Free Republic

MARLBORO— Gov. Deval L. Patrick yesterday signed a bill that will expand public workers’ rights to organize. The Majority Authorization bill, signed during an appearance yesterday at the Massachusetts AFL-CIO’s annual convention, will allow public employees to unionize by garnering majority support in writing, known as the “card check” option, instead of going through secret-ballot elections.

The AFL-CIO leadership just put a number on its commitment to the general election: $53 million, the federation is set to announce. That's money that can be used for unrestricted "member-to-member" communication in House, Senate, and presidential races around the country.

The battle lines are being drawn, the tear gas and the placards stockpiled. France is preparing for a political war that is unlikely to be over by Christmas. Nicolas Sarkozy, the hyperactive new President, is taking on the self-proclaimed defenders of the rights of the French worker, the unions. Not any old unions either, but the railway workers, miners, fishermen, employees of the vast national electric company and many of the country's bureaucrats who, as they have proved on numerous occasions, are capable of paralysing the country. This week Sarkozy is expected to announce that he will end the generous...

The summer that shook the American workplace The new threat and hidden agenda of Labors new Government By Will Fine, Executive Director National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights This summer has been the summer that shook the foundations of the Employee -Employer relationship as no time has in nearly thirty years. While our national security is being defended overseas, our domestic security has become imperiled by governmental transformation at the hands of Labor Union Central Command that has deployed a government it can control. The credibility of Congress is at stake to defend a free workplace.

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is getting the endorsement of two unions, the United Steelworkers and the United Mine Workers of America, on Labor Day. Edwards is scheduled to be in Pittsburgh, home of the Steelworkers' international headquarters, for a Monday rally and will accept the endorsements there. "The members of the Steelworkers Union and the Mine Workers union are some of the country's hardest-working, bravest, most courageous workers," Edwards said. "It is their tireless hard work which has helped build a stronger America that benefits all of us. I honor what they do every day." The former senator from...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Democratic presidential candidates argued Saturday night that organized labor is an essential part of the nation's economy whose troubles mirror the deterioration of the middle class way of life. "The only way to reinvigorate the middle class is to reinvigorate the labor movement," Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware told several hundred union members at a labor forum in eastern Iowa. For all the candidates, it was one stop in a busy several days leading to a Sunday morning debate in Des Moines. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York leads the Democratic field in national polls...

National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights Demands Governor Schwarzenegger Save Secret Ballot Elections for Workers in California urges veto of Senate Bill 180 robbing our workplace freedom S. 180 is a bill denying civil liberties to the most vulnerable people in California - those who work the farms of the state. Farm workers deserve better than to loose their hard earned rights to the schemes of the labor bosses.

July 17, 2007 Honorable Members United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. Dear Representative, You are currently considering H.R. 980, the Public Safety employer-Employee Cooperation Act. This ill conceived legislation would expand federal power into the area of local labor relations in an unprecedented and dangerous manner. We, the undersigned organizations, call on you to do everything in your power to defeat this blatant pay-off to organized labor.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - If one man's trash is another man's treasure, then one politician's old papers are potentially another politician's — or journalist's — gold mine. Which explains why Republican Fred Thompson's previously little-noticed personal papers at the University of Tennessee from his eight years in the Senate are suddenly in demand as he nears a decision on a 2008 presidential run. Thompson donated the documents four years ago when he gave up his political career in favor of acting. Academics haven't paid much attention, chief archivist Bobby Holt said, but journalists have been poring through the more than 400...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WASHINGTON, DC / PR FREE / Jun 19 2007 -- NAWER praises the good work of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation and the people of Washington state who worked tirelessly to remove the yoke of Big Labor from the shoulders of hard- working families. The unanimous SCOTUS decision last week took away Labor's presumed intent to decide for workers who disagree with them where and how their union dues are being spent .

State lawmakers on Monday approved a bill that would make it easier for workers in public sectors -- already a labor stronghold -- to join a union. Congress this week is debating a similar measure for U.S. private sector workers

JEFFERSON CITY — Overturning a 60-year legal precedent, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that teachers and other public employees have a constitutional right to engage in collective bargaining with their government employers.

Missouri Right to Work: Thank you Rep. Hunter By Will Fine, Executive Director National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights Courageously, Rep. Hunter (R) and like-minded Missouri Representatives who supported him on March 1 passed the first Right to Work Law (H.B. 439) out of committee in recent Missouri History. Rep. Hunter's RTW Bill is now 54th on the Calendar for a full vote. The people have spoken: with pro-worker and employer majorities in the Senate, House and with Governor Blunt there has never been a better time to pass a right to work law in Missouri and pass it...

The Employee Free Choice Act would be more aptly-named the Employee No Choice Act. This misnamed bill would actually eliminate the freedom of employees to vote in a private, secret-ballot election on whether or not to form a union. The House already passed it in a 241-185 vote and the companion bill has been introduced in the Senate. Under card check, there is no private choice -- and no clear end to the election process. Union organizers can take as much time as they want to push someone into signing a card -- and they can go into the employee's...

With Democrats in control of both Houses of Congress for the first time since 1994, a top priority will be to eliminate the right of employees to vote for or against unionization in secret ballot elections and to dictate contract terms to employers.

Governor Romney's Initiative To Protect American Workers: Governor Romney Believes Hard Working Americans Have The Right To Not Pay Union Dues If They Do Not Belong To A Union. A bill working its way through the Iowa Legislature would allow public employee unions to charge union fees to nonunion workers. - Governor Romney Believes This Legislation Is Bad Policy. Employees - whether in the private sector or the public sector - have a right to choose whether to contribute to a union. This bill would force tens of thousands of school teachers and city, county and state government employees to...

The state House gave final approval Monday to a proposed law that would make it easier for workers to organize... House Bill 1072...changes Colorado's Labor Peace Act, which has been on the books since 1943. Business groups oppose the measure, saying making it easier to require all workers to pay union dues will deter prospective employees and employers looking to locate in Colorado. The full House passed the bill 35-29 Friday, with almost all Democrats for it and all Republicans against... A main sticking point among Republicans: All-union agreements require all of a company's employees to pay union dues as...

Nearly 90 percent of American workers do not belong to a labor union, according to new data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet when reporters for The New York Times and Associated Press reported the development, they relied heavily on labor union sources to push a biased storyline about why so few Americans look for the union label. AP’s Will Lester quoted four men in his January 25 story, two labor union activists and two college professors, all of whom lamented the historically low 12 percent of Americans who pay union dues. None of Lester’s sources suggested that...

When Cy Thannikary left India to come work at the UN in Manhattan, he settled in Flushing, Queens, and loved the excitement of living in the city. After starting a family, though, he traded New York’s hubbub for Freehold, New Jersey, a quiet suburb with lower taxes and affordable housing. That was 25 years ago. These days, Thannikary sometimes feels like he’s back in Gotham as he watches his taxes soar and hears neighbors grumble. He has started a new group, Citizens for Property Tax Reform, to fight the special interests that have turned both state and local government into...

Perhaps you've heard those mean-spirited, hyper attack ads on Denver radio slandering Colorado Secretary of State Gigi Dennis. They're sponsored by Clear Peak Colorado, one of those free-wheeling 527 groups that sprang up to get around campaign finance reform laws like McCain- Feingold. This one is bankrolled by Pat Stryker and Tim Gill, a pair of liberal Democrat fat cats who lavishly support a cornucopia of partisan and left-wing causes. According to Clear Peak's most recent IRS filing, through June of this year Stryker and Gill have poured in just under $180,000 to the cause. Former Colorado Democratic Party Chairman...