THE POWER OF UNIONS: A GATEWAY TO CORRUPTION AND DYSFUNCTION
Founded in 1993, Scottsdale, Arizona-based Axon is an iconic technology company that commercialized the TASER and brought it into widespread use by law enforcement. Additionally, Axon is the nation’s largest supplier of law enforcement body cameras, management software, and other digital tools to improve officer safety, transparency, and accountability.
This sounds like a political shakedown by progressive communist democrat unionists…
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A Homegrown Arizona Company Was About to Break Ground on a Billion-Dollar Development — Then a California Union Stepped In Taser stun gun manufacturer Axon is looking to bring thousands of jobs to Scottsdale, Ariz., by building a massive, Google-like campus in the area — but not if a California union can help it. Axon has proposed a $1.3 billion development that would include a new headquarters for the company, along with some 1,900 apartments and condominiums, a 425-room hotel, and seven restaurant spaces. The new HQ would bring up to 5,500 new jobs to Arizona, drive $38 billion of economic impact over the next ten years, and generate more than $2 billion in tax revenue, according to an independent analysis cited by Axon. But Unite Here Local 11 and local anti-development advocates have stepped in to send the city council-approved plan to a ballot referendum after Axon refused to be forced into unionization, the company says. Unite Here Local 11 represents tens of thousands of hotel, restaurant and airport workers in California and Arizona. After the city council approved the plan in November, a group called Taxpayers Against Awful Zoning Exemptions (TAAZE) began working to collect signatures to put the matter up for a referendum. The group, which claims to have no affiliation with Unite Here Local 11, has successfully collected more than the 19,000 signatures required to put the issue on the November 2026 ballot. Union Muscle Data shows the union has supplied muscle to the small but vocal contingent that opposes the project. Unite Here’s political arm, Worker Power, has contributed more than $21,000 to TAAZE, city campaign finance reports show. Ninety-five percent of the funding for the anti-development effort came from a dark money group called Public Integrity Alliance, 90 percent of which was donated labor, in the form of signature gatherers. Just 7 percent of signatures for the referendum were gathered by volunteers, while the remaining 93 percent were collected by paid signature gatherers. Two-thirds of the signature gatherers came from out of state. In Arizona, which is a right to work state, unions see an opportunity to go to major employers looking to get a big project through the zoning and approvals process and essentially force employers into unionization agreements via a weaponization of the referendum process. If the union can kill the Axon project and replicate the pattern several more times, “people are going to have to sign off on these unionization agreements or take the high probability that the weaponization of this process will kill their project,” [Axon Founder and CEO] Smith said. <Source> |
Unionization is fast becoming a clear and present danger to America—a form of organized crime protection racket that benefits union bosses and their cronies more than their membership or the organizations they parasitically infect.
One tactic gaining traction among labor advocates is using the threat of halting development projects or future business ventures to coerce large companies into recognizing or forming unions. This strategy poses a serious challenge for employers, who are caught between meeting labor demands and continuing to operate without disruption.
While unions once were vital in advocating for workers’ rights, using the threat of halting progress to force unionization raises ethical and legal concerns. The core of this approach hinges on leveraging the power of a company’s future projects or investments. When unions or labor advocates threaten to withhold labor or disrupt operations unless a union is formed, they gain leverage over companies that rely on those developments to stay competitive. This can be particularly effective in construction, tech, and manufacturing industries, where timelines and projects are crucial to profitability.
There is no doubt that these tactics are little more than coercion, a mob-inspired protection racket that jeopardizes the viability of the golden goose that lays the golden eggs that pay the bills and advance the economy. Looking at most union-run companies, you will find project delays, cost overruns, and the refusal to implement automation—with the union demanding more and more without a corresponding increase in productivity or profitability. It is no wonder that labor-intensive operations are seeking to automate rather than pay for worthless company-paid employees “doing union business” on company time.
Bottom line…
Do we, as productive Americans competing in a global economy, want the parasitic tentacles of a dangerous progressive communist democrat organization controlling the labor market? Sounds like Marxism and Communism to me!
“You’ve got a choice: Let the union handle it, or we’ll take control.
We are so screwed.
-- Steve
“Nullius in verba”-- take nobody's word for it!
"Acta non verba" -- actions not words
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”-- George Bernard Shaw
“Progressive, liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Democratic Socialist -- they are all COMMUNISTS.”
“The key to fighting the craziness of the progressives is to hold them responsible for their actions, not their intentions.” – OCS "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius “A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims... but accomplices” -- George Orwell “Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." (The people gladly believe what they wish to.) ~Julius Caesar “Describing the problem is quite different from knowing the solution. Except in politics." ~ OCS