Free Republic

LANSING, Mich. — A top Michigan Democrat is looking to President Obama to deliver retribution to Republicans after the GOP-dominated state legislature approved a package of bills that could make this stronghold of union power the nation’s 24th right-to-work state as early as next week. Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer, who on Thursday called the votes to approve the right-to-work measure “petty and vindictive politics,” sparked more backlash Friday when she said she wants the president, who is set to visit Detroit on a previously scheduled political trip on Monday, to push back on Republican Gov. Rick Snyder by holding...

Right To Work: Both chambers of the Michigan legislature pass bills banning union dues as a condition of employment as a Detroit city councilwoman wonders when the pork will arrive. The choice is growth vs. stagnation. Reports of the GOP's demise may be greatly exaggerated, at least at the state level, as Michigan, birthplace of the modern labor movement and unionism, stands poised to become the nation's 24th right-to-work (RTW) state. If it goes ahead, it will join recent addition Indiana in challenging union power as Gov. Scott Walker successfully did in Wisconsin. Michigan's Republican governor, Rick Snyder, is poised...

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said today that a bill will be introduced that would make Michigan the nation's 24th right-to-work state. "When it arrives on my desk, I plan on signing it," he said. In a press conference with the House and Senate Majority leaders and three union members, the Governor suggested that a bill would be introduced today. Under the legislation, employees would only pay union representation fees (also called "agency fees") if they chose to do so. Federal law prohibits workers from being required to be union members and pay union dues as a condition of employment. However,...

Politics: Union intransigence and unrealistic expectations at Hostess Brands have forced the bakery to shut its doors permanently and throw 18,500 people out of work. So much for Big Labor caring about the little guy. A down economy and two restructurings in three years left Hostess, maker of Twinkies and Sno Balls, in dire fiscal straits. The company warned its workers, union and nonunion, to make concessions or everyone would go down in a liquidation. Instead, one union, the AFL-CIO-affiliated Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International (BCTGM), imagined the company was bluffing and went on strike.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is taking its first legal step to stop months of protests and rallies outside Walmart stores, targeting the union that it says is behind such actions. Wal-Mart filed an unfair labor practice charge against the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, or UFCW, asking the National Labor Relations Board to halt what the retailer says are unlawful attempts to disrupt its business. The move comes just a week before what is expected to be the largest organized action against the world's largest retailer, as a small group of Walmart workers prepare to strike on Black Friday,...

What unions are doing in America today, not only to the companies but to the workers they supposedly represent, is unconscionable. It’s sad that a majority of their own members can’t or refuse to see that these unions are not truly on their side and in fact have done much to destroy capitalism. Unions have become the people they were originally formed to oppose. Unions are a socialist concept. The whole concept of unions pits management against the workers. The assumption is that management is an evil force whose sole purpose is the abuse of the worker. While this may...

This is the end of Hostess Bakery Company. It was started in 1930 and died a few days after Barack Obama was reelected. The smiles have barely left the faces of his supporters, and now thousands of them across the country are being fired and laid-off. “We deeply regret the necessity of today’s decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike. Hostess Brands will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders.” With these 45 words the world has been turned...

RVING, TEXAS, NOV. 16, 2012 — /PRNewswire/ -- Hostess Brands Inc. today announced that it is winding down operations and has filed a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court seeking permission to close its business and sell its assets, including its iconic brands and facilities. Bakery operations have been suspended at all plants. Delivery of products will continue and Hostess Brands retail stores will remain open for several days in order to sell already-baked products. The Board of Directors authorized the wind down of Hostess Brands to preserve and maximize the value of the estate after one of the Company's...

During a speech today in Washington D.C., AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called the looming debt disaster a "manufactured crisis" and said "there isn't a fiscal cliff." "There is no fiscal cliff," Trumka says in prepared remarks to the National Mediation Board Conference in Washington on Thursday. "What we’re facing is an obstacle course within a manufactured crisis that was hastily thrown together in response to inflated rhetoric about our federal deficit." Obama met with Trumka earlier this week, in addition to other far left leaders, to discuss economic policy. Apparently a $3500 tax increase on every family doesn't serve as...

Is it ever enough? That’s what citizens should be asking in Newark, where the teachers are claiming they are subject to “indentured servitude” for being forced to consider an “inhumane” collective bargaining agreement that many consider very union friendly. The average Newark teacher’s pay is $57,926, according to teachersalaryinfo.com. That constitutes “indentured servitude”? In 2011, EAGnews.org found that Newark teachers contributed a big fat zero to their health insurance benefits. Taxpayers, on the other hand, spent a healthy $111,742,197 to pay for teacher benefits. Yes, that’s $111 million to zero. The school district receives a whopping $28,406 per student from...

Four former members of the Teamsters union were in federal court today to answer charges they behaved like common thugs, committing multiple acts of extortion and racketeering while beating up and bullying their own brotherhood who tried to question their methods and leadership, authorities said. John Perry, 60, of Woburn, Joseph “Jo Jo” Burhoe, 44, of Braintree, James “Jimmy the Bull” Deamicis, 49, of Quincy, and Thomas Flaherty, 49, of Braintree, have been charged in a 30-count indictment with racketeering, conspiracy to extort, extortion, attempted extortion, mail fraud, prohibition against certain persons holding office and theft of government money. The...

POLITICS Updated September 13, 2012, 9:08 p.m. ET Controllers Boost Giving to Democrats By BRODY MULLINS and ANDY PASZTOR The nation's biggest and most powerful unions are usually among the most generous givers to Democrats. This year there is a newcomer among the top ranks: the low-profile association that represents air-traffic controllers. So far this election, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, with 20,000 members, has emerged as the second-largest union donor to the major pro-Democratic super PACs. It is surpassed only by the Service Employees International Union, which has 2.1 million members. NATCA has donated $1 million to a...

The Politico, in its report on what turned out to be the center-right's "Empty Chair Day," covered the reaction of one prominent member of organized labor to Clint Eastwood's supposedly horrible (if you believe leftist pundits) speech at the Republican National Convention. If it was really that awful, they would be taking pity on Clint. Instead, they're getting hostile, meaning that the Hollywood Academy Award winner really got under their skin, as seen in an understated report by the online web site's Tim Mak and Juana Summers (bolds are mine througout this post): AFSCME President Lee Saunders, capping off a...

According to the official report by the Secretary of State's Bureau of Elections, the coalition of unions behind the proposal called "Protect Our Jobs" over-estimated the number of signatures it gathered by 129,111, or more than the population of Sterling Heights, Michigan's fourth largest city. However, supporters of the union proposal still continue to claim that 684,286 signatures were turned in to the Secretary of State and are even rounding it up to "nearly 700,000" or simply just 700,000. According to the official report by the Secretary of State, the total number of signatures turned in by the POJ campaign...

I've been told that we must accept the liberal progressive abortion/homosexual pushing Republican Mitt Romney because we can do no better, that politics is the art of the possible. Respectfully, I place my faith in God, not politics. With God ALL things are possible. They say the man who for thirty or more years of his adult life advocated for abortion and homosexual rights and every other leftist cause that came down the pike is suddenly pro-life (and, according to Romney's recent lies, he's ALWAYS been pro-life). Well, if Romney is serious about the fight for life, he should be...

In the world of state teachers union executive compensation, the Michigan Education Association has among the highest-paid executives in the nation. Using union reports filed with the U.S. Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service, Michigan Capitol Confidential looked at the base salary of many of the other state teachers unions leaders. The latest salary information available was through 2011. The highest-paid state teacher union president was Richard Iannuzzi of the New York State United Teachers. He made $269,788 in 2011. Former MEA President Iris Salters made $235,447 in 2011. The New York state teachers union has 592,256 members,...

Unions hit Democratic convention where it hurts: In the wallet By: Robin Bravender and Anna Palmer August 9, 2012 06:44 PM EDT The Democrats are hitting up unions — their go-to cash cows — for last-minute donations to help pay for next month’s convention in Charlotte. The response from some big unions? Tough. Union leaders insisted from the start that they wouldn’t help fill the piggy bank for this year’s Democratic National Convention after the party picked a labor-hostile location and at the same time made fundraising tougher by banning corporate contributions and capping individual donations. And with the event...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Labor unions plan to send out more than 300,000 volunteers later this month to canvass voters to support President Barack Obama’s re-election. The effort begins on Aug. 25, when activists fan out across 27 states during a national ‘‘day of action.’’ AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says a record 400,000 union-based volunteers will be knocking on doors and talking to voters in all 50 states later this year.

After giving then-Sen. Barack Obama a full-throttled endorsement in the 2008 presidential election, the United Mine Workers of America has decided not to endorse either Obama or the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, in 2012. “As of right now, we’ve elected to stay out of this election,” said Mike Caputo, a UMWA official and a Democratic member of the West Virginia House of Delegates. “Our members right now have indicated to stay out of this race, and that’s why we’ve done that.... I don’t think quite frankly that coalfield folks are crazy about either candidate.” Both candidates are trying to...

(Re: the DNC convention) I began to hear rumors that DNC officials were asking all Event Planners, Producers, and Production Companies to use union labor. I got a copy of their RFP (Request for Proposal) and read it myself. The proposal read “we prefer that you use Union labor” for our events. I was flabbergasted. You see, North Carolina is a Right To Work state, which means in layman’s terms that you cannot make anyone use union labor. For the DNC to come to North Carolina and blatantly break our Right To Work laws is disheartening. Even though the RFP...