Free Republic

The big revelation in the GAO’s Obama Stimulus “Green Jobs” audit is that much of the 500 million dollars set aside for Green Jobs was really handed over to allied liberal non-profits and labor unions.

So I guess going to a New York McDonald’s isn’t a good idea right now. Videographer and conservative blogger Adam Sharp of SharpElbows.net attended one such demonstration and interviewed an SEIU member, easily identifiable as such by his purple shirt. When asked whether the union member supported the $15 per hour wage increase the McDonald’s workers were demanding, he admitted, “I’m not sure.” He also said he was there to show his support for the workers rather than the company and expressed a fear that, “if they’re [the McDonald’s employees] pissed off, they could be doing something to that food.”...

The Senate voted 64-34 Tuesday to end debate on the nomination of Kent Hirozawa to serve on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). That vote sets up eight hours of debate time, which could be waived to allow a quick vote on the nomination. After Hirozawa, the nominations of Nancy Schiffer and Mark Pearce to join the NLRB will follow. More than 10 Republicans voted with Democrats to advance Hirozawa's nomination. Republicans agreed to hold up-or-down votes on President Obama’s NLRB nominations as part of a deal to avoid Senate rule changes limiting the minority's right to filibuster executive branch...

"Does anybody think it's OK to have 40-year-old trees growing through the roofs of dilapidated houses?" -- Detroit's Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr "A few years ago, the nonpartisan Bay Area Center for Voting Research rated Detroit as the most liberal city in America." -- Michael Tanner Detroit was once one of the world's great cities. It was the 4th largest metropolis in America, jobs were plentiful because of the auto industry, and Motown even kept it on the cutting edge musically. Unfortunately, from 1962 until the present day, the mayor of Detroit has been a Democrat. The result? Detroit's...

Biggest Bankruptcy in US history. Excerpt:Reason Foundation senior analyst Shikha Dalmia says even bankruptcy can’t save Motown.Detroit had been living on borrowed time and borrowed money for about two decades now with accumulated debt of about 18 times its annual budget, so something had to give so the issue only was detroit needed to restructure through bnkruptcy or an emergency manager.

Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) President David B. Durkee issued the following statement in response to the impending re-entry by Hostess Brands, LLC, into the snack cake market:“This coming week, Hostess Brands, LLC, is expected to re-enter the wholesale snack cake market.  Despite the fanfare, the long-term viability of this effort is highly uncertain. Rather than hire professional, experienced bakers who have produced quality snack cakes in the company’s bakeries for decades, Hostess management has chosen instead to hire primarily workers with little or no experience in the demanding wholesale snack cake baking industry.“The BCTGM...

Speaking to all 3,000 of the assembled "progressive activists" at this year's Netroots Nation conference, National Education Association vice president Lily Eskelsen Garcia boldly declared a "prophecy" about the eternal destiny of NRA and Second Amendment supporters, and of politicians and lobbyists working to promote gun rights: "I'm not an ordained minister; I'm not a theologian, but these guys are going to hell." Wow. Going to hell for supporting the Second Amendment? That type of radical thinking might explain the very high incidence of ridiculous cases involving over-zealous school officials misinterpreting and wrongly enforcing "zero-tolerance" rules--and doing so without exercising...

Imagine you’ve finished a long, trying day at work. You’ve picked up your two toddlers from childcare, and stop at your local Walmart store on the way home to pick up some groceries. After successfully managing your shopping cart and two squirming little ones you finally reach the checkout aisle, sighing with relief as you realize that your day is almost done. But once there, you find that Big Labor protesters, most of whom don’t even work at Walmart, have taken over the store. They are chanting loudly and yelling directly at cashiers because they are not currently union members...

"Yes, it's true, My ethics fit neatly between my fingernails..." It’s not easy being Terry McAuliffe. The Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia has a union problem in a state that’s not enthusiastic about unions and their bosses. Since 1947, for example, the commonwealth has protected Virginians from forced membership in a union, however cleverly forced unionism is portrayed, with a tough right-to-work law that protects everyone’s right to hold a job without having to share a paycheck with strangers. Virginia’s stance on right-to-work is rooted in the principle expressed by Thomas Jefferson: “To compel a man to furnish funds...

Gary Abud is a commodity experts say is in great demand around the country. He's recognized as a highly effective science teacher and was named the 2013-14 Teacher of the Year in Michigan. However, the Grosse Pointe North High School Science teacher ranked 477th out of 595 teachers for salary in his own school district, according to data acquired in a Freedom of Information Act request. Abud made $56,876 in 2012-13, which is about $21,000 less a year than the district's average salary of $77,969 a year. The average teacher salary in Michigan in 2012 was $62,631, according to the...

<p>Investigators plan to dig up an Oakland County field Monday in hopes of discovering the remains of Jimmy Hoffa, an FBI spokesperson confirms to FOX 2.</p> <p>Monday's dig comes after aging mobster Tony Zerilli said earlier this year that Hoffa's body was buried in the northern Oakland Township field, about 20 miles north of the restaurant where he was last seen in July 1975.</p>

Organized Labor: On the surface, the Los Angeles mayor's race looked like a choice between Coke and Pepsi. But Eric Garcetti's lopsided win over Wendy Greuel showed a major difference — in the public's view of unions. City Controller Greuel lost 54%-46% on Tuesday, bested by City Councilman Garcetti, who will become the mayor of America's second-largest city on July 1. It was an interesting result because the candidates are two peas in a pod. Both are left-wing Democrats with ideas so closely aligned they have been political allies; both grew up in the San Fernando Valley; and both hold...

While more than 100 school districts rushed to approve new contracts that impeded implementation of right-to-work before the March 27 deadline, at least two districts took a different approach. Pewamo-Westphalia Community Schools and Hamilton Community School district embraced the concept of allowing its teachers a choice to join a union as a condition of their employment. Both districts approved new teachers’ union contracts before the right-to-work law took effect, but had specific language in their agreements that allowed teachers to opt out of their union. Hamilton Community Schools did it through a memo-of-understanding. "It was important to me and the...

Labor unions are breaking with President Obama on ObamaCare. Months after the president’s reelection, a variety of unions are publicly balking at how the administration plans to implement the landmark law. They warn that unless there are changes, the results could be catastrophic. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) — a 1.3 million-member labor group that twice endorsed Obama for president — is very worried about how the reform law will affect its members’ healthcare plans. Last month, the president of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers released a statement calling “for repeal or...

The head of the National Treasury Employee Union (NTEU), which represents employees of the Internal Revenue Service, met with President Barack Obama in the White House one day before the manager of the IRS’s “Technical Unit” suggested establishing a “Sensitive Case Report” for the tax-exempt status applications of Tea Party groups, according to data from the official White House visitor log and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The White House visitor log shows that NTEU President Colleen Kelley met with Obama--“POTUS,” President of the United States--on March 31, 2010. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report on...

The United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers is reportedly the first union to officially call for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. The health care law is prompting some serious buyer’s remorse in Big Labor, which worked hard on behalf of the administration to pass it: The union’s statement can be found here. The full text is below: United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers International President Kinsey M. Robinson issued the following statement today calling for a repeal or complete reform of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA):

Just days before the state's right-to-work law goes into effect, a union representing Kroger workers in Michigan pushed through a new contract that locks its members into paying dues or fees to the union for four years. Grocery employees represented by the United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 876 ratified the agreement March 22, according to the union's website. The previous union contract was supposed to expire June 15, 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The weeks leading up to the law's start date on March 28 have been filled with public sector unions rushing to approve...

Votes were tabulated yesterday for a Service Employees International Union election, the same group that was behind the “home health care dues skim” that took more than $34 million from the elderly and disabled in Michigan. Barring potential legal action, the SEIU Healthcare Michigan election will determine whether Marge Faville keeps her post as union president. However, some have raised questions about the election's legitimacy. Faville and challenger Johnnie Jolliffi, who is the union's secretary-treasurer, are pitted against each other in the race. At issue in the election was Faville's plan to allow the home-based caregivers to vote in the...

The labor market is one of the most regulated markets in our economy. Minimum wage laws effectively tell teenagers they cannot work unless they can produce $7.25 an hour. When the ObamaCare mandate kicks in next year, that hurdle will climb to more than $15 an hour for many potential employees. OSHA regulations dictate what risks workers may and may not take while on the job. Wage and hour laws dictate what wage rate a worker can accept in order to be able to work at nights and on weekends. Those same laws tell many parents they can't take off...

Today, President Obama issues a challenge to Republican Senators: in nominating Tom Perez as Labor secretary, he implies that Senate Republicans don’t have either the guts or organizational skill to stop what would become perhaps the most radical left-wing cabinet member in history. Whether the president is right about GOP senators remains to be seen. As they say, I wrote the book on Tom Perez. My New York Times bestseller Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department is largely a catalog of the rancid racialism over which Perez has presided. The New Black Panther case is one...