Free Republic

After a delayed vote because of the government shutdown, hundreds of nurses at four UnityPoint hospitals in the Des Moines area are voting this weekend on whether to unionize with Teamsters Local 90—an election being closely watched by non-union nurses across Iowa who are also struggling with understaffing and patient violence. The postponed UnityPoint vote among 1,776 health care professionals at Blank Children's Hospital, Iowa Lutheran Hospital, Iowa Methodist Medical Center, and Methodist West Hospital has been rescheduled for Sunday, Dec. 7, through Tuesday, Dec. 9. It's the state's largest private-sector union election ever, according to Teamsters. "I'm excited. I'm...

... KEY FACTS Since calling the strike on November 13, the company’s highly trafficked “Red Cup Day” when it gives away free reusable coffee cups to customers, Starbucks Workers United reports new stores have been added to its strike list each passing week, now totaling 120 stores. SWU claims that baristas in 550 unionized stores are prepared to continue escalating the strike until Starbucks delivers a fair union contract and resolves hundreds of unfair labor practices charges. Since the strike began, Starbucks has disputed the number of stores impacted, claiming many stores on the strike list never closed and others...

Malevolent kooks at the University of Minnesota are not the only educators in this Somali colony who really don’t like the native population. The state’s largest teachers union, Education Minnesota, offers professional development courses on such topics as Interrupting Whiteness: The “racial equity trainings” can be brought “to your building” when requested by Education Minnesota members, the union website explains, and offer instruction on topics like “Culturally Responsive Teaching With a Racial Justice Lens” and “Cultural Competency.” “Racial justice” is Liberalese for antiwhite race hate. “Cultural competency” entails subordinating American and European culture to less successful ones. In a state...

WASHINGTON — America’s largest teachers’ union accused Republicans of promoting “racist and transphobic troupes” in teaching materials for an upcoming training program, according to documents obtained by a conservative activist group. The National Education Association is hosting a training from Dec. 2-4 at an undisclosed location called “Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice and Transgender Advocacy” aimed at dismantling “strategic racism and transphobia,” the group Defending Education uncovered. The group released information on the training that is targeted for union staff and teams as part of the NEA UniServ and Organizing Training Program 2025–2026. Sessions will be aimed at “dismantling systems of privilege...

FIRST ON FOX: One of the top teachers unions in the country is facing criticism over an upcoming training session that will instruct members on how to go through a gender transition at work, including best practices for using gender pronouns and combating transphobia, while also being provided with literature labeling conservative opposition as "villains." In a document posted on its website, the National Education Association (NEA) announced to its more than 3 million educator members a slate of training programs, including a session named "Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice," scheduled for Dec. 2-4, 2025. The union will also hold an "Advancing...

MAXIMILLIAN ALVAREZ: By the time you hear this, Starbucks workers in over 25 cities across the country may be on strike. Last week, a super majority of unionized baristas with Starbucks Workers United voted to authorize an unfair labor practice strike ahead of the holiday season. The strike would begin on Thursday Nov. 13, on so-called Red Cup Day, Starbucks’s annual corporate holiday. ... MICHELLE EISEN: Yes, thanks so much for having me. Last week, we announced that 92% of union workers voted to authorize a strike, should the company not respond to our multiple requests for them to return...

(NEW YORK) – The Teamsters and their allies have reached a major milestone for working people as the Delivery Protection Act secured a bipartisan, veto-proof supermajority of sponsors in the New York City Council. This legislation would hold Amazon accountable for its exploitative labor practices and make the e-commerce giant responsible for the safety of its drivers and city streets. “Amazon’s dangerous business model is built on corporate greed. The best way to stop Amazon from undercutting employers who actually follow the law and respect workers is to pass the Delivery Protection Act.,” said Thomas Gesualdi, President of Teamsters Joint...

New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani encouraged his more than 1 million X followers this week to boycott Starbucks. "Starbucks workers across the country are on an Unfair Labor Practices strike, fighting for a fair contract," the 34-year-old wrote on Thursday. "While workers are on strike, I won’t be buying any Starbucks, and I’m asking you to join us. Together, we can send a powerful message: No contract, no coffee." On the same day, Starbucks Workers United, a union representing workers at the coffee giant, announced it was going on an open-ended strike in what is being dubbed the "Red Cup...

Several thousand Boeing machinists in the Midwest who assemble military aircraft and weapons voted Thursday to approve a new contract, ending a three-month strike that saw them reject four earlier offers from the company. The breakthrough five-year labor agreement includes a 24% wage hike across the life of the contract and a $6,000 signing bonus, according to the union representing the 3,200 workers who walked off the job on Aug. 4. “We’re proud of what our members have fought for together and are ready to get back to building the world’s most advanced military aircraft,” the International Association of Machinists...

The nation’s largest federal workers’ union, the American Federation of Government Employees, is urging Democrats to concede the government shutdown fight and vote to reopen the government, revealing a significant fracture in the Democratic coalition as the shutdown nears the one-month mark.The shutdown began 27 days ago after Democrats refused to back a clean government funding bill, demanding instead that Republicans extend temporary Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. But AFGE, a major ally to the Democratic party which represents 820,000 federal and D.C. government workers, now says it’s time for the party...

“PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — Oregon leaders and immigration advocates are holding a press conference after they say more than 30 people were arrested by ICE agents in Woodburn on Thursday. The presidents of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and Pineros Y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) spoke at the event….”

As the Schumer shutdown drags on, the dam is starting to break against Democrats. Airline CEOs lined up on Thursday to demand the passage of a clean CR, citing the possibility of future delays and cancellations. Air traffic controllers are currently working without pay, and if the system shuts down, it's game over for commercial air travel. Over the past few weeks, ALPA and SWAPA, which represent most major airline pilots in the United States, publicly called for the passage of a clean CR. But while you'd expect pilots, who still tend to lean right, to take that position, having...

Even as congressional Democrats hang tough on their demands for an Obamacare subsidy extension deal before they’ll agree to a reopening of the federal government, one of their most conspicuous allies in this standoff, the American Federation of Government Employees, has asked them to call it all off. AFGE is the largest federal employee union, representing approximately 820,000 workers across many agencies. This is not the first time AFGE has called for an end to the government shutdown, but it is the first time the union has backed the approved GOP avenue for getting out of the mess: a “clean...

Several pilot unions and associations have issued statements calling for the passage of a clean continuing resolution (CR) in order to reopen the government and end the ongoing shutdown. Unions such as the Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations (CAPA), the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots, the Allied Pilots Association (APA), and the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA), have issued statements calling upon lawmakers to support a clean CR, which Democrats have continued to oppose, according to USA Today. The statements from the unions come as roughly 13,000 air traffic controllers are currently working without being paid during the ongoing...

Democrats are facing pressure from the nation's biggest federal worker union to back a Republican plan to end the government shutdown immediately. The American Federation of Government Employees called on Democrats to advance a continuing resolution that the GOP has been trying to pass since the government shutdown began 28 days ago.

Democrats appear to be unmoved by fresh demands from the largest federal employees’ union to reopen the government, a sign that the shutdown stalemate between lawmakers will continue as government workers increasingly feel the pain during the process. It’s the latest example of how pressure points have not had the power to bring an end to the current shutdown, which is already the second longest in US history with no end in sight. Over one million federal workers are going unpaid as the impasse drags on and some are turning to food pantries. Democrats were quick to say they care...

Two national public employee unions sued the Trump administration over its restrictions preventing illegal immigrants from obtaining commercial drivers licenses. The American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees filed a petition for review against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The employee unions challenged a rule implemented by Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy restricting foreign individuals from receiving commercial drivers licenses. Commercial drivers licenses are used for operating large vehicles such as tractor-trailers and buses. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia allow unauthorized immigrants to receive commercial drivers licenses. In California,...

A top deputy to American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten has been accused of “fostering a culture of anti-semitism that alienates Jewish members” by a key Republican senator. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the head of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, noted in a Thursday letter to Weingarten obtained by The Post that AFT vice president Todd Wolfson hosted a “Scholasticide in Palestine” webinar in March that characterized anti-Israel protests on college campuses — which have included harassment and intimidation of Jewish students and faculty — as “antigenocide speech.”[T]he Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Academic Engagement Network (AEN), Hillel...

On Oct. 20, 2024, Donald Trump performed one of the finest acts of campaign trolling in the history of American politics by working the fryer and serving meals at a McDonald's franchise in eastern Pennsylvania. "Now I have worked at McDonald's," he told reporters while wearing an employee apron and leaning out the drive-thru window. "I've now worked for 15 minutes more than Kamala, she never worked here." Trump's ingenious gambit had the intended effect by highlighting the lack of evidence for Kamala Harris's dubious claim that she "did fries and ... the cashier" at a McDonald's in California during...

Employees of the SunTrapp, a long-standing LGBTQ bar in downtown Salt Lake City, are entering their third week of a strike over wanting to unionize. Morgan Sturgill, who is participating in the strike, said the talk of unionizing started over the summer. “There's been a couple of scenarios where if we had talked about what we wanted before, there was a chance of being demoted, or chance of being let go or just being treated differently afterwards. So it was primarily for that protection,” Sturgill said. “But honestly, the biggest one is policies. A lot of us just want clear...