Outside Erie

6 Responses to “Your Chance to Grill Your Favorite Lawmaker”

1. Tyler Dillen
   April 16th, 2009 at 9:40 am

   Yesterday, I attended a luncheon at the Manufacturer’s Association where Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper and Rep. Glenn Thompson discussed their views and experiences in Washington. As expected, the “Employee Free Choice Act” (a.k.a. Card Check) was discussed. If passed, this law eliminates the current secret ballot process, and instead enables a union to solicit card check signatures anywhere (e.g. at an employee’s home, sporting event, bar, etc.) – the signature process is public for all employees, managers, and union officials to see. If more than 50% of employees sign, then the union is established at that business. The bill also imposes stricter penalties and regulations on companies that violate fair-labor practices, but does not impose any corresponding penalties on unions that violate fair-labor practices.

   Rep. Thompson shared his belief that the oddly-named bill (which reduces “free choice” by eliminating an employee’s right to vote in private) would decrease the competitiveness of American businesses and result in more company closings and more American jobs going overseas.

   Rep Dahlkemper (co-sponsor of the bill) strongly supports the legislation – she reminded the audience that she is a small business owner herself, and supports this legislation because some companies engaged in unfair labor practices against their employees who sought to organize. She also asked what she can do to make our local businesses more competitive in the face of global competition. To assist her with this request, I have a few questions:
   • Why should all businesses (small and large) be subject to this one-sided legislation due to the abuses by a select few employers? Doesn’t our American system deal with people and companies who violate our laws on an individual basis?
   • Would Dahlkemper Landscaping be more or less competitive if your company were unionized?
   • As a co-sponsor of this bill, are you actively recruiting a union to organize your employees in order to be a more fair and competitive small business? If not, why?

   I believe that unions served an important role in the early 1900’s to bring about minimum wage standards and workplace safety laws. Today, I see unions directly decreasing American efficiency and competitiveness – as is evident in our Automotive and Airline industries – two highly unionized industries that constantly struggle with bankruptcy.

   I personally know many good, hard-working people who are union members, and who consistently pay their union dues on time. However, I do not see their union leaders using those dues to create any new companies and jobs for its members who are now unemployed. Unfortunately, I only see union leaders who are interested in recruiting new members in order to enjoy the money and power that come along with their new dues.

   Tyler (Erie, PA)

2. Tom
   April 16th, 2009 at 5:32 pm

   Excellent points, Tyler. I was recently thinking the same thing about Dahlkemper landscaping.
   Let’s repeat the question: WHEN WILL DAHLKEMPER LANDSCAPING EMPLOYEES ORGANIZE, or will it remain a “scab” business.
   We know the answer. so long as Kathy supports the union bosses in Washington, the union bosses will ignore her business. Just as they do for Nancy Pelosi’s businesses.

3. julio c reyes
   April 21st, 2009 at 4:39 pm

   Peter,

   Please feel free to accommodate this comment under any topic you feel pertinent. It might fit in different areas of your blog.

   The concept is rather simple. How truly filthy and ugly is little town, Oops Erie.

   Please check the latest letter to the editor from Mr. Jack Reinhardt a “semi-local” from Lake City.

   http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090421/OPINION02/304219998/-1/OPINION

   I know most of the “locals” strongly disagree with me about the filth and litter around the whole CITY area and they usually take offense at my statements about the town. I know that is just normal to be delusional when the true hurts.

   You might want to ask anybody suffering an addiction and most of they (us) are in denial about their (our) problems.

   So, As far as I am concerned Erie is in denial about their basic problems in regards to its image, progress and hope.

   The irony is that the City of Erie is one of the 32 finalists in All-America City awards. The 32 finalist in that competition have created jobs, revitalized downtowns and reduce crime among other accomplishments.

   I do not know about creating jobs, it might be that our unemployment is lower than other areas of the country. Reducing crime might be that the last killings eliminating bad people according to the Erie Police Department and its officer in you-tube. Revitalized downtown is a good one it might be that all the projects publicly funded where my taxes are going to make a big difference for all the guys publicly urinating and smoking grass around those areas. Or better yet we might get public housing for the professional sex workers assigned to Parade St so their commute between their home and work will be a little more convenient.

   In a serious note,

   The pseudo-leaders and big thinkers should lead by example. They should start promoting a true roots campaign to bring back pride and hope to the community. Contrary to what a lot of people and non-profit organizations believe around here to change behavior you do not need money you need true commitment, dedication and discipline.

   I challenge anybody the same way that Mr. Reinhardt did in his letter to the editor today. Just pick up a piece of trash everywhere you go and who knows. The whole little town might one day start looking as clean as the front of my restaurant Latinos every day when I pickup the trash left behind by a bunch of trashy people.

   Oops, before I forgot welcome to the show and picture opportunity around politicians for the cleanup around Parade St. tomorrow morning.

   See the irony again is that people are truly convinced that the streets must be cleaned once a year by students doing a school project for extra credits rather than enforce the non-littering laws already in the books.

   How ridiculous and phony is that? In a second thought I should not be surprised some of our pseudo leaders and big thinkers around usually take one bath a year regardless if they need it or not.

   I better go now.

4. julio c reyes
   April 22nd, 2009 at 11:07 am

   Peter,

   This crazy Californians might be into something again.

   http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-biofuels22-2009apr22,0,3486052.story

   If somebody talks to these guys to develop one of their plants around here we might be able to kill two birds with one stone.

   Remove and burn all the filth around the city and create alcohol based ethanol instead of just burning the tires and ruin the water in my Lake.

   Is anybody of our pseudo-leader and big thinkers reading the newspapers around the world looking for some ideas or they just enjoy the underground view obtained by having their heads buried in the past and/or sand.

   Maybe we could obtain some money from the stimulus package and then somehow push the necessary paperwork to move the money to accomplish other silly projects around.

5. Steve
   April 22nd, 2009 at 2:39 pm

   Just on a completely unrelated but still interesting note, I see that the Erie region was mentioned prominently in Obama’s energy speech today in Iowa. Below is the text of what he said:
   Roughly a century and a half ago, in the late 1850s, the Seneca Oil Company hired an unemployed train conductor named Edwin Drake to investigate the oil springs of Titusville, Pennsylvania. Around this time, oil was literally bubbling up from the ground – but it had limited economic value and often did little more than ruin crops and pollute drinking water.

   Even as some were refining oil for use as a fuel, collecting oil remained time-consuming, back-breaking, and costly, as workers harvested what they could find in the shallow ground. But Edwin Drake had a plan. He purchased a steam engine, built a derrick, and began to drill.

   Months passed. Progress was slow. The team managed to drill into the bedrock just a few feet each day. Crowds gathered to mock the hopeful, foolish diggers. The well even earned the nickname, “Drake’s Folly.” But Drake wouldn’t give up. He had an advantage: total desperation.

   It just had to work. Then, finally, it did.

   One morning, the team returned to the creek to see crude oil rising up from beneath the surface. Soon, Drake’s well was producing a then-astonishing amount of oil – perhaps ten, twenty barrels each day. Speculators followed, building similar rigs as far as the eye could see. In the next decade, the area would produce tens of millions of barrels of oil. And as the industry grew, so too did the ingenuity of those who sought to profit from it, as competitors developed new techniques to drill and transport oil to drive down costs and gain an edge in the marketplace.

6. julio c reyes
   April 22nd, 2009 at 3:19 pm

   Steve,

   Lovely post and very accurate.

   Indeed I am all for progress, innovation and change. The problem is that overall the ingenuity and hard work from Drake seems to be gone or worse yet the pseudo-leaders and big thinkers around here still believe that the whole region and its people could prosper still using Edwin’s original well or idea, how sad!

   Giving credit to another poster (who might coined the term) in this blog the no change/no progress syndrome so prevalent around here might be very well caused by the “pragmatic sensibility” of people living around. I guess nobody told some of the “local” genius that there is not only other people and world out there but also that the technology had changed dramatically in the last hundred years or so.

   Of course we all know that there are some marvelous examples of ingenuity and hard work around here. Unfortunately, those exemptions seem to confirm the rule.