Free Republic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 30,2018WASHINGTON – Defying staffing mandates and the need for increased hiring to safeguard prisons, this week the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) made public it is initiating a process of eliminating jobs within the agency. The mandate will slash roughly 14 percent of positions from correctional facilities. The proposed cuts are coming at a time of severe understaffing in most of its prisons.  BOP has left thousands of authorized correctional workers’ positions vacant all year, endangering inmates in its custody, control, and care.  “President Trump came into office preaching about the need for a safer America, but instead he is...

The Democrats want open borders, since their future election chances depend on massive demographic shifts through mass third-world immigration. To their consternation, the #SchumerShutdown fight whimpered out because the public doesn’t want more immigration. That avenue for increasing their voter base is closing on them. Democrats are ignoring another declining base of support to their hurt: organized labor. For decades, labor unions ensured victory. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer won his Senate Seat because labor unions held him crushed his Republican opponent in 1998. Unfortunately, despite two major opportunities for long-term pro-labor reforms, unions have seen Democrats taking them for granted....

Strong unions help to create strong schools for students and even stronger communities that benefit all of us. This, we know.For generations, unions have been the best path to the middle class for working people, especially people of color and women. But in this rigged economy, unions are under attack, and those attacks are coming not just from the White House and Capitol Hill. They’re happening at the ballot box and at the Supreme Court with cases like Janus.Today, the National Education Association and the American Association of University Professors submitted an amicus brief today with the Supreme Court in...

AFGE union president also warns against steep cuts to non-defense programs WASHINGTON – Federal government programs and services benefiting millions of Americans are in jeopardy due to a potential government shutdown and steep cuts in non-defense spending, the head of the largest union representing federal government workers told Congress. American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. urged lawmakers in a Jan. 18 letter to keep the government running beyond Jan. 19, when current funding expires.“It is very clear that a federal government shutdown could inflict serious pain on everyday working people,” Cox said in the...

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...

This isn’t getting anywhere near the same amount of oxygen in the news cycle as the Net Neutrality story, but it certainly should be. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under the tenure of Barack Obama was busy handing out all sorts of goodies to the unions which finance most Democratic political campaigns. One particular burr under the collective, conservative saddle was a new “reinterpretation” of rules regarding the obligations of larger corporations who authorize the operation of franchises under their name. I wrote about this back in 2015 when the rule was originally finalized and it was a deplorable...

Another official at the Service Employees International Union has been ousted following accusations of sexual assault. Pedro Malave was first fired from a local Boston-area SEIU chapter in 2014, only to be later rehired at two other local chapters in California, the labor website Payday Report reported last week. Politico‘s Morning Shift newsletter flagged the report on Monday and confirmed that the locals dismissed Malave after they learned of his past alleged conduct. In the summer of 2014, the Boston-area 32BJ SEIU Local 615 investigated Malave, then the assistant director, after a co-worker, Daria Alladio, accused him of sexual assault....

While not on a par with what is happening in Hollywood, the SEIU has its own sexual harassment scandal going on. Buzzfeed reports that one union leader has been fired and another resigned after complaints about their interactions with female staffers..... More than a dozen current and former staffers interviewed by BuzzFeed News said complaints about top-level staff on the Fight for 15 were an open secret, and that complaints about abusive behavior by organizers who reported to top strategist Courtney led to no action. In October, the union suspended Courtney, following his marriage to a union employee. Sources said...

At the 2017 AFL-CIO Convention, the delegates passed a resolution calling for the creation of a Workers' Bill of Rights. Speaking in support of the resolution, President Richard L. Trumka said: Sisters and brothers, working people need a bill of rights. A collective bargaining agreement for America. This will serve as a platform for our members to rally around. It will give prospective members a clear statement of our values. And it will provide political candidates and elected officials with a litmus test for our support. We simply refuse to accept the reality of struggling to make ends meet in...

Scott Courtney, an executive vice president at Service Employees International Union, has resigned, according to a statement Monday from SEIU spokesperson Sahar Wali. "This morning, President Mary Kay Henry accepted Scott Courtney's resignation as an elected officer and member of SEIU. This comes a week after she suspended him from his assigned duties based on preliminary information that surfaced through an internal investigation launched to look into questions about to potential violations of our union's anti-nepotism policy, efforts to evade our code of ethics and subsequent complaints related to sexual misconduct and abusive behavior towards union staff," the statement reads....

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...

In an otherwise predictable New Jersey election season, the state’s largest public sector union has come out behind a Trump-supporting Republican facing an incumbent Democrat. The New Jersey Education Association, which is New Jersey’s top political spender, is backing Republican Fran Grenier against Steve Sweeney, the Democratic state Senate president and New Jersey’s second most-powerful elected official. The controversial endorsement has angered liberal allies, but the union remains unapologetic in its message: Democrats cannot take teachers for granted. It’s a contentious move, but one that is unlikely to change the ultimate outcome of the election. Democrats are expected to control...

Internet giant Google is sponsoring an event honoring Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood – the nation’s largest abortion provider.Google is a Platinum ($25,000) sponsor of the Center for Community Change’s “Community Champions Awards” event, which will be held Thursday, October 12, at the Howard Center in Washington, D.C., a Google spokesperson confirmed to CNSNews.com on Monday.The annual event honors “Heroes on the Front Lines of Resistance,” the Center’s website says: “Too frequently, we focus only on the final outcome of a campaign instead of taking a moment to honor the often-unsung heroes behind the scenes. The Community Change...

If you’ve ever seen Planes, Trains, and Automobiles or Meet The Parents—two films I can think of from the top of my head that show flight attendant abuse (for lack of a better word)—you know that the job is difficult. Heck, forget the movies, I’m sure there has been some instance in which an unruly passenger just lays into a flight attendant. And then there are cases where the flight attendants are just as curt and surly towards the passengers. Well, for one Southwest flight attendant, Charlene Carter, she found herself out of a job because she was pro-life and...

The reason for truck drivers not showing up? The Puerto Rican Teamsters Union, Frente Amplio, is refusing to move the product. Report: Puerto Rico Teamsters Union, “Frente Amplio”, Refuse to Deliver Supplies – Use Hurricane Maria as Contract Leverage… Puerto Rican born and raised, Colonel Michael A. Valle (”Torch”), Commander, 101st Air and Space Operations Group, and Director of the Joint Air Component Coordination Element, 1st Air Force, responsible for Hurricane Maria relief efforts, has the following comment: …They have the generators, water, food, medicine, and fuel on the ground, yet the supplies are not moving across the island as...

Puerto Rican born and raised, Colonel Michael A. Valle (”Torch”), Commander, 101st Air and Space Operations Group, and Director of the Joint Air Component Coordination Element, 1st Air Force, responsible for Hurricane Maria relief efforts, has the following comment: …They have the generators, water, food, medicine, and fuel on the ground, yet the supplies are not moving across the island as quickly as they’re needed. “It’s a lack of drivers for the transport trucks, the 18 wheelers. Supplies we have. Trucks we have. There are ships full of supplies, backed up in the ports, waiting to have a vehicle to...

The reason for truck drivers not showing up? The Puerto Rican Teamsters Union, Frente Amplio, is refusing to move the product.

Professional NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick can't find a team to call home in the National Football League, but that didn't stop the NFL Player's Association from celebrating his charity work this week. The official player's union of the NFL named Kap as the organization's Week 1 "Community MVP" on Friday. He received the honor "for his commitment to empowering underserved communities through donations and grassroots outreach," the NFLPA announcement notes.

#DefendDACA : Educators Urge Congress to pass the Dream Act of 2017 NOW.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It’s possible there could be additional delays before a decision is made on the constitutionality of the West Virginia Workplace Freedom Act following an hour of oral arguments Tuesday before the state Supreme Court. Justice Margaret Workman questioned the decision by the office of state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey to bring the right-to-work law to the Supreme Court before there’s been a full hearing on the merits of the case in circuit court. “I just think you all are taking a shortcut coming up here wanting all of the answers without the lower court having made any...