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Oklahoma Workers Expose RTW Lies
In 2001, Oklahoma passed a so-called right to work (RTW) law and its backers made the exact claims Hoosiers are hearing today. RTW proponents painted a picture of a booming economy with huge job creation as companies would swoop into Oklahoma like the Boomer Sooners of the 1889 land rush. None of that ever materialized, two Oklahoma workers told an Indiana statehouse news conference this morning.
Jesse Isbell worked for 36 years at the Bridgestone Tire plant in Oklahoma City before it shut down 2006 and the jobs were shipped to Mexico.
There is absolutely no anecdotal or empirical evidence that RTW has benefitted Oklahoma’s state economy in any way. The company made the decision to outsource our jobs even though the proponents of the right-to-work legislation claimed it would prevent such departures and even attract new businesses to locate in the state.
Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) and the Republican lawmakers pushing RTW in the Hoosier State claim hundreds of businesses have decided not locate in Indiana because the state lacks a RTW law. But they cannot produce a single example. Isbell says that’s a re-run of what Oklahomans heard in 2001.
Proponents of RTW in Oklahoma literally said that employers were lined up at the state line ready to move to Oklahoma once the bill became law. Mind you, they never offered any specific examples, and those nameless companies never materialized to become employers in Oklahoma. Beware of any argument that makes similar claims without specifics to back it up.
Since the law passed in 2001, the number of new companies coming into Oklahoma has decreased by one-third and the number of manufacturing jobs in the state has fallen by one-third, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Kitti Asberry, who lost her job of 27 years after the General Motors plant in Oklahoma shuttered in 2005–tossing 2,400 people out of work–said:
Right to work has not fulfilled the promises of its proponents in the 10 years since it passed. In fact, Oklahoma has slipped economically with so many jobs moving to Mexico and other countries. And the jobs that remain are paying lower wages than before the law took effect.
Asberry told reporters that those lower wages since RTW became law means working families have diminished disposable income and are buying less food, housing, services, travel and entertainment and are relying more on government assistance.
I have to warn the people of Indiana of the slow, vicious cycle that RTW has on families. Cycles of decreasing resources for our schools, cycles of increasing reliance on public assistance, cycles of increasing crime and incarceration rates, just to name a few, have all been fueled by the downward cycle of lowering wages and job quality. This is what a RTW economy looks like and it falls far short of the promises made by those who were pushing for its adoption 10 years ago.
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Psalm of the Non-Unionist
The dues paying member is my shepherd. I shall not want.
He provideth me with rest days and vacations
So that I may lie down in green pastures
Beside the still waters.
He restoreth my back pay
He guideth my welfare without cost to me.
I stray in the paths of the non-righteous
For my money’s sake.
Yea, though I alibi and pay no dues
From generation to generation
I fear no evil, for he protects me.
The working conditions which he provides
They comfort me.
He annointeth my head with the oil of worker’s compensation
Sick pay, holidays, and a pension.
He represents me in grievances.
And my cup runneth over with ingratitude.
Surely his goodness and loving kindness
Shall follow me all the days of my life
Without cost to me.
And I shall dwell in his house forever
And allow him to foot the bill.
AMEN, country full of SCABS!! love your poem!!!
How do you spell scabs ? = Correct spelling” Republican “.
No patriot would ever vote republican.
Support OWS with action and money it is the only hopeful action that is out there today. This is war and wars cost money and cause casualties.The opportunity that OWS presents is unprecedented and we need to nurture it as much as we can.
David, do you mind if I steal that poem? It’s great! I want to post it in my political discussion group and my facebook page!
David, your poem is great and on target! It is strange to me that so many non-union American workers blame the unions for our poor economy and job losses. Why does most of the media present only the non-union side? How can we make the American worker know that if we lose the battle all of middle class America loses?
the reason the jobs moved is because the competition from foreign companies . They moved their jobs to cheaper labor costs and American companies had to move move to keep up with the lower costs. I lost my job because of this.
Yes, we know cuss breath, and the reason the days are longer in summer is because the warmer days make the days expand due to the heat, and during winter the days get shorter because the cooler days make the day shrink. We all know where you’re coming from, Swearto-Bullshit!
So sweartodog, why didn’t you offer to take a pay cut down to the Mexican pay level to save your job? You a socialist or something?
there was NO foreign competition untill the corporate leaders made it so!! thry can spend billions to build new plants all over the world for cheap labor and resulting in cheap and dangerous products, but , pay a fair wage to their own American workers!! OH HELL NO!! that’s why you’re out of a job!! not because of any union, just your own stupidity!! Go ahead and vote the repigs back in office so they can put the finishing touchs on George BUSH”S original plan!!! keep blaming O’Bama and Democrates for things they had absolutely nothing to do with!! keep voting against yourself!! seems you’re determined to defeat ourself !!!!!
Well said CWA, well said!
EXCEPT… O’Bam-ya is doing exactly the same things Bush did, he just hides behind his facade.
We need Jesse Jackson Jr. to set the country back on track! If you want an African American for President then let’s enlist Jesse Jackson Jr. before O’Bam-ya can do any more harm!
Good that you lost your job being you’re a damn RepigloKKKon. Yep this is what your RepigliKKKon reps wanted for America cheap Chinese slave labor and by god you got it. Remember when Global War Bush(aka) Butthead Bush,stood before the American public and said,”Out sourcing jobs iz gooood fer Merica.” He liked it so much he signed a bill giving the sob’s more tax breaks and incentives. Keep voting RepigliKKKon and you’ll be placed in a camp in the near future.
Another of Bush’s famous diplomatic oration farts was when he went to Ottowa to address the U.S. trawler incident where the fishing crew went into Canadian waters to retrieve a very expensive net that a passing freighter had severed from their ship, in which rather than addressing the nature of the international border-crossing, Bush addressed the Canadian Parliament about how “people can co-exist with fish”. I kid you not.
That’s a lie..these companies do not have to move..it’s because of greed. The biggest consumer of all products are Americans. If we continue to outsource jobs we will be in a third world country. Sweartogod you need to realize none of these companies should leave America it’s all greed. Americans should be first..period point blank!!
Are you trying to convince all of us that Swearto-WHOoligan can realize anything… ???? Are you trying to kid all of us UAW-Proud ????? Certainly not ALL of us !!!!
No not all of you just sweartonothing..ugh he is a pain..
Be a jerk;
vote “Right to Work.”
GOOD ONE . AMEN
Corporations are running this country now and the WH , congress / Senate have nothing to say unless the corporation writes it down for them, same for the Media of yes men that has sold us out for the last fifty years.
We got a fight on our hands and you can either fight or surrender and I do not think you are going to enjoy your life if you surrender.
The news media came to an end in the early 1990s. I distinctly remember the attacks by the Repugnant Party mafia that forever castrated Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio, just as it was doing to the national news media.
It was the 1990s when reporters were replaced by “human tape recorders” who did not ask questions when they knew they were obviously being lied to by The Establishment.
The news media lying goes way back probably to George Washington’s time. But then, wasn’t it Walter Kronkite who brought the truth about the illegal Viet Nam War and the war crimes our military was committing? The Bay of Pigs in Cuba was an internal cover-up from the very start, which was why President Kennedy was caught unaware until the very last minute that our military had already illegally bombed the Cuban Air Force out of existence the night before, but the news media did inform us about it after-the-fact that we had pulled a Pearl Harbor on Cuba, yet many in the news media blamed Kennedy for interfering unpatriotically with the Bay Of Pigs invasion.
I think we’ve always had a problem with the news media, but thankfully, the news media DID cover the Pentagon Papers !!!
We all pay dues whether companies to a business group or members of a church.
All you need to compare is that in right to work for less states the standard of living is less. The schools are not as good and turn out lessers. And most recently the credit rating of cites are less.
This is all tied into higher wages/benefits and the ability of working families to have a higher standard of living.
Pay your dues for a better life or be non-Union and live your lesser life.
One thing I will never understand about people. Oklahoma a state that maybe was the hardest state hit by the great depression. Oh they called them Okees. They would go from state to state looking for work. The only thing they got was we don’t want them dumb Okees around here. So along comes FDR with his new deal and put them Okees to work. Remember the great movie Grapes of Wrath No#23 best of all time. Well that tells the story of the dumb Okees. They must have all for got about F.D.R. I think they have become so brain washed by all those Tellevangelist down there. In my humble opinion one of the worst epidemic to hit America. But they voted to work for less so stupid is stupid does. Example of RTWL. Teacher N.Y.C.–Avg–$69,118.00, Oklahoma– Avg–$43,864.00 same teacher doing the same thing. Maybe those Okees are not to smart. All the working people of Oklahoma should ask there leaders what happened here and I am mad as hell.
When a CEO or republican speaks assume its a lie because it probably is.