Free Republic

When Congress returns from recess next week, the political conversation is going to be all about jobs. As President Obama prepares to outline his “very specific” jobs proposal in a speech, House Republicans are readying a plan of their own. A key element to the GOP jobs agenda will be identifying and eliminating federal regulations that are needlessly burdening business owners and in many cases preventing them from hiring new employees. To that end, House committee chairmen have put together a list of “the 10 most harmful job-destroying regulations,” and plan to take action over the coming weeks and months...

The AFL-CIO submitted more than 21,000 comments on behalf of people in favor of a new National Labor Relations Board proposed “quickie election” rule change on Monday. If the NLRB finalizes its proposed rule, the time between when union organizers file a petition and when an election takes place would be shortened to just 7–10 days. Traditionally, unionizing elections are held up to six weeks after organizers meet the petition requirements. Union spokesman Josh Goldstein told The Daily Caller that the 21,000 comments submitted right before Monday’s deadline “were organized by the AFL-CIO, primarily through our online tools that allow...

Pickets appeared Friday morning at McCumbers Glass in Marysville over what a union representative says are issues involving wages, benefits and working conditions — but a co-owner of the business says its 12 employees don't want a union...

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) accused House Republicans of “hostage taking” for not passing a “clean” short-term extension to fund the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with no cuts, comparing the situation to “a gun held” by the GOP to the heads of Democrats. “The issue is not essential air service. It’s not even a labor issue. It’s the issue of hostage taking. It’s as if someone puts a gun to your head and says ‘give me your money’ and then you say, ‘why won’t you give them their money?’

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...

Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have made it far easier for farmworkers to join labor unions, 36 years after making history in his first term by signing a law giving the low-wage employees the right to organize. Brown's veto disappointed and angered dozens of farmworkers who had camped outside his office late into the night Tuesday to try to pressure him into signing the measure. Democratic lawmakers joined supporters in the hallway as they awaited his decision, which came at 11 p.m. in the form of a press release to reporters. The governor refused to come...

Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- Gov. Jerry Brown has until midnight Tuesday to act on a bill that would make it easier for unions to organize farmworkers in California, but growers characterize the legislation as a union power-grab. The bill would allow farmworkers to organize by signing a petition away from the fields, rather than holding a secret ballot election as they do now. Unions say the current system leads to intimidation by employers, while farmers say a petition system would make it easier for union organizers to bully workers into joining. Growers and other business groups also say greater unionization...

Now we know why unionists were fighting so hard for a federal “card check” law. Organizers can unionize private and public employees, forcing them to pay hundreds in union dues, before they even know anything about it. That's the situation at the Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School in Orleans, Massachusetts. Last week news broke that the reputable charter school was the second in Massachusetts to be organized by the American Federation of Teachers. Various sources indicated that the unionization effort was somewhat less than forthright. Several teachers complained that they were never informed about the process and were never asked...

Now we know why unionists were fighting so hard for a federal “card check” law. Organizers can unionize private and public employees, forcing them to pay hundreds in union dues, before they even know anything about it. That's the situation at the Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School in Orleans, Massachusetts. Last week news broke that the reputable charter school was the second in Massachusetts to be organized by the American Federation of Teachers. (Snip) Several teachers complained that they were never informed about the process and were never asked to vote on the issue.

The United Farm Workers Union is just a Jerry Brown autograph away from salvation.  The UFW which has seen its membership decline from more than 70,000 in the seventies to roughly 27,000 (including part time and seasonal workers) today is ready to fill its ranks and coffers through ‘card check.’   The Sacramento Bee reports that the California Assembly passed the ‘card check’ bill on Monday.  The measure, Senate Bill 104, cleared the Assembly by a vote of 51-26 with Republicans opposed.  It now goes to Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not yet announced whether he will sign it. Proposed...

(CNSNews.com) – The National Labor Relations Board is seeking an unprecedented expansion of powers in a lawsuit to overturn voter-approved constitutional amendments in at least two states guaranteeing the secret ballot for union elections, South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said. The NRLB contends it is perfectly within the agency’s jurisdiction to bring a “preemptive” lawsuit against the states. The agency announced it would move forward with litigation against the states of South Dakota and Arizona to strike the laws from the states that voters approved last November to guarantee employees have the right to vote via secret ballot...

Fresh off its decision to ask an administrative law judge to stop Boeing's move to step up production in South Carolina because Boeing cited its wish to lower the risk of suffering more strikes, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is stepping up its game. Now Obama's NLRB is planning on suing two states, Arizona and South Dakota, seeking to invalidate those states' constitutional amendments that prohibit card check. This is just the latest step in Obama's campaign to reward and empower unions (and their campaign piggy banks) at the expense of jobs and growth (see "Unions Still in the...

WOODVILLE -- A dozen farmworkers sat in a circle of plastic chairs in a modest living room, listening as a union organizer talked about a bill she said would allow people to organize without fear, rebuild the union and improve conditions in the fields. The United Farm Workers of America drew national attention when workers led by Cesar Chavez inspired a boycott of table grapes in the 1960s and then forced vineyard owners to sign hundreds of contracts providing better pay and working conditions. But experts say employer intimidation, high worker turnover and demographic changes have resulted in union membership...

In what was, unfortunately, not an April Fools’ joke, last Friday the California Senate approved S.B. 104, an initiative which will enable union intimidation of workers and tilt the playing-field toward Big-Labor. The legislation passed on a party-line vote, with Senate Democrats carrying the day, 24-14. The bill would legalize “Card Check,” a union election process which eliminates secret ballots at the whim of those employees wishing to unionize. Although touted by the left as a great advance for workers’ rights (a failed federal version was the misleadingly named Employee Free Choice Act), Card Check is nothing of the sort....

Acting on the birthday of labor rights leader Cesar Chavez, the state Senate on Thursday approved "card check" legislation that would give farmworkers seeking union representation an alternative to a secret-ballot election. Senate Bill 104 passed by a 24-14 party-line vote with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed. It would let workers unionize if a majority of employees sign and submit petition cards to the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. The bill, sponsored by the United Farm Workers union, also includes steeper penalties for employers who seek to block workers from unionizing.

The biggest myth about labor unions is that unions are for the workers. Unions are for unions, just as corporations are for corporations and politicians are for politicians. Nothing shows the utter cynicism of the unions and the politicians who do their bidding like the so-called "Employee Free Choice Act" that the Obama administration tried to push through Congress. Employees' free choice as to whether or not to join a union is precisely what that legislation would destroy. Workers already have a free choice in secret-ballot elections conducted under existing laws. As more and more workers in the private sector...

Amidst a week of major events dominating the news landscape, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) dropped a bomb last Friday afternoon.  Apparently, the NLRB felt the need to flex some muscle and has threatened to sue four states over laws passed by voter referendum in November.  The laws in question would guarantee workers the right to a secret ballot when deciding whether or not to join a union. NLRB's actions are a naked attempt to protect Big Labor's favorite organizing tool -- card check --  which also is a key component of the widely unpopular and job-killing Employee Free Choice Act.  Under...

The National Labor Relations Board announced on Friday that it planned to sue Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah in an effort to invalidate recently approved state constitutional amendments that prohibit private sector workers from choosing a union through a process known as card check. The labor board asserts that the amendments conflict with federal laws and are pre-empted by those laws. The state amendments were promoted by various conservative groups concerned that Congressional Democrats and President Obama would enact legislation allowing unions to insist on using card check, in which an employer recognizes a union as soon as...

WASHINGTON – The National Labor Relations Board on Friday threatened to sue Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah over constitutional amendments guaranteeing workers the right to a secret ballot in union elections. The agency's acting general counsel, Lafe Solomon, said the amendments conflict with federal law, which gives employers the option of recognizing a union if a majority of workers sign cards that support unionizing. The amendments, approved Nov. 2, have taken effect in South Dakota and Utah, and will do so soon in Arizona and South Carolina. Business and anti-union groups sought the amendments, arguing that such secrecy...

...Brown has been quite vocal in his support for the dreadfully mis-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would force public ballots upon laborers voting for or against unionization. This is the devious initiative known as Card Check. Apart from overriding state laws and handing even more power to radicals in the current administration, Card Check would open a door for large-scale voter intimidation, a tactic often used by union bosses to supplement their dwindling membership. It seems as if, in Brown’s mind, the freedom to vote as one wishes should be held only by people like himself: we are...