Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Just Like Indiana

By Jeff Simpson

Wisconsin's disappearing Governor, Scott Walker, recently made an appearance in Wisconsin to sign a "Right-To-Work" bill that he spent years campaigning that he would not sign.  


The new law, which takes effect immediately, makes Wisconsin the 25th right-to-work state and the first to do it since Michigan and Indiana in 2012. Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Committee, said the action now puts pressure on other Midwest states to follow suit.
Yes, we want to be just like Indiana.   By the way this is the kind of thing happening in Indiana under their very own "right-to-work" laws:

The superintendent of an Indiana school district where a stage collapsed, injuring 16 high school students when they plunged into an orchestra pit, said Friday that the section that gave way was only a few years old, but it's unclear whether it was ever subject to inspection.
The uncertainty surrounding the regulation of the orchestra pit cover that collapsed during Thursday's finale of a musical at Westfield High School, 20 miles north of Indianapolis, is reminiscent of questions that arose in 2011, when heavy winds toppled stage rigging onto fans awaiting a performance by country duo Sugarland at the Indiana State Fair.
Seven people were killed and dozens injured in that collapse, which sparked new state rules on temporary, outdoor stage rigging equipment. Thursday's collapse wasn't deadly, and all of the students who were injured were out of the hospital by Friday afternoon.


Shitty work, done by cheap labor, on top of no regulations, is the ultimate Republican wet dream.   Luckily for us though, most people wont die and if they are young they will eventually heal.   

Can't wait until we can have some of our very own Wisconsin videos of massive groups of people  getting injured and enjoying the fruits of our very own "Right-to-Work" tree. 



8 comments:

  1. This just in from heavily unionized New York City: At an evening news conference, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said a preliminary investigation indicated that a gas explosion caused by plumbing and gas work in the building that collapsed was to blame. The New York Post reported that construction crews accidentally "hit a gas main." 19 people were injured, four of them critically.

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  2. Hi David,

    Actually...

    A massive explosion that rocked New York City's East Village and injured at least 22 people Thursday may have been caused by someone “inappropriately” accessing a gas line in the the building, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday.

    Just minutes before the blast, the mayor said, the owner of a restaurant on the building’s ground floor had called his landlord to report smelling gas.

    At a news conference Friday, De Blasio said preliminary information indicated that someone in the building could have accessed a gas line without authorization.

    The explosion leveled the building and caused two others to collapse.

    Your sad and pathetic attempt to boost a conservative spin on this tragedy provides eloquent testimony to your honor and character

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    Replies
    1. SB, unless David wants to use this as his avatar (which I invite him to do), you're welcome to use it.

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  3. Your unionized municipal employees at work:

    Feb. 20, 2015: "Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”) Commissioner Mark G. Peters, and New York City Police Commissioner William J. Bratton today announced the indictment of 50 defendants involved in widespread housing fraud and bribery schemes in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. The defendants include 11 New York City Department of Buildings (“DOB”) employees and five New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (“HPD”) employees. The defendants are charged in 26 New York State Supreme Court indictments filed in New York and Kings Counties with crimes including Bribery, Bribe Receiving, Falsifying Business Records, Tampering with Public Records, and Official Misconduct.

    "Our investigation revealed a widespread network of corruption in the construction industry and among the City workers charged with keeping that industry safe,” said DOI Commissioner Mark G. Peters. “We found that these 16 City employees, including several senior supervisory staff, took bribes to clear code violations including some that presented real safety threats."

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  4. And your point is?

    Obviously, that is horrible and is a compelling argument that there should be no "City workers charged with keeping that industry safe". Maybe then, we could place a market solution in its place. Perhaps a company with a century-long history carrying the flag for corporate America, balancing profits with safety. A company like GM...

    "The internal report commissioned by General Motors into the recall of vehicles with a deadly ignition defect presents a devastating picture of corporate indifference to public health and safety.

    Despite its transparent attempt to shield top officials from criminal charges, the report by attorney Anton Valukas shows the corporation routinely sacrificed safety to corporate profit. Its depiction of GM reinforces the perspective of the Socialist Equality Party: (1) production for private profit is incompatible with the common good, and (2) the auto industry should be publicly owned under the democratic control of the working class.

    In the early 2000s General Motors authorized the production of the Saturn Ion, the Chevrolet Cobalt and several other vehicles targeted to younger drivers with an ignition switch whose torque did not meet GM’s own minimum specifications. As a result the switch could be easily jarred out of the “run” position, killing power to the engine and disabling power brakes, power steering and airbags. Despite being confronted with a flood of customer complaints, including unfavorable reviews in the press, GM denied that the ignition switch posed a safety risk.

    GM engineers proposed a fix, but management rejected it for cost reasons. Later, GM quietly changed the design of the ignition switch to increase its torque, but did not assign a new part number, in violation of basic engineering principles. The change was a clear attempt at a cover-up and was one of the factors that delayed the public exposure of the defect for nearly a decade.

    Later, several independent studies tied the ignition defect to fatal accidents in which airbags did not deploy. However, GM refused to order a recall. Instead it authorized a series of internal “investigations” that resulted in no concrete action.

    Attorneys for accident victims eventually exposed the cover-up. They proved the link between the ignition defect and airbag non-deployment and documented that GM had changed the part without changing the part number. However, even at this point, GM moved slowly on a recall, delaying for additional months while deaths and injuries mounted. "

    So David, what exactly was the conclusion, one was to draw from your well-reasoned presentation?

    ReplyDelete