View Full Version : Oklahoma dead last in 2nd quarter Income Growth



Jersey Boss
10-01-2015, 01:15 PM
Good thing we have that quality jobs program, workers comp reform, and right to work- lol
Oklahoma ranks last in second-quarter personal income growth | News OK (http://newsok.com/oklahoma-ranks-last-in-second-quarter-personal-income-growth/article/5450486)

Urbanized
10-01-2015, 02:01 PM
Sooo...when the energy sector is hot and we are among the top in the country do you give CREDIT to those programs?

bradh
10-01-2015, 02:06 PM
Good thing we have that quality jobs program, workers comp reform, and right to work- lol
Oklahoma ranks last in second-quarter personal income growth | News OK (http://newsok.com/oklahoma-ranks-last-in-second-quarter-personal-income-growth/article/5450486)

So unions and frivolous workmen's comp claims help? Noted

Jersey Boss
10-01-2015, 02:20 PM
RTW states have been shown to have lower wages than non RTW states .
?Right-to-Work? States Still Have Lower Wages | Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epi.org/publication/right-to-work-states-have-lower-wages/)

The legislation on Workers comp claims was nothing but another way to keep people out of the court house and to be made whole after an injury. Note it.

Jersey Boss
10-01-2015, 02:27 PM
Sooo...when the energy sector is hot and we are among the top in the country do you give CREDIT to those programs?

Those programs are supposed to be what puts us over the top economically. RTW goes back to Keating, where are the manufacturing jobs? The workers comp reform did nothing but make respondents less responsible for worker injuries. One would think there was at least a handful of states w/o these programs and also no income growth. Alas only one state has this distinction-Oklahoma.

bradh
10-01-2015, 02:33 PM
RTW states have been shown to have lower wages than non RTW states .
?Right-to-Work? States Still Have Lower Wages | Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epi.org/publication/right-to-work-states-have-lower-wages/)

The legislation on Workers comp claims was nothing but another way to keep people out of the court house and to be made whole after an injury. Note it.

What shows that being non RTW leads to those higher wages?

Urbanized
10-01-2015, 02:35 PM
This thread needs to be moved to politics.

Snowman
10-01-2015, 05:53 PM
RTW states have been shown to have lower wages than non RTW states .
?Right-to-Work? States Still Have Lower Wages | Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epi.org/publication/right-to-work-states-have-lower-wages/)

The legislation on Workers comp claims was nothing but another way to keep people out of the court house and to be made whole after an injury. Note it.

Realistically for most of the right to work states it was probably true before any of that legislation.

Bunty
10-01-2015, 11:30 PM
RTW states have been shown to have lower wages than non RTW states .
?Right-to-Work? States Still Have Lower Wages | Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epi.org/publication/right-to-work-states-have-lower-wages/)


But right to work never made much difference for Oklahoma. Not having right to work didn't help Oklahoma. Neither has right to work helped Oklahoma, since having it in 2001. If anyone wanted to repeal right to work, I wouldn't get real enthused about it, while thinking there are more important things to repeal, like what's still left of the prohibitive alcohol and marijuana laws.

It's bound to get crazy when the state legislature resumes session in Feb. with tax revenue down perhaps as much as $1.5 billion. It will be interesting to see if anyone has the audacity to advocate more income tax cuts to solve the problem.

jerrywall
10-02-2015, 08:09 AM
It's hard to know if it helped or didn't. Did it contribute to Boeing's decision for example? Do you know either way? I sure don't.

bombermwc
10-02-2015, 09:35 AM
RTW definitely didn't cause GM or Firestone to leave either. The anti-RTW folks all tried to claim that passing it would mean that the union would no longer have power. That's a bunch of crap. The unions placed themselves out of work by putting in unrealistic demands. GM left because the vehicles made here weren't selling and the cost of labor was too high. GM going bankrupt and forcing the union to reset was the best thing to ever happen to them. No reason ever ever ever that an assembly line working should be making 30-40 an hour...flat out.

If the union is doing what it should be doing, then the employees will WANT to join the union. RTW simply freed the employee from being forced to join/contribute even if they didn't want to. It's the union's job to recruit people to it every day. If they're doing what they should be (instead of just being a bunch of whine bags), then there won't be an issue.

With Boeing, it's really hard to say. But I think the cost of living had a lot more to do with it. I don't think the engineering staff was part of the union anyway, but the lower cost of living definitely decreases the amount of the salary for the engineer (which is already pretty high). Consolidation from Wichita (which had pretty much equal pay anyway) just helps solidify OKC as a location. But lets not kid ourselves. If the next city comes around to make it a significant savings, Boeing will hop off and go there. We get the benefit of being right across the road from the depot that services those airplanes, but they did that from Wichita in the past, so it's not really that big of a deal if its NOT in OKC. What would we think if say, Shreveport (just throwing some tieir 3 out there) stole it from us?

ChrisHayes
10-04-2015, 10:05 AM
If unions would stop being political machines and realize that the US needs to compete in a global economy, thus not make ridiculous demands, I'd be all for labor unions. Right now, I see them more of a hinderance to the economy. And I've twice been a union member. I was a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers, and then the Bakers, Confectionary, and Tobacco Workers Union when I worked at a bakery back in Ohio.

onthestrip
10-04-2015, 09:52 PM
If unions would stop being political machines and realize that the US needs to compete in a global economy, thus not make ridiculous demands, I'd be all for labor unions. Right now, I see them more of a hinderance to the economy. And I've twice been a union member. I was a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers, and then the Bakers, Confectionary, and Tobacco Workers Union when I worked at a bakery back in Ohio.

Gonna have to disagree with some of this. The US isn't going to get back to 5+% GDP growth by producing the cheapest twinkies.

Bunty
10-04-2015, 11:58 PM
Gonna have to disagree with some of this. The US isn't going to get back to 5+% GDP growth by producing the cheapest twinkies.

Speaking of Twinkies, billionaire C. Dean Metropoulos and Apollo Management bought it out of liquidation, dismissed 19,000 unionized workers and now manufactures the same number of sugar snacks with 1,100 workers and robots.

Bunty
10-05-2015, 12:12 AM
If the union is doing what it should be doing, then the employees will WANT to join the union. RTW simply freed the employee from being forced to join/contribute even if they didn't want to. It's the union's job to recruit people to it every day. If they're doing what they should be (instead of just being a bunch of whine bags), then there won't be an issue.



Since unions are required under the law to represent all workers in a unionized workplace, don't be surprised they want to remain legally able to make non-union members to pay in as well where there is no Right to Work. Sometimes arbitrators are needed to settle a dispute with the boss. They don't work for free.

I don't see why everyone shouldn't mind paying into a union as long as it's doing its job to bring about higher pay and better benefits than in a equivalent non-unionized workplace. If the union is failing to do that, then workers should vote the union out and enjoy a small raise in pay from not having to pay into the union any more.

Unions have largely become obsolete, though, since many employers already offer what union contracts offer. The non-unionized workers in jobs associated with low pay could do better, but I would imagine unions aren't attracted much to them. Due to their low pay, there isn't as much money to collect from them.