Free Republic

ROCHESTER, NY--Four Monroe County probation officers have won relief in their protracted federal legal battle against two government unions for violating their First Amendment rights. The four officers, led by David Scheffer, filed the suit with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys. The probation officers sued the Civil Service Employees Association and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees for seizing forced union dues from their paychecks for illegal union expenditures. The officers charged that union officials were spending their forced dues on union organizing drives, despite the officers’ objections, according to a Right...

Wisconsin Democrats, in selecting who will challenge Republican Gov. Scott Walker in the state's upcoming recall election, are engaging in a tough fight of their own -- pitting two top Democrats against each other, with unions' influence looming large. The state’s largest public employee union, AFSCME, directed members to a video blog about recall candidate Tom Barrett, the Milwaukee mayor. The video deceptively paints the picture that Barrett is in synch with Walker, the arch enemy of Wisconsin’s left for his legislation limiting public unions' power. Barrett is shown shaking hands with Walker. The photo was taken when the two...

STATEMENT BY SENATOR PAM GALLOWAY State Senator Pam Galloway (R-Wausau) released the following statement regarding her retirement from the State Senate: “Today I am announcing my retirement from the Wisconsin State Senate. After a great deal of thought and consideration, I’ve decided to put the needs of my family first. My family has experienced multiple, sudden and serious health issues, which require my full attention. Unfortunately this situation is not compatible with fulfilling my obligations as State Senator or running for re-election at this time. It has been a tremendous honor to serve the residents of the 29th Senate District,...

Maryland may eventually do away with tollbooths on the state's highways, bridges and tunnels and switch to electronic toll collection. A preliminary report by the Maryland Transportation Authority concluded that converting its seven toll plazas is feasible but would cost as much as $180 million. Transportation officials initiated the study as they look for long-term savings and ways to reduce travel time and increase highway safety. "It's something we're interested in doing. It's something the industry is moving toward. But it's complicated and we're in the earliest stages," said Harold Bartlett, the transportation authority's executive secretary. At least eight states...

State government should offer a retirement plan to the increasing number of people whose companies don't provide a pension or a 401(k) savings program, labor groups and other advocates this week told a legislative panel. The Labor and Public Employees Committee has raised a bill that would create a task force to study that concept and report back when the 2013 General Assembly session convenes next January. "Much of our membership is fortunate enough to have defined-benefit pensions, largely because we were able to fight for them at the bargaining table," Salvatore Luciano, a veteran state employee union leader, told...

Several unions that back President Obama’s reelection bid are spending big in an effort to damage Mitt Romney in key GOP primary states. Unions including The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are making ad buys to hit the Republican presidential contenders on issues key to their members, including immigration reform and the bailout of the auto industry.

A switchboard operator has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against the local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, alleging violations of labor laws. Rebecca Holt, who works for Regions Hospital in St. Paul, filed the complaint filed the charges with the NLRB Region 18 office in Minneapolis claiming that she was threatened ...

Sometimes it's hard to figure out who the real Tommy Thompson is. There's the Thompson who chided state employee unions this month for complaining about Gov. Scott Walker's proposals to increase the amount workers pay for pensions and health care. "He says to the unions and the bosses, 'We're going to ask you to help.' Oh, isn't that tough? Awwww," Thompson said sarcastically at the Walker rally on Jan. 21. "We're going to say we would like you to pay 5% of your retirement. Now you tell me what's wrong with that. And you tell me, is that a crime?"...

Minnesota lawmakers today will begin looking into the issue of payments for unused sick and vacation time to retiring state employees. The joint legislative subcommittee hearing follows reports by the Pioneer Press and KSTP-TV in November about $57 million paid out in unused sick time to state employees - a practice largely unheard of in the private sector - and $32 million paid out in unused vacation time between January 2008 and June 30, 2011.

In November 2011, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reported $86 million in unused vacation pay, sick time, and other severance had been paid to departing state workers and MnSCU employees in the past three years. And the total is growing by the day. Now, the University of Minnesota has released its separate payroll records, showing it paid departing employees $30 million during the same time period. That brings the total to at least $116 million for all departing state workers in the past three years.

In November 2011, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reported $86 million in unused vacation pay, sick time, and other severance had been paid to departing state workers and MnSCU employees in the past three years. And the total is growing by the day. Now, the University of Minnesota has released its separate payroll records, showing it paid departing employees $30 million during the same time period. That brings the total to at least $116 million for all departing state workers in the past three years.

The district attorney who filed a lawsuit challenging Wisconsin's law passed this year effectively ending collective bargaining rights for most public workers said Thursday he is considering asking the state Supreme Court to rehear the case. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne told the Associated Press he was looking at making the request after learning that Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman had received free legal services from a firm that defended the law in that case decided in June. Gableman was part of a four-justice majority that upheld the law, which generated massive opposition protests and made Wisconsin the center...

The union that represents state police dispatchers is holding a press conference to warn against plans to consolidate operations. The press conference is being held at the Waterbury-Palladino Center on West Main Street to discuss the opposition to plans to centralize dispatch operations starting in 2012 in the northwest corner of the state. The dispatchers are part of the NP-3 Administrative-Clerical Bargaining Unit within Council 4 AFSCME.

Dayton, a Democrat, ordered the election two weeks ago so that providers could vote on whether to be represented by a union in "meet and confer" talks with the state. The order allows in-home providers who participate in state-subsidized Child Care Assistance Programs to vote on whether to be represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) or the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), depending on where in the state their business is. Ballots are scheduled to be mailed Dec. 7 to about 4,300 of some 11,000 in-home providers in Minnesota. They would be counted Dec....

We have been given expensive ringside seats to quite a public backscratching. Unions - AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and SEIU, Service Employees International Union - have been patting their old pal, Governor Dayton, on the back and saying, "You can do it" and "Atta boy, go get 'em." And lo, Dayton, who is beholden to unions, looked out his window one day and decided he saw some people he could bring into the collective fold. Now, how the governor has the constitutional authority to order anybody to take a vote on joining a union...

Natasha Nimer had a simple question: As a trustee in a local labor union representing City of Phoenix employees, did she have a duty to check the books of a taxpayer-funded insurance account it managed? So she asked the executive board of AFSCME Local 2960. The response was an emphatic “no.” She dropped the matter and thought it would end there. She was wrong. In the months that followed, union officials tried to strip Nimer of her duties as a trustee and steward. They tried twice to force her out of AFSCME, only to have the international headquarters order her...

A drive to unionize thousands of in-home child-care workers in Minnesota is intensifying into a full-scale political battle between DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and GOP leaders at the Capitol. Dayton on Tuesday sharply criticized legislators for announcing that they will hold a hearing this week on attempts by labor groups to unionize Minnesota's more than 11,000 licensed, in-home child-care providers. Republicans say unionized day-care providers raises concerns among parents and providers and they want a thorough airing. "The parents are unhappy, the owners of day cares are unhappy," House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, said of the possibility of unionization....

he AFL-CIO announced it has invested  more than $150 million in job-creating infrastructure projects and registered 8,000 more apprenticeships in clean energy training. During the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting in Chicago last June, the AFL-CIO outlined plans to work with member unions, pension funds, investment professionals and the government to invest at least $10 billion in job-creating infrastructure projects. The federation also committed to invest at least $20 million in specific energy retrofits over the next year, to retrofit our headquarters building, and to train tens of thousands of workers in the skills necessary to work on 21st century infrastructure.Here’s what has been...

Madison - The top four spenders on lobbying the Legislature during the first half of 2011 were labor unions fighting against Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to curb collective bargaining, a report released Thursday showed. The four unions spent $6.3 million in the first six months of the year, the Government Accountability Board reported. Walker introduced his plan in February and the Republican-controlled Legislature passed it in March. The unions helped organize rallies at the Capitol in protest over the bill that grew as large as 100,000 people. The debate, which captured the nation's attention, also spurred Democratic senators to leave...

The treasurer of the AFSCME union at the state Department of Labor and Industry drained the union's bank account of more than $13,000, a criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court alleges. Carrie Christine Rohling, 42, of White Bear Lake told fellow employees in Local 2672 that she had a drinking and prescription drug problem. She was charged with two counts of felony theft. "I know it was wrong for me to do that," Rohling said Friday when contacted by a reporter. "I was still thinking I could pay these guys back before they would even notice it was...

Bills strengthening the hand of public employee unions in bargaining for pay, pensions and working conditions are moving through the Legislature, usually on party-line votes with Democrats in support and Republicans opposed. The new governor, Jerry Brown, dismayed fellow Democrats last week by vetoing a bill making it easier for farm workers to unionize in the private sector. Now he is likely to receive a number of bills pushed by powerful public employee unions. Having a Democrat in the governor’s office, who relied on union contributions as he defeated a self-funded Republican who set a spending record, gives labor leaders...

RUSH: Minnesota state government is closed. The Minnesota state government shut down at midnight last night, the victim "of an ongoing dispute over taxes and spending between Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative majorities. Talks fell apart well before the deadline, leaving state parks closed on the brink of the Fourth of July weekend." Oh, the tears. You see how this works? Evil Republicans, state parks are closed, the little kiddies don't get to have their snow cones and the sleigh rides, oh, no, no Fourth of July, evil Republicans. The AP says that the shutdown in Minnesota puts...

An AFSCME local representing correction officers rejected the concession deal in voting tallied today, formalizing what has been apparent for days: the unions' tentative agreement with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy for $1.6 billion in savings over two years is dead. Malloy said he will ask the legislature in a special session Thursday to authorize him to now make the necessary spending cuts to balance the budget, rather than present detailed revisions for lawmakers to approve. He said granting him that authority would be the quickest and easiest way to amend the budget. "I'm going to do everything in my power...

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said today he will outline spending reductions and mass layoffs next week in response to the apparent collapse of his $1.6 billion concessions deal with state employees. "We're talking about large-scale position reductions pretty quickly," Malloy said after speaking at an economic development event at the University of Hartford. With notice requirements, most of the affected employees will lose their jobs by Sept. 1, he said. Speaking publicly for the first time since it became clear Wednesday that the concession deal was faltering, Malloy was restrained and even rueful in his response. Voting on the deal...

On the eve of a vote that is expected to kill a tentative union concession plan, a top adviser to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said the administration might be open to a reconsideration of the deal by bargaining units that voted it down, but won't offer new terms. Union spokesmen called the question of reconsideration premature while some bargaining units are still voting. Malloy's senior adviser, Roy Occhiogrosso, said the governor remains adamant that the tentative deal will not be renegotiated. However, he said the administration might be willing to clarify the terms of the agreement now on the table....

Public-sector unions in Wisconsin are having a hard time hiding their rage over the most recent round in the state's fiscal war. Last Tuesday, June 14, by a 4-3 margin, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld a new law curbing collective bargaining rights for most state and local employees, part of a larger budget bill. The decision overturns a permanent injunction issued May 26 by Dane County (Madison) Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi blocking the law on grounds that Senate Republicans violated the state Open Meetings Law. Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug LaFollette announced he will publish the measure on June 28,...

HARTFORD, Conn. - State workers have started voting on the labor savings and concession plan aimed at closing the state budget, and while it's still early, so far the results have been mixed. On Thursday, the deal that's needed to balance the state's budget received its first negative votes. AFSCME Local 749 rejected the proposed changes to retirement and health care benefits and wage-related changes. AFSCME Local 749 represents about 600 Judicial Branch employees. Eyewitness News learned Local 387, which represents correction officers, counselors and staff, also rejected the plan, while another bargaining unit that represents officers and maintenance staff...

Madison - One day after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered the reinstatement of collective-bargaining legislation that potentially affects thousands of public-sector employees, a coalition of unions filed suit in federal court seeking to block it.The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO on Wednesday joined a number of other unions seeking to halt Gov. Scott Walker's controversial collective bargaining legislation.The groups include the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 24, AFSCME Council 40, AFSCME Council 48, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), the Wisconsin State Employees Union, The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO and the Service...

Workers, activists and other volunteers are making fast progress in collecting the 231,000 signatures needed to put the repeal of S.B. 5 on the Ohio ballot this November. S.B. 5, pushed by Gov. John Kasich (R), eliminates the rights of 350,000 public employees to bargain for middle-class jobs. The 35,000 member Ohio Civil Service Employees Association/AFSCME (OCSEA/AFSCME) set a goal of gathering 60,000 voters' signature. In a mere two weeks, OCSEA canvassers have collected more than 20,000 signatures to "Kill the Bill." Similar efforts are under way through the Buckeye State to hit the signature threshold by the June 30...

Winter Park is paying a consultant $2,500 a day to help the city's staff dissuade about 150 city workers from joining a union. Employees in the public works, parks, fleet maintenance and water departments are likely to vote in June or July on whether to join the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, known as AFSCME. In the past few years, the city has done away with longevity bonuses and pay increases because of the economy. In late April, city commissioners voted 4-0, with Commissioner Carolyn Cooper not in attendance, to approve a contract with Kulture LLC, a...

Wisconsin unions have every right to go after Gov. Scott Walker and oppose his agenda to strip most collective bargaining rights from public sector unions. But, because Walker just took office in January, they'll have to bide their time and wait until late next fall before they can start collecting signatures on recall petitions. We saw the crowds outside the state Capitol last month and witnessed some of the heartfelt anger over Walker's plans. And we saw counterprotests, too, with heartfelt support for the hefty changes that Walker says are needed to balance the state's fiscal books both now and...

So much for support from the common man. The Indiana Democratic Party’s first quarter campaign finance report was filed last Friday and confirms what everyone already suspected but Democrats denied: their “We Are Indiana” walkout was bought and paid for national unions. Read the report here: Dem Finance Report During the period of the walkout that began on February 22 and ended on March 28, Democrat-backed unions contributed nearly $140,000 to the Indiana Democratic Party. Their goal: stop the legislative session in its tracks, kill anti-union bills, and pay whatever it took to keep Democrats holed up in an Illinois...

It’s becoming clearer that the “public service” mentality is quickly slipping way from government employees, if it didn’t hit the exits a long time ago. Instead of government employees serving the public, it’s clear now their belief is that the public exists to serve them. And if the public doesn’t step up, there will be hell to pay. Why else would a government union president threaten to “weaponize” the jobs of his members? At the latest union protest in Lansing, Michigan, AFSCME president Herb Sanders explained to the Lansing State Journal: If necessary, we will use the valuable public service...

Imagine going to the grocery store and noting that all the price tags have been changed. Instead of showing how much each item costs in plain dollars and cents, the new tags show a percentage. Perplexed, you track down a manager to ask what gives. The answer: That's what percentage of your income you must pay for each item.That would be an outrage, would it not? After all, why should your income affect what you pay for produce? Yet that is precisely how we charge taxpayers for services provided by government. In Minnesota, residents rushing to postmark last minute tax...

Comments on issues currently in the news.... --At stake in November were 472 congressional seats (37 Senate seats and all 435 House seats). A record 42 doctors were candidates -- making doctors candidates in about one-twelfth of the 472 congressional races. This is the decisive datum: Of those 42 physician/candidates, 33 favored the repeal of ObamaCare. --Maybe they understand, among other things -- as Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Elmendorf does -- that ObamaCare will cost the nation jobs. In February testimony before the House Budget Committee, Elmendorf put the number of jobs lost by 2021 as a consequence of...

Members of Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, have begun circulating letters to businesses in southeast Wisconsin, asking them to support workers’ rights by putting up a sign in their windows. If businesses fail to comply, the letter says, “Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means 'no' to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members." Jim Parrett, a field representative of Council 24 for Southeast Wisconsin, confirmed the contents of the letter, which carries his signature. But...

Members of Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, have begun circulating letters to businesses in southeast Wisconsin, asking them to support workers’ rights by putting up a sign in their windows. If businesses fail to comply, the letter says, “Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means 'no' to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members."

Excerpting for copyright concerns... Article contains the usual "intentional misunderstandings:" The Wisconsin law "strips many public employees of their voice on the job"Republicans "rushed the bill through," even though the Democrats walked out on February 17th and the bill was passed on March 11, an interval of 22 days The article claims that a "massive rally" was held "over the weekend." Here's a video of the "massive" rally; it looks to me like maybe two or three thousand people showed up, although it's hard to tell because the camera is at ground level. The article asserts that "state and many...

Wisconsin's ongoing crisis is exposing the channeling of taxpayer money to unions, and thence to Democrats. Taxpayers are being swindled by a system in which their interests come second. Though there are currently moves afoot to alter some of the procedural details contained in Governor Walker's Budget Repair Bill, nothing of any substance has emerged thus far as the Democrat "fleebaggers" are still camped out in Rahmland and show no evidence of returning to Wisconsin to vote on the bill. The budget, which Walker believes is critical if fiscal sanity is to be injected into an out-of-control spending process, also...

In Policy Options for State Pension Systems and Their Impact on Plan Liabilities (NBER Working Paper No. 16453), co-authors Joshua Rauh and Robert Novy-Marx examine 116 state-sponsored pension plans, including all of those with more than $1 billion of assets, to estimate the extent of unfunded pension liabilities and how that issue might be addressed. When states value their pension systems, they typically use a discount rate of 8 percent. The authors note that the principles of financial economics suggest using a much more conservative discount rate. "This means discounting either with a taxable state-specific municipal yield curve, which credits...

After hemorrhaging members for decades, labor unions have hit upon a new way to shore up their annual dues revenue. Michelle Berry runs a private day-care service from her home on the outskirts of this city, the birthplace of General Motors. Her clients are mostly low-income parents who need child care to keep their jobs in a city that now has a 26% unemployment rate. Ms. Berry owns her own business—yet the Michigan Department of Human Services claims she is a government employee and union member. The agency thus withholds union dues from the child-care subsidies it sends to her...

An impassioned Labor Secretary Hilda Solis rallied Democratic party members Saturday to tell voters "elections do matter" as she gave a detailed – and political – response to the Wisconsin union fight. Solis delivered her remarks before the Democratic National Committee winter meeting, in the same hotel where conservative activists held their annual convention two weeks ago. But the message was decidedly different, as Solis accused Republicans of turning back the clock on workers' rights. The Labor Secretary told the crowd cuts in benefits isn't the issue in the dispute playing out in Wisconsin and other states. "We know, we...

Last fall, leftist ideological groups of socialists and communists teamed up with American labor unions to march together for “One Nation.� Now, as labor leaders struggle to maintain a stranglehold on collective bargaining privileges in Wisconsin, the same groups are once again marching together under a banner claiming unions are the heart of the American dream.As we’ve reported, former White House green jobs czar Van Jones this week issued a rallying call for the progressive movement to “renew itself and become again a national force with which to be reckoned.� On Saturday, progressive groups and labor unions are reportedly planning...

While several unions and a multitude of Marxist groups are involved in the Wisconsin and other state capitol protests, the lead organization is undoubtedly America's huge public sector union, the  American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). AFCSME website While ostensibly about preserving public sector union collective bargaining 'rights', the protests are really a confrontation of values. AFSCME wants to preserve and expand union power in an increasingly government dominated economy. AFSCME is confronting several, mainly 'Tea Party' backed state governors who want to roll back the power of the unions, in order to save their states from...

During the past eight days, thousands of Wisconsin teachers walked out of classrooms, shutting down schools. Tens of thousands of public employees staged an apparent wildcat strike, flooding Wisconsin's state capital in a round-the-clock protest. And Democratic legislators engaged in a most undemocratic action, fleeing Wisconsin to deny the state Senate the supermajority required for a quorum. They did this to oppose Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's efforts to require public employees to increase contributions to their retirement and health-insurance plans, and to rein in their collective-bargaining power to negotiate for higher benefits. President Barack Obama has joined labor's attacks, criticizing...

Labor unions play a diminishing role in the private sector, but they still claim a large share of the public-sector workforce. Public-sector unions are important to examine because they have a major influence on government policies through their vigorous lobbying efforts. They are particularly influential in states that allow monopoly unionization through collective bargaining. Collective bargaining is a misguided labor policy because it violates civil liberties and gives unions excessive power to block needed reforms. To provide policymakers with greater flexibility and to improve government efficiency, states should follow the lead of Virginia and ban collective bargaining in the public...

Gee, I seem to recall when violent rhetoric was the bane of political rhetoric, at least when the Left was shrieking about the latent, seething violence of Tea Party activists and Sarah Palin’s campaign maps. The media did a dog-pile on the Right when a lunatic in Tucson shot Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, spending the better part of a week scrutinizing Palin’s utterances and campaign artwork when the shooter’s schizophrenia was known well enough within hours of the massacre that killed six and wounded 14. Now one of Giffords’ Democratic caucus colleagues tells a union crowd that they need to...

CHRIS MATTHEWS: "I'm going to give you free advertising. Take a minute and speak to the unorganized private sector employees out there making 30, 40k a year, average income, maybe two people are working, making more, why should they organize? Why should they join the labor movement if it is still a movement?"

A well-funded organization contributes money to candidates and then works with those candidates to produce favorable policies, and gets people out to protest. Is that the Kochs or the unions? Answer: It depends. Does the organization also use the government to forcibly collect dues? If so, it’s the latter. To be fair, there is nothing wrong with the Times investigating the money behind the Tea Party protests in Wisconsin and elsewhere. In fact, such information should be transparent so voters can be aware of it and evaluate it. In that sense, the Times is providing a valuable service. But perhaps...