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Unions Sue Nikki Haley in Her First Week in Office

By: Ben Howe (Diary)  |  January 21st, 2011 at 10:30 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Nikki Haley

Nikki Haley, Governor of South Carolina and Redstate Gathering attendee, has barely stepped foot into office and the AFL-CIO has deemed fit to use their dues to sue her for expressing her intent to prevent job-killing unions from invading South Carolina which incidentally is a right to work state.

The Governor’s response is refreshingly honest and bold as she essentially tells them to shove their lawsuit where the sun don’t shine.

From the AP:

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is facing her first big lawsuit after saying the state would try to keep unions out of the Boeing Inc. plant in North Charleston.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Charleston by the International Association of Machinists and AFL-CIO asked for a court order telling Haley and her director of the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation to butt out and remain neutral in matters concerning union activities.

“There’s no secret I don’t like the unions,” Haley said when asked about the litigation. “We are a right-to-work state. I will do everything I can to defend the fact we are a right-to-work state. We are pro-business by nature. I want us to continue to be pro-business. If they don’t like what I said, I’m sorry, that’s how I feel.”

The lawsuit expresses the fear of intimidation and being coerced which coming from a union is especially comical:

The lawsuit said their actions, “taken under the color of state law, intimidate and coerce workers so that they are compelled to refrain from joining or supporting labor organizations.”

Somehow, the supporters of the inaccurately named “Employee Free Choice Act” managed to stop laughing long enough to file this lawsuit.

The newly appointed Director of the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation, Catherine Templeton was equally dismissive of not only the lawsuit, but the very concept of unionization.

Said Templeton:

“In my experience I have found there is not one company that operates more efficiently when you put another layer of bureaucracy in. … We will do everything we can to work with Boeing and make sure that their work force is taken care of, that they run efficiently and that we don’t add anything unnecessarily.”

This didn’t sit well with Democratic State Sen. Robert Ford who managed to pull off the very rare quadruple-negative in response to Templeton’s statement:

“But you don’t have no mandate from nobody that we’re not going to let no labor union exist at Boeing?” Ford asked.

“No, sir. Of course not. We don’t have the authority to do that,” Templeton said.

Unsurprisingly, Ford represents the area with the Boeing plant and the thousands of potential Democrat contributors union-dues-paying employees.

The future of South Carolina is looking very bright.

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COMMENTS

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  • geah

    we had 49 other South Carolina states

  • lineholder

    I’m doing the snoopy dance right now, big time.

    I grew up in SC. I can remember when it was primarily textile companies that the state depended on for jobs. When this industry started moving away and/or dying out, the state came up with some creative ideas to bring other businesses in the area so that people could have jobs.

    One of THE most effective methods that they chose was to support Community College programs with emphasis on technical skills with the conviction that having skilled employees on hand would provide an incentive for other types of manufacturing companies to move into the area. And the plan succeeded.

    So you can count on it that after fighting their way through to succeed in this, they aren’t likely to want to see it fail now. If the unions expected SC to simply roll over on this, they are wrong.

    • Next93

      Like a lot of other states, Minnesota is facing a serious budget shortfall, and the newly elected republican state house is already advancing a slate of “cuts” (most of them actually reductions in funding increases, but that’s not the way the Demos or thier moutpieces in the media see it). Naturally, one of the cuts is the vastly over-funded University of Minnesota.

      Every time someone even suggests cutting the funding for the UofM, the media make sure to give the president (of the university) plenty of camera time to point out how important the U is to creating jobs in Minnesota.

      Now, I’m a pretty big fan of the U’s Institute of Technology, which does a fine job of leading-edge research (and a fair to middlin’ job of teaching) in the fields of science, engineering, and math. I’m even OK with the economics departments and the School of Management (though I think the Executive MBA program is turing out a lot of spreadsheet jockeys who don’t have the skills to back up thier arrogance). And, of course, the medical programs have helped to turn St. Paul into “Life Sciences Alley”. And I suppose you need a law school, because the only way to keep the lawyers from eating the rest of us is to flood the market and try to introduce some price competition.

      But for the life of me, I simply can’t figure out how jobs are going to be created by departments such as Queer Studies, Womans Studies, Minority Studies, and all of the other liberal arts programs that seem to run the system.

      If it was about job creation, they’d shut down the entire liberal arts part of the system and put half of the money into the various community colleges around the state (which are actually part of the State College system). We actually end up saving money and improving the quality of the workforce at the same time.

      And anyone who feels his/her life is incomplete without exposure to one of the various Victims Studies programs can go get a degree at one of the many private liberal arts colleges that dot the Twin Cities metro area.

      • lineholder

        different than what is seen in many other states. At the Community College level, if you reviewed the curriculum being offered, they don’t put an emphasis on liberal arts. It’s on practical, hands-on development of technical knowledge and skills.

        Even at a high school level, the vocational school influence puts an emphasis on technical skills that directly translate to jobs. A student can graduate from high school in SC having the first year of an Associates Degree already completed. Many companies are willing to pay for the second year in a co-op venture with the student.

        It is very different from what exists in other states, but it has served very well for the state of SC.

        • Menlo

          At least in the part of the state where I live, community colleges do focus more on real-world skills. They are also about 90 percent cheaper, and the faculty and staff are not as overpaid.

        • Next93

          I’m originally from the rust-belt in the northeast, and I spent several years in a city that has yet to recover from the textile plants moving to S.C. and other southern states in the early 1900′s. I don’t know if it was the different times or the northeastern tendancy to complain rather than fix things, but it never occurred to them to establish a system like the one S.C. put in place when the textile plants left for mexico and asia a couple of generations later.

          Interestingly enough, the engineering college I attended in the north country of New York began as a vocational training school established by a local “Robber Baron” because he felt that spending his money on jobs training was better than spending it on charity for the jobless.

  • bk

    Don’t you know you’re supposed to call them “job-destroying” unions rather than “job-killing” unions, or are you advocating that people murder the union leaders?

    Yes, I’m being facetious for anyone who didn’t realize that.

    • Ben Howe

      to refer to all Democrat initiatives as “Job-Killing”

  • sharonmcp

    ?But you don?t have no mandate from nobody that we?re not going to let no labor union exist at Boeing?? Ford asked.

    tells me all I need to know.

  • davidleigh

    As a lifelong resident of South Carolina, and a graduate of the College of Charleston with family living there, I can assure you Charlestonians will not tolerate any union interference with Boeing. We’re certainly elated to have Boeing here and like you, I’m confident Boeing knew precisely that we will remain a Right to Work state. I’m pretty confident they’ll be happy with the weather as well and our fine food here.

    I didn’t vote for Haley in the primary, but I did so in the general election. You may be interested to know she told HARPO Productions (Oprah) that her production crew would not be allowed to enter the prison facility where Susan Smith is incarcerated for killing her two young sons for a feel good story on “Why-ja do it?” She told HARPO the murderer has had enough attention and needs no more.

    Ford always delights us with his eloquence. A highly, highly educated man with complete and total command of the english language.

  • Next93

    I lived in the south in the mid-60′s (though not S.C.), and I know what government-sponsored intimidation can look like, particularly when operated by Democrats and thier subsidiary, the Klan.

    This ain’t it.

  • smill1953

    ["...This didn?t sit well with Democratic State Sen. Robert Ford who managed to pull off the very rare quadruple-negative in response to Templeton?s statement:

    ?But you don?t have no mandate from nobody that we?re not going to let no labor union exist at Boeing?? Ford asked...."]

    Actually, I think he hit the QUINTUPLE mark! Let’s count…

    ?But you don?t (1) have no (2) mandate from nobody (3) that we?re not (4) going to let no (5) labor union exist at Boeing?? Ford asked.

    Yep, five.

  • E Pluribus Unum

    When the enemy commences to yelping, screaming, and caterwauling. Go Nikki go!!!! Kudos, atta girls, and all that. It’s also abundantly clear she picked the right kind of person for Labor Affairs (whatever the shorthand is for that outlandish title for Templeton).

    [For those disturbed by the potentially violent imagery, in reference to such things as aim and enemy, please note the absence of anything resembling an apology. John King officially handles all my apologies. Refer to him. ]

    • Ben Howe

      Good to see you!

  • sundesy

    I need an option when I have to move out of CA.

  • caboose

    to handle a lawsuit is to file a counter law suit. Reminder,The AFL-CIO, among other things, is not a Union. It has no authority over any Union. Some Unions are affiliates of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrail Organizationof Labor,(AFL-CIO). No union is required to belong to that organization and those that do can opt out at anytime. AFL-CIO does not speak for any International, National or any of the union branches who have autonymous powers within each organization. They comply with their union contitutions and by-laws and contracts. AFL-CIO has no power under these documents. So a case can be made that the AFL-CIO has no standing in any matter of union business that is germane to the above mentioned levels of unions. SC bust their A$$ with a lawsuit.

    • lineholder

      I grew up in SC, but currently live in NC, and it has stunned for years now how much difference in mindset there is that exists between these two neighboring states.

      NC would probably welcome them with them open arms right now. SC won’t, for more reasons than one.

  • runner12

    Keep sticking it to the unions! The fact that they are howling so loud means you are doing something right.

  • taxpayer1234

    Although it’s my policy not to correct people who aren’t in my classes, I feel a strong urge to smack that illiterate Ford up the side of the head.

  • chbroussard

    of proper use of the English language, I suggest his time would be better spent making sure his English teachers are no longer working in SC schools.