Free Republic

Joe Biden campaigns as a moderate, yet his labor policy is anything but. He supports the most radical rewrite of federal labor laws in U.S. history, and American workers should be afraid. Biden’s plan is sweeping. He would strip states of their ability to regulate their own affairs, end workers’ freedom to choose whether to join a union, and destroy independent contracting and the “gig” economy. If elected, Biden will push an agenda that would eviscerate the rights of tens of millions of workers, put labor unions in control of the economy, and impose a one-size-fits-all labor system on the...

DEMS ANSWER WALKER WITH LABOR LAW BILL: Two days after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker unveiled his plans to eliminate the NLRB and take right-to-work national, congressional Democrats will today propose legislation developed with the AFL-CIO to stiffen penalties for employers who violate the National Labor Relations Act. Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Bobby Scott will introduce a bill that they say would “help ensure workers are able to have a voice in the workplace and would crack down on employers who break the law when workers exercise their right to collective action.” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will stand alongside the...

KENOSHA – The issue of the Kenosha Casino is a hot-button issue in the 2014 race for Wisconsin Governor as Scott Walker (R-Wauwatosa) is yet to make a decision on whether he would approve the casino. However, one union that has been actively campaigning against Scott Walker in Kenosha entered into an agreement with the Menominee Indian Nation. The United Food and Commercial Workers Working Families Advocacy Project, an arm of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, has been active in the State of Wisconsin trying to turn out the vote in the Racine and Kenosha Areas. On September...

(Reuters) - The United Auto Workers, surprising even its supporters, on Monday abruptly withdrew its legal challenge to a union organizing vote that it lost at a Volkswagen AG plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee in February. Just an hour before the start of a National Labor Relations Board hearing on the challenge, the union dropped its case, casting a cloud over its long and still unsuccessful push to organize foreign-owned auto plants in the U.S. South.VW workers due to testify in the NLRB hearing were already at the courthouse in downtown Chattanooga when they heard the news, which left lawyers in...

Thus marks the end of the United Auto Workers’ foray into unionizing Southern auto manufacturing. Despite cooperative management at Volkswagen, the UAW failed to convince workers in its Chattanooga facility to unionize. The union alleged interference and demanded a hearing at the National Labor Relations Board to force a revote, but unexpectedly withdrew just before the hearing was scheduled to start:

The United Auto Workers announced Monday it is withdrawing an appeal of the outcome of a union vote at Volkswagen’s assembly plant in Tennessee. In a statement released one hour before the scheduled start of a National Labor Relations Board hearing in Chattanooga, Tenn., UAW President Bob King said the union decided to put the “tainted election in the rearview mirror” because the challenge could have taken months or even years to come to a conclusion. …

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The UAW announced today it is withdrawing objections filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regarding February's vote at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, effectively terminating the NLRB review process. UAW President Bob King said the decision was made in the best interests of Volkswagen employees, the automaker, and economic development in Chattanooga. King said the UAW based its decision on the belief that the NLRB’s historically dysfunctional and complex process potentially could drag on for months or even years. Additionally, the UAW cited refusals by Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker to...

One for the hypocrisy hall of fame: Media Matters for America is apparently resisting an effort by Service Employees International Union Local 500 to unionize its staff.Last week, the union filed a representation petition with the National Labor Relations Board, indicating that the nonprofit media watchdog organization rejected an effort by the union to organize MMFA’s staff through a Card Check election.A filing with the NLRB does not necessarily mean that the union and management are in direct confrontation. For example, although Volkswagen tacitly backed the United Auto Workers’ recent effort to organize its Chattanooga, Tenn., plant, the company still...

The hypocrisy could not be more evident as reports indicate Media Matters for America is resisting efforts by Service Employees International Union Local 500 to unionize its employees. Heck, next thing you know, they'll be asking them for a higher minimum wage. "...Last week, the union filed a representation petition with the National Labor Relations Board, indicating that the nonprofit media watchdog organization rejected an effort by the union to organize MMFA's staff through a Card Check election..."

Get your popcorn… The SEIU is petitioning the National Labor Relations Board to unionize the employees the employees at Media Matters. In response, Media Matters has hired a high priced law firm to represent the company. And, here we thought they supported unions? Weird, huh?

Media Matters for America is apparently resisting an effort by Service Employees International Union Local 500 to unionize its staff. Last week, the union filed a representation petition with the National Labor Relations Board, indicating that the nonprofit media watchdog organization rejected an effort by the union to organize MMFA’s staff through a Card Check election. […] MMFA has regularly presented itself as a supporter of organized labor. It has argued that “economists point to declining union participation as one cause of the growing economic rift in America” and claimed it was a fact that “unions increase productivity [and] do...

When the UAW failed miserably in Chattanooga and was not able to unionize the Volkswagen plant, even with a staked deck, it started a chain reaction and the next domino has fallen. The news that the AFL-CIO has decided to keep its money and not even try to save three Southern Democrat Senators comes as no real shock. The powerful union reviewed the polls and the political climate in North Carolina, Louisiana and Arkansas and decided backing the Democrats in these states would be throwing good money after bad. The decision left Democrat Senators Mark Pryor in Arkansas, Mary Landrieu...

The recent defeat of a unionization effort by the UAW at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee was not only a major setback for the union, but also for those pushing "card check" legislation. Card check legislation, officially known as the "Employee Free Choice Act," was introduced in Congress in 2009 and would "authorize the National Labor Relations Board to certify a union . . . when a majority of employees voluntarily sign authorizations designating that union to represent them." In other words, employees would "vote" by signing a card in the presence of a union representative, rather than voting in...

Labor: Union bosses have contended for some time that a secret ballot isn't needed to unionize a workplace. All that's needed, they said, was employees' signatures on cards. But Chattanooga proved them wrong. For months the United Auto Workers have said a majority of workers at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee had signed cards expressing their interest in unionizing. Why bother with a secret ballot when the workers had already spoken through the "card check" approval process? Before a much-anticipated and widely followed union-representation vote held last week, the AP reported that Gary Casteel, Tennessee-based regional director for the UAW,...

The Democrats in New York’s City Council have overridden Mayor Bloomberg’s veto of its bill forcing small businesses to provide “sick days” to their workers. This is a cynical “end run” to Card Check. There is very little chance that Card Check, which would allow unions to “supervise” workers’ votes on whether to unionize, would pass even in today’s political climate. This has forced the desperate unions to find another way to increase their dwindling membership rolls. The numbers are clear; unions are being crushed under the weight of...

1. Lenin: Trade Unions are a School of Communism The "card-check" debates in the US Congress reminded me of my own experiences with trade unions in the USSR, where organized labor was part of the official establishment and union membership was universal and mandatory. It also reminded me of how that system's seemingly magnanimous goals - fairness, economic equality, and social justice - in real life brought forth a rigged game of wholesale corruption, forced inequality, and grotesque injustice. Years later, the same Orwellian misnomers are catching up with me in America. One of them is called "Employee Free Choice...

Virginia is moving towards making card-check—the controversial union proposal to replace secret-ballot elections with simple card-signing petitions—unconstitutional in the state. The effort is led by State Sen. Bryce Reeves (R-Spotsylvania) who said that “no citizen” should be denied the ability to vote by secret ballot. …

Phoenix—In a strong rebuke to the Obama Administration Wednesday, federal district court Judge Frederick J. Martone ruled that the Secret Ballot Amendment, which protects workers’ right to secret ballot in union-organizing elections, is constitutional. Drafted by the Goldwater Institute in 2009, the Save Our Secret Ballot amendment was added in 2010 to state constitutions in Arizona, South Dakota, South Carolina, and Utah, by voter majorities ranging from 60 to 86 percent. The constitutional amendment was sought after President Obama and congressional Democrats attempted to end the use of secret ballots in union-organizing elections and force workers into a system called...

Last week, the U.S. House Workforce Committee held a hearing on the Obama Labor Board's recent onslaught of Big Labor power grabs that undermine worker freedom. National Labor Relations Board Chairman and former union lawyer Mark Pearce offered his spin after the hearing, calling the Board's decisions "fair and even-handed." The outrageous complaint against Boeing hardly seems fair to the thousands of South Carolina workers who could be forced out of their jobs all because they can't be required to pay union dues or "fees" as a condition of employment. But don't just take my word for it. At the...

I've never seen this much attention given to child care," Clarissa Johnston, a 24-year home day care provider, told a Minnesota Senate committee hearing Thursday night. The reason for the attention was the possibility that Minnesota's 11,000 in-home child care providers might be unionized. The providers who testified were deeply divided over the issue. During the three-hour hearing, they argued passionately for and against being organized into labor alliances. Proponents contended that forming a union would enable them to negotiate the state rules and regulations that govern their operations and affect their wages, benefits and working conditions. "Recognize our right...