Free Republic

In an annual ritual that takes place every May, the AFL-CIO releases its “Executive Paywatch” report to publicize what it considers to be the excessive compensation of the CEOs of America’s biggest multinational firms. The nation’s largest labor federation reports this year that the typical CEO running an S & P 500 firm received total compensation of $12.4 million in 2015 while the average rank-and-file worker was paid just $36,875 — a pay gap of 335-to-1. But the AFL-CIO can only get such an inflated pay ratio by applying a series of statistical sleights... ...the AFL-CIO only considers a very...

Understand the scope of this story and you understand the reason why the entirety of the progressive left has been harping on the Trump University story. They are desperate to keep eyes and attention from the San Jose violence and the city officials who factually facilitated and organized it. Of course the insufferable GOPe and ‘Conservative Punditry’ are stupid enough not to see that. Newly released arrest reports, from one of the only charges filed so far in the San Jose mob attacks against Donald Trump supporters, contain some harrowing accounts written by under cover police officers who witnessed the...

Wisconsin’s right-to-work law, championed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker as he was mounting his run for president, was struck down Friday as violating the state constitution. Attorney General Brad Schimel, also a Republican, promised to appeal the decision and said he was confident it would not stand, noting that no similar law has been struck down in any other state. […] Three unions filed the lawsuit last year shortly after Walker signed the bill into law. […] The unions argued that Wisconsin’s law was an unconstitutional seizure of union property since unions now must extend benefits to workers who don’t...

California lawmakers and union leaders have reached a tentative deal to raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next several years, the Los Angeles Times reports. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) is expected to make the formal announcement as early as Monday. According to the L.A. Times, the minimum wage will jump from $10 to $10.50 an hour in 2017 and will increase by $1 every year after that until reaching $15 an hour in 2022. Business with fewer than 25 employees will have an extra year to comply. "The governor and stakeholders have all been negotiating...

New York State appears ready to throw as many as 200,000 people out of work by imposing a $15 an hour minimum wage statewide. The New York Post reports: Republican Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan is close to a “Faustian pact’’ with Democratic Gov. Cuomo to raise the state’s minimum wage to a national high of $15 an hour — boosting union power and possibly costing New York hundreds of thousands of jobs. A source close to Flanagan said the deal would involve Cuomo agreeing to do “little if anything’’ to help Senate Democrats, now just one vote shy of...

West Virginia is set to become the 26th state with a so-called right-to-work law. State lawmakers rebuked Thursday's veto by Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, voting along party lines in their House and Senate. Some House Republicans voted "no," though only a simple majority was required. ...

This is a shortened and edited version of FBI footage showing the joint FBI and Oregon State Police traffic stop and OSP officer-involved shooting of Robert “LaVoy” Finicum on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. You’ll note that Finicum was shot by an Oregon State Police Trooper at relatively close range as he appeared to be reaching into his coat in a manner consistent with attempting to draw a handgun. Flash bangs were then deployed in an effort to get the other occupants of the vehicle to surrender.

U.S. cities that implemented big minimum-wage hikes to $10 an hour or more in 2015 have seen a strikingly similar aftermath: Job gains have fallen to multiyear lows at restaurants, hotels and other leisure and hospitality venues. The data aren't, for the most part, stark and reliable enough to amount to smoking-gun proof. But Chicago, Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. — all on the leading edge of the push for big minimum wage hikes — all show worrisome job trends.

hen did unions cross the line from being workers who want to collectively negotiate with their employers to becoming gangs that threaten non-members? Or has it always been that way? In Michigan, which has moved on from being a hard union state to one where workers have a choice about joining, a United Auto Workers chapter has put out a hit list of nonmembers it believes deserve intimidation. Local 412, based in Warren, Mich., suggests that its members refuse to "share any tools, knowledge or support" with "any of these employees who choose not to pay their fair share."

Another Michigan union has used its newsletter to post the names of employees who have chosen to exercise their right to not have to financially support a union as a condition of employment. Workers say the union is bullying them and creating a hostile work environment. This time, it’s UAW Local 600 that’s publishing the names of employees who chose to opt out of belonging and paying dues to the union. Bob Brezovsky, president of the UAW’s Tool & Die Unit, wrote in the union's online publication: “The employees listed below have chosen not to pay union dues any more...

Sanders wins backing of American Postal Workers Union, his largest labor endorsement. WASHINGTON (AP) — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders secured the endorsement of the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union on Thursday, marking the largest labor union to back his Democratic presidential campaign. The union's decision gives Sanders a boost heading into the second Democratic debate in Iowa on Saturday and comes as the Vermont senator has sought to halt a string of labor endorsements to Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton...

President Barack Obama's decision to not allow the Keystone XL pipeline to be built, Terry O'Sullivan, the president of the Laborers' International Union of North America (LiUNA!), said Obama had "once again" thrown "hard-working, blue-collar workers under the bus" while "doing little or nothing to make a real difference in global climate change." "His actions are shameful," said O'Sullivan in a press release. "The president may be celebrated by environmental extremists, but with this act, President Obama has also solidified a legacy as a pompous, pandering job killer." ...

United Auto Workers union members at General Motors appear poised to approve a new four-year contract with the company. Workers at two union locals at a huge factory in Lordstown, Ohio, east of Cleveland, and at an SUV assembly plant near Lansing, Michigan, voted overwhelmingly for the deal on Friday. ...

The United Auto Workers union says its workers at General Motors will strike if it can’t agree on a new contract with the company by 11:59 p.m. Sunday. Both sides are still negotiating. The union made a similar threat in recent discussions with FIAT Chrysler before agreeing to a new four-year contract. …

Exclusive video from Brietbart News outside the GOP debate Wednesday shows a candid moment as union official Alejandra Valles, Secretary-Treasurer of the SEIU chapter United Service Workers West, directed a group of young protesters to “punch and kick” a photo of GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump. “This is awesome! Awesome!” exclaimed the woman taking the photo, before jumping into the photo herself and saying, “I’m going to kick!” She then urged the group to make fists.

167 Monday at an AFL-CIO Labor Day event in Pittsburgh, Vice President Joe Biden ranted about the economy as it pertains to the American labor force. Biden said, “We can’t let the changes that have taken place and crept in for the last twenty years— but they have been devastating for workers. I hope everybody in America has a chance to become millionaire and we need billionaires. But let me tell you something, man, The tax code’s not fair. It’s simply not fair. The wealthy aren’t paying their fair share. It used to be one America everybody was in on...

The choice facing labor unions in the Democratic presidential race boils down to hearts or heads—Bernie Sanders, who embraces their forceful opposition to a big trade deal, or Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is a strong favorite for the nomination. Clinton has campaigned as a fighter for middle-class families and carries with her establishment support and ties to labor leaders going back to her husband’s White House years. But her unwillingness to take a position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed trade pact vehemently opposed by labor, has made some union leaders and workers wary. Sanders, meanwhile, has made his opposition...

The National Labor Relations Board on Monday blocked a historic bid by Northwestern University football players to form the nation’s first college athletes’ union, dealing a blow to a labor movement that could have transformed amateur sports. In a unanimous decision, the board said the prospect of having both union and nonunion teams could lead to different standards at different schools—from the amount of money players receive to the amount of time they can practice—and create competitive imbalances on the field. The ruling dismissed a stunning decision in March 2014 by a regional NLRB director in Chicago who said football...

People who pay union dues may be donating to Planned Parenthood whether they like it or not. The Free Beacon reported on Monday that three of the biggest unions in America donated a total of $435,000 to Planned Parenthood during 2014. The three unions were the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), and Service Employees International Union (SEIU). AFSCME and SEIU both represent public sector employees.​ But the ties between Planned Parenthood and some of America’s biggest unions go far beyond donations. Almost all of the 2014 union-donated money was spent...

Donald Trump’s planned tour of the Laredo Sector of the Texas -Mexico border has been canceled by the national AFL-CIO-controlled union that represents U.S. Border Patrol agents, the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC).