Free Republic

You can check their web site for any law breaking activities that they may have planned. Stay informed. The best defense is a good offense. SEIU (WWW.SEIU.ORG) 1800 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC National Capital Area: 202-730-7000; Toll-free: 800-424-8592 newmedia@seiu.org.

Right to Work Technicians Unveil TOP SECRET Union Boss Translation Device Foundation experts have been hard at work on a device that translates union boss propaganda into plain English. Watch the video for the results of this experiment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvXcrmD40VM(warning: profanity from the union thug)

Unions spur unemployment, and "there is no question" about it. "High union wages that exceed the competitive market rate are likely to cause job losses in the unionized sector of the economy." That is the unvarnished conclusion of one of the country's most admired economists. From 1970 to 1985, a state with average unionization had a rate of unemployment 1.2 percentage points higher than a state with no unions. This represented "about 60 percent of the increase in normal unemployment" in that period. Okay, a finding from several decades ago may be a bit dated. But the phenomenon of how...

After a month in complete control of the federal government, Democrats in Congress and the White House have quickly dispensed with any notion that we have entered into a new post-partisan era of governance. Their campaign claims of wanting to govern inclusively were greeted with optimism by the more gullible among us. However, their recent actions leave no doubt as to their true intentions. They will push through whatever they want whenever they want. The minority party need not participate. Their first order of business was the wasteful $787 billion economic stimulus bill, rushed through Congress with no Republican votes...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seZ1VXHNWI0 UAW Union Czar Ron Gettelfinger blames National Right to Work for his failings, then, goes on to lament the fact that he doesn't know the names of the members of the National Right to Work. Why? He and his Union Boss cohorts have been trying for years to get the name of all the members of National Right to Work in order to institute "payback".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seZ1VXHNWI0

OH YEAH -- CHANGE IS COMING! The election of Barack Obama has some employers quaking in their boots. Look into the crystal ball and prepare for dramatic changes in employment law and labor activity from unions to sick leave to ergonomics. Employers can expect to see more new workplace regulations than at any time in the last two decades. The Democrats are teeing up several bills and some issues demand attention immediately. Unions -- One issue looms far above all the others for Alabama Employers -- the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Obama supports the Employee Free Choice Act. This...

Many of you probably watched Sarah Palin accept the Republican Party's Vice Presidential nomination last night. Ironically, her husband - a member of the United Steelworkers (USW) union - is actually funding efforts to smear and defeat her.

With more on the card check battle, we have a rally against Unions set up in Portland, Maine where members of the SEIU and the AFL-CIO confronted the pro-choice advocates in a typically uncivil, even threatening, union manner. One union thug even turned over a display table, trying to prevent the pro-choice folks from setting up their displays. From reports from the scene (video here), the union thugs spat upon the pro-choicers, swore at them and generally impeded their ability to engage in free and fair debate. John Henke, From a participant at the rally, described what was endured.... Read...

Glenn Spencer, director of research at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, spoke to conservative bloggers at the Heritage Foundation about the left’s top legislative plan to pass “card-check.” Union numbers have been down in past years, and the passage of card check would mean violating a worker’s privacy at the voting booth when choosing whether or not to join a union. As of now, A worker’s vote is private, which means that the worker knows that neither a paid union official nor a supervisor will ever know how he voted. However, an Obama administration could very well change not only...

The Supreme Court recognized "that a lack of clarity in the lower courts on business issues causes a lack of predictability for American business," Mr. Sarwal said. "It makes it harder for a national or international business to operate." In one of the rare labor relations cases decided for corporations, the Supreme Court said in Chamber of Commerce v. Brown that California's liberal labor laws could not override federal laws on what contractors tell workers about their rights to seek union representation.

The Denver Post ran a column by Al Lewis that questioned the need to enact a Right to Work law in Colorado and the reaction has been visceral. Dozens of citizens have taken it upon themselves to teach Mr. Lewis a thing or two about the unfairness of forced unionism. A sample of the reaction: * . . . I am 72 years old and had been in the work force for 50 years prior to my employment with the City of Boulder and this is the FIRST time that I have ever been in a union. $10.00 a month...

http://www.nrtwc.org/blog/ Why is Michigan’s car industry struggling but Alabama’s is thriving? How is the “Yellowhammer State” successfully courting companies like Honda, Toyota Motor Corp. and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz?

THE SUPREME COURT pleased workers this week when it ruled in two cases that employees who suffer retaliation after complaining about discrimination may sue under existing civil rights law. Yet both decisions are deeply flawed and should make those applauding the results more than a little nervous. In a 7 to 2 vote, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. in the majority, the court concluded that a 19th-century law crafted to protect the legal rights of newly freed slaves also protected Hedrick G. Humphries, an African American associate manager at Cracker Barrel who complained...

Proponents deliver their petitions to the secretary of state a day early. A right-to-work ballot measure cleared another obstacle Wednesday as backers turned in almost twice as many signatures as needed to put the controversial issue on the ballot in November. Delivering nearly two dozen boxes of petitions a day ahead of schedule, supporters of the initiative sent a clear signal they intend to press ahead with their campaign to outlaw arrangements that require nonunion workers to pay union fees ... "This amendment will give Colorado workers the freedom to decide for themselves whether or not to join a union...

After watching the Obama-Clinton debate ... I came away convinced that both candidates ...want to run this country like Argentina... In that country, Juan Peron-inspired labor syndicates ...dominate the economy... have ensured Argentina's isolation from international commerce and investment, and a slow but steady decline in living standards... If an American lost a job in the past decade, the charge goes, it's because in Mexico business has no labor obligations. This claim is not only untrue, it is the opposite of reality. Mexico is home to militant, high-powered unions and the most burdensome labor regulation in North America... Nafta has...

Today is Presidential Primary Day in Michigan and the voting precincts in Grand Rapids are a war zone. Not between Mitt and McCain, Huckabee and Paul, but between citizens collecting signatures for the recall of State Representative Robert Dean (D-Grand Rapids) and the organized, paid, liberal `blockers' hell-bent on stopping voters from signing the recall petitions. Blockers were already at the polls when the Dean-recall volunteers arrived this morning to collect petition signatures. And they are nasty! One senior citizen who tried to sign the recall petitions was yelled at by blockers who told her that she was "breaking the...

While business leaders rail at Gov. Bill Ritter's partnership push, workers are making gains - some even when unionizing fails. Meanwhile, a fight to make Colorado a right-to-work state looms. When Gov. Bill Ritter eased the path for organizing state workers in November, he set off just one of the high-profile fights destined to take place here in 2008. "We are seeing the next generation of union members coming along," said Mark Schwane, Colorado director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Ritter upended the business-labor balance by handing unions huge new resources to organize... "You have...

Dems' letter raises ethics questionBy Ralph Thomas Seattle Times Olympia bureau Thursday, October 25, 2007 - Page updated at 01:05 AM OLYMPIA — Several Democratic legislators may have violated state ethics laws when they signed a letter scolding a private nonprofit mental-health-care provider for using "hostile" and "anti-union" bargaining tactics in recent contract talks. The letter, which was sent this month to the director of Olympia-based Behavioral Health Resources (BHR), was written on official Washington state Legislature letterhead. The Legislative Ethics Board has ruled recently that it is illegal for lawmakers to use public resources to advocate for one side...

The National Institute for Labor Relations Research released its 2007 fact sheet that confirms those in Right to Work states benefit from faster growth and higher real purchasing power. Among the most noteworthy, real personal income between 2001 and 2006 grew practically double in Right to Work states with 15.2% versus forced unionism states with only 8.0%. The national average was also higher than that of forced unionism states at 10.5%. Not only that, but percentage growth in construction employment, manufacturing, privately-owned single family homes, number of the people covered by private health insurance, and the number of children covered...

Why America needs a national right-to-work law editorials and opinion By DEROY MURDOCK Scripps Howard News Service Thursday, August 30, 2007 Americans will skip work Monday to celebrate what really should be called Leisure Day. But this Labor Day, an estimated 7.2 million privately employed Americans (and even more public-sector workers) could relax more thoroughly if they were not compelled to join labor unions and/or pay union dues as job requirements. That's why the time is now for the National Right to Work Act. Rep. Joe Wilson and Sen. Jim DeMint, both South Carolina Republicans, have sponsored legislation to restore...

Guess who's running your city CUPE's Power Handcuffs Mayors Terence Corcoran, National Post, Published: Saturday, July 28, 2007, Page A-1 The taxpayers of Vancouver held hostage. The City of Toronto forced into budget crisis. Calgary teetering on the brink of municipal labour unrest. Montreal headed for a major metro-wide service-destroying city workers' strike later this year. For all this and more we can thank the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the all-powerful radical labour group that uses strike threats and political power to hold real control over most government services across the country. All reform of city services is...

Kentucky has the 46th highest unemployment rate in the nation and we are 46th in per capita income. That's pretty much all you need to know.

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...

Membership dropped by 26,000 workers in 2006, and it could drop further this year. By Rob Johnson 981-3234 Union membership in Virginia has fallen to its historic low since the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the figures in 1989. The 26,000-worker drop to 139,000 members in 2006 left unions with 4 percent of the overall Virginia work force, down from 4.8 percent in 2005. Virginia is among the five least active union states, along with North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Texas. "Virginia is starting to look more like a Deep South state where unions are concerned," said...

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...

In Washington state, unions rule How long does it usually take to fire a bureaucrat? Ask supervisors at the Clark County School District. Unless a teacher's misbehavior goes far enough to result in handcuffs and mug shots, the best that can usually be accomplished is to "send them to Mesquite." No, it's not easy to fire a government bureaucrat, even when there's blood on the ground. So what kind of offense could possibly have been severe enough for the state of Washington to inform 800 state workers last fall that they would be fired just after Christmas if they didn't...

Welcome, Wal-Mart Wal-Mart (has) grown from a single shop in a small Arkansas town into a world-wide colossus with 4,000 stores, 1.3 million employees, $245 billion in annual sales and 100 million customers each week. The company's success isn't built on exploiting. It's built on providing. Wal-Mart can't force anybody to work at its stores, nor can it force anybody to shop there. Through relentless cost-cutting and technological innovation, the company offers low-cost goods to consumers, jobs for willing employees and solid returns for shareholders. Yet Chicago...The City Council killed the prospect of a Supercenter in Chicago's South Side Chatham...

On right-to-work Editorial Potomac News Sunday, August 14, 2005 As campaign salvos go, Republican lieutenant governor candidate Bill Bolling may have scored a direct hit in his race against Democrat Leslie Byrne. The issue: Virginia's sacred right-to-work law. Bolling supports it. Byrne does not. Score one for Bolling. Virginia's right-to-work law allows a non-member to work for a company that has a unionized work force. Union membership is completely up to the individual worker. This isn't true in other states, where workers have no choice but to submit to a union's agenda. The law has made Virginia the sixth lowest...

A former local UAW activist, known for his sometimes-maverick views and hard-line stance against General Motors, is among a handful of Michigan residents joining a drive to oppose the AFL-CIO's support of gay rights. Michael Westfall, a retired truck driver and member of UAW Local 598, is one of three state residents who have signed a national petition organized by the socially conservative American Family Association. It urges the union to rescind its opposition to a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. "I really feel the leadership of the union, the top leadership, has...

Rick Bender, president of the Washington State Labor Council, wrote an editorial about state employees who have been working to keep their unions accountable, lecturing them on the “responsibilities” of union membership. Mr. Bender, I am not anti-union. I am not a right-wing extremist. I was an active member of the organizing committee at the Department of Ecology. I spent evenings at Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) headquarters calling fellow employees on the phone or visiting them at home to try to convince them to support the formation of a bargaining unit. When fellow employees asked me, “Does this...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's special election agenda to reshape California appears to be losing ground, attention is shifting to a ballot measure aimed at Democrats that would limit the use of union dues in political campaigns. Supporters of the so-called Paycheck Protection initiative said Thursday they will turn in more than 600,000 signatures early next week - far more than the 373,816 required for qualification. If so, the little-noticed initiative could displace the governor's own weakening platform and become a focal point of the expected fall election. "Paycheck protection is designed and written with one goal in...

Washington State Labor Council president Rick Bender recently released a commentary blasting state employees who want to make their own choice about union representation. In an attempt to “educate” these workers, he makes several startling admissions about labor’s unique brand of democracy. Here are the lessons we’ve identified, Bender’s exact quote, and our response. Lesson #1: Coercion equals democracy. “Some people call [union security] ‘compulsory unionism.’ I call it democracy.” Samuel Gompers, the father of the modern labor movement, thought otherwise: “[T]he workers of America adhere to voluntary institutions in preference to compulsory systems which are held to be not...

Collective bargaining agreements negotiated between the governor’s office and public-sector unions for 2005-2007 contain language that may spark constitutional challenges from state employees who object to union membership on the basis of religious beliefs. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 governs the obligations of employers and labor unions and requires a reasonable accommodation of the religious beliefs of employees. Employees cannot be forced to financially support a union if doing so would violate the employee’s religious beliefs. The Washington State Constitution also guarantees the free exercise of religious belief. Article I, Section 11 states: “Absolute freedom of...

AUGUSTA - A provision in Maine's newly adopted budget requires state workers to pay dues -- whether they want to or not -- to the union that represents them. Maine State Employees Association interim Executive Director John Graham said he hopes the new provision will swell union membership. About 11,000 workers are on the state payroll, and 7,000 of them voluntarily pay $9.10 in weekly dues to the MSEA. Under the new provision, all state workers will have to pay dues -- but not a portion that goes to political activity. The provision's included in a new union contract negotiated...

Battle over union dues A group led by an ally of the governor is funding the 'employee consent' bill.By Andy Furillo -- Bee Capitol Bureau Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, April 7, 2005 A pro-business group whose leader is closely connected to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is funding the signature-gathering effort to make it tougher for public employee unions to spend their members' dues money on political campaigns. The Small Business Action Committee has contributed $375,000 to the Coalition for Employee Rights, which is trying to get the "employee consent" measure on a possible special election ballot this November. The committee...

FRANKFURT — A German website that offers jobs to the "bidder" prepared to work for the lowest wage has sparked fury among unions. The jobdumping.de website turns the central principle of the ebay online auction service on its head - an employer offers work for a minimum salary and applicants then compete to offer their services for the lowest pay possible. The only lower limit is three euros an hour (3.88 dollars). Most of the jobs proposed by the site are tasks such as repairing cars or electrical appliances, or gardening and caring for the elderly. The website fills the...

Is it right to force an individual to pay money to an employee organization for the “privilege” of working in Washington state? Union officials are asking state workers to do just that. Hundreds of state employees in at least 12 bargaining units are working to decertify the unions representing them in order to avoid paying mandatory union dues. Representatives from several of these groups staged a rally on the Capitol lawn in Olympia on March 22. These employees are fed up with union representation before it has even started. The Personnel System Reform Act of 2002 allows public-sector unions to...

24-Hour Security Detail Hired to Protect Thomas Built Bus Worker’s Family Against UAW Union Reprisals Foundation attorneys urge local district attorneys and police chiefs to investigate circulation of menacing flyer containing inflammatory message and detailed directions to worker’s home High Point, North Carolina (March 15, 2005) – Responding to threats against an employee who led a successful legal challenge to the United Auto Workers (UAW) union’s forced unionization of the Thomas Built Bus facility, the National Right to Work Foundation today commissioned a 24-hour security detail at the employee’s home.

Security guards protecting union opponent By J.D. Walker -- Staff Writer, The Courier-Tribune Posted: 03/15/05 - 10:20:19 pm CST HIGH POINT - A Thomasville man is under 24-hour security detail after allegedly being threatening because of his opposition to union activity at his workplace. Jeff Ward filed a complaint against the United Auto Workers (UAW) union at Thomas Built Buses after a card-check petition verified in March 2004 established the union as the sole representative for employees there. The Thomas Built plant is located half in Guilford and half in Randolph counties. Ward filed his complaint with the help of...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Secrecy in the voting boothBy Charlie NorwoodPublished February 24, 2005 Even most opponents of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq are applauding the results of last month's elections. The balloting gave the Iraqi people the first opportunity for a free and fair vote in decades. While it was certainly not a perfect voting situation -- no election ever is -- millions of Iraqis braved bullets and bombs to have a say in their future.     But lest we forget, the murderous Saddam Hussein also held elections, and was re-elected president with 99 percent of the vote just before...

Forgotten Facts of American Labor History by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. [November 22, 2004] Just about everything that people think they know about labor unions and wage rates is wrong. The standard tale that practically every student hears over the course of his education is that before the emergence of labor unions, American workers were terribly exploited and their wages were consistently falling. The improvement in labor's condition was due entirely or at least in large part to labor unionism and favorable federal legislation. In the absence of these, it is widely assumed, people would still be working 80-hour weeks...

The Myth of Voluntary Unions by Thomas DiLorenzo [Posted September 14, 2004] Imagine that I get together with my friends in Auburn (say, Lew Rockwell and Joseph Stromberg) and open up a coffee shop in Auburn, Alabama called "The Austrian Café." We offer a selection of strong, European coffee, assorted desserts, and occasional music (sing-alongs on Friday and Saturday evenings, in German and English). It turns out to be enormously profitable, so profitable that several competitors—including the left-wing nemesis Starbucks—show up in town with similar themes and products. We respond to the competition by attempting to murder our competitors, assaulting...

Here is a story you’re unlikely to read in the spate of press attacks on Wal-Mart these days: When Hartford, Connecticut, tore down a blighted housing project, city officials hatched an innovative plan to redevelop the land: lure Wal-Mart there, entice other retailers with the promise of being near the discount giant, and then use the development’s revenues to build new housing. Wal-Mart, after some convincing, agreed, and city officials and neighborhood residents celebrated a big win — better shopping, more jobs, and new housing in one of America’s poorest cities. But then, out of nowhere, outsiders claiming to represent...

Organizers say the law is partly to blame for declining wages POST FALLS _ About 80 people rallying against Idaho's Right to Work law said they'll be successful because voters have watched it in action for 14 years and know it's been a disaster. The rally, held Saturday afternoon at Q'emiln Park, is the first of five statewide organized by Idaho Citizens to Repeal Right to Work. The group needs to raise 40,772 signatures to put the measure before voters this November. This year's effort is the second try by ballot initiative to defeat Idaho's Right to Work law, which...

Goshen, Ind. (March 26, 2004) – A majority of employees at Cequent Towing Product’s Goshen facility have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) asking that local union officials be stripped of their newly granted “exclusive representation” power over roughly 450 of the company’s employees. The petition was filed with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys. More than 230 workers signed the petition, which was given to Cequent before it recognized the United Steel Workers of America (USWA) union as their “exclusive bargaining representative” earlier this week. As a result of that recognition,...

American workers should be free from being compelled against their will to join any union or pay any union an "agency fee."

AFL-CIO Announces it Will Not Debate -- or Even Appear on the Same Television Show -- as National Right to Work 8/29/03 10:34:00 AM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk Contact: Dan Cronin of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, 703-770-3317 SPRINGFIELD, Va., Aug. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In a stunning move, the AFL-CIO has flatly rejected CNN's request that they appear for a Labor Day weekend television discussion about the union movement with a spokesman from the National Right to Work Foundation, an organization that is providing free legal assistance to thousands of victims of union coercion and...

UAW’s Top-Down Organizing Campaign at Big Three Supplier Stalled by Intense Employee Opposition Employees at one of Johnson Controls’ largest plants revolt against joint employer-union pressure to unionize through giveaways of employee personal information and abusive card-check process Detroit, Mich. (June 13, 2003) – Facing stiff opposition from workers at a major Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI) facility in Athens, Tennessee, United Auto Workers (UAW) union organizers have abandoned current efforts to impose union representation. According to National Right to Work Foundation sources, union operatives only obtained signatures from 10 percent of the employees at the plant. Last year, pressured by...