Free Republic

St. Paul public school teachers will decide this month whether to go on strike for the first time in more than six decades. After almost nine months of negotiations that have yet to yield a contract, union leadership Monday called for a strike authorization vote. The St. Paul Public Schools district has balked at St. Paul Federation of Teachers proposals to cap class sizes and set staffing levels for counselors and other support professionals in a two-year contract. The two sides have also not agreed on a compensation package. The union's 3,200 members will weigh in on a possible walkout...

A video uploaded to Youtube by an Arab-language user called GazaTube claims to show security camera footage documenting the IAF strike that targeted an Islamic Jihad terrorist in Gaza earlier Sunday. The video appears to show a relatively small explosion, possibly by a missile that had pinpointed its target. A bus that had been driving nearby was also damaged – and, apparently, a donkey was badly hurt as well. The terrorist has been identified as Ahmed Sa’ad, who was seriously injured and taken to a hospital. Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq8j9_wzErA Sa'ad had been riding a motorbike when he was hit by a...

Midway through Barack Obama’s first term as president, U.S. officials grew alarmed that Israel might launch a unilateral air strike against Iran’s nuclear program. Iran had snubbed Obama’s outreach after the 2008 election, and rejected an October 2009 international proposal to ship most of its enriched uranium out of the country—stirring pessimism about prospects for a future breakthrough. “Militarily, I thought we needed to prepare for a possible Israeli attack and Iranian retaliation,” former Defense Secretary Robert Gates writes in his new memoir, Duty. At a January 2010 Oval Office meeting, Gates told Obama “he needed to consider the ramifications...

Last night members from Stop & Shop, King Kullen, Pathmark, Fairway, D'Agostino, Key Food and Shop Rite came together to support Stop & Shop workers. Together as a union we made over 1,000 picket signs in preparation for a potential strike at Stop & Shop (Thank you to all who came and for your support!). Right now our union is still negotiating with the company. A Trustee meeting scheduled for all day tomorrow to discuss Pension & Welfare. However, we are continuing to prepare for a strike. Tomorrow you will receive more information in your store. Today our Stop &...

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Missiles fired by a U.S. drone slammed into a convoy of vehicles traveling to a wedding party in central Yemen on Thursday, killing at least 13 people, Yemeni security officials said. The officials said the attack took place in the city of Radda, the capital of Bayda province, and left charred bodies and burnt out cars on the road. The city, a stronghold of al-Qaida militants, witnessed deadly clashes early last year between armed tribesmen backed by the military and al-Qaida gunmen in an attempt to drive them out of the city. There were no immediate...

Dozens of people gathered outside Dunkin Donuts and McDonald's locations Downtown on Thursday morning to protest low wages as part of a national campaign energizing fast-food workers. Carrying placards and shouting slogans such as “No justice, no doughnuts,” about 75 people rallied in front of the Dunkin Donuts in Market Square and the nearby McDonald's on Stanwix Street. The actions are part of push by labor unions, worker advocacy groups and Democrats to raise the federal minimum wage of $7.25. President Obama says he would back a minimum wage of $10.10 an hour, and on Wednesday addressed income equality in...

Backers of the movement for higher pay point to studies saying that the average age of fast-food workers is 29 and that more than one-fourth are parents raising children. Simon Rojas, who earns $8.07 an hour working at a McDonald’s in South Central Los Angeles, said he would join Thursday’s one-day strike. “It’s very difficult to live off $8.07 an hour,” said Mr. Rojas, 23, noting that he is often assigned just 20 or 25 hours of work a week. “I have to live with my parents. I would like to be able to afford a car and an apartment.”...

Union Verdi is preparing more strikes to step up pressure on Amazon in Germany, its biggest market outside the United States, in a dispute over pay and conditions, German media reported. Workers at Amazon centers in Bad Hersfeld and Leipzig will walk out for at least one day on Monday, Heiner Reimann of Verdi told daily Stuttgarter Nachrichten. The union has organized several short strikes this year in a bid to force the world's biggest Internet retailer to accept a collective agreement on employment conditions similar to deals for the mail order and retail sector, which are more generous than...

Survey indicates backing drops even further if US opposed to move; second poll reveals majority of Americans favor deal with Tehran Slightly fewer than half of Israelis back the use of a military option against Iran’s nuclear program, with the number dropping even further should the US not lend support for such an action, a poll released Thursday night showed. At the same time, a separate poll among US citizens showed growing support for a diplomatic deal with Tehran. The Israeli poll, commissioned by Channel 2 political anchor Nissim Mishal, showed 49.1 percent of Israelis backing a last-resort military strike...

The trouble with proclaiming 'victory' over the crisis in Spain (read the whole of Europe) and the ECB enabling governments profligacy with the ghost of OMT future is that it merely emboldens. As Al Jazeera reports, Madrid's garbage collectors have been on strike since November 5 to protest layoffs and pay cuts. With garbage piling up on the streets of Madrid, the mayor issued private trash-collecting companies an ultimatum on Wednesday: end the street cleaners' strike or lose their contracts. More than 30,000 residents have signed a petition to the defense minister asking for the streets to be cleaned....

Israel does not have much time to make a “fateful decision” about whether to strike Iran’s nuclear sites, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said Sunday in a radio interview. “Israel, I think, now faces the fateful decision whether it will allow Iran to get nuclear weapons, thus constituting a true existential threat to Israel,” he said. “Or whether they will strike as the Israelis have done twice before against nuclear programs in the hands of hostile states,” Bolton told WABC Radio’s Aaron Klein. “I don’t think Israel has much time,” Bolton continued. “Frankly, they should have done this years ago...

f you haven't done your grocery shopping yet, now might be the time to stock up. On Monday at roughly 7:30 p.m., workers of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 authorized a strike of Stop & Shop supermarket, which employs 5,500 workers represented by the union. The strike would shut down stores on Long Island, New York City, Westchester, Putnam, and Duchess counties. ... At issue is the negotiation over what health benefits will look like with the arrival of the Affordable Care Act, legislation that was sold to some lawmakers as making it easier for some...

(CNN) -- Israeli warplanes struck a military base near the Syrian port city of Latakia on Thursday, an Obama administration official told CNN. An explosion at a missile storage site in the area was widely reported in the Israeli press, but an attack has not been confirmed by the Israeli government. The target, according to the Obama administration official, was missiles and related equipment the Israelis felt might be transferred to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. The official declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information. When asked for comment, an Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman told...

An air strike in southern Somalia has killed two senior commanders of the militant Islamist group, al-Shabab, residents have told the BBC. The strike destroyed the vehicle the militants were travelling in between the towns of Jilib and Barawe, seen as a major base of al-Shabab, they said. The US launched a failed raid in Barawe earlier this month to capture an al-Shabab commander. Al-Shabab is the main al-Qaeda-linked group in East Africa. A Kenyan military source told the BBC their troops had raided Jilib, and that there might have been some casualties. However, correspondents say it is unlikely that...

At least one BART union agreed Saturday to put the transit agency's contract proposal to a vote, but commuters looking for a quick end to the 2-day-old strike should hold off on the celebrations. Speaking from the entrance of the shuttered Pittsburg BART Station, Antonette Bryant, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, said she expects that vote to result in a "resounding no." ... A spokeswoman from Service Employees International Union Local 1021, BART's largest union, declined to say whether that union also would allow a vote on the contract. ... With no negotiations scheduled, both sides said Saturday...

<p>The two workers, whose names weren't immediately released, died at the scene after they were hit by an eastbound train, sources close to the investigation said.</p>

(Reuters) - Commuter rail workers in the San Francisco Bay Area went on strike on Friday after talks with management over a new contract broke down, throwing the morning commute into chaos in the traffic-clogged region. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) management and employee unions have been at loggerheads for months over pay and benefits for more than 2,000 train drivers and other union workers who are demanding large pay raises in part to offset being asked to contribute to their pensions and other benefits. On Thursday, union officials said both sides had finally agreed on pay and benefits,...

OAKLAND -- Exasperated BART union leaders announced they would shut down trains Friday morning after a breakdown at the bargaining table Thursday, setting the stage for the second Bay Area commute nightmare in three months. A wild round of back-and-forth press conferences at 4 p.m. brought to a live TV audience an outpouring of emotion from sleep-deprived negotiators and the departure of the nation's top mediator. Although union leaders have been threatening strikes for the past week, they sounded much angrier and more direct this time, and talks ended altogether. "Unfortunately, yes -- we are on strike as of midnight,"...

Truck drivers protesting government corruption in today's "Ride for the Constitution" may have been intimidated by government officials and law enforcement, according to Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, and former Department of Justice prosecutor. Klayman revealed to MRCTV in an exclusive interview that the truckers were allegedly threatened with arrest and advised to stay out of D.C.

This week, Carnegie Hall stagehands who make on average $419,000 a year went on strike, forcing the cancellation of a gala that would have benefited nonprofit artistic and education programs. The dispute between the 122-year hall and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Union, reportedly the first ever strike at Carnegie Hall, was resolved on Friday.