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There's not much that union supporters and I can agree upon. But here is one incident where I can wholeheartedly support the aggrieved members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) who have found themselves victims of their own union. The SEIU wanted to renegotiate a contract with officials of Sonoma County, California for its in-home healthcare workers supported by county funds. SEIU representatives met with and crafted a new contract with the assistance of County officials. This was all done behind closed doors without the general knowledge of or the assistance of the workers themselves. But that isn't the...

If you were watching television on Tuesday night as the election returns came in showing Republicans capturing the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey, you probably missed seeing the biggest losers of the evening. You may have caught the concession speech of Creigh Deeds, who ran 12% behind Barack Obama's winning percentage of the vote in Virginia, and that of Jon Corzine who, after spending over $100 million of his own money on three campaigns, ran 13% behind Obama's winning percentage in New Jersey and got evicted from Drumthwacket, the governor's mansion in Princeton. But you missed seeing the guy...

Seattle Cartoonist Blasts South Carolina Workers It’s one of the funniest cartoons we’ve seen in a long time, even if it is nothing but sour grapes. Cartoonist David Horsey of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer – miffed that Boeing Corp. chose North Charleston, S.C. over Everett, Washington to assemble its second line of 787 Dreamliners – took pen to paper (well, not paper, really) to vent some of his frustration against the Palmetto State. “How many non-union South Carolinian workers does it take to attach a wing to a Boeing airplane?” Horsey’s cartoon asks, portraying several dim-witted rednecks attempting to attach a...

More than half the 14,000 jobs created or saved by the federal economic stimulus in Minnesota are in public schools. Federal and state officials are reporting about 7,400 full-time teaching and school support staff jobs linked to the stimulus through the end of September. The U.S. Department of Education issued a report Monday detailing 7,421 stimulus jobs in the state's education system. Minnesota Management and Budget officials counted 7,380 K-12 school jobs created or saved by stimulus spending of $634 million.

Labor bosses remain committed to coercive measures that could be used to reinvigorate flagging membership and underfunded benefit plans, despite inaction on Capitol Hill. But the idea now is to secure legislation by way of subterfuge and misdirection. The National Right to Work Committee (NRTWC) has identified a number of schemes buried within House and Senate versions of the proposed government-run health care program that would open the way to forced unionization. These obscure provisions have been largely overlooked in the midst of an intense national debate over the merits of a public option. But the "employer mandates" and "cooperative...

On Wednesday, Boeing announced it would put a second 787 assembly line in Charleston, S.C., rather than Everett, WA.

Do I detect a bit of payback in this story? The UAW rank-and-file rejected a renegotiated contract from Ford intended to bring themselves into parity with GM and Chrysler, as has long been the practice for the Detroit automakers. In doing so, the workers also rejected the counsel of their own union, which had endorsed the new contract. Ford will have to operate at a disadvantage for the next two years in terms of compensation as a result:

Boeing's decision to build a new airplane-assembly plant in Charleston, S.C., will change the shape of the company and dramatically alter how both the state of Washington and the Machinists union approach Boeing. Washington state must accept a future where it competes for every new Boeing airplane program, with low-wage South Carolina as a certain rival. The Machinists must accept that if Boeing doesn't like their demands, it can direct future work to its nonunion Charleston plants. A defining moment could come about 2015, when Boeing will choose where to build the successor plane to either the Renton-built 737 or...

... The Great Depression was caused by misguided government policies adopted to avoid the "unsatisfactory conditions" signaled by the crash. The run-of-the-mill recession that ought to have followed the crash was magnified by the policies of the federal government during the administration of Herbert Hoover. In a paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research published last August, Lee E. Ohanian examines a continuing mistake during the Hoover administration that helped transform difficulty into calamity. An economics professor at UCLA, Ohanian has written numerous papers on the Depression. In one earlier paper, he pinned the persistence of high unemployment on...

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co.'s rank-and-file union members rejected a concessions agreement, leaving the auto maker at risk to higher costs compared with competitors Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co. Although some locals are still voting through Sunday, the United Auto Workers national leadership has accepted the defeat, said three union sources who asked not to be identified since they don't officially speak for the UAW. The leadership is now reviewing other options, these people said. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger told Dow Jones Newswires on Friday he will not continue bargaining or conduct a re-vote. Ford will now have...

Not to get into a long, drawn out story, but something has certainly surprised me recently. To begin with I am a public school teacher and those of you who know me on Free Republic know I am anti-union to the core. In all my years of teaching in Texas, a Right-to-Work state, I did not have to belong to the NEA (National Education Association) and did not. Yet for the past five years or so I was a member of the ATPE (Association of Texas Professional Educators) a non-union professional alternative to the NEA. Recently I was assaulted by...

(CNSNews.com) – NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith would not say whether the NFL had treated talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh fairly when racist quotes were falsely attributed to Limbaugh shortly after word leaked that he was involved in a potential bid to buy a stake in the St. Louis Rams.

Union anger over the Federal Aviation Administration's decision to revoke the licenses of two Northwest Airlines pilots threatens to disrupt voluntary safety-reporting programs used by many carriers, according to industry officials. FAA regulators Tuesday revoked the licenses of both pilots aboard Northwest Flight 188, which failed to respond to air-traffic controllers for about 90 minutes. The union isn't defending actions of the pilots, who asked to be protected under voluntary reporting rules. But officials of the Air Line Pilots Association claim regulators jumped the gun and disregarded voluntary procedures worked out over many years among regulators, airlines and unions. The...

Doubts are growing about whether the Ford pact with the United Auto Workers will be approved after the rank and file at two more plants overwhelmingly rejected it. Workers at a parts-making plant in Saline, Mich., voted 75 percent against the deal. Research and engineering employees in Dearborn, Mich., were even more negative, with roughly 90 percent voting against the deal. Ford’s biggest assembly plant, at Claycomo, has already voted 92 percent against the concessions, which Ford says it needs to stay competitive. Chrysler and General Motors got the conessions from the UAW, but they were going through bankruptcy, which...

General Motors (GM) closed its Wilmington, Delaware plant in July, leaving 550 active employees out of work, and another 500 laid-off hourly workers without the hope of being called back to work. Vehicle manufacturing used to be Delaware’s second largest private employer. Perhaps it will be again. Fisker Automotive announced on October 27 it signed a letter of intent to buy the plant for $18 million after a routine four-month evaluation period. Built by GM in 1947, the Wilmington plant produced 8.5 million cars, and has a production capacity of 300,000 cars a year. The Wilmington plant will support the...

More states lowered their standards for academic proficiency in recent years than raised them, and nearly all used exams that fell short of federal testing benchmarks, according to a new study. The research, issued by the U.S. Department of Education, called into question the rigor of tests that states select to comply with student-improvement mandates of the federal No Child Left Behind law. It also cast doubt on claims of educational progress made by many states. Education Department analysts found that 15 states lowered their proficiency standard on at least one fourth- or eighth-grade test of reading or math between...

The Federal Aviation Administration's decision to revoke the licenses of the pilots of the Northwest jetliner that lost radio contact with controllers last week threatens to disrupt voluntary safety reporting programs used by pilots, according to industry officials and aviation-safety experts. Immediately after FAA regulators on Tuesday revoked the licenses of both pilots aboard Northwest Flight 188, leaders of the largest U.S. pilot union began complaining and planning a response, these officials said. Officials of the Air Line Pilots Association decided on Wednesday that the government's enforcement move violated the spirit, and probably the letter, of voluntary incident reporting and...

CHICAGO—Boeing Co. said it would build a second final assembly line for its troubled 787 Dreamliner jet in South Carolina, a move that spurns the powerful aircraft machinists' union that had been negotiating with Boeing to locate the work at the current factory near Seattle. Boeing has been laying the groundwork for a new factory in South Carolina for months and could begin construction at a facility it owns in North Charleston, S.C., as early as Nov. 2. The factory is expected to be operational by July 2011. Boeing's decision comes after a flurry of lobbying by officials in both...

Dow Jones)--Boeing Co. on Wednesday announced it would build a second final assembly line for its troubled 787 Dreamliner jet in South Carolina, a move that spurns the powerful aircraft machinists' union that had been negotiating with Boeing to locate the work at the current factory near Seattle. Boeing has been laying the groundwork for a new factory in South Carolina for months and could begin construction at a facility it owns in North Charleston, S.C., as early as Nov. 2. The factory is expected to be operational by July 2011.

Just announced KING5 news, waiting for link...

So Boeing is threatening to jilt us (again). To run out on our nine decades of marriage with someone smarter? Better? More reliable? Nope. With someone cheaper. Take away the heat, all the union-bashing or management second-guessing as Boeing now appears ready to move a major piece of its plane-building operations to South Carolina. At the core of this breakup drama is a cold statistic: 14. As in $14. Per hour. That's the average pay of the local line workers who are building the fuselage of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner in a Charleston, S.C., plant. Average pay of a Boeing Machinist...

(Critical Right to Work Audio Briefing on Obamacare's Forced Unionism Provisions) "Stop the "Obamacare" Union Power Grab" Mailgram to the United States Senate I AM OUTRAGED THAT CONGRESS IS ATTEMPTING TO USE HEALTHCARE “REFORM” AS AN EXCUSE TO GRANT BIG LABOR MASSIVE NEW POWERS OVER MORE AMERICAN WORKERS. THE TRUTH IS, NOT ONLY WOULD OBAMACARE HEAVILY TAX SMALL BUSINESSES’ HEALTH CARE PLANS, WHILE EXEMPTING BIG LABOR FROM THESE SAME TAXES, CORRALING EVEN MORE WORKERS INTO FORCED UNIONISM, BUT IT WOULD VIRTUALLY HAND BIG LABOR DIRECT ACCESS TO TAXPAYER DOLLARS AS THE MEDICAL BOARDS THAT DIRECT GOVERNMENT FUNDING WILL BE STACKED...

The Boeing board of directors met Monday in Chicago without reaching a decision on siting a second 787 production line, as efforts continued to resolve an impasse in the high-stakes talks between the Machinists union and the company. If the Machinists and Boeing can't agree on a 10-year no-strike deal that would land the second production line in Everett, the company is threatening to put it in Charleston, S.C. The company released no information on the board's discussion about the second 787 line, but sources confirmed there was no decision. In phone calls over the weekend, Gov. Christine Gregoire and...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has made several significant concessions to organized labor in the healthcare reform bill he is preparing for the Senate floor, according to a source familiar with the legislation. Reid has increased the threshold of high-cost insurance plans that would be subject to taxation to pay for healthcare reform. Legislation passed by the Senate Finance Committee would impose a 40 percent excise tax on family plans costing more than $21,000, a provision estimated to raise $201 billion for healthcare reform. Under heavy pressure from unions, Reid has increased the threshold so that only family plans...

Americans Take a Turn to the Right, Poll Shows John D. McKinnon reports on politics and polls. Among the striking findings in a new Gallup Poll on Americans’ shifting political attitudes is their growing anti-labor feeling. The percentage of Americans saying they would like to see unions have less influence in the country spiked to a record-high 42% in August 2009, compared with 32% a year earlier. That could spell trouble for some of the Obama administration’s policy priorities, including easing union-organizing rules and advancing “green jobs.” It might also complicate the president’s broader ambition to rebuild the economy in...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka warned Senate Democratic leaders not to include a tax on high-cost healthcare plans in a bill that is expected to reach the floor in coming days. Trumka dismissed the notion that Democratic leaders could placate the powerful union by raising the threshold on plans that would be subject to the tax. Under the Senate Finance Committee’s bill, plans costing more than $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families would be hit with a 40-percent excise tax. “Working families struggling to pay for healthcare should not be required to pay even more in the form of a...

Transit system workers in Philadelphia voted to authorize a union strike Sunday, less than a week before the Phillies play their first home game of the World Series, but a transit spokesman said he hopes a deal can be concluded before then. Willie Brown, president of the Transport Workers Union Local 234, said the 4,700 workers voted overwhelmingly to allow him to call a strike if negotiations with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority fail. Talks are slated to resume Monday. Brown said he hoped a walkout would not affect the series, but he said workers have been without a contract...

While government officials withheld speculation on the cause of the blast as fire brigades continued to battle the ensuing fire, union leaders called Friday evening for officials from the Caribbean Petroleum Corp. to explain what caused the powerful explosion and massive fire at the company’s fuel facility near San Juan Bay. Ricardo Santos, an official at UTIER, the largest electrical utility union in Puerto Rico, said information had begun to circulate that work had been done at the facility to try to stop a leak on Thursday afternoon. The blast, which rocked the San Juan metro area, occurred at around...

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Behind closed doors, business and local government leaders in South Carolina are working to deliver an electrifying jolt to the economy of this genteel city — at the expense of Washington state. Already the site of side-by-side factories that produce two thirds of the fuselage for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, Charleston is in a tight race with Everett to be the location of a second final-assembly line for the new jet. "It's a huge deal," said Pat Barber, a well-connected Charleston businessman who owns a trucking company that specializes in oversize loads and could win a lot of...

Boeing and the Machinists union are far apart in secret negotiations over a proposed no-strike agreement that would ensure a second 787 final assembly line goes to Everett instead of Charleston, S.C.Secret talks have been going on for weeks in Washington, D.C., and Chicago between Boeing and the Machinists union, with top leaders negotiating over a proposed no-strike agreement that would ensure a second 787 final-assembly line goes to Everett instead of Charleston, S.C. But less than a week ahead of a Boeing board meeting to discuss the choice, the labor talks are deadlocked and hindered by distrust on each...

Andy Stern -- SEIU President: "People at the Chamber of Commerce have ruined the country."

In spite of the overwhelming evidence that labor productivity is the fundamental determinant of wages, the conclusion is usually forgotten or derided by labor union leaders and by that large group of economic writers who seek a reputation as “liberals” by parroting them. But this conclusion does not rest on the assumption, as they suppose, that employers are uniformly kind and generous men eager to do what is right. It rests on the very different assumption that the individual employer is eager to increase his own profits to the maximum. If people are willing to work for less than they...

Boeing will decide in the next two weeks whether to put a second 787 Dreamliner final assembly line in Everett or in Charleston, S.C.Boeing has narrowed its decision on where to put a second 787 Dreamliner final assembly line to Everett and Charleston S.C., and will make a choice within the next two weeks. The outcome could have a profound impact on where future Boeing airplanes are built, and the key question appears to be whether the Machinists union will accede to management's demand for a long-term no-strike agreement. In a conference call with the press this morning, chief executive...

In an interesting take on what is or isn't legal, a union is threatening a critical blog for using the union's name in its blog title. The American Federation of Teachers had its lawyers send a cease and desist letter to the operators of a blog called AFTexposed.com. Now right off the top, this is an idiotic attempt to use legal threats on a blog. Imagine if this proscription became a legal precedent! Imagine a movie reviewer not being able to use a movie title in an article critical of the movie. Imagine a TV news station not being able...

If, as the saying goes, the perfect is the enemy of the good, then Barack Obama is his own worst enemy. That becomes clear in the upcoming HBO documentary "By the People: The Election of Barack Obama," which is the product of many months of behind-the-scenes access to Obama during the presidential campaign. It reveals -- you will be surprised to learn -- that Barack Obama is pretty close to the most perfect person you will never get to know. This is what he does not do in the course of the primary and general election campaigns: He does not...

If CBS News has it right, the majority of in-home healthcare workers in Illinois voted not to join a union despite the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Governor Quinn's best efforts to force the issue. Earlier in the year, Governor Quinn signed Executive Order 09-15 that gave away the private information of every in-home healthcare worker in the state to several unions so that they might begin a campaign to cajole these workers into joining a union by calling them on the phone and visiting them at their homes. In-home healthcare workers receive a stipend from the state in...

Mayor Richard Daley continued his drumbeat of bad financial news Monday, outlining a wage freeze and an unpaid month off for nonunion city workers that fell short of explaining how he will balance the 2010 budget that he is to unveil Wednesday. With revenues coming in well below expectations, the city has projected a deficit of more than $500 million next year. The new moves announced Monday would save about $44 million: --Reducing such costs as travel and supplies by 5 percent: $20 million. --Declining to fill 220 vacant jobs: $18 million. --Denying a scheduled cost-of-living increase for nonunion workers:...

Here's a new one: a union sounding the alarm about high taxes. Even stranger: The union's target is President Obama and his health-care overhaul -- specifically Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus' bill. Now, when a union complains about taxes, you just know they must be over the top. Indeed, they are. Gerald McEntee, president of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees warns that the Baucus bill's tax hikes will hit the middle class hard. Specifically, he argues that the bill's tax on medical-insurance plans amounts to "asking the middle class to pay for the...

A small but important group of workers at the Audubon Zoo has voted to join the Teamsters union. Audubon's zookeepers voted 17-14 to join Teamsters Local 270. Despite the close vote, the zoo's management has decided not to challenge the election results, and the union will now be certified as the workers' official bargaining agent. Zookeepers work directly with the animals in exhibits such as the Asian domain and primate center, but their ranks do not include animal curators, who are considered part of management. Audubon has a total staff of about 600, including 450 full-time workers. The Teamsters represent...

One of Chicago's top five trade shows may be leaving the gigantic McCormick Place Convention Center and taking up business with Orlando, Florida. Why? Because the extremely high costs forced on Chicago by the various unions that have a hammer lock on the service side of the trade show business are driving trade shows to other states. Crain's Business reports that the Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. is considering the move to sunny Florida as a cost cutting measure. The show has been held in Chicago since 1971 but organizers are considering the move because of a "need to...

During the 1881 gubernatorial election in Mississippi, the segregationist Democrat, Robert Lowry, had nothing but disdain for his independent opponent, Benjamin King, and those who supported him...a coalition of “dissident farmers, Republicans, and blacks,” people who, from Lowry’s KKK-oriented perspective, were “gutter trash.” In his book, Political Culture of the 19th Century South, author Bradley G. Bond credits Lowry with one of the most profound statements ever made by an American politician. In his stump speeches he was often heard to say, in reference to his opponent and his opponent’s Republican supporters, black and white, “As the stream could not...

Is this a sign of desperation? Many unions are joining Team Obama with a health care rally and direct action against insurance companies Tuesday. Received in an email today from Take Action Minnesota: Join us (and others across the nation) for Tuesday’s ‘Time to Deliver’ Day of Action.  On Tuesday morning will we go straight to the insurance industry to let them we intend to stand up for reform.   WHAT: Time to Deliver: Insurance Action WHEN: Tuesday, October 20th from 9am to Noon WHERE: Minneapolis United Labor Center*, 312 Central Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55414 (corner of Central Ave. and...

In an amusing case of the pot calling the kettle, Anna Burger, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), told Representative Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) that the SEIU had dumped ACORN during a Sept. 30 hearing conducted by the House Financial Services Committee. Apparently Mrs. Burger felt that ACORN was too toxic for the SEIU to associate with. Certainly it is quite amazing that the SEIU has taken the step to dump ACORN as a vendor. Groups such as SEIU rarely reassess associations preferring to stubbornly stick to their guns in most cases. During the hearing, Rep. McHenry...

The healthcare negotiator for one of nation’s most powerful unions made clear that it opposes a tax on high-cost-insurance plans, despite abstaining from an multi-union campaign objecting to the plan. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) was not among the 27 unions to sign on to an ad criticizing a proposed tax on “Cadillac” insurance plans that was included in the Senate Finance Committee healthcare bill. Dennis Rivera, SEIU’s point man on healthcare, told the Hill that the decision to skip the ad campaign should by no means be interpreted as an endorsement of the policy. “Every group has to...

A skirmish between powerful teachers’ unions and President Barack Obama over nearly $5 billion in education spending is shaping up as a preview of the battle to come over No Child Left Behind in Congress early next year. But the tables are turned: now the unions are worried that Obama, a Democratic ally, is going to be just as tough on them as President George W. Bush, a longtime foe.

The president of one of America’s largest labor unions, Gerry McEntee, has emerged as a major obstacle to the White House’s efforts to maintain a unified front in the health care debate.

The president of one of America’s largest labor unions, Gerry McEntee, has emerged as a major obstacle to the White House’s efforts to maintain a unified front in the health care debate. The veteran president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has crossed lines that few labor leaders – even those who quietly agree with him – would go near.

In an amusing case of the pot calling the kettle, Anna Burger, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), told Representative Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) that the SEIU had dumped ACORN during a Sept. 30 hearing conducted by the House Financial Services Committee. Apparently Mrs. Burger felt that ACORN was too toxic for the SEIU to associate with. Certainly it is quite amazing that the SEIU has taken the step to dump ACORN as a vendor. Groups such as SEIU rarely reassess associations preferring to stubbornly stick to their guns in most cases. During the hearing, Rep. McHenry...

The Democratic Party has battled for universal health care this year, and over the decades it has admirably led the fight against poverty — except in the one way that would have the greatest impact. Good schools constitute a far more potent weapon against poverty than welfare, food stamps or housing subsidies. Yet, cowed by teachers’ unions, Democrats have too often resisted reform and stood by as generations of disadvantaged children have been cemented into an underclass by third-rate schools. President Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, are trying to change that — and one test for the Democrats...

Unions Bend the Curve! I knew they'd find a way to punish Ford: The new UAW contract with Ford apparently does not give America's surviving non-bankrupt automaker parity with GM and Chrysler, reports Bloomberg: "The plan doesn’t include cuts to retiree benefits, such as vision coverage, that were granted to GM and Chrysler." Rather, the pain seems even more concentrated on future hires (if there are any) than with the GM/Chrysler deals. ... TTAC wonders whether the UAW had an extra incentive to resist giving concessions that might make Ford more successful now that the union owns a large chunk of its main domestic competitors.  ... P.S.: The argument that "the...