John Dillon. The new reality.

From John Dillon’s blog.

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In the New Reality, some of the biggest backers of accepting the Boeing demand (forget proposal) to move new workers to 401K programs, to lose on healthcare costs, etc. were the national leaders of the International Association of Machinists.  In fact, the rift is palpable between the two, national administrators recommending the local vote yes to Boeing’s demands.  On the other hand, the local leaders of I.A.M. felt that too many hard-fought concessions were being given away.  Looking at the changes in the contract and the stagnation to incoming workers eventual pay, a spokesman for the local union named Bryan Corliss described the mistake of paying people who build airplanes as the same price for lowest wage workers in American retail (http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/01/02/2975148/some-workers-set-to-reach-100k.html .

Others have warned Boeing that there will be a price to pay Washington workers who willingly bailed out manufacturing snafus in right-to-work and unskilled South Carolina and then received this corporate slap in the face. When we turn on each other, locals and nationals quickly separate in the clamoring for identity and fiscal security.

But it is Democrats in the New Reality that truly deserve another wary look by middle class workers, and for very good reason.  What Fred Klonsky once described as a Bizarro World only endemic to Illinois has spread like an invasive species to many other places as well – take Washington State for example.  In a recent Bloomberg article, Justin Bachman described important lessons to be taken from the Boeing Corp. win:  Corporate threats now work.  Getting the work back to Washington will make a better plane than the “good ole boys” of South Carolina. Boeing saves more, much more than the incentives offered to sign the contract.   And…

Unions can no longer count on the Democrats.

Local Democrats in Washington State, like Iliinois Democrats, bent like reeds in the wind to the demands from above (Madigan or Quinn).  In the case of Washington State, they “pleaded for workers to accept the Boeing contract and keep the company’s workers in the region” (http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-09/boeings-victory-in-labor-fight-hurts-pensions-helps-the-777x).  Likewise, in Illinois, Democrats are writing to their constituencies that they had to vote for SB1,”Even though it was ‘the most difficult decision in my life.’”

Subtext:  workers’ unions in Illinois can no longer count on Democrats.

And some, like my Senator Jones (my Representative doesn’t do communication) suggest that we can all revisit SB2404 when the Illinois Supreme Court finds SB1 unconstitutional.

Are you out of your ever-loving mind?

Read the entire post here.