Kemp moving state backward with stand against unions
Gov. Brian P. Kemp has it backward regarding what benefits workers in our state.
He thinks giving tax breaks to industries that might locate here, coupled with regulations designed to thwart workers from standing up for their rights, will be good for jobs and the state. But the reverse is true; bidding for industry to locate here with tax breaks and other economic inducements is a race to the bottom.
However, discouraging workers from improving their wages, working conditions and on-the-job safety is a formula for destabilizing the workforce, where the only avenue to improve yourself is to quit one job and take another.
It reminds me of the South Carolina billboards that featured a pregnant man in a hard hat and the slogan, “We don’t have labor troubles.”
JIMMY RAYNOR, STOCKBRIDGE
Let businesses operate in their own best interest
The anti-union bill that Gov. Brian P. Kemp proposed to the legislature and has now been signed into law shows that Kemp prefers right-wing anti-unionism to letting businesses operate in their own best interest.
Georgia provides significant financial incentives for businesses to operate here. However, If such a business decides it is in its best interest to voluntarily recognize a union, this law would take away these subsidies. This is nothing short of extortion.
Kemp, in effect, is saying, “That’s a nice incentive you’ve got there. It would be a shame if anything happened to it.” Businesses will lose millions of dollars if they decide issues on unionism based on their best judgment rather than Kemp’s anti-union bias.
That is not how a pro-business state would operate.
LARRY AUERBACH, ATLANTA
