As Donald Trump becomes America’s 45th President promising an era of job creation and productivity, some states have gotten a head-start. The Commonwealth of Kentucky has just become the 27th state to enact right to Work protection for their workers and repealed their wasteful prevailing wage laws. New Hampshire and Missouri will soon follow. The union boss grip of power on American democracy is slipping away. That doesn’t mean they aren’t giving up control without a fight.
Recently, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to unionize the 2850 employees of Boeing in South Carolina. The union is an example of why unions have lost their influence.
Intimidation, fear mongering, and group think all provide centralized power for the union bosses. Dues keep the union elite firmly entrenched in their seats of corruption. These bosses are no better than the most offensive company they supposedly defend their members from.
When will workers realize that if we are trying to bring jobs back to America it will be done in spite of the Unions. Unions are one of the main reasons the jobs left America. Ultimately, when you increase the wages to a certain point, a company will decide to eliminate the employee. Aside from that, the widespread corruption and utter fleecing of hard working Americans by their Union leadership is commonplace. The case in South Carolina and the Machinists Union (IAM) is a prime example.
The boss of the IAM, Robert G. Martinez Jr. made close to $300,000 in 2015 when he was still only the Vice President, as President he is most certainly making a lot more than that. I personally, would have no problem with the President of a company making hundreds of thousands of dollars. That seems appropriate. However, isn’t it a little hypocritical for Martinez as the union president since he makes his living by trashing the leadership of other companies as overpaid. The problem starts to become more clear when you find out that President Martinez isn’t just overpaid, he has helped his family into some sweet positions of power within the union as well.
Might as well get the whole family in on a good gig! Two of the Martinez children are on the IAM payroll. Robert G. “Sonny” Martinez III made about $50K as an “Organizer”. Another Martinez child, Alexis, enjoyed a six-figure income from the union as a typist. Crystal Garcia, the mother of “Sonny’s” child, also made $61K as a clerk typist.
That must be some pretty amazing typing in that family! Are Boeing employees excited to pay for that typing?
Unions have had their time. They are full of corruption and nepotism. At the end of the day, unions like IAM crush once vibrant companies and drive them overseas, thus actually eliminating American jobs. They do this by robbing the very workers they are promising to help and simply enriching the union leaders and their families in the process.
The sun has set upon the time of the union in America.
photo credit: nathangibbs Cash Money via photopin (license)
