Free Republic

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...