Fitzpatrick Vote Not Everyone’s Cup of Tea

A story in today’s Courier-Times shows there are rumblings about Mike Fitzpatrick’s vote on HR 2587, the bill spurred by the National Labor Relation’s Board’s (NLRB) complaint filed against Boeing’s decision to open a plant in South Carolina, a right-to-work state.

I can’t comment on Ms. Stefano’s statement about an early look at a possible primary.  In general, though I understand they’re expensive, I’m in favor of primaries; they get issues out on the table and force candidates to address them.

I can and will comment on Fitzpatrick’s response about why he voted the way he did.  (I’ll also say that I’m unhappy that I never received more than a canned “got your email” response from Fitzpatrick when I wrote and asked him to help me understand his vote).

First off, I don’t think the purpose of the bill was to “reverse the Boeing decision”, I think it was to prevent more occurrences of those kinds of decisions.

What I find worse is this comment from Fitzpatrick in today’s news story:

In explaining his nay vote, Fitzpatrick stated he believes that the NLRB has a role to play in“protecting both employees and employers. Most troubling, H.R. 2587 would bar the NLRB from filing any claim against a company for unfairly outsourcing jobs. This is an important function of the NLRB, especially when we are witnessing the exodus of American manufacturing to foreign countries.”

First off, never be afraid to vote to strip entities of their power.  Think about it, yes; make a careful decision, yes.  But it is so much easier to anoint an agency with power than it ever is to take it away.  Be moderate in the first action, aggressive in the second.

Second, I don’t agree that it’s the job of our government to keep businesses from outsourcing jobs anywhere, even overseas.  If you don’t want that to happen, then make your best effort to kept our country competitive.  Some companies will always find it in their best interests to outsource.  (And some foreign companies build here).  Regulations aren’t always bad, but they can be extremely harmful and, in the end, fail in their mission.  No one can be a free citizen if essentially ruled by bureaucrats.

And if you “care” so much about US manufacturers and US jobs, explain to me the value of telling every man, woman and child in America that they can no longer use incandescent bulbs, and in the process drive the last major US light bulb manufacturer out of business.  And why it’s necessary to raid Gibson guitars.  And all but shut down oil drilling while guaranteeing loans to bankrupt ‘green’ technologies.  The list just goes on.

For better or worse, unions are a shrinking segment of the private work force, (though swollen large in the public sector).  The NLRB is concerned with “unfair labor practices”.  Well, so are many of us.  The current un- and under-employment rate is not “fair”, and the NLRB sure isn’t helping.  Take them down.