Yesterday Senator Keith Regier’s anti union bill found it’s way out of committee after amending the bill down to a simply outlawing dues deduction by public employers. Reiger, who is now in his seventh term as a legislator, made clear in his presentation of the bill that his issue was about all the dues money spent on political campaigns by unions and enlightened the masses on what unions do by quoting Wikipedia as his source of valid information. Since the Clan Regier has so many union busters in process a brief review is in order.

Amy Regier currently has two union buster bills lined up with one scheduled for hearing. LC0946 dictates affirmative consent for the collection of dues and representation fees from nurses in a non profit organization. In this case you should read ‘Kalispell Regional Hospital’ where Amy works which makes this a ‘constituent bill’ with nurse Amy being the constituent. Daughter Amy’s second killer bill is the current mother of all Right to Work bills that fully implements RTW for both private and public unions. Carried by Caleb Hinkle, this ugliness will see a hearing on February 11th and will draw out the parade of labor leaders to oppose a third body blow bill in less than thirty days.

Next up, Matt Reiger, who is now in his third session and look for Matt to take his dad’s place over in the Senate down the road. Matt’s bill, HB 289, is short and simple. It fixes Montana law related to the collection of representation fee that was outlawed by SCOTUS in 2018. Keep in mind that the Governor Bullock could have fixed this in the last session and taken one landmine off the field for labor, but he did not. One important fact to pay attention to here, Son Matt’s draft was ready for pick up on January 29th and introduced on February 2nd. More on that later.

Back to Daddy Regier and SB 89. Most unions wisely bargained payroll deduction into contracts which has been legal for decades. On it’s face, this bill would make those provisions illegal by adjusting a law that has been on the books since 1973. The patriarch simply changes ‘shall’ to ‘may not’ and what that ultimately means, and if it is a discriminatory change, will make a lot of lawyers a tidy sum of money. It’s important to note that public employers authorize payroll deduction for a long, long, long list of payments. The State of Montana, as a sampling, uses payroll deduction to send employee money to: Montana Human Rights Network, Montana Outfitters and Guides, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, PETA, EarthShare, Defenders of Wildlife, National Wildlife Federation, The Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, Catholic Social Services, Montana Environmental Information Center, Montana Wilderness Association, Trout Unlimited, Pride Foundation, Disability Rights Montana and are you ready for the two biggies? The National Rifle Association and Planned Parenthood. Spend a little time on Keith’s primary source of information, Wikipedia, and you’ll see that all of those organizations spend a hefty amount of money (aka member dues) on campaigns, lobbying and lobbyist. But that’s beside the point in his mind.

Back to the odd timing of Regeir Jr’s bill drop and Regeir Sr’s amendment rollout. Again, Jr had a draft ready for pick up on January 29th and the next day Sr’s amendments were passed out for review. Coincidence? Maybe. But here’s the rest of the story. For the past few weeks lobbyist from labor have been talking about Jr carrying a bill to fix the Janus situation with the law and supposedly get dad to let his bill die in process. Well, dad amended his bill to make the boy’s bill work without a hitch. And Keith’s bill is now really about what his true agenda is, stopping employers from collecting dues for unions and ultimately shutting off the cash flow to the coffers. Maybe it really is just happenstance in the timing and proposed legislation.

Ooooooorrrrrrrrrrrr….

The Clan Regier meets for dinner every night, says grace for the bounty before them, then plans, plots and coordinates the family agenda to take out Montana’s unions, both public and private, once and for all. It could be, just maybe, those union bosses got played and the real joke will be on them.

TGTJ

‘Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’s a part of.’

And now my dear congregants, please open your hymnals to page HB 251 for our next song of praise in anti union bills. We will be led by brother Caleb Hinkle of Belgrade who will in turn be led by Keith Regeir through daughter Amy Regeir. Now please rise so we may all better stand on the necks of the working class in Montana.

Hallelujah!!!

The disdain for workers must have been a nightly conversation during dinner at the Regeir home while Amy was growing up. As they say, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Clearly, daughter Amy shares father Keith’s dislike for employee rights as you can see from her LC’s. Besides her hand off to Hinkle with 251 she also has in place LC 0946 which drills down into her place of work which was not so recently organized by SEIU 1199 in a bizarre organizing effort that involved the Montana Nurses Association and the Montana Teamsters Local 2. No one is quite sure what her ax grinding is all about, but she’s clearly not happy. Of course that may go back to being raised by the Flathead’s most unhappy dad.

Amen!!!!

Amy’s bill, now Caleb’s bill, goes all the way and rams Janus down the throats of Montana’s private sector workers. It also wipes out the withdrawal window for union membership despite that process being upheld as legal by courts across the country. She also goes so far as to outlaw the ultimate and age old worker two by four- the strike. Add in a few more things like an obligation on the part of the employer to post notice of ‘Employee Freedom of Choice’ and criminal penalties of up to $1000 for violations of the law. For folks who don’t much care for government, they sure seem to like the idea of government regulation. It’s a bill that has a big impact on organized workers in Montana both private and public. It’s too big for lil’ Amy to carry so young Caleb will do the dirty work. After all, those union bosses can be shady characters and no reason to put an innocent in danger. Come to think of it, a female legislator hasn’t been ‘allowed’ to carry a Right to Work bill in the last three decades. This is clearly a man’s work!

Praise the Lord!!!

So bless those Regiers! They’re doing their damnedest to kill the union and reduce what’s left of the middle class to the working poor. Please rise once again as we sing ‘Shall we gather at the food bank.’

TGTJ

‘Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’s a part of.’