On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 2:24 PM, Scott Stroz <boyz...@gmail.com> wrote: > > OK, you would agree then that making everyone pay dues (even though some > would have their money go to charity) is a tax? Because when I asked Larry > that, he said 'no'.
I would say it is a tax, yes. There are some technical differences I suppose between taxes, fees, dues, blah blah blah but it amounts to much the same thing as far as I am concerned. > Judah, I always appreciate your insight, but the comparison doesn't make > sense to me. A union is not a legislative body and therefore shouldnot have > an ability to tax anyone's income. > Within the scope of the current law, unions really are a legislative body (in the case of closed shops). A union that is certified by the NRLB is authorized to represent some subset of the workforce in a company. They negotiate contracts and then those contracts are voted on by the members of the union, much like tax proposals going before voters. A majority passes them or votes them down. Union leaders are elected by the membership to represent the workers. They can be voted out and replaced or the whole union can be decertified. Admittedly the situation is more complex with open shops and some of the manifestations end up being a little weird. The closest I can come to parallels in the political world is DC in which citizens pay taxes but are not directly represented. Curiously enough, the DC Voting Rights Act is before Congress right now. Anyway, I think there are good arguments about the role of labor organization and its interactions with the corporate power structure. But EFCA isn't about that. EFCA is about the process in which unions are formed. If EFCA is defeated, unions will still exist and they will still act as pseudo-legislative bodies. Juda ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:293064 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
