How desperate is hurricane-ravaged New Jersey? Not desperate enough to suspend a union monopoly that keeps the state in the bottom ten states for economic competitiveness (and #48 for business friendliness). Relief crews from Alabama who were specifically called to New Jersey found themselves diverted to Long Island, NY after they arrived because they use non-union labor. Alabama is a right-to-work state.
WAFF-TV of Hunstville, AL reports:
Crews from Huntsville, as well as Decatur Utilities and Joe Wheeler out of Trinity headed up there this week, but Derrick Moore, one of the Decatur workers, said they were told by crews in New Jersey that they can’t do any work there since they’re not union employees….
Understandably, Moore said they’re frustrated being told “thanks, but no thanks.”
With so much at stake–and lives still in danger–it would seem logical to tell special interests to step aside.
On Wednesday, while visiting cleanup efforts in New Jersey in the company of Gov. Chris Christie, President Barack Obama vowed: “We are not going to tolerate red tape, we are not going to tolerate bureaucracy.”
Unless, of course, that red tape is enforced by Obama’s union cronies. Then stranded residents have to wait.
Here is a photo of the devastation of the town the crews were to have assisted–Seaside Heights, NJ:
And another:
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