Free Republic

The story is almost old hat these days. Despite constant warnings to be careful what you post on Facebook, a disgruntled employee who is irritated at a boss, a customer or a co-worker, takes to the social networking site to vent some spleen — and ends up getting disciplined or even fired. It’s a fate that has befallen a North Carolina waitress at a pizza restaurant, a Philadelphia Eagles stadium worker and a group of airline workers in recent months. But what if it’s the boss who decides to use Facebook to complain about an employee?

Clark County commissioners approved Tuesday the payment of $150,000 to settle a lawsuit by a former University Medical Center data technician diagnosed with claustrophobia, a condition that arose when she was forced to work in a cubicle. Jayne Feshold was a data technician hired by the county-run hospital in 1999. Her suit says she "worked without incident" until May 2007. Then the hospital's medical records department was moved to a new building and she was assigned to work in an area "consisting of a small cubicle workspace instead of a more open environment."

DURHAM — A University of New Hampshire professor who exposed himself to a mother and her 17-year-old daughter in Milford nearly two years ago will keep his job, according to an arbitrator’s ruling provided to the New Hampshire Union Leader. UNH has been trying to fire Edward Larkin, a professor of German, since September 2009, about two months after he showed his genitals in a Market Basket parking lot. Larkin contested his termination, arguing it violated the terms of the faculty union contract, and was put on leave, earning his full salary of about $88,000, as the dispute dragged on....

Enter Nick Berardino, the AFL-CIO’s General Manager of the Orange County Employees Union; the stereotypical “thug” that speaks of his Italian heritage and jokes about showing up at Orange County Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh’s home’s when upset with him, “and I don’t want to go there to deliver cannoli and a little bit of wine.” Mr. Berardino it seems, not only likes to joke about these physical taunts but apparently likes to “intercept” other people’s email in an effort to know all the covert moves of his opponents. That’s what he told an audience recently - “We have intercepted...

One thing about public unions is that they are seemingly immune to the effects of economics. They operate like a monopolist, but are actually a monopsony. Because of the conflicted relationship between the legislators and unions, they are able to continually try and exert their influence as the government grows. We are seeing that phenomena in the recent Boeing versus NLRB kerfuffle. Two of the three Obama appointments were made during a Senate recess, and thus subject to no Senate scrutiny.

...Voter support for rolling back benefits available to few outside the public sector comes as Gov. Jerry Brown and Republicans in the Legislature haggle over changes to the pension system as part of state budget negotiations. Such benefits have been a flashpoint of national debate this year, and the poll shows that Californians are among those who perceive public retirement plans to be too costly. Voters appear ready to embrace changes not just for future hires but also for current employees who have been promised the benefits under contract. Seventy percent of respondents said they supported a cap on pensions...

This is some sick stuff. Far left teachers are now teaching first graders the “Boycott Big Business” song for

The problem wasn’t fidelity or commitment — it was Gov. Scott Walker’s collective bargaining law. For some families, friends or even young couples in love, the debate over the bill and its move to curtail public worker union rights has become a dealbreaker that is fraying nerves and relationships all over the state.

But there is something deeper here than just favor-selling and vote-buying. There is something that almost amounts to a twisted idealism in the Democrats' crusade. They are fighting, not just to preserve their special privileges, but to preserve a social ideal. Or rather, they are fighting to maintain the illusion that their ideal system is benevolent and sustainable. Unionized public-sector employment is the distilled essence of the left's moral ideal. No one has to worry about making a profit. Generous health-care and retirement benefits are provided to everyone by the government. Comfortable pay is mandated by legislative fiat. The work...

Members of Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, have begun circulating letters to businesses in southeast Wisconsin, asking them to support workers’ rights by putting up a sign in their windows. If businesses fail to comply, the letter says, “Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means 'no' to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members."

The war declared on struggling middle class taxpayers by greedy Public Union bosses has escalated now to the point that supporters of raping more tax dollars from an impoverished middle class have turned to “International Law,” once again ignoring America’s sovereignty and our constitution, placing United Nations mandates in their place. Ordinarily I’d ignore such efforts to circumvent our sovereignty and rely instead on our own constitution, but since greedy public union bosses and those they have misled wish to take this avenue, I’ll play along. They may not like that too much, though. I first saw this tactic of...

Over the weekend, public employee unions held a rally in Madison where the list of speakers included Bill Franks of the American Federation of Teachers. Franks had this to say about rank-and-file Republicans: ... the would-be Republicans, anybody making $30-40,000 who think they can afford to be a Republican is not living in any kind of reality. Real Republicans don't recognize them. Because the real "haves" are them. And these people who think they can afford these [conservative] principles, they can't afford them. That's not in their self interest. That's what we gotta cure as a pathology. This is a...

Dear Governor: Here on the Ides of March, as we recall the death of a tyrant, we have learned from your experiences in Wisconsin (and soon all over), that when Democrats lose elections... “democracy has failed"! In their twisted outlook, they have NO obligation to accept the election results! In bizarre irony... While President Obama hosted a seminar on the "crisis" of bullying , his union affiliated supporters trashed the people's capitol in Madison and threatened GOP legislators. All in protest of your attempts to curtail the public union stranglehold on your state, and balance the budget. Now there's news...

Secretary of State Doug La Follette said after spending much time talking to people this weekend and thinking over when to publish the collective bargaining bill, he'd decided the bill will be published March 25. La Follette, a Democrat, said he wants to give local officials and employees time to sort out the ramifications of the new law. "There literally are hundreds of school boards, municipalities, cities and their employees who are working together -- that's what impressed me, both management and labor working together -- that are tyring to sort out the best way to deal with this," La...

The Wisconsin Legislature has abolished nearly all collective bargaining rights for public employees and required them to pay a portion of their retirement benefits. We hope this starts a badly needed nationwide trend. . .

Republicans in the Wisconsin statehouse had enough of Democratic Party antics designed to insulate its union supporter base from the pains of the economic malaise affecting the rest of us. The state Senate voted Wednesday to ban public-sector employees from entering into collective bargaining arrangements. Union thugs encircling the capitol building made a spectacle of themselves as the Assembly turned to consider the bill yesterday. Meanwhile in Washington, congressional Democrats continue to hold out against the most milquetoast of spending-reduction proposals, despite the dire circumstances of the nation’s finances. The longer the squabbles in the state and national capitals drag...

Public sector unions have long been a major thorn in the side of European governments and one of the major factors in their budget woes. In many countries such as Greece, they have virtually brought the nation to its financial knees and many unions throughout the hard hit countries of Europe still refuse to accept the austerity measures necessary to stabilize their various economies. The recent riots in Athens, Paris and London were fore-runners to the lunacy taking place in Madison, Wisconsin. Today in Germany, there is a strike by the Deutsche Bahn (government owned railway) train drivers, thus...

This thirty second video will show you everything that is wrong with public sector unions. The budget debate in Wisconsin has forced a long-overdue discussion about public sector unions. Always a questionable proposition, unionization of the public sector, for a period, seemed a luxury we could afford. Yeah, public workers had job security and great benefits, but their pay was lower, so it seemed a fair trade-off. Over the last couple decades that implicit understanding was upended…public sector pay moved much higher and those great benefits were jacked up on steroids. Worse, we’ve recently learned that the benefits aren’t actually...

Every good teacher knows it is not always necessary to tell a child something in order to teach a lesson. I remember my fifth grade teacher used to count to ten when us hooligans got too loud and lippy, and everyone would quiet down. She didn't have to say the words, "children, quiet down." Another teacher of mine accomplished the same task by shutting off the lights, the sensory reaction was immediate, there she was, her hands still on the switches, and everyone's head turning toward her, mouth shut, a half-thought forming in their minds, "hey, who turned off the...

The image is inescapable. The Boston Police Strike of 1919, the ultimate vision of public employee strikes. Stores looted, people robbed, mobs running loose, and a governor tersely stating: “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anytime.” Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge fired all striking police officers and called in the National Guard to restore order. London and Liverpool had witnessed earlier strikes by their bobbies, with similar disruption. Winnipeg had suffered a strike by all of its municipal employees. Chicago and New Jersey had seen strikes by transport workers. Boston had also gone through a...