Last week, PBS broadcasted a documentary on the
state of coal mining during the early part of the 20th century in
West Virginia. No one can deny the
inhumane and unsafe conditions in which workers toiled, or the predatory
practices of owners who forced miners and their families to live in proprietary
shacks and paid scrip that was worthless outside of company stores. Rarely, did miners receive justice. Local, state and federal governments
conspired to suppress strikes and in some cases armed rebellion. Coal mining camps were filled with powder
kegs in more ways than one.
After time, conditions and wages improved with the
advent of the Wagner Act and the increasing political power workers exercised
at the polls. Unfortunately for coal
miners, their union bosses saddled up with a political party that began to take
their votes for granted and now despises the very profession that puts a roof
over their head, clothes on their back and food in their families stomach. Radicals have taken over the Democratic
Party. Blue collar workers have been supplanted
by Marxist/environmentalist groups that have nothing but contempt for
modernity and the energy that propels it.
The coal industry has become persona non grata thanks to Barack Hussein Obama
and his ilk.
Today’s predators aren’t the coal companies. They’re being strangled by a legion of laws,
regulations and EPA mandates that seeks their extinction. No, that toothless lion has been replaced by
a different breed of predator: union
bosses and politicians that pay lip service while forcing workers to pay
exorbitant dues that finance a good ole boy system that benefits everyone but
the worker.
Currently, right-to-work legislation is making its
way through West Virginia’s capitol. Republicans
are trying to attract businesses that will help alleviate the privations of a
state long ruled by Democrats and their cronies. The Daily Signal reported the following:
The Grand Old Party won big,
taking control of the state legislature for the first time in 83 years. At the
top of the Republican agenda: bringing West Virginia in line with the rest of
the South on the right to work.
More than half of the states in the country
have adopted right-to-work laws. And almost every state in the South is doing
it. Currently, Kentucky and West Virginia are the only states holding out.
The
legislation advanced out of the state Senate by a party-line vote, 17-16. The
House last week followed suit, approving the measure 54-46. Tomblin has
until Thursday to veto the bill.
For workers, the measure
wouldn’t change much. It simply ensures that the decision to join a union is
voluntary and that employees cannot be forced to pay union dues. But for state
economies, it could change everything. It’s a prerequisite for many
manufacturers, who say they’ll locate only in right-to-work states.
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