Random Nuclear Strikes

Thankfully

Back in early February I posted about the attempt by the state legislature to collect and unionize the child care worker across the state.

Again, thankfully, they were unsuccessful.

After years of success at passing laws that allowed tens of thousands of low-wage, service-sector workers to unionize, labor groups hit a wall — or at least a speed bump — this year in the Legislature.

Democratic leaders in the Senate last week pulled the plug on a bill that would have extended collective-bargaining rights to some 12,000 day-care-center workers. Lawmakers also shot down bills that would have allowed many of the state’s foster parents and about 4,000 adult-family-home workers to unionize.

“There seems to be a general uneasiness among many people about the concept of collective bargaining in these nontraditional areas,” said Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, chairwoman of the Senate Labor, Commerce, Research and Development Committee.

Anything Kohl-Welles fails at is a success for the citizen. She of the unending gun-bigotry will try anything to make her donations from hyper-leftist groups happy.

In the past six years, unions have added more than 65,000 members by pushing through new collective-bargaining laws.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has led the way. Under the new laws, the SEIU has organized nearly 40,000 state-paid home-health-care and child-care workers, helping it become the state’s largest union. The Washington Federation of State Employees also added thousands of members by winning new bargaining rights.

The rapid growth — adding millions of dollars in additional dues — has vastly expanded the unions’ political clout. That, in turn, has led to hundreds of millions of dollars in increased wages and benefits for the newly unionized workers.

And thousands of dollars to extremist left-wing politicians like Kohl-Welles.

The employees in the education fields who were forced to join unions or lose their careers in Washington State were the ones who filed the lawsuit that was successful in halting the unions from using their dues for political causes without member input.

The citizen had to push back against the union’s and Kohl-Welles extremist vision of a union-run state.

To speak to a human representative of the State

Waiting in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to update a car registration in Virginia will soon cost an extra $5. The Virginia General Assembly on Wednesday sent Governor Tim Kaine (D) a bill that imposes a $5 tax on motorists who require in-person assistance for registration services. The bill’s sponsor, state Senator Ryan McDougle (R-Hanover County), believes that imposing a toll will reduce congestion at office locations where wait times can often stretch for hours.

I wouldn’t really mind this if it meant fewer state employees to pay for, but there is nothing in the bill that mentions that.

Personally, I’ve been doing mine via the “Checks in the Mail” method for years now, not being one to trust the State of Washington with my credit card data.

This will spread, rapidly, if my instincts are true. Next up, a $1 tax per letter written to your elected representatives.

Of course, that may just be my being unhappy to even have to pay for postage to do that. Like it would be that difficult to the USPS to have some addresses that don’t require postage. Yeah, I’ve got email, but I don’t like them having a delete button.