We’ve been a litle bit lazy over the last couple of decades.” ~ Barack Obama speaking to CEOs at annual APEC meeting in Hawaii. Nov 12, 2011

Mitt Romney strongly disagrees with President Obama’s questionable campaign messaging that we Americans are ‘lazy’, have ‘lost our ambition’, and have become ‘soft’.

Workers at Colite International, an international sign-producing company in Columbia, South Carolina, heard Romney’s strong objections to Obama’s new campaign meme yesterday when he and wife, Ann, toured the facility.

Romney was introduced to employees by wife, Ann:

“We need a leader who knows how to turn things around,” she said. “Mitt’s a turnaround guy.”

It was that simple exchange, their well-worn lines about being high school sweethearts and the details about their five children and 16 grandchildren that allowed Justin Mims to see the former Massachusetts governor as more than a two-dimensional political candidate.

Mims, a junior economics major at the University of South Carolina, said Romney seems to be a family man, and he likes that.

After the introduction from his wife at Colite International, Romney jumped into all the missteps he said President Barack Obama has made. Romney said they include the $787 billion federal stimulus package, cap-and-trade legislation, new regulations on the banking and finance industry, the federal health care law and appointing pro-union “stooges” to the National Labor Relations Board.

As president, Romney said he would repeal the heath care law signed by Obama in 2010, cut the federal workforce by 10 percent through attrition, and hand over control of Medicaid to states, among other measures he said would restore America to a “job-creating machine” and cut spending.
[…]
Mims was one of several college students and new graduates who came out to support Romney. Matt Mancini, a 23-year-old new University of South Carolina graduate, said he likes that Romney comes from a business background. Romney’s plan to downsize the government is something that will bring him a lot of support in South Carolina, Mancini said.

The White House hopeful spoke for about 15 minutes and was swarmed afterward by the press and supporters. He signed signs and bumper stickers and posed for pictures before heading off to the next stop on the campaign trail.

(emphasis added )

After touring the production floor at Colite, Intl in Columbia, SC, Mitt Romney speaks to employees. Nov 15, 2011 (AP photo)

“The things we make per person in America exceeds that of any other country in the world.”

“Our problem is not that the private sector isn’t productive enough. The problem is the government sector is too heavy and too burdensome and is keeping the private sector from growing and thriving like it should.”

“President Obama doesn’t understand it is NOT government that makes America strong. It is the free people of America that provide our future and our strength.”

American workers deserve a number of rights:
1. Right to a secret ballot
2. Right to at least 30 days notice before a union election
3. Right to work in a non-union state
4. Right to know if they are members of a union, they shouldn’t have dues taken out their paycheck to go to politicians they disagree with.

Listen to Romney’s complete speech (13:36):

Poll after poll in South Carolina reveals Romney in first or second place. A few days before his visit to Colite Intl, The Gov was in Mauldin, SC where he held a roundtable for veterans and he recently participated in the GOP debate in Spartanburg.

Here’s more on Obama’s attempts to draw attention away from his miserable job performance by claiming that we’re lazy Americans…

Read more…

Romney for President has released another, great new video: “OBAMA ISN’T WORKING: LABOR”

Boston, MA – Today, Romney for President released a new web video, “Obama Isn’t Working: Labor.” The video highlights the failure of President Obama’s labor policies. Paul Munsch discusses how he and his employees have faced years of bullying by the union bosses with whom President Obama continues to side.

Script For “Obama Isn’t Working: Labor”

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: “It’s time we had a president who didn’t choke saying the word ‘union.’ A president who strengthens our unions by letting them do what they do best: organize our workers.”

● SEN. BARACK OBAMA: “It’s time we had a president who didn’t choke saying the word ‘union.’ A president who strengthens our unions by letting them do what they do best: organize our workers.” (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At Service Employees International Union Member Political Action Conference, Washington, D.C., 9/17/07)

PAUL MUNSCH: “My name’s Paul Munsch. I’ve owned a company called St. Louis Paving. A man came up to me and handed me a business card that said “Organizer, Laborers’ International Union of America.’ And he says: ‘You’ve got ‘til April 27th to talk to us about how we can improve your business.’ So, I said, no thank you, I’m not interested. And my men went along with me. They were all right behind me. So, it was a team effort. So we fast forward to April 27th. We’re working at a shopping mall. All of a sudden, six guys jump out. They start videotaping our equipment, videotaping our men, videotaping their cars and their license plates. With that, they blew up this 25 foot tall inflatable rat, with our name plastered on its chest, blood coming out of its mouth. And they all picked up picket signs and started picketing in front of the building.”

OBAMA: “It’s time we had a president who didn’t choke saying the word ‘union.’”

● SEN. BARACK OBAMA: “It’s time we had a president who didn’t choke saying the word ‘union.’ A president who strengthens our unions by letting them do what they do best: organize our workers.” (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At Service Employees International Union Member Political Action Conference, Washington, D.C., 9/17/07)

MUNSCH: “We’ve never been union, and our employees have never expressed an interest in being union. If we were union, we’d be dealing with three unions, not one: the Teamsters, the Operating Engineers, and the Laborers. The guy who’s on the roller couldn’t pick up a shovel. The guy with a shovel couldn’t get in a truck. The guy in the, driving the truck couldn’t get out and get on the roller or pick up a shovel. To me, it was just the inefficiency of that was just grating. I think it offends the sensibility of any businessman to think of that. But I think it offends anybody’s sensibility. That kind of inefficiency doesn’t make any sense to anybody.”

OBAMA: “We’re ready to play some offense for organized labor.”

● SEN. BARACK OBAMA: “We’re ready to play some offense for organized labor.” (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At Service Employees International Union Member Political Action Conference, Washington, D.C., 9/17/07)

MUNSCH: “And what they would do is show up at our equipment yard. And they would follow our trucks to a job. And, they would put up pickets. They’d try to embarrass us, embarrass us in front of our customers. And the hope would be that our customers would stop using us, and we’d feel forced to sign an agreement with the union.

Almost everything they do makes the skin crawl in anybody who hears this story. And yet, everything they do is legal. And I’ve tried to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt on a lot of issues. It’s been one union payoff after another. If businesses are faced with these possibilities, we’ll do nothing but eliminate employment. These guys are school yard bullies. They’re playground bullies. They, you know, they gang up on some kid and beat on him long enough to get his lunch money. Somebody had to stand up to them.”

OBAMA: “A president who strengthens our unions by letting them do what they do best: organize our workers.”

● SEN. BARACK OBAMA: “It’s time we had a president who didn’t choke saying the word ‘union.’ A president who strengthens our unions by letting them do what they do best: organize our workers.” (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At Service Employees International Union Member Political Action Conference, Washington, D.C., 9/17/07)

► Jayde Wyatt

Workers add infrastructure to piece of fuselage at a Boeing-operated plant in N. Charleston, South Carolina (June 10, 2008). Mitt Romney will will be in SC on Monday, Sept 12, 2011, to tour Boeing. After the tour, he will deliver a labor policy speech. (photo Brad Nettles/AP)

Looking ahead…

Before taking his place onstage at the next presidential debate (Monday, Sept 12th in Tampa, FL), Mitt Romney will first pay a visit that same day to the beautiful state of South Carolina to tour Boeing. Boeing is being sued by the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) for building a plant in SC in what they view as retaliation for union strikes against the Boeing plant in Washington state.

While there, Governor Romney will also deliver a policy speech on unions which will include a proposed executive order giving workers a secret ballot option and opt-out from membership in a union. He spoke of this executive order earlier in the week at Senator Jim DeMint’s Palmetto Freedom Forum in Columbia, SC. To listen to Romney’s comments on unions, including right-to-work legislation, click here (2nd video @7:49).

PostandCourier.com

COLUMBIA — White House hopeful Mitt Romney will wade into the union fight over the Boeing Company’s decision to locate in right-to-work South Carolina when he delivers a policy speech on labor after he tours the North Charleston plant Monday.

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, will tour the facility in advance of the presidential debate in Tampa, Fla., later that day. Romney said at a GOP presidential forum in Columbia on Labor Day that union is not a bad word in itself, but the powerful labor organizations need to be kept in check.

The lawsuit that the National Labor Relations Board brought against Boeing for locating in South Carolina, considered an anti-union state by some, is the best example of why Romney wants to reverse the labor policies put forward by President Barack Obama, according to Romney’s campaign.

Gov. Nikki Haley said she welcomes Romney’s visit and his ideas. Haley, also a Republican, has been adamant in her fight against the labor board for its complaint against Boeing.

“We appreciate not just the talk but the action Governor Romney has taken to understand and highlight the challenges NLRB has brought upon Boeing,” Haley said in a statement Friday. “It is a strong sign to the people of our state that he is focused on our jobs.”

(emphasis added)

Highlights from Romney’s labor policy speech:

• Romney’s labor policy will focus on free enterprise, free choice and free speech.
• Labor laws must be carried out even-handedly to provide businesses with the certainty they need to grow and thrive.
• The law must be clear: Any company is free to invest anywhere it wants.
• Workers have a right to vote on whether to unionize by secret ballot. That is a position that South Carolinians overwhelmingly support. In November, 86 percent of state voters approved a constitutional amendment that requires union elections to be conducted by secret ballot.
• Romney opposes so-called snap elections, or ambush elections, for votes on whether a company should unionize. He wants to build in protections that will ensure employers have time to protect their legal rights and talk to workers about the downsides of unions.
• Unions should raise cash for political contributions the same way any other business or supporter would, by asking for donations, not using paycheck dues to fund donations.

Governor Romney endorsed Haley when she sought South Carolina’s gubernatorial seat last fall.

► Jayde Wyatt

The latest video in the Obama Isn’t Working series comes from Manchester, New Hampshire.

The video emphasizes the importance of Right to Work laws that will create jobs and give workers a choice of whether to support a union. Featured in the video is a small business owner who doesn’t mince words: “We live in the live free or die state,” he says in the video, “and [people] can damn well choose whether they want to join an organization or not join an organization.”

Watch below & share your thoughts. Will this be a big issue in the general election?



-Luke Gunderson

UPDATE by Jayde – Here’s Mitt’s schedule for today. If a livefeed of these events becomes available, we’ll let you know!

12:00 PM
Hosting a town hall meeting at Keene Recreation Center
312 Washington St., Keene, N.H.

3:00 PM
Hosting a business roundtable event at The Common Man
21 Water St., Claremont, N.H.

5:30 PM
Hosting a town hall meeting at Lebanon Senior Center

Finally, check out the photo of the day.

May 29, 2009 - Mitt Romney endorses New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie on steps of Borough Hall, Haddonfield, NJ.

Governor Chris Christie’s hunt, confront, and blunt approach to solving New Jersey’s deficit problems is thrilling. I like what he has to say about public employee/union entitlement demands. Take a look at a Townhall meeting he held on September 14, 2010, in Gloucester Township, NJ:

Governor Mitt Romney addresses this issue in No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. Here’s a brief excerpt (P. 217, 218):

Accountability is one of those things we expect from others but would prefer not to submit to ourselves. Most of us would rather be rewarded regardless of whether we excel, yet we know that if that were the case for everyone, our society would falter. Teachers’ unions do their very best to secure these insulations from performance for their members, and the results are lack of accountability, rising pay as a simple function of years on the job, and near-absolute job security. These have a deadening impact on student achievement. [...]

[...] Our elected representatives’ role is to sit across the table from the unions and bargain in good faith in the interest of children and parents. But the teachers’ unions long ago discovered that they could wield influence – and, in some cases overwhelmingly influence – over the selection of our representatives on school boards and in state legislatures. In states like Massachusetts and in many others, it’s almost impossible to be elected a city mayor if you are opposed by the local teachers’ union, and the same is true for candidates for state representative in many legislative districts. As a result, candidates for office woo the teachers’ unions. If they secure their endorsement and are elected, the official sitting across the table from the union at bargaining time is the very person the union campaigned for and helped get into office. All too often, no one at that bargaining table is there solely to represent the interests of the children and parents. Of course, there are always the requisite public nods to education reform, accountability, performance pay, and all the potential education reforms that are currently in vogue. But meaningful change is seldom accomplished. Instead, the priority almost always remains more education funding and creating smaller classes – the two measure with the least positive impact on the quality of education, but the most impact on teacher pay and union dues. When citizens vote to reduce education revenues or the state cuts back on funds, the education officials typically make the cuts where the voters will feel them most – in sports, music, arts, libraries, and computers. You simply don’t see administrators being fired or salaries being cut across the board.

[…]

[…]The unions’ influence directly affects policies that lie at the foundation of our nation’s economy, the core of our ability to preserve freedom, and the heart of our children’s future prosperity. The reform and improvement of our failing schools is a priority that is simply too important to be shaped by such a powerful and self-interested special interest.

(my emphasis)

No Apology – Mitt Romney P. 113

Unfortunately, some union CEOs are less concerned about an industry’s competitiveness than they are with how many of their union’s jobs they can protect, how much they can increase wages, and how they can impose even more favorable work rules. In some cases, this mind-set has contributed to companies or to entire industries failing so badly behind their competition that they lose market share or fail altogether, resulting in even greater job losses. Airlines, textiles, tires, steel aluminum consumer electronics, and autos include cases in point. The declines in unionized workplaces in the private sector reflects a recognition by working people across America that continual improvement and innovation are required in order for an employer to survive in the global marketplace. Unionization continues to grow in the public sector, however, because there is no competition to drive out a government entity that is inefficient, unproductive, or high cost – government is a protected monopoly.

(my emphasis)

For further details on Romney’s stance on unsustainable entitlements, refer to No Apology: The Case for American Greatness.

► Jayde Wyatt

Romney & Christie

Remember that special election New Jersey had a few months back? Remember that our man Mitt went to battle for a certain Republican candidate some deemed ‘too hefty‘ to win? Remember when President Obama dropped into Newark as the election drew near to make certain this ‘hefty’ fellow had no chance of being elected?

Does the name Chris Christie ring a bell?

Just a few months have passed since Christie’s victory and subsequent inauguration, and the freshman Governor is already causing tumultuous tides in the once placid waters of Jersey’s shore. His budget-cutting proposals have Unions up in arms and the death threats are already arriving at his desk.

In the ‘must see’ video posted below, we catch a glimpse of Christie’s fiery attitude and Romney-like backbone:

Video from The Save Jersey Blog

Its small moments of liberal smack-down like these that make me proud to be a supporter of Mitt Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC, knowing of course, that all my donations are going directly to the promotion of candidates like Chris Christie, Bob McDonnell, Marco Rubio and many others who dare to stand up against the (liberal) media machine.

Romney/Christie 2012, anyone?

Governor Christie, (R)-New Jersey

Tom Moran - Thin-Skinned, Liberal Columnist

You may recall that Governor Romney was one of several conservatives invited to do a revolving column at the Washington times. Well, Romney’s first column is up today and he takes on the issue of card-check.

Click here for the whole column. Head over there to read/leave comments.

In 2006, my last year as governor of Massachusetts, I vetoed a card-check bill that allowed public workers to organize if a majority signed union authorization cards as opposed to casting a traditional secret ballot. The veto was a gain for the rights of employees and employers to a fair election, but the victory was short-lived.

After I left office, organized labor had another run at replacing the secret ballot with a card check. With the support of Democrats in the legislature, that same bill I had vetoed was passed again in 2007 – and my Democratic successor signed it into law. What happened next is a cautionary tale for Congress as it moves toward a vote on national card-check legislation.

With this powerful new tool, for the first time ever in Massachusetts, a charter school was unionized. One reason so many parents want their children in charter schools is precisely because they operate free of union contracts, so that when administrators want to try something new, they can implement it quickly.

For this, charter schools are fiercely resented by teachers unions as a competitor to failing public schools. Charter schools use a merit system, rewarding teachers according to results in the classroom. They don’t have complicated work rules that smother creativity, nor are they burdened with termination rules that make it almost impossible to dismiss an incompetent teacher.

The union drive started last year when the American Federation of Teachers met with a small group of teachers from the Conservatory Lab Charter School in Boston. Throughout the summer, they worked behind the scenes to sign up a majority of the 20 teachers at the school. Administrators learned of the successful organizing effort only after the decision to unionize had been made. For parents who may have liked the idea of a union-free school, there was no chance to be heard.

Not surprisingly, the chairman of the school’s trustees is worried that a collective bargaining contract will be loaded with so many workplace restrictions that it will make it harder for the school to fulfill its mission to experiment with new ideas.

Unfortunately, these kinds of underhanded power plays are what we can expect across the nation if card check becomes the law of the land.

By tilting the playing field in favor of unions, card check not only robs workers of a secret ballot, it deprives management of the right to express its point of view. It will dramatically change the workplace as we know it, just as it’s beginning to do for charter schools in Massachusetts. Small businesses will have to hire labor lawyers and follow burdensome new rules. If the parties can’t agree on a contract, mandatory arbitration follows and employers that don’t yield to union demands will have contracts foisted on them.

All of this will raise costs, leading to more unemployment. The Labor Department reported that nemployment in February rose to 8.1 percent as American employers cut another 651,000 jobs. Unions are supposed to serve the interests of working people, yet in this case more power for the unions would help destroy many thousands of jobs throughout the economy.

Conservatives like me are opposed to card check, but not to unions. At their best, labor unions have always fought for the rights of workers, and generations of Americans have been better off for it. But the card-check proposal is not an example of unions at their best – it is a case of union organizers rewriting the rules at the expense of working people.

Its advocates claim that card check is a step forward for labor, as if workers should thank them for making unions less democratic. But anyone who would deny a worker’s right to vote on unionization by secret ballot is not advancing the cause of labor. They are just expanding the power of labor bosses. No one should be forced to publicly declare their intention before their employers and co-workers.

Leaders in the Democratic Party are eager to pay back the union bosses for their campaign support, even if it means selling out the American worker. Responsible members of Congress need to make it clear that Washington will not act to virtually impose unions on businesses. It is undemocratic, and it would devastate business formation and employment, worsening the present economic crisis.

By guarding against coercion and intimidation in the workplace, we can protect our economy from great harm, and secure the rights of employers and employees alike. The working people of America should be able to unionize the way their fathers and mothers did – by free choice and secret ballot.