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Labor and Employment
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Public Works & Public Employees:
- Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act, which artificially drives up the cost of public works programs. Pay the workers at whatever compensation levels are necessary to recruit sufficient personnel to perform the needed services.
- Phase out or at least reduce current public employee pension programs and health insurance programs, and instead pay employees their full value in wages/salaries, and let them contract with private pension plans or retirement programs or health insurance programs of their choosing.
- Use recession periods, when the supply of labor is greater, to increase needed public works programs at lower salary levels than would be possible during a period of "boom," thus giving taxpayers more return on their dollar during such periods and setting in motion projects which may have been delayed during the "boom" period because of the higher labor costs.
- Do not tolerate strike actions by fire, police, or transportation workers or other public employees in critical services, and discharge any employee who organizes or threatens such actions.
Private Employees:
Require companies to fulfill their contracts with their employees, but do not dictate the terms of employment.
- Prosecute companies which hire cheap labor and then violate terms promised to those workers -- for example the reports of abusive and criminal treatment of migrant workers -- holding responsible the individual owners or directors of such companies and impounding the assets necessary to compensate workers who were defrauded or abused.
- Do not dictate to companies the working conditions or terms for hiring or discharging employees. Do not restrict employers' freedom to discharge and permanently replace striking workers.
- Do not dictate wage levels or terms regarding health care or pensions or overtime pay or other compensation to workers, but leave this to the company and the employees to negotiate, and enforce whatever terms they agree to.
Less Government, More Worker Responsibility
- Eliminate the option to extend unemployment benefits beyond 26 weeks, as Congress tends to abuse this power for political propaganda purposes. Possibly reduce the period for these benefits. Advise workers of their options in the private market for insurance against job loss.
- Allow workers to assume more responsibility for their health and safety in the workplace, as they are the most capable of making the right decisions, and rely less on impositions from outside, such as from OSHA and workmen's compensation programs.
- Let oversight agencies enforce full disclosure of information to the workers about health and safety hazards in the workplace, so workers can assume the role of making responsible informed decisions and put optimum cost-effective health and safety measures in place.
Free Association, Right to Organize
- Recognize employees' right to free association and the right to organize free from government controls.
- Eliminate government's third party mediation power between business and its labor force.
Outsourcing
Let government be neutral with regard to outsourcing, without interfering to either penalize or reward companies for employing foreign labor.
- Do not promote outsourcing by any means, such as through tax breaks or subsidies to companies which shift operations abroad, and abolish any such current tax breaks or subsidies.
- Also do not penalize companies for outsourcing, or reward those that don't outsource, but rather, leave them free to serve consumers by adopting the most efficient hiring practices and making the most profitable use of both foreign and domestic labor.