Free Republic

The effort to expand cynically named "right to work" laws says a lot about what is wrong with politics in our country. Disguised as protecting workers, the real goal is to silence workers’ voice, reduce our bargaining power and make our jobs more precarious. It’s about power—social, political and economic power.

When Mark Janus got his first paycheck working as a child support specialist for the state of Illinois in 2007, he was stunned to see a nearly $50 deduction for union dues. He had worked for the state in the 1980s and didn’t remember anything like it. “I’m going like, ‘I’m not a member of the union. What’s going on here?’” he said. Worse yet was where he saw the union dues going, such as to efforts demanding wage increases at a time when Illinois was struggling with a crippling pension debt. Now Mr. Janus is taking his case to...

Paying union dues and baking a wedding cake may not seem like classic examples of free speech—except perhaps at the Supreme Court. This year, the high court is poised to announce its most significant expansion of the 1st Amendment since the Citizens United decision in 2010, which struck down laws that limited campaign spending by corporations, unions and the very wealthy.

The Supreme Court could be responsible for the most far-reaching change to labor policy in 2018, as the justices will take up a case that could end the practice of forcing government workers to pay union dues. In September, the justices announced they would hear Janus v. American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees. Unions such as AFSCME depend on those funds and are likely to face steep membership and dues losses if the practice ends. Public-sector unions now account for roughly half of the labor movement, so a loss could be a blow to union power. The case...

WASHINGTON — AFSCME Pres. Lee Saunders issued the following statement in response to President Trump’s decision to end vital health care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act:“With this decision, the president has ushered in the era of Trumpcare, under which Americans will have fewer coverage choices and face skyrocketing premium costs.“By sabotaging the health care system just as open enrollment is set to begin, the president has all but guaranteed that insurers will abandon the market and working families will bear the brunt of the pain.“Americans will go broke, get sicker or worse because of this decision. There is no reasonable justification...

Late last week, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will add a case critical to the future of public-sector unions to its docket. With President Donald Trump's appointment of conservative-leaning Justice Neil Gorsuch, many expect the court to rule against the unions. Such a decision would energize the recent resurgence of state laws that effectively reduce the power of unions in both the public and private sector. Expecting the worst, unions are already preparing for a potential exodus of members and a loss of revenue. “I’d place a bet that this doesn’t bode well for public-sector unions,” says Patrick...

Even as Democrats publicly and loudly decry corporatist political “dark money,” billionaire Democrats and other donors funnel hundreds of millions to radical and violent causes.   Barely a week had passed after Donald Trump’s historic upset in the November 8 presidential election, but some of the world’s richest individuals were already launching a counteroffensive. George Soros and his fellow deep-pocket funders of the Democratic Party and left-wing causes gathered with a lineup of party activists and luminaries from Hollywood, K Street, and Wall Street for a three-day “investment conference” (November 15-17) at the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C....

In what is all but certain to be a terrible blow to organized labor, the Supreme Court announced on Thursday that it will hear Janus v. AFSCME, a case seeking to defund public sector unions. The case presents an issue that was recently before the Court, and where the justices split 4-4 along party lines. Now that Neil Gorsuch occupies the seat that Senate Republicans held open for more than a year until Donald Trump could fill it, he holds the fifth vote to deliver a staggering blow to the union movement. The issue in Janus involves what are sometimes...

A major union is rallying its supporters to battle the latest job-stealing enemy: goats. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the University of Michigan have had a well-established working relationship with each other for years. But this is largely because the labor union holds a contract with the school, barring it from hiring non-AFSCME members for various positions. Landscaping is among the many career fields supported by the union and is actually at the center of this latest controversy. While the university has traditionally employed AFSCME landscapers to tend to the school’s outdoor grass-trimming needs...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Public sector unions in Iowa will have less authority to negotiate working conditions for teachers, nurses and correctional officers under a bill passed Thursday in the new Republican-controlled Legislature that critics say is aimed at crippling organized labor in the state. The legislation, expected to be signed into law by Iowa's conservative governor, will prohibit workers from collectively negotiating over health insurance, extra pay and several other items currently covered by law. It's expected to be one of the most significant bills of the legislative session, in part because of loud opposition from Democrats and...

Airport workers in the Washington, DC area, as well as Los Angeles, Boston and other cities are rightfully protesting and raising their voices to demand wage raises and better working conditions.Some wheelchair attendants, baggage carriers and others who work at Ronald Reagan and Dulles airports earn as little as $6.75 an hour. Although the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority implements a living wage policy that applies to many airport workers, said policy doesn’t help employees of companies that contract directly with individual airlines.These workers have joined the Fight for $15 campaign to demand no less than $15 an hour. Under their...

From:Amy.Dacey@seiu.org To: Andy.Stern@seiu.org, Anna.Burger@seiu.org, pbl@711sx.com, zschwartz@shangrila.us, douglas.york@soros.com, Michael.Vachon@soros.com more Date: 2007-09-22 00:24 Subject: Agenda and Logistical information for the September 27th NYC Meeting Thank you all for your patience as we have finalized the agenda and arrangements for the September 27th meeting in NYC. Please review the agenda and logistical information below.You will recieve a UPS overnight package on Tuesday morning with additional information to review prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday. If you have any questions before then, please feel free to email me or contact me on my cell at 202-528-7492. Amy...

In the past, left-wing student activists at UC Berkeley have joined unions in pushing for higher wages, including a “living wage,” for campus staff. Campus minimum wages have lagged behind local minimum wages because the university, as a public state institution, is exempt from local minimums. On Monday, University of California Berkeley chancellor Nicholas Dirks announced that the educational institution will be eliminating 500 jobs over the course of two years, which will wind up saving an estimated $50 million. “My concern and the public’s concern is that UC Berkeley is going to start cutting the people it can ill...

The AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. federation of labor unions, will launch digital attack ads targeting Republican front-runner Donald Trump next week as part of a multi-pronged effort to derail the New York billionaire's bid for the White House and dampen union workers' enthusiasm for him. Officials at the AFL-CIO, an umbrella group of 56 unions representing 12.5 million workers, told Reuters the ads will depict Trump as anti-union, and will appear on Facebook and Twitter. "Donald Trump has tapped into the very real and understandable anger of working people. But while he says he's with America's working people, when you...

Reports say that the influential Teamsters union may snub Hillary Clinton in favor of endorsing a Republican candidate such as Donald Trump for the White House in 2016.Such a move would likely be a notable boost for Republicans with Independents and “Reagan Democrats,” a critical segment of swing-voters that candidates spend millions trying to woo. These “middle of the road” type voters are crucial to winning bellwether regions like Michigan’s Macomb County.Clinton also faces snubs from other powerful unions like the AFL-CIO and AFSCME, refusing to back Hillary as they try to push Vice President Joe Biden into the race.According...

Democrats in the Illinois legislature may soon silence Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner by taking way his ability to negotiate with public unions. SB1229 was introduced in February in response to troubled labor negotiations between Rauner and the Illinois chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The measure would allow an arbitrator to takeover state labor negotiations if a new agreement is not reached within 30 days. Some have argued, though, that the bill is a huge giveaway to state unions. According to F. Vincent Vernuccio, labor policy expert at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy,...

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...

A hack announced last week affected all current and retired federal employees, and hackers got their hands on much more personal information than previously announced, the American Federation of Government Employees said Thursday.A December breach of government systems containing personal information of millions of federal employees was worse than originally thought. A union of federal workers said Thursday that the attack, announced last week, had stolen confidential information of every single federal employee, past or present -- far more than was previously revealed. The government disputes those claims. It's the latest in a spree of damaging hacks against the government,...

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees -- the country’s largest trade union for public employees -- gave more than $65 million last year to politicians, lobbyists and activist groups, according to 2014 federal reports obtained by Watchdog.org. AFSCME is funded by roughly 1.4 million members and mandatory fees taken from 125,255 nonmembers. Critics argue AFSCME gets its revenue from taxpayers so its donations are essentially indirect support for Democratic politicians, political activist groups and bigger government. AFSCME’s 2014 report to the Labor Department showed $64,585,115 in Political Activities and Lobbying spending. The union also reported more than $1...

An October conference has become the first to pull out of Indianapolis due to controversy over the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) announced Monday they are pulling their 2015 Women's Conference from the city in response to the legislation Governor Mike Pence signed into law last week. The conference was scheduled from October 9-11 at the JW Marriott. "The 1.6 million members of AFSCME cannot in good conscience make such a sizable financial investment in Indiana knowing that women and men in that state are deliberately being targeted for discrimination," the...