Free Republic

A Republican super PAC committed to defeating the tea party in 2014 congressional primaries is mostly funded by labor unions. The super PAC Defending Main Street, formed by moderate Republican and former congressman Steve LaTourette, has committed itself to destroying tea party challenges to establishment GOP candidates in the 2014 midterm elections. “Hopefully we’ll go into eight to 10 races and beat the snot out of them,” LaTourette said. His PAC has already committed itself to defending Republican Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson from tea party opponent Bryan Smith, who is backed by the conservative Club for Growth due to Simpson’s...

Labor leaders who have spent months lobbying unsuccessfully for special protections under the Affordable Care Act warned this week that the White House’s continued refusal to help is dampening union support for Democratic candidates in this year’s midterm elections.

77-year-old collapsed across street from DC firehouse (Newser) – Marie Mills' father collapsed Saturday afternoon in a shopping center parking lot across the street from a Washington, DC, firehouse—but firefighters didn't rush to his aid, despite repeated pleas for help, and Medric "Cecil" Mills, 77, died of a heart attack. Marie Mills tells WTTG that bystanders were "screaming and hollering" at a firefighter across the street, and three people even ran over to Engine 26, but they were told rescuers could not respond until 911 was called, the Washington Post reports. Sources say that when 911 was called, an...

Labor Law: The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a case that will determine if a Medicaid recipient caring for her child is a state worker required to turn part of her meager resources over to union bosses. Illinois resident Pam Harris is a 55-year-old mom earning less than the minimum wage who cares for her son Josh Harris, 25. He has Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome, a muscular degenerative disease, compounded by physical disabilities and mental illness. Josh and his family qualify for an Illinois home-based support-services program that lets disabled adults live at home. He gets $721 each month from...

Inquiring minds are digging into a George Washington University paper on State Fiscal Conditions, a ranking of 50 states, by Sarah Arnett. PolicyMic Produced this Chart of State Fiscal Conditions based on the working paper. Highlights and Lowlights Let's return to the original working paper for some highlights and lowlights. At the bottom of the rankings are New Jersey and Illinois. New Jersey faces long-run solvency problems due in part to nearly 15 years of underfunding its state and local pensions. It has an estimated unfunded pension liability of around $25.6 billion as well as $59.3 billion in unfunded liabilities...

Fast food workers are planning a strike to force employers to pay them $15 per hour. This Thursday, in over 100 cities across the nation, Big Labor is coordinating with "grassroots" activists to pressure these employers to pay a "living wage." From all the press, you'd think the push toward higher wages was something noble. But, this is Big Labor. And no one will bully, threaten or intimidate to steal your hard earned money more than Big Labor. The group Fast Food Forward, one of the organizations in sync with Big Labor to shame fast food restaurants into extinction,...

I came across a story last week that caught my eye, but not enough to post about it. It was about the protests that have been organized against one of America's corporate giants. The protests were supposed to be workers protesting for more worker's rights at Wal-Mart. I mean, who doesn't support that? It seems a lot of people love to hate them some Wal-Mart. They are an easy target, since they are usually the biggest kid on the block. Big targets are easier to hit when the stones start flying and all that. Did you know, however, that many...

As we approach the Holiday Season and Black Friday, there will inevitably be a number of media reports purporting that employees at large companies like Wal-Mart are striking throughout the country. Last Thanksgiving, prominent media outlets like CNN, NBC and the Huffington Post widely and falsely reported that hundreds of protests were being staged by Wal-Mart employees throughout the nation. Before reporting the same false story this year, reporters should consider asking a few basic questions like exactly how many of these protesters are in fact Wal-Mart employees? They might be surprised to find that an overwhelming proportion of...

I had thought I would not write at all today, much less write about Obamacare. I am weary with telling the tale of this train wreck and what it is doing to the American people. It seems, however, there is just no end to the depths to which the Obama administration will go to further its agenda and help its friends. Just ask the unions how they feel about Obamacare. When the Affordable Care Act was first being considered in Congress, the unions were asked to support it, even though it appeared the legislation would not be optimal for...

It's not just Republicans who are unhappy with Obamacare. Labor union leaders have been complaining too. In July, the presidents of the Teamsters, United Food Commercial Workers union and UNITE-HERE (combined membership: 2.9 million) wrote a letter to congressional Democrats saying that Obamacare will "destroy the very health and well-being of our members along with millions of other working Americans." "We have a problem," they concluded. "You need to fix it." Forget for a moment that organized labor supported Obamacare. The union leaders have arguably legitimate complaints. Obamacare does indeed create incentives for employers to reduce the workweek below...

In six weeks there will be a little-followed election that could help determine the path for education reform in the United States for a long time to come. At issue is whether a local school board has the authority to tell the government employee union—you know, the forces of darkness that are preventing commonsense education reform in our schools? -- to take a hike. In July 2012, that’s exactly what Douglas County, Colorado school board decided. After months of negotiations the school board reached an impasse with the union as their contract expired. Previously the union has demanded that the...

The party is over, all their bluster ultimately meant nothing; and that’s as it should be. It took almost exactly a year to the day, but the party is over for our greedy union thug enemies in Wisconsin. Just last September 14, the gang at the Dailykos oh so gleefully reported that a Democrat hack judge in Madison had ruled the state’s law effectively ending, “.. collective bargaining rights for most public workers” was not constitutional and could not be enforced. Unions, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Juan Colas ruled, could go on eating their way to the bottom of...

For labor unions around the country, this last Labor Day served as a painful reminder that when they decided to go all-in for Obama in 2008, they alienated the rest of us non-government, non-union members- the 99 Percent- who have to go out and earn our keep every day. And that alienation is being expressed in political defeats by unions around the country. I’m wondering if the unions are starting to regret their investment in Obama.Unions dumped $450 million into the Obama effort in 2008, according to the New York Times, hoping that they’d buy political clout with Obama that they don’t...

First came the news that 40,000 Longshoremen have quit the AFL-CIO because they have finally figured out that Richard “Fifth Amendment” Trumpka and his gang has been screwing them. The final wakeup call came with Trumpka’s support of both Obamacare and amnesty disguised as “immigration reform.” The dockworkers have come to recognize this two headed monster will destroy them and they opted to vote for a break from union control with their feet. While the official reasons for the mass pull out sound like these men are leaving because the AFL-CIO isn’t liberal enough, don’t believe it for a minute....

It was a dismal epoch in Delano, CA. The goal of the infamous Delano Grape Boycott was to force unionization of the farm workers to improve their pay and working conditions while subjugating their employers. The majority of the workers were Americans of Mexican descent, plus documented immigrants and illegal’s. They have a certain love of the soil and a sense of true beauty and artistry that benefitted California agriculture for generations. They could draw the best out of a grape vine or a fruit tree or make a broken down tractor hum. They are also Roman Catholic from the...

An honest person (which of course excludes most Democrats), understands that any “War on Women” in this country it is most certainly being conducted by Democrats at all levels of government. “A Republican War on Women” is a Freudian use of words, invented by a lapdog media to deflect the truth. Despite the fact that we hear the phrase over and over again from a Democrat controlled media there is no such thing as a Republican War on Women. Nevertheless, there is an actual war that is unquestionably being waged by the Republican Party against its union enemies. There is...

It took a judge’s order to snap a greedy Chicago union out of its selfishness and make its members stop picketing funerals including one being held for a deceased child by a grieving family. SCI Illinois Services Inc. (SCIIS), a large funeral home chain has been stuck by Teamsters Local 727 which has harassed grieving families seeking to bury their loved ones. A statement from SCIIS said, “While we recognize and respect the Teamsters’ right to lawfully picket, we have been shocked and saddened by their attempts to make grieving families the target of the cruel and outrageous attacks.” The...

It seems big labor is getting nervous about anticipated disastrous effects on the healthcare benefits of union membership by Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. So nervous are they in fact that James P. Hoffa and organized labor comrades Joseph Hansen and Don Taylor addressed their concerns in personal letter form to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, a clear break from the more conventional late night exchange of cash and instructions so common between labor kingpins and Democrat politicians. “We can no longer stand silent in the face of elements of the Affordable Care Act that will destroy the very health...

CNN found time to broadcast a story about a "neighbor from hell" but as to harsh labor union criticism of "healthcare from hell," not a word. Not only is CNN maintaining a wall of silence on union opposition, expressed in a letter to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi,  to ObamaCare but pretty much the rest of the mainstream media, with the notable exceptions of the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, are stubbornly remaining mum on the story despite President  Obama being forced to go into campaign mode to sell his unpopular healthcare law. To read the MSM stories about...

Last Thursday, in remarkably blunt language, the heads of three major labor unions – James Hoffa of the Teamsters, Joseph Hansen of UFCW, and Donald “D.” Taylor of UNITE-HERE — wrote a letter to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid denouncing Obamacare’s impact on employer-sponsored health insurance. Some of the highlights: “The ACA will shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.” “This vision [of universal health care] has come back to haunt us.” “Our persuasive arguments have been disregarded and met with...