The job-killing NLRB

Joe Nocera of the NY Times gives an update on the Boeing fiasco:

In April, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Boeing, accusing it of opening the South Carolina plant to retaliate against the union, which has a history of striking at contract time. The N.L.R.B.’s proposed solution, believe it or not, is to move all the Dreamliner production back to Puget Sound, leaving those 5,000 workers in South Carolina twiddling their thumbs.

Seriously, when has a government agency ever tried to dictate where a company makes its products? I can’t ever remember it happening. Neither can Boeing, which is fighting the complaint. J. Michael Luttig, Boeing’s general counsel, has described the action as “unprecedented.” He has also said that it was a disservice to a country that is “in desperate need of economic growth and the concomitant job creation.” He’s right.

Three-time losers: public employee unions just lost in the Wisconsin Supreme Court

Glenn Reynolds sums things up:

So to be clear: They lost in the legislature. They lost in a judicial special election, where union organization should have been decisive. And they lost in the Wisconsin Supreme Court. And in the meantime, they made themselves look like thugs — and, worse, not very scary ones, really, just kind of nasty and pathetic ones — even going so far as to disrupt an award ceremony for Special Olympics kids. So: Losers. If they can’t win in Wisconsin, where can they win?

Chris Christie rocks

He gives a clinic on how to forthrightly stand up to teachers' unions. We need more like him in Maryland.

In a nutshell: Why teachers' unions kill merit pay

Megan McArdle* explains:

There is a reason that unions kill merit pay... [they] negotiate ironclad contracts to cover dozens, hundreds, or thousands of workers. Once they take effect, those contracts are rarely renegotiated, and they apply to every single worker no matter what the situation. So unions are always going to be looking for the simplest, least subjective metrics by which to measure their members. Furthermore, they will be looking for metrics which are not under the control of the other side. The school board cannot change how many years you have in service, or whether or not you have a degree. But it can change the curriculum, or the tests.

. . .metrics will not only tend towards simplicity and ease of measurement; they will also tend to reward mediocrity. Again, this is not an accident of history. A collective bargaining unit run by a "majority rules" system is always going to look for a system that rewards the median or modal worker, not the best.

A merit pay system can work in one of two ways. It can benchmark teachers against the average, and reward the people who achieve the most improvement. Or it can set some minimum standard and give a bonus to any teacher who bests that standard. (You could set three tiers, or what have you, but the concept is basically the same).
. . .

But compare either system to what now exists in our nation's schools. Every single teacher can stay on for years unless they do something direly wrong. . . They have a system that spreads benefits absolutely evenly among all their members.

. . . And of course, over time, teacher's unions select for the sort of people who prefer this arrangement to competitive merit pay for one reason or another. ...

Unions are set up to minimize frictions and maximize benefits for the bottom 55%. That's how they work everywhere--in schools, and out. That's how they have to work. No amount of cajoling, no number of white papers, is going to change that.

Megan is a pleasure to read and listen to [type "McArdle" in the search box to see a list of her appearances on bloggingheads.tv] . She consistently delivers clear insights on all sorts of real-world economic issues. When challenged, she backs her opinions with facts, examples and solid reasoning.

If she were a mean person, she could skewer most of her discussion/debate partners on Bloggingheads.tv. Instead she listens carefully to others and rebuts with respect and a beaming smile. Her opponents learn a few things, lose the debate, and go away feeling happy about the experience.

Update: More on education from Megan: national curriculum and vouchers.

"Everybody hates the teachers' unions now"

Mickey Kaus writes about a new new report on education reform. He suggests that the report

implicitly serves as an argument against trying to reform the schools in cooperation with the unions, and in favor of trying to reform the schools by defeating the unions

The title of the report: National Teachers Unions and the Struggle Over School Reform.

via Joanne Jacobs

Baltimore Sun would put "significant conditions" on auto aid

Amazingly, today's editorial -- "Conditional auto aid" -- makes no mention of union work rules or executive abuses. Here are the conditions they do mention:

Congress should name an experienced, respected executive to monitor GM's performance, and GM's leaders should move quickly to reshape the company. If they falter or courts interfere, federal aid should end.

Some of the steps that GM should take are obvious, such as reducing their brands to increase efficiency and cut costs. Health benefits for retirees, to be financed from an $80 billion trust fund established by the company and run by the UAW, also should be pared back.

The Sun's editorial board might try reading Ryan Grim of Politico to get some ideas:

"Emergency assistance to the automobile industry would be conditioned on executive compensation restrictions, a prohibition on golden parachutes, rigorous independent oversight, and other taxpayer protections

UPDATE: Congressman Ruppersberger talked yesterday about the bailout/rescue on the Ron Smith show. For audio, of Dutch, see the six links on the side.

UPDATE:Brian Faughnan at RedState intuits another purpose for the bailout: to protect the flow of UAW union dues. And Bill Hobbs thinks Congress should stop trying to run the car companies and start fixing laws that handcuff them:

why not figure out how to reform the tax and regulatory structure so that Ford, for example, could make money producing and selling that 65-mpg car here?