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Show • PANGUITCH LAKE • HATCH • BRYCE • TROPIC • ANTIMONY • HENRIEVII.LE • CANNOMILLI-; • ESCAIANTE • BOW.DEK • DUCK CREEK Thursday, April 5, 2007 • Issue # 106 USDA FUNDS FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROJECTS HATCH BLASTS KENNEDY'S SCHEME TO CREATE UNIONIZATION BY INTIMIDATION John R. Cox, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development State Director for Utah, announced that funding will soon be available for Rural rural Renewable Energy and EnDevelopment ergy Efficiency projects. Rural businesses, as well as farmers and ranchers can use the USDA program to finance renewable energy systems (such as wind, solar, biomass and geothermal projects) for their businesses or farming operations. The program can also be used to finance cost effective energy efficiency improvements, too. The USDA program can provide grant assistance of up to $500,000, or 'guaranteed' loan assistance of up to 10 million dollars. "If you are a agricultural producer or rural small business looking to install a renewable energy system or finance an energy efficiency improvement project, I encourage you to contact us to learn more about this program" said Richard Carrig, Rural Business and Cooperative Program Director for USDA-Rural Development in Utah. To learn more about the renewable energy and energy efficiency program, please contact Richard Carrig at (801) 524-4328 or email him at Richard.Carrig@ut.usda.gov, or through any of the USDA-Rural Development field offices located in Tremonton, Vernal, Provo, Manti, Richfield, Cedar City, and Monticello. USDA-Rural Development's mission is to deliver programs in a way that will support increasing economic opportunity and improve the quality of life of rural residents. As a venture capital entity, Rural Development WEATHER provides equity and technical Thu assistance to finance and fos• Few 68 F 30% AprS Showers Do an i Fun Thinai ter growth in homeownership, business development, and Partly Ed critical community and tech6BV39Cloudy Apr 6 nology infrastructure. Further information on rural programs 70°F is available at any local Sunny 10% Apr 7 USDA-Rural Development office or by visiting our Partly website at http:// 10% Apr 8 Cloudy Fun Thlnqi To Do on n Wjrm Day www.rurdev.usda.gov/ut. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) blasted efforts by Senate Democrats to rob American workers of several key rights, including the right to a secret vote when deciding whether or not unionize. Today Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) introduced the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (S. 1041) in the Senate, a few weeks after the House of Representatives passed a similar bill. A purely partisan bill, S. 1041 has no Republican cosponsors. Hatch vows to fight the bill aggressively. "Labor unions are supposed to protect workers' rights, yet union bosses want Congress to pass a law that actually robs workers of their democratic right to a private ballot," Hatch said. "Union bosses have made Congress an offer we can refuse." The act would amend the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to deny a worker's right to a federally-supervised private vote when deciding whether or not to join a union. Instead, it allows a union to be officially recognized once a majority of workers simply sign a card - making their votes public to the employer, the union organizers and coworkers. These cards are signed in the presence of an interested party. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has documented that this process results in deceptions, coercion, and other abuses. "This bill is unionization by intimidation," Hatch said. "We wouldn't allow politicians to bully voters at the ballot box, and we shouldn't allow unions to do the same to employees. It seems obvious that big labor just wants to rebuild its membership rolls - and its bank account - through a forced unionization process." Moreover, S. 1041 would require government-dictated, binding arbitration of union contracts in some cases. If parties fail to agree after 90 days of bargaining and 30 days of mediation, government officials would impose the wages, terms, and conditions of employment for two years. The effect would deny workers the opportunity to approve or ratify the terms of the contract. And the NLRB's "contract bar" would prevent workers from initiating a private ballot decertification election challenging the union's continuing majority status for the two-year term of the contract. Finally, the bill would impose new anti-employer penalties. These include prioritizing NLRB investigations of unfair labor practice charges alleged to have been committed by an employer during an organizing campaign, and possibly pursuing injunctive remedial action in federal court. "I was a card-carrying member of the AFL-CIO metal lather union in my youth, and I understand the role that unions can play," Hatch said. "That role should be to protect workers from employer exploitation. But this bill is a form of union exploitation, and workers are counting on us to stop it." USDA D Hon Apr 9 Mostly ' Sunny 69°/37° 0% 69°F __*..._.! 69°F You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take. Wayne Gretzky snapshot@scinternet.net April Mostly - * * Cloudy 63<7 34' 20% BOXHOLDER Phone: PRE-SORT 435-676-2621 STANDARD Fax 435-836-2700 PAID PO BOX 472 LOA, UTAH Loa, Utah 84747 PERMIT No. 5 THE GARFIF.LD COUNTY INSIDER is owned and operated by Snapshot Multimedia and distributed weekly to all of Garfield County . 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