeleteImperfect as they are, ultimately they do represent low and middle-income workers who are otherwise powerless to assert their own interests in the abysmal economic climate we find ourselves in.
There's validity saying that state-sector unions inject inefficiency and expense. But the reality is that we're fighting over crumbs. The tax haul has collapsed along with the productive capacity of the Pennsylvanian economy.
Our economy has been pauperised not by unions, but by "free trade", in which corporations have little choice but to export capital, technology and productive assets to countries that, like China, are deeply hostile to our interests. Any recovery based on retail sales, no-benefit service jobs and the Wal-Mart economy is illusory and ephemeral. We're on the road to nowhere.
Prosperity requires a thriving manufacturing sector. And no matter how tame and compliant our private-sector unions are, there's no way American workers can compete with disenfranchised Chinese laborers earning $120 a month, working 60-hour weeks with no benefits, in factories with no environmental controls spewing pollution, burning coal subsidized by the Chinese government.
Destroying organized labor will do nothing to address the real issues at hand. Soon Pennsylvania will be little more than a third-world resource colony, its landowners powerless to retain and protect their own property (note HB1950 and Kelo v New London), its workers poorly educated and apathetic, and its shrinking middle class living in fear and despair for their children.
So by all means, cut taxes - especially for manufacturing enterprises. Take a hard line on state-sector unions, as long as executive-level state employees and politicians share the pain. In the private sector, any and all regulation should pass the necessity test, and there should be as few restrictions as possible on economic freedom.
But we must face the reality that nothing will substantively improve until we end the treasonous and suicidal trade relationships we've fostered overseas. Our neo-liberal and neo-conservative national leaders have betrayed US sovereign power, leading us headlong into poverty and decline.