Free Republic

Is there going to be a major confrontation on the border following Joe Biden's ultimatum that Texas National Guard forces be removed from Shelby Park and other "disputed" areas? Not if the rank-and-file of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol have anything to say about it. According to a new post put out by the Border Patrol Union, and a new report from Griff Jenkins of Fox News, Biden has lost operational control of the situation, at least in a practical sense. Border Patrol Union - NBPC @BPUnion Rank-and file BP agents are not going to start arresting TX NG...

United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain said “a great majority” of American union workers in the auto industry “will not vote for” President Joe Biden against presumptive Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump. “Look, let me be clear about this. A great majority of our members will not vote for President Biden. Yes, some will. But that’s the reality of this,” Fain told Neil Cavuto: The majority of our members are going to vote with their paychecks, they’re going to vote for an economy that works for them, they’re going to vote for a president — when you...

I'd think Joe Biden has to be sitting around wondering how he managed to put himself in his current position, but I'm not sure he even has the cognitive ability to process how bad things are. We've all seen the polls, which will likely tighten in a general election, but other factors are at play as well. ... The latest flashing red light comes courtesy of the National Education Association (NEA), the nation's largest teachers union. A far-left entity that has long served as a lynchpin for Democrat politicians, its members are now demanding Biden show support for Palestinian terrorists...

An annual report from the Inspector General of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) revealed that millions of dollars worth of tech devices were reported lost or stolen “without appropriate search and recovery efforts.” The fiscal year 2023 annual report released Tuesday states CPS schools reported 77,505 tech devices as lost or stolen during the 2021-22 school year, totaling well over $23 million in original purchase price. The discovery, as a result of the district’s first post-COVID-19 inventory, calls the numbers “unacceptably high” and says the oversight process is in need of a “serious overhaul.” The report said the missing items included...

Despite months of feverish recruiting and manipulation of its numbers, United Teachers of Dade (UTD) came up short in its attempt to bring its membership up to the threshold necessary to avoid a recertification election required under terms of a new law passed by Florida’s legislature this past summer. On Dec. 19, UTD President Karla Hernandez-Mats confirmed the union hadn’t been able to persuade 60 percent of the 30,000 teachers it officially represents to become dues-paying members. A few days earlier, she claimed the union had increased its numbers to just more than 58 percent, including 800 new members. What...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) – Mechanics and related classifications at FedEx Express, the largest cargo airline in the United States, have launched an organizing drive to join the Teamsters. “I would like to personally thank everyone in the FedEx Mechanics and Related Employees Craft or Class who has filled out and sent in a Teamsters Airline Division Authorization Card,” said Joe Ferreira, Director of the Teamsters Airline Division, in a letter to the workers. “The response has been overwhelming. You are on track to becoming unionized soon. Your livelihood will no longer be subject to arbitrary and unfair ‘management discretion.’” The workers’...

The Washington Post Guild, the union that represents roughly 1,000 of the newspaper’s staffers, reached a tentative agreement Friday on a new contract with the Post’s management, a breakthrough after a year and a half of protracted and, at times, contentious talks that spilled into public view. “This is without question the best contract the Post Guild has won in half a century,” the union’s bargaining committee wrote in an email to members obtained by CNN. “Though it does not include everything we hoped to achieve, the bargaining committee supports ratifying this agreement, and we believe it will position our...

The New York City teachers’ union sued Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday, claiming he broke the law by imposing $550 million in mid-year spending cuts to the public school system as the Big Apple grapples with a migrant crisis. The United Federation of Teachers’ lawsuit accuses Adams of violating a state law that bars the city from slashing education spending unless overall revenues decline — claiming tax revenues actually rose last year, according to the filing in Manhattan Supreme Court. “The administration can’t go around touting the tourism recovery and the return of the city’s pre-pandemic jobs, and then create...

Tesla has found itself locked in an increasingly bitter dispute with union workers in Sweden and neighboring countries. The showdown pits the electric car maker’s CEO Elon Musk, who’s staunchly anti-union, against the strongly held labor ideals of Scandinavian countries. None of Tesla’s workers anywhere in the world are unionized, raising questions about whether strikes could spread to other parts of Europe where employees commonly have collective bargaining rights — notably in Germany, Tesla’s most important European market. ... Since the mechanics with the powerful Swedish metalworkers’ union IF Metall went on strike, other workers around the country have joined...

UAW files unfair labor practice charges against Honda, Hyundai, and Volkswagen, Tesla continues to face pressure from the Nordic region for its anti-union stance, a new federal report links a fatal poultry plant gas release to poor workplace safety conditions, and a Wall Street Journal article reflects on the biggest union wins of 2023. The UAW has filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB against Honda, Hyundai, and Volkswagen. The union has alleged that the three automakers have committed various illegal union-busting tactics in response to increased organizing efforts at their U.S. plants. Among other allegations, the union has...

Six Los Angeles County Starbucks stores may soon reopen after the National Labor Relations Board said the coffee franchise closed about two dozen locations to halt union momentum. As reported in the New York Times, a regional NLRB office determined that 23 U.S. stores were closed “because its employees engaged in union activities or to discourage employees from doing so.” At least seven of those stores had unionized, the Times added, though the company said none of the Los Angeles locations were unionized. ...

Stacy Davis Gates owes more than $5,500, but makes more than $289,000 ... The progressive president of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) owes thousands in unpaid utility bills despite making an eye-popping salary ... Stacy Davis Gates owes the city of Chicago $5,579 in unpaid water, sewer and trash bills as of Nov. 7, 2023, despite bringing home "at least" $289,000 a year. Documents uncovered by the group show Davis Gates started a payment plan for the amount in July 2023, but quickly defaulted. ... This latest revelation adds to the mounting evidence of her hypocrisy. She spurns responsibility and...

The union representing thousands of Starbucks workers in the US is staging a walkout on one of the coffee chain's busiest days of the year. The action comes amid a bitter fight between Starbucks and Starbucks Workers United, which started organising workers at the company in 2021. The two sides are fighting over pay, scheduling and other issues. Roughly 200 stores are expected to be affected by the 16 November work stoppage. Barista Michelle Eisen, one of the union's leaders, said the company could afford to "do better by its workers". The protest is the second to coincide with Starbucks'...

The union representing thousands of Starbucks workers has said it will launch its “largest strike ever” on Thursday amid the coffee chain’s annual Red Cup Day. Starbucks Workers United said in a press release on Monday that it is demanding the company bargain over staffing and scheduling issues and turn off mobile ordering on promotion days like Red Cup Day. The yearly event, during which Starbucks gives away free reusable holiday cups, is the company’s “biggest sales event of the season” and “one of the most infamously hard, understaffed days for the baristas that work them,” according to the union....

After months of negotiations and a weekslong strike, the UAW has reached tentative deals with Ford Motor Company, General Motors and Stellantis that both sides classify as historic. The agreements, though slightly different at each automaker, contain significant wage increases, a restructured wage progression, better conditions for temporary employees and more. Ford autoworkers have begun voting on the tentative deal, with at least one local voting in favor of it as of Thursday. UAW members at Stellantis and GM are expected to begin voting on the deals soon as they move through the ratification process.

The Oakland Education Association created a massive rift after putting out what many see as an inflammatory anti-Israel statement that angered teachers who didn't agree with the message and made many Jewish community members feel upset and scared.

Families are voting with their feet to charter schools, which are increasingly resisted by school boards and teacher unions. Diana Diaz-Harrison, above, started a charter in Arizona to fill a gap: no specialized services for children like her autistic son Sammy. . A vote by the Los Angeles board of education vote last month to ban charter schools from sharing space at 300 district campuses is the latest big-city attack against alternatives to struggling traditional public schools. With the strong support of United Teachers Los Angeles, school board members say the ban will protect black and Latino students from the...

The fervent push from Brussels to admit Ukraine into the European Union would see €186 billion transferred to Kyiv from other member states in addition to the billions poured into the country to subsidise the war effort against Russia. According to leaked internal assessments from the secretariat of the EU Council of the cost of admitting nine new countries into the bloc, many states that hitherto were net beneficiaries of wealth transfers would need to begin sending their limited resources abroad and wealthier economies such as France, Germany, and The Netherlands would need to significantly increase their foreign contributions

The United Auto Workers strike against the 'Big Three' Detroit carmakers entered its second day on Saturday, and some union members are questioning whether President Joe Biden has done enough to back their cause. The strike involves 13,000 workers so far, less than a tenth of the union's total membership, but UAW's strike fund has enough cash to support a full 150,000-member walkout for up to three months. The union representing workers at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis is seeking a 40 percent raise for its workers. The walkout is limited for now to three assembly plants: a GM factory...

Want to have some ability to choose where your child goes to school? Well, then you’re a racist. So says Randi Weingarten, leader of the American Federation of Teachers. Words like “school choice” or “parental rights,” she maintains, are the “same kinds of words” used by segregationists, so if you use them too, you’re one of them. Predictably, Weingarten is now furiously backpedaling, claiming that she was just making an innocent comment about “language” rather than actually accusing anyone of being racist, but this isn’t the first time she’s beat this drum. In 2017, she called school-choice programs the “only...