The Contributor Reports: South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley:
“You’ve heard me say many times I wear heels. It’s not for a fashion statement.” “It’s because we’re kicking them every day, and we’ll continue to kick them.”
Yes, she’s talking about labor unions, those pesky, age-old organizations which are PROTECTED BY UNITED STATES LAW.
No matter.
The state which has welcomed union-busting companies such as Boeing with open arms apparently would not allow new jobs to be created if they were going to be union jobs, an ideology that explains the impoverished nature of South Carolina’s economy despite dropping unemployment numbers. Speaking to the media, Haley said:
“They’re coming into South Carolina. They’re trying,” Haley warned. “We’re hearing it. The good news is it’s not working.”
Haley says she will keep fighting union penetration. This is a really good use of her energy considering a paltry 3.7 percent of South Carolinians are unionized.
No wonder she’s a Tea Party favorite. You want to help employ people in my state? Make sure you pay them poorly.
Her Democratic opponent in the gubernatorial race, State Sen. Vincent Sheheen, supports “Right-to-Work” but told the media the state should have a more cordial tone with companies seeking to relocate. He told the Greenville News that he believes workers should have the right to decide to join a union, but ideology should not stand in the way of economic growth.
“I also think that if Ford Motor Co. wanted to bring 10,000 jobs to South Carolina, we would welcome them with open arms,” Sheheen said.
“We need good, high-paying jobs in South Carolina,” he said. “Part of leadership is putting ideology and partisanship to the side when there’s something that could be good for South Carolina.”
An interesting take on Haley and her legacy comes from Detroit Free Press writer Stephen Henderson, who notes that while unemployment has dropped under Haley, poverty has risen:
South Carolina touts its virtually tax-free, incentive-laden environment at its Department of Commerce website. No state income tax or property taxes. No sales tax on business equipment, and a flat 5 percent business tax. Credits exist in the form of everything from enterprise zones to job development. The Tax Foundation says South Carolina has the 10th lowest tax burden, and Forbes rates its business climate 22nd.
Despite all that, South Carolina’s median income is still in the bottom 10 nationally, and it’s among nationwide leaders for overall poverty, child poverty and the number of people without health insurance. (South Carolina was also among the states that refused to expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act, which would have provided insurance for more than 350,000 people who have no coverage right now.)
South Carolina has a “booming” auto industry, led by the BMW plant in Spartanburg, which opened in 1994. The state also enjoys a healthy network of suppliers like Michelin and Bosch, and has been able to attract Daimler trucks and some Honda manufacturing.
The state’s unemployment rate has dropped nearly 4 percentage points since 2010.
But South Carolina is still a place where poverty has been getting worse, even after the deep recession. Since 2011, the number of residents living in poverty has grown by 100,000.
It’s far too simple to say South Carolina’s struggles are solely about its nonunion workplaces.
But I believe that’s part of the issue — the suppression of wages and benefits that attends modern job growth, and the race among states to attract employers at any cost.
In response to Haley’s comments, South Carolina AFL-CIO President Erin McKee questioned how the governor could truly represent her constituents given her bias:
South Carolinians “have the right to have good jobs, and if those are union jobs, they’re union jobs,” McKee said. “And to keep jobs from coming here because they’re union, I don’t think she’s representing the people.”
– See more at: http://thecontributor.com/sc-gov-haley-i-wear-high-heels-order-kick-unions-and-well-continue-kick-them#sthash.gxn1gYqM.dpuf
Unions built America’s middle class. If you are against unions, you are anti-American.
But what can you expect from a bunch of damn Confederates. They’ve never wanted to be part of this country. They want to live under rules that enslave others.
Have you noticed how the media obsess over Hungary’s resurgent Nazism as if it were more important than the continued Confedaratism of SC?
If SC applied for membership in the EU, I suspect they would be rejected for not meeting standards for governance.