Union Thugs Harrassing Workers In Bismarck

• October 10, 2006

This is how unions operate.

Union members are chanting “settle the contract.”
Some of them went as far as to put nails on the ground before the bus came.
When our K-X News photographer started getting video of the nails, the striking employees tried to kick them away.
The strike began Saturday, about four in the afternoon.
Contract negotiations broke down regarding benefits and salary.
The union wants I-R Bobcat to pay the entire cost of their health care in addition to a pay increase.

Be sure to watch the video at the link.
Unbelievable, no? But that’s just par for the course with unions.
I can understand strikes and collective bargaining, but far too often these union goons act like they have a right to their jobs. They don’t. Just as they have a right to refuse to show up to their jobs because of compensation disputes businesses should have a right to replace them with employees who will show up for work. And those employees who do show up for work shouldn’t have to suffer the shouting, physical intimidation and childish antics (nails on the ground in front of the buses?) these people all too often engage in.
As I said when this strike first started, if I were Bobcat I’d fire these striking workers and hire new ones. That might sound extreme, but burgeoning costs associated with trying to provide employees with unlimited health care benefits crushed companies like Ford and General Motors. If Bobcat doesn’t want to follow suit they’d be better off cutting their losses now.
Health care should not be the responsibility of employers. We have that system now and it doesn’t work. We need to make health care the responsibility of the individual again.

Tags: Asshats, Cultural Marxism, North Dakota News, Politics

http://Array electnixon

If we (the US) have made this country so expensive to do business in that companies are better off leaving, then that is our fault.

If government incentives were needed to convince Bobcat to locate to ND, then that doesn’t mean that they have loads of cash to pay for unrealistic employee benefits.

The biggest problem that ND and similar areas have w/regards to this type of facility is having an adequate supply of approporiately skilled labor for a reasonable price. Once that is no longer available, businesses have no reason to keep their manufacturing there. The same could be said for the US in general.
http://www.valleydeals.com/cgi-bin/board2/YaBB.pl Kevin Flanagan

I’m sure some of the best Congressmen labor goonion money can buy; Nd’s three stooges in Congress, will come to their rescue!
Pilgrim

I agree entirely that the company has the right to replace workers that won’t work with workers that will.

The original ideas behind unions were good ones, protecting workers from sweatshop or dangerous conditions for pitiful pay. Those conditions are long gone. There are laws and safety regulations in place to protect workers now, and unions have become the bullies on the schoolyard. A fine example is this article, another the whole Wal-Mart issue, a blatant attempt at a union takeover.

Pay for their ENTIRE health benefit package PLUS a raise? Sweet. That’s not union protection. That’s a robbery.
robert108

A contract has to be fulfilled, and done so profitably. It’s not welfare, you know. Are you saying they weren’t the best company for the job? Isn’t that what politicians do for their constituents?

Your last blockquote illustrates how taxes are costing us local business. The govt makes outsourcing good business.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

I wonder if those guys have figured out that Ingersoll Rand could pack up and move the plant out of state or out of the country.
NodakJoe

Let the workers strike!

Bobcat got a great deal from the Federal government, that apparently Byron Dorgan was responsible for. The workers can demand whatever they want.

New Dorgan Ad Highlights Senator’s Effort to Win Bobcat a Pentagon Contract in Iraq
Bobcat CEO Mike Ryan thanks Byron Dorgan in this ad for helping the North Dakota company win a Department of Defense contract that resulted in sending its loaders to Iraq and Afghanistan for use in the War on Terror. Click here to view “Bobcat.”

Dorgan’s operatives once tried to tell me that Because he supported multinational Ingersoll Rand that he was for the small business. Bobcat has been a great company for North Dakota and for America but selling out to Ingersoll Rand was a huge mistake.

Byron did you know that Ingersoll Rand is located off shore in Bermuda before you had them appear in your commercial in 2004?

History
In 1871, Simon Ingersoll founded Ingersoll Rock Drill Company. In 1905 Ingersoll-Sargeant Drill Company merged with the Rand Drill Company to form Ingersoll Rand. Ingersoll Rand has largely grown by acquisition since that time. In 2004, the rock drill portion of the business was sold to Atlas Copco.

In October 2001 shareholders voted to move the company’s incorporation to Bermuda to avoid U.S. corporate income taxes on products sold overseas. Moving the company on paper cost only $27,000 USD per year, with a tax savings estimated at $40 million USD. See tax haven.

The company’s executive offices were moved from Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey to neighboring Montvale, New Jersey in 2004.

[edit]
Businesses
Paulie B

As I said when this strike first started, if I were Bobcat I’d fire these striking workers and hire new ones.

Unfortunately, I believe that there are laws preventing that. I’m new to the civilian world, and I haven’t gone through much union training, but I do know this much: as soon as a union drive starts at a plant, management can’t tell people that they may lose their jobs if they join the union. It’s the law. Management can’t even educate the workers that if a union is established, it may cost so much that the plant will move. That is also the law.

And since those two items are law (as per my HR department), I would imagine that it’s illegal to fire striking employees.

Where are the pro-union-ites on this thread? It’s hard to defend something so ugly.
http://www.wholewheatblogger.com/ Steve

I wonder if they are demanding coverage for sex change surgery as well.

I guess this type of union thuggery is what union members think will get people on their side. Unfortunately for them, it has the exact opposite effect.

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Union Thugs Harrassing Workers In Bismarck

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