Free Republic

Democrats are abandoning Barack Obama’s ship. Last week Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi instructed Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives to not attend this September’s Democratic National Convention. Instead, Ms. Pelosi insisted, their time would be better spent campaigning at home, rather than partying in Charlotte, N.C. Ms. Pelosi’s announcement falls in line with the AFL-CIO, which announced the previous week that it won’t be spending money to bankroll the convention. And Pelosi and her Big Labor friends are in lockstep with Democrat U.S. Senators Jon Tester of Montana, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia –...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Thursday that his union will not be at the Democratic convention, “do[es] not intend to put any money into the convention” and will be hosting its own convention — without Obama. Speaking in Washington, D.C., Trumka said the labor group “will not be doing extravagant events” at this year’s convention like “we’ve done in the past.” Instead of giving money to the Obama campaign and Democrats they are focusing on their own event that rivals the Democratic convention. The event, called “Workers Stand for America” will be held on August 11 in Philadelphia. “We will...

The AFL-CIO today filed a “friend of the court" brief asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to uphold a lower court’s ruling that the so-called Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. The 1996 law denies federal benefits to same sex couples.In the brief, filed along with Change to Win (CTW) and the National Education Association (NEA), the three union groups say:The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), by intention and design, ensures that workers with same-sex spouses earn less money, are taxed more on their wages and benefits, and have available to them fewer valuable benefits and...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka celebrates Independence Day today by bashing freedom. The Examiner reported: AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has a 4th of July-themed column in the Huffington Post musing on the word freedom and how it is interpreted by the Republican Party. His conclusion is that they use the word to con people. Let’s call this right-wing “freedom” catch phrase what it really is: a grossly political strategy to dupe the public, which holds the word “freedom” as something sacred.

Deep-pocketed groups supporting U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown or Republican challenger Josh Mandel have spent millions of dollars to beat up the other guy. Each side is constantly accusing the other of being out of touch with average Ohioans. But a $100,000 online advertising push launched today by Workers' Voice, the super political action committee affiliated with the AFL-CIO, aims to tug at the emotions of the put-upon Cleveland sports fan. The web ads depict Mandel, the Republican state treasurer, in ex-Cavaliers' star LeBron James' iconic pre-game pose under the tagline "Witness the Mandel investigation" -- a reference to the federal...

The AFL-CIO has told Washington Whispers it will redeploy funds away from political candidates smack dab in the middle of election season, the latest sign that the largest federation of unions in the country could be becoming increasingly disillusioned with President Obama. The federation says the shift has been in the works for months, and had nothing to do with the president's failure to show in Wisconsin last week, where labor unions led a failed recall election of Governor Scott Walker. "We wanted to start investing our funds in our own infrastructure and advocacy," AFL-CIO spokesman Josh Goldstein told Whispers....

With the labor movement reeling from the result of Tuesday's recall election in Wisconsin, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka sought to downplay the significance of Gov. Scott Walker's victory over a union-driven effort to unseat him. Trumka, the leader of one of the nation's largest labor groups, dismissed the notion that unions might look back upon their unsuccessful campaign against Walker with regret."We didn't decide on this recall. It was the workers in Wisconsin and the voters in Wisconsin who did," he said on a conference call with reporters. "Hell, I don't know if we'd do anything differently."

Dear XXXX, A year and a half ago, Gov. Scott Walker and his friends in the Senate forced through an extremist anti-worker agenda that divided the state. Last night, Wisconsin took back its Senate. While Gov. Walker remains in office after being only the third governor in American history subjected to the humiliation of a recall, his divisive agenda has been stopped cold. Though Walker was shielded with a flood of secret corporate cash, Wisconsin made its voice heard. While we came closer to recalling Walker than many expected, we ended up coming just short. The work we did together...

Organized labor is trying to re-energize and take advantage of the growing backlash from the wave of anti-union sentiment in Wisconsin and more than a dozen other states. President Barack Obama and his political machine are offering tactical support, eager to repair strained relations with some union leaders upset over his recent overtures to business. The potent combination has helped fan the huge protests in Wisconsin against a measure that would strip collective bargaining rights from state workers. The alliance also is sending a warning to other states that are considering the same tactic. "I think it's a clear message,"...

An online video of a South Carolina union leader pummeling a pinata featuring a likeness of her state's Republican governor is eliciting strong reactions from across the political spectrum. The video shows Donna Dewitt, the outgoing president of the state AFL-CIO, taking a bat to a pinata which bears a photo of Gov. Nikki Haley. The pinata also features a printout of a quote from Haley: "Unions are not needed, wanted or welcome in South Carolina." In the video, posted to YouTube, Dewitt is encouraged by others at the gathering, with calls of "Hit her again" and "Give her another...

For just over a year now and since the failure of the Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act (EFCA) to receive a vote in the 111th Congress, union bosses have been desperate to obtain the “payback” they believe is owed to them. Big Labor is beside itself that its membership numbers continue to dwindle despite giving half a billion dollars in campaign contributions to President Obama and Congressional Democrats. In the absence of employees voluntarily choosing to join unions, labor bosses have decided to force them into collective bargaining units in an effort to line their own pockets. More than a year...

An interactive and searchable database of White House visitor logs is turning up some interesting findings and reveals a “steady stream of lobbyists” visiting the Obama White House, reports the Washington Post. For example, AFL-CIO lobbyist Bill Samuel visited the White House over 50 times, and American Civil Liberties Union lobbyist Laura Murphy visited almost as frequently. By comparison, Speaker of the House John Boehner has only visited the White House 23 times.

In the latest sign of the fast-shrinking Big Labor movement, the National Labor College established in 1969 by AFL-CIO icon George Meany to teach new labor organizing tactics and management to new generations of activists is selling its sprawling Silver Spring, Md. campus. The reason: they just can’t afford to keep the facilities housing the academic arm of the labor movement open anymore. “The cost to operate and maintain a large campus in such an expensive metropolitan area is exorbitant,” said the college. No other college in the Washington area has closed or is planning to close because of costs....

A Los Angeles Times article exposed part of Big Labor’s undisclosed labor persuader scheme that uses the pulpit to promote compulsory unionism. The Times’ Stephanie Simon reported that the AFL-CIO “… hired more than three dozen aspiring ministers, imams, priests, and rabbis to spread the gospel …”of Compulsory Unionism. Her article provides a solid example of years of labor union bosses’ hiring religious leaders to act as labor persuaders; here the persuaders are attempting to use their religions to cloak the Big Labor message. AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest federation of labor unions, paid seminary students to organize “… security guards...

Politics: The president tells building-and-trades union workers that Republicans have blocked multiple bills putting them to work, even as he blocks an oil pipeline their former union chief supported. President Obama may have thought he was preaching to the choir when he addressed the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department Legislative Conference on Monday, blaming Republicans for blocking his attempts at job creation. But he forgot one of the cardinal rules of public speaking — know your audience. "I've said now is the time to do this, interest rates are low, construction workers are out of work ... and time...

Each day in 2010, 13 workers on average were killed on the job—some 4,690 workers—and an estimated 50,000 died from occupational diseases, according to the AFL-CIO's annual report, “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.” Released today, the report shows the number of those who died in 2010 (the most recent year for which data are available) is up from the 4,551 people who perished in 2009. This trend that has continued since 2004, the first year in a decade that saw the number of deaths on the job increase.West Virginia, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota and North Dakota were among states with the...

Occupy Wall Street has captured the imagination and passion of millions of Americans who have lost hope that our nation's policymakers are speaking for them. We support the protesters in their determination to hold Wall Street accountable and create good jobs.    We are proud that today on Wall Street, bus drivers, painters, nurses and utility workers are joining students and homeowners, the unemployed and the underemployed to call for fundamental change.  Across America, working people are turning out with their friends and neighbors in parks, congregations and union halls to express their frustration – and anger -- about our country's...

So much for Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) stewardship of the Wisconsin economy and his promise that eliminating collective bargaining rights for public employees and massive budget cuts would turn the Badger State into a job growth miracle.A report today from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that Wisconsin is the only state in the nation to suffer “statistically significant” job loss during the 12 months from March 2011 to March 2012. In other words, while the rest of the nation is at least holding its own or seeing improvement in job growth, Walker’s Wisconsin experiment is a miserable...

Reporting from Orlando — Leaders of the influential AFL-CIO labor federation announced Tuesday it voted "proudly and enthusiastically" to endorse President Obama's reelection effort. "We feel that he's put forth bold initiatives and put people back to work, put revenues back in the country, put out a vision that expresses opportunity and fairness," said Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "We think he's a good man."

The AFL-CIO will formally endorse Obama on Tuesday, as it kicks off a campaign sending 400,00 union members door to door to encourage voters to support the president’s reelection bid. Labor leaders say their efforts are to counteract the political power of Super PACs. They also will commit $400 million to the campaign. The New York Times reports: With numerous super PACs expected to broadcast a flood of TV spots in support of the Republican nominee, the Obama campaign is looking to organized labor to play a major role in offsetting that. Labor leaders say they expect unions to spend...