Free Republic

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...

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...

Now is the time for all good tea partiers to come to the aid of Wisconsin. Fiscally conservative leaders in the Badger State are under coordinated siege from Big Labor, the White House, the liberal media and the judiciary. The yearlong campaign of union thuggery, family harassment and intimidation of Republican donors and businesses is about to escalate even further. This is the price the Right pays for doing the right thing. The most visible target is Gov. Scott Walker, who faces recall on June 5 over his tough package of state budget and public employee union reforms. Three state...

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...

One of the many problems with ObamaCare is discovering that a self-bought policy is government run. What is the problem with a government policy? Well...it's government run. They get you coming and going. There's a pretend choice that is no choice, and even that non-choice is eventually forced out of business so that all is subsumed under the reality of a bureaucrat deciding if you get a heart bypass or a quick sendoff to the great beyond. Fake choices abound when dealing with politicians. That's why one simply must wonder about the Gingrich/Santorum splitting of the conservative vote. Who benefits?...

Just as Rick Santorum has pointedly and repeatedly reminded voters that Mitt Romney supported an individual health care mandate and the Wall Street bailouts, so Mitt Romney has sought to remind voters that Rick Santorum has been cozy with Big Labor in the past. In his attacks on Santorum, Romney has sounded unequivocally anti-labor, which no doubt has not helped him much in Michigan. Today, though, the former Massachusetts governor displayed a nuanced perspective on labor unions, characterizing himself as pro-union-worker but anti-union-bosses. His first line — “Labor unions play an important role in our society” — might seem to...

Gov. Jerry Brown laid out a detailed plan to alter California's state and local public retirement systems on Thursday – and immediately drew fire from his core labor constituency. The details delivered to the Legislature on Thursday generally tracked with an outline he unveiled in October. Representatives of a union coalition hoped to negotiate what they consider a less severe package. On Thursday, they said they felt blindsided. "To launch this bomb in the early stages of the legislative season can only be counterproductive," said Steve Maviglio, spokesman for the union coalition . . .

Big Labor: Indiana unions, opposed to becoming the first right-to-work state in the Rust Belt, may disrupt Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis. Their unnecessary roughness will cost the Hoosiers needed jobs. On Friday, as the Indiana Senate was scheduled to take up legislation supported by Gov. Mitch Daniels to make Indiana the 23rd right-to-work state, Indiana unions considered copying the disruptive and coercive tactics of Occupy Wall Street to disrupt arguably America's premier sporting event, the Super Bowl, to be held in Indianapolis on Feb. 5. As in Wisconsin, where embattled GOP Gov. Scott Walker faces a recall election over...

You undoubtedly know that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a progressive Christian and champion of civil rights and the social gospel. You may also know that he spoke out against the Vietnam War, harshly criticized U.S. foreign policy, and questioned the capitalist system that produced poverty. But do you know his theology? Right up until Dr. King's assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had traveled to support striking sanitation workers, the civil rights leader worked—not as a secular activist but as a Baptist minister—to awaken the conscience of the nation. What was the meaning of Jesus for Dr. King?...

The United Auto Workers union is staking its future on the kind of struggle it hasn't waged since the 1930s: a massive drive to organize hostile factories. This time, the target is foreign car makers, whose workers have rebuffed the union repeatedly. Specifically, Reuters has learned, the union is going after U.S. plants owned by German manufacturers Volkswagen AG and Daimler AG, seen as easier nuts to crack than the Japanese and South Koreans. It's a battle the UAW cannot afford to lose. By failing to organize factories run by foreign automakers, the union has been a spectator to the...

Despite a referendum from House Republicans, the National Labor Relations Board is moving forward with its Ambush Election rule. The NLRB finalized the rule yesterday, making cosmetic changes to the original proposed rule. Unsurprisingly, the Ambush Election rule still silences workers and burdens employers. Here’s what DC’s labor experts are saying about the rule: “With the unemployment above 8 percent for almost three years, the NLRB Final Election Rule is another slap in the face at out-of-work Americans. The rule, which reduces the time before elections for union representation and prevents employers from presenting the facts to their workforce, will...

Scruffy progressive protesters locked themselves together across railroad tracks, blocked traffic and shouted profanities at police on Tuesday in a coordinated "West Coast Port Shutdown." Truckers lost wages. Shippers lost business. This is what the Occupy Wall Street movement calls "victory." Aging Big Labor bosses toasted one another from the sidelines as they declared the "rebirth of the labor movement." What's really going on? It's an old-school power grab by a decrepit union wrapped in self-deluded social media do-goodism. Peace-loving agitators wielding guitars and iPhones may earnestly believe they stood up to corruption and stood up for workers this week....

The police presence at the anti-voter verification rally that took place in Manhattan this weekend was pretty substantial, although it still wasn’t quite as large as the security perimeter established around the diminished Occupy Wall Street protests at Zuccotti Park. In addition to the NYPD officers, there were also a series of minders brought in by the SEIU and other unions to corral unscripted protesters. Not that there were that many unscripted messages being presented. The overriding theme seemed to be a manichaean vision that voting rights were under assault by a ruthless cabal of Koch brother-bankrolled institutions and Republican...

The conservative pro-business group Americans for Job Security has a commercial set to run during the Republican presidential debate tonight that labels “greedy union bosses” as job killers. It stars a huge inflatable rodent: Richie the Rat. The commercial identifies Richie, who appears outside the National Labor Relations Board office, as the “one brave leader that is standing up to union bosses.” “The recovery is slipping away. The housing market is still sinking, and the jobs aren’t coming back,” the ad’s narrator says. “Washington is making it worse. Greedy union bosses are calling the shots. They want their payback.”

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (Legal Newsline) - A Verizon employee has filed unfair labor practice charges against Communications Workers of America Local 2205 for actions the union allegedly took during a recent strike. Monika Cassell claims the union ignored her right ...

Rebates on social security taxes will not create any jobs, let alone the 1.5 million to 2 million that is projected. To create jobs in private business we need structural reforms that will permanently make businesses more competitive such as health care reform and scrapping numerous union work rules. When it comes to public work projects, assuming the projects are needed, the goal should be to get the most work done as possible for the least cost. For example, it would be far better to hire two or three workers for $13 an hour than 1 person for $39 an...

According to the White House, President Obama has been huddling with advisers on a jobs plan he’ll present to Congress this week. One thing he could do immediately is finalize the free-trade deals with Colombia, South Korea and Panama that have been languishing on his desk. For nearly three years, Republicans and a number of Democrats have been calling on the president to approve these deals to create a level playing field with America’s competitors overseas, vastly expand the market for U.S. goods, strengthen our ties with three important allies and create jobs for Americans. Yet the deals have been...

As 9.1 percent unemployment plagues America this Labor Day, major unions are clashing with a Democratic administration with which they normally would march in lock-step. Echoing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, at least eight unions are begging Team Obama to abandon regulations, statements, and procedures that prevent jobs from being created or saved. â—� Several labor unions decry the Environmental Protection AgencyÂ’s existing and prospective rules, mainly those designed to reduce coal emissions. These stalwarts of the liberal Left resemble capitalists who now call the EPA the Employment Prevention Agency. The International Brotherhood of Electrical WorkersÂ’ Texas unit wrote the...

Organizers of Wausau's Labor Day parade say Republican lawmakers aren't welcome in this year's event. The Marathon County Central Labor Council sponsors the September 5th parade. The council includes about 30 local unions from the Marathon County area. Council president Randy Radtke says they choose not to invite elected officials who have "openly attacked worker's rights" or did nothing to intervene.

The departing chairwoman of the National Labor Relations Board won praise from the nation’s biggest labor group Saturday as she leaves a panel that’s facing key vacancies and an uncertain future. NLRB Chairwoman Wilma B. Liebman’s leaves the board after her term ends at midnight Saturday. She has served on the body for nearly 14 years after an initial appointment under President Bill Clinton. The White House has designated NLRB member Mark Gaston Pearce to replace Liebman as chairman. In addition to Liebman’s tenure ending, NLRB member Craig Becker’s term expires at the end of the year. Without new people...

***VIDEO AT LINK*** Dr. Moe: “If you stand up for kids, you have to oppose this [collective bargaining] Schools get organized by the adults on the basis of interests and concerns that have nothing to do with kids. So, why would you expect that system to work?” As students head back to school, it is a good time to reflect on why education is failing and continues to fail. Terry Moe, Chairman of the Political Science Department at Stanford, provides a dispassionate and extensively researched book, Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America’s Public Schools, which should become a useful and...

As reported in the Boston Globe and as seen in the New Hampshire debate video, both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich believe it is perfectly okay for the federal government to mandate that every private sector worker in the United States pay forced-dues to labor unions as a condition of getting or keeping a job. Attention Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich: Right To Work is not a states’ rights issue, it is a freedom issue. The Federal government should not mandate compulsory unionism. It appears that Forced Unionism is a Big Government idea that Newt & Mitt embrace. In fact,...

Should public sector unions be curbed? Is it time to end the ability of governmental employees to form unions? Raymond La Jeunesse, Jr., vice president and legal director of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, believes so. La Jeunesse, who has more than 40 years experience helping employees litigate against compulsory unionism - including arguing four cases

WASHINGTON -- The AFL-CIO hopes to boost its clout by launching a new political action committee that could raise unlimited amounts of money, part of the federation's goal of building a year-round political organizing structure. Forming a so-called "super labor PAC" would allow the labor federation to raise money from sympathetic donors both inside and outside union membership and mobilize support beyond its traditional base, instead of ramping up political activities each election cycle. The move would also help steer more of labor's money to state legislative battles, where unions have been battling efforts to curb union rights in states...

Unions: An Ohio contractor was wounded by gunfire Wednesday by a shadowy man vandalizing his SUV with union threats. Where's Washington's outrage at such lawlessness? Had King Electrical Services owner John King been shot by, say, a Tea Partyer, there'd be no end to the public pontificating from Washington's politicians and media commentators about their rhetoric or protests inciting violence. It's quite a different story for the Lambertville, Mich., contractor who woke up in the dead of night a week ago found a silhouetted figure on his driveway spraying "SCAB" on the side of his vehicle. The figure fired a...

Politics: These days, what would a firm that outsourced 400,000 U.S. jobs be called? The answer: labor union. Monday's Canada-Colombia free-trade pact is its masterpiece. Leo Gerard, the proudly Canadian president of the United Steelworkers Union, is one of many who ought to stand up and take a bow. He and his fellow Big Labor union bosses loudly opposed the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement, using their political muscle to keep the already-negotiated deal on ice in Congress and the White House for nearly five years. It's come at a massive cost to American workers' jobs. Gerard's native land put its...

Big Labor: Union organizers reportedly are telling South Carolina Boeing workers they'll halt a National Labor Relations Board action to shut their plant as long as the workers join their union. What contempt for workers! That's right, the International Association of Machinists (IAM), the very union that's trying to put 1,000 workers out on the unemployment lines in Charleston, S.C., through a complaint filed through the National Labor Relations Board, is now trying to force workers to join their union anyway, says a report last week in the Daily Caller. This is just the latest way the organization that proclaims...

For those who may have written off Big Labor’s agenda after they failed to push the Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act (EFCA) through Congress last year, they may want to take a careful look at the actions being undertaken by President Obama’s Administration and they’ll quickly find that the job-killing movement is alive and well. In fact, EFCA has been resurrected in three specific changes being advanced by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Department of Labor (DoL). And this should not be a surprise to anyone, as union bosses have been very clear that they expect Obama to pay...

California cities can protect workers from being fired immediately when their company changes owners, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday.The 6-1 decision reinstated a Los Angeles ordinance, struck down by lower courts, that required supermarkets to keep their workforce for 90 days after a new owner takes over. Similar laws covering different industries are in effect in other cities - including Oakland, San Jose, Berkeley and Emeryville - and the state also has a law protecting janitors who work for building contractors. "When you're keeping a business open and all you're doing is changing the name

Labor leaders bet big on an Obama victory in 2008, hoping Congress would enact, and the Democratic president would sign, "card-check" -- legislation designed to turn around labor's sagging membership rolls by ending secret-ballot elections in organizing drives. But card-check has never been able to pass the Senate -- not even when Democrats took over Congress in 2006. Instead, presidential appointees friendly to labor are deploying agency muscle. The latest example is taking place largely out of sight -- at the National Mediation Board, a little known agency that oversees union elections for railroads and airlines. Late in 2010, flight...

Yesterday, the House passed the largely non-controversial Military Construction/Veterans Affairs Appropriations (MilCon) bill for FY 2012. Unfortunately, it is these non-controversial bills which provide a safe haven for meretricious policy initiatives through the rapid fire amendment process. While everyone was focused on presidential politics, the House passed an amendment forcing government contractors to use labor unions on federal construction projects. Oh, and like most bad legislation, this amendment passed by one vote, with the help of 27 Republicans. In 2009, Obama used his signature power grab tool; an Executive Order, forcing all private companies to sign a project labor agreement...

Labor: Have California's voters finally said "enough" to the lavish pensions and perks its public-employee unions draw? A new poll says yes. The only remaining question is why they keep voting for politicians who disagree. There's no bigger mockery from the term "public servant" than the outsized taxpayer-paid pensions that go to those who spend a lifetime abusing us at the tax office, saddling us with looney environmental regulations, losing our permit paperwork, working with casual sloth, shoveling taxpayer goodies to illegal aliens, and drawing full pay for years even after molesting schoolchildren. A new L.A. Times/University of South California...

Politics: What does one call a state whose Senate says "no" to its public employee unions for strikes and collective bargaining? Perhaps Wisconsin, but in fact Chile. Seems it still likes being tops in economic freedom and growth. After two days of debate, a proposed change to Chile's constitution allowing collective bargaining privileges and a "right" to strike for public unions was voted down. The change got just 21 votes, four short of a two-thirds needed. Even many of the left-leaning opposition abstained. But you can't say they didn't try. "Chile is the only country in the world whose constitution...

Ideological budget battles between GOP and Dems in congress mask the real battle erupting across America-- the battle between the makers and the takers. Entrepreneurs and other working Americans, the makers, are growing tired of government's rapacious hand in their financial pocket and they are becoming more aggressive and more outspoken in their protests. Dems should expect this trend to continue. The recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report citing systemic high unemployment for the past two years shows that of the approximately 300 million Americans, only 47% of adults have full-time jobs. It's a mind-boggling statistic: 53%-- or a majority...

He already signed it this morning, actually, but they went ahead with a special public ceremony in the afternoon so that he could sign it again. Just because. Reminds me of Pelosi talking that long walk to the Capitol before the ObamaCare vote in the House, waving that giant gavel around that looked bigger than she is, chuckling all the way. The left keeps promising that Walker and the Senate GOP will pay for this, which may or may not be true. But if and when it does, let these three words comfort you: “Minority Leader Pelosi.�Meanwhile, the newest tactic...

The Wisconsin State Assembly today approved collective bargaining rules changes this afternoon, assuring that Republican Gov. Scott Walker will be able to sign it into law soon. So as far as that particular battle goes, Walker and the Republicans have won. But who exactly is winning the war? Big Labor and liberal groups think they are, thanks to various polls showing the public leaning their way on the issue. They are convinced that the Republicans will suffer a backlash for their actions, much as Democrats suffered a backlash over ObamaCare. But that assumes that all of those polled are as...

Two Democratic state senators say they think Republicans plan to pass parts of Gov. Scott Walker's proposal that take away collective bargaining rights from public workers without them. Senate Republican leaders weren't saying why they hastily created a conference committee that's meeting later Wednesday night.

Demonstrators at the Wisconsin capitol, union representatives and absent Democratic state senators concede in interviews that they don't object to a bill requiring teachers and other public employees to pay 12.5 percent of their health insurance (up from five percent), or up to half of their pension deposits. It is the curbing of collective bargaining that has brought on near hysteria and a fierce campaign to discredit Governor Scott Walker's legislation. For the union leaders the consequences of passage of the legislation could be devastating to their sinecures. Amid all the shouting, placards and banging on pots and pans in...

If public-school teachers spent more time teaching in classrooms and less time community-organizing in political war rooms, maybe taxpayers wouldn't feel as ripped off as they do. Before the Big Labor bosses start complaining about "teacher-bashing," let's be clear: An increasing number of rank-and-file teachers feel exactly the same way. Retired New York teacher Vinne Cusimano, who was required to pay forced union dues in order to work, wrote me this week after receiving the March 2011 edition of his union's monthly publication. The cover of the New York State United Teachers magazine reads: "Defend What Matters! Educate. Collaborate. AGITATE."...

President Obama's new era of civility was over be fore it began. America has been overrun by foul-mouthed, fist-clenching wildebeests. Yes, the Tea-Party movement is responsible -- for sending these liberal goons into an insane rage, that is. It is Obama's rank-and-file "community organizers" on the streets fomenting the hate against their political enemies. Not the other way around. The trendy new epithet among Big Labor organizers who've been camping out at the Madison, Wis., Capitol building for more than a week to block GOP Gov. Scott Walker's budget reform bill: "Koch whore." Classy, huh? It's a reference to the...

SEIU has a message for Colorado, "...we’ll turn Colorado into Wisconsin". http://hearus-now.org/?p=1647

What's the best way to get Americans back to work? Raise taxes, according to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Specifically, he wants to raise the federal gas tax as a means to fund infrastructure spending. "We need a dedicated source of revenue to create infrastructure in this country," he tells Aaron Task in the accompanying clip. "We need to create jobs. The best way to do that is through infrastructure development." Simply maintaining the existing infrastructure in this country will cost $2.2 trillion over five years, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. That doesn't include Obama's objective of high-speed...

Public schedule of Vice President Joe Biden for Thursday, Feb. 24: At 10:45 AM, the Vice President and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis will meet with President of the AFL-CIO Richard Trumka and with presidents of AFL-CIO labor organizations. Whatever do you suppose they're plotting inside this transparent Obama administration White House? Well, we'll never know. Because this meeting of an elected federal official with top labor union officers is closed to press. Then there are the meetings with lobbyists held just off the executive office grounds to avoid reporting them in White House logs. You are dismissed.

“…. the events in Wisconsin, and other states, unfold it is instructive to consider who is orchestrating the actions of the unions as they fight to keep their stranglehold on our economy. Investigated for terror ties Although you might not have gotten it from the old media, last September the FBI raided the homes of several people in the Midwest including those of two current or former Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 Executive Board members. The FBI is investigating the SEIU’s Chicago local (a Barack Obama favored union), for its ties to terror organizations bent on the destruction...

16 States Going to War on Unions The Daily Beast Wed Feb 23, 11:52 pm ET NEW YORK – With Wisconsin locked in a union battle, The Daily Beast looks at the 15 states that could blow up next and crunches the numbers to find whether they're really on shaky financial footing—or playing politics. Revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt have toppled despotic governments, while Libyans are on the verge of doing the same. The stakes are not as high in Wisconsin and the 15 other states that have proposed or are expected to propose various levels of de-engagement from both...

A pro-public union SEIU rally turned ugly today outside the Colorado Capitol in Denver. The Colorado union supporters started out the day chanting, “Tax the rich!” But later the unhinged SEIU thugs accosted a gay black tea partyer. This verbal assault lasted for several minutes. In this segment the pro-union leftists asks this black tea partyer, “I just want to know how you can vote against your own best interest.” Unbelievable.

Walker on Fake Sick Leave: State Employees Will be Terminated, Doctors Will Be Investigated 53 second audio of Walker on fake doctor excuses. Gov. Walker talks with Sean Hannity about the repercussions of teachers and state employees faking their sick leave with fraudulent doctor's notes. He stressed that the teachers are employees of each individual district and the superintendents can determine what action to take. But state employees are under the governor's jurisdiction. Direct link: http://www.breitbart.tv/walker-on-fake-sick-leave-state-employees-will-be-terminated-doctors-will-be-investigated/

Doctors from numerous hospitals set up a station near the Capitol to provide notes to explain public employees' absences from work. Family physician Lou Sanner, 59, of Madison, said he had given out hundreds of notes. Many of the people he spoke with seemed to be suffering from stress, he said. "What employers have a right to know is if the patient was assessed by a duly licensed physician about time off of work," Sanner said. "Employers don't have a right to know the nature of that conversation or the nature of that illness. So it's as valid as every...

In a nod to tea party power, Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos reversed course on a majority of state senators and his own voting record Friday by saying he supports Gov. Rick Scott's decision to refuse $2.4 billion in federal high-speed rail money. "Florida is leading by example in keeping its fiscal house in order. We must demand the same from Washington," Haridopolos, who voted for high-speed rail in December 2009, said in a letter. [snip] Haridopolos' new stance was widely interpreted in the state Capitol as an election-season play for votes in his bid for U.S. Senate — a...

A bill submitted to congress, Sept. 29, would abolish the right to work laws that exist in 22 states, at least according to its sponsor Brad Sherman (D-CA27) as the text of the bill, H.R 6384, is not yet available at Thomas.gov. Right to work laws came about from the Taft-Hartley Amendments to the National Labor Relations Act in 1947. These laws allow a person to refrain from joining a union and still be able to work at a company.