Ben Howe at Red State broke the story over a month ago that while preparing for its upcoming convention in Charlotte, the Democratic National Convention (DNC) will only accepting bids from Union companies.  This was a major blow to many North Carolina companies who could use the work but will be shut out because North Carolina has made the smart business decision to be classified as a Right to Work state.     

There was a story on NPR today which validated the reporting done at Red State.  The story highlights a small printing company in Charlotte, Consolidated Press, which happens to be a Union shop.  The story behind the shop going union is innocent enough and sounds like a good business decision by the company’s founder:

Mullaney’s father unionized Consolidated Press in 1968 to get the business of another union in the area. He kept it that way because he says it makes his nine employees happy, and because a bit fewer than half of his customers have union ties. Most of the rest don’t even know the business is unionized. It’s not something Mullaney advertises.

Nothing wrong with that.  Just because a state is a RTW state doesn’t mean unions can’t exist and if a union makes sense for both the employees and the business then by all means unionize and go about the business of providing jobs and serving a Market need. 

The story goes on to say that the company keeps two sets of scratch pads they hand out to their customers, one with the union label printed on them and one without.  Depending on their customer, they give the appropriate pad out and again, this is a smart business decision.  I doubt their non unionized customers would care about this as long as Consolidate Press provides a quality product that meets their expectations.  At the end of the day, that is all that matters.

Now here is where the NPR story gets interesting.  Apparently the DNC isn’t interested in choosing companies that can provide a quality product at a competitive price and within the schedule of the project.  They are more interested in ‘bugs’ which is the small insigne imprinted on paper that shows it was printed from a Union shop. 

But to unions — and to Democrats who rely heavily on them for campaign support — the union bug is a must for official documents. It’s kind of a secret code, one that’s so important that the National Convention Committee says all 20,000 welcome packets for delegates, 10,000 media guides and every convention sign posted around Charlotte must be done by a union print shop. Which bodes very well for Consolidated Press.

I have no reason to believe that Consolidate Press wouldn’t have won the contract if non-union shops would have been permitted to bid so, again, I have no ill will directed at that company.  My main gripe is with the process and the larger implications of it.

When thinking about the best use of funds, is it wise to blindly accept bids based solely on the fact that the company is unionized?  Conversely, it is also unwise to accept bids from only companies that aren’t unionized.  A business or organization should be willing to accept all bids and then chose the one that provides the best product, at the best price and within the time constraints of the projects.  But that type of common sense business practice has no place at the DNC.

And as an aside thought experiment – What would happen if the Republican National Convention put out a memo that they would hire only non-union shops to perform its work?  How well would that be received in the press?

I think this story sheds light as to why Liberals have a spending problem.  They are more interested in placating their voting base than using the American tax dollars wisely.  This is exactly why we don’t have a revenue problem in this country but instead we have a spending problem.  The President and Congres should not talk about raising taxes until they can show me that they can spend my money wisely. 

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.  Luke 16:10