Free Republic

According to the latest available U.S. Commerce Department data, the number of Michiganders employed in the auto and auto parts manufacturing industry is about half what it was at the turn of the millennium. United Auto Workers (UAW) union bosses, who for decades have wielded their government-granted monopoly-bargaining power to foist counterproductive work rules and inefficient benefit plans on unionized autoworkers and automakers, bear a large part of the responsibility. Of the roughly 170,000 remaining Michigan auto manufacturing employees, it’s likely that more than 100,000 are subject to UAW officials’ monopoly-bargaining power. In order to keep their jobs, employees must...

I’ll never forget the first time I voted.It was way back in the, ahem, 20th century. I remember how proud I was to finally carrying out my civic duty and vote. I actually decided before Election Day to be a volunteer on one of the campaigns.  A great man, Senator Frank Moss, had led the fight on so many issues I cared about: Medicare, Social Security, assistance for hospice care, money for special education. I signed up to help him.He’d been in the Senate for 18 years. His challenger’s platform was pretty much that 18 years was too long to serve...

The well-rounded education that all students deserve includes a deep appreciation for citizenship and its core right and responsibility: voting.With National Voter Registration Day just around the corner (Tuesday, September 25), the NEA is encouraging members to advocate for—and hold—voter registration drives in public high schools. We are getting voter registration tools out to members through the NEA EdJustice League, our new avenue for building power and making our voices heard in communities across the nation. (By the way: The NEA Edjustice League offers a variety of ways you can connect with other activists in your area on lots of...

Workers at Whole Foods are looking to unionize after rumors parent company Amazon are planning mass layoffs in an order to reduce costs. It's not the first time Whole Foods workers have tried to organize themselves but it is the first attempt since Amazon bough the company. The email reveals strains between managers and lower-level employees at the supermarket chain. 'Over the past year, layoffs and the consolidations of store-level positions at Whole Foods Market have upset the livelihood of team members, stirred, anxiety, and lowered moral [sic] within stores,' the email states. It alleges Whole Foods CEO John Mackey...

With Labor Day on the horizon, many Americans are worried that automation will soon monopolize the job market. And who could blame them considering that recent Labor Days have been haunted by headlines about human workers becoming obsolete? Here is just a small sample:“Robots Could Steal 40% of U.S. Jobs by 2030.”“Artificial Intelligence Will Take Your Job.”“Jeff Bezos believes people shouldn’t do jobs software can do.”“Robots won’t just take our jobs – they’ll make the rich even richer.”So, is this dystopian nightmare inevitable? Will the vast majority of Americans in the workforce be replaced by robots and cold, mechanical automata?Wrong...

On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka said President Donald Trump has “hurt workers.” On Trump’s performance for workers, Trumka said, “Unfortunately, to date, the things that he has done to hurt workers outpace what he’s done to help workers. He hasn’t come up with an infrastructure program that could put a lot of us back to work. He overturned a regulation that would deny over 5 million overtime that they would’ve had. He overturned some health and safety regulations that will hurt us on the job.” He continued, “Wages have been down since the...

One of the nation's most powerful labor unions is rallying supporters to oppose Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump's nominee to replace Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. On Friday, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) began circulating a petition online for its allies to send to their home state lawmakers. The union letter calls Kavanaugh a "narrow-minded extremist" and accuses the D.C. Circuit Court judge of undermining workers' rights and opposing abortion. "Kavanaugh is a narrow-minded extremist who will chip away at our rights in the workplace, the doctor's office and the ballot box," the letter says. "If Kavanaugh is confirmed he...

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) overwhelmingly passed a resolution on Friday evening saying it welcomes donations from fossil fuel industry workers and “employers’ political action committees.” Critics of the newly passed resolution are calling it a reversal of the DNC’s recently adopted ban on accepting donations from fossil fuel companies’ political organizations. DNC Chairman Tom Perez sponsored Friday’s resolution that allows the committee to accept contributions from “workers, including those in energy and related industries, who organize and donate to Democratic candidates individually or through their unions’ or employers’ political action committees.” Perez, who served as Labor Secretary in the...

Missouri voters delivered a resounding victory to unions Tuesday, rejecting a right-to-work law against compulsory union fees that had been passed by Republican state officials but placed on hold for more than a year after organized labor petitioned for a referendum. National and local labor unions spent millions of dollars to defeat Proposition A, hoping to reverse the momentum against them from a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling and the adoption of similar laws limiting labor powers in other historically strong union states. Officials at the AFL-CIO called the Missouri vote "a truly historic moment."

Several Washington state employees are suing for the right to break ties with their union, claiming the Supreme Court's landmark Janus decision should allow them to cancel their membership immediately. That June ruling said state government workers could not be forced to pay so-called “fair share” fees to support collective bargaining and other union activities. The decision delivered a blow to public-employee unions. But the lawsuit filed Thursday, if successful, could point to further repercussions. The six plaintiffs have all attempted to leave the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) since the Supreme Court decision, but say they've been told...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is getting an earful – on Twitter – from teachers union boss Randi Weingarten for reportedly keeping the door open to a possible Trump endorsement in 2020. Newsmax reported Wednesday that Trumka would not rule out a union endorsement for the president. “Every [candidate] will be looked at,” Trumka said. He added, “we will consider every candidate who’s running.” Trumka simply may have been stating union policy, not wanting to get ahead of an endorsement process that is nowhere close to starting, for an election more than two years out. At the same time, he noted...

Despite strong condemnations of the Trump administration for what he calls the “growing wage inequality” among Americans, AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka on Wednesday refused to rule out his union endorsing President Donald Trump for re-election in 2020. “Well, he will be looked at [for the labor endorsement],” Trumka told Newsmax, “Everyone [of the presidential candidates] will be looked at.” Pressed as to how serious he was about the AFL-CIO considering not endorsing the Democratic nominee for president for the first time since 1972, Trumka insisted “we will consider every candidate who’s running in 2020.” Recalling the last presidential race, the...

Few people would deny that, as a rule, parents want what is best for their children and keep their children’s needs, including their material needs, in mind when they make important decisions for their families. If this eminently plausible supposition is correct, then there is clear evidence that government-authorized forced unionism makes it more difficult for parents to provide their children with a comfortable standard of living and good prospects for the future. At this time, 22 states have yet to adopt Right to Work laws protecting employees from being forced to pay dues or fees to an unwanted union...

The recent Supreme Court ruling in Janus vs AFSCME ended a practice of abuse of public sector employees by their unions. The decision prevents unions from forcing the payment of dues by non-members and is a major victory for our civil servants. Now it is time to stop similar corrupt tactics used by unions to force private sector non-union employees to pay dues. Thanks to a hand-out by the Obama National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), unions can collect involuntary dues from former members who recently cancelled membership. In 2013, the NLRB overturned the 1962 Bethlehem Steel decision, which set the...

The National Education Association thinks Colin Kaepernick is an ideal role model. Many members, however, may take their loyalty elsewhere. And frankly, they should. On July 1, the NEA honored Kaepernick, along with several other persons and organizations, with a “Human and Civil Rights” award in recognition of the former pro-football star’s campaign “to fight racial oppression through education and social justice activism.” The born-again political revolutionary, who these last couple years has been peddling the idea that police are conducting a nationwide pogrom against innocent blacks, accepted the honor with predictable melodrama. “To me, this is bigger than football...

The National Right to Work Foundation (NRTWF) is demanding the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) refund up to $100 million in union fees to California state workers. The move follows the Supreme Court’s Janus v. AFSCME decision banning unions from automatically deducting fees from non-members’ paychecks. The NRTWF announced that the Janus decision strengthens its class-action suit, titled Hamidi et al. v. Service Employees Union International, Local 1000, filed on behalf of 40,000 California state employees. The lawsuit seeks refunds for non-union workers whose pay was seized by SEIU officials who have claimed since 2012 that only public workers who...

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the Janus v. AFSCME case has heartened conservatives throughout the nation, especially in non-right-to-work states such as California that require public employees to pay dues to their respective unions. Janus will, over time, reduce the power of these unions as they are forced to spend more time wooing members — and they will have less disposable cash to control state legislatures and city councils.

Trump Plans to Undo Obama Rule Letting Unions Skim Dues From Medicaid Payments The Trump administration is taking steps to prevent labor unions from withholding dues for home healthcare workers from their Medicaid payments, an Obama-era innovation that many observers believe is illegal. On Tuesday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed undoing a 2014 rule allowing states to skim public-sector union dues from Medicaid payments to independent home healthcare providers on the theory that those providers are de facto public employees — a privilege that has netted unions anywhere from $71 million (CMS’ estimate) to $200 million...

On the first day of the 2018 NEA Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly in Minneapolis, NEA President Lily Eskelsen García used her keynote address to stress the challenges facing educators and public school. While the climb ahead is steep, she assured the more than 6,000 delegates that a growing army of activists – educators, parents and students – are showing a way forward. There is something different about this particular moment in our history, Eskelsen García said.  “Billionaires, like Betsy DeVos and the Koch brothers, have never been more embedded in political power. Billionaires are trumping the rights of working...

AFGE’s statement for the record calls reorganization ‘a thinly veiled attempt to devolve federal involvement’WASHINGTON – Today, the American Federation of Government Employees submitted a statement for the record before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s hearing, “Examining the Administration’s Reorganization Plan.”The hearing follows the Trump administration’s June 21 announcement of a “Reform Plan and Reorganization Recommendations,” that was immediately rejected by the nation’s largest federal union as a “scheme to gut federal services.”In the statement for the record from AFGE National President J. David Cox Sr. (available at www.afge.org/ReorgHearing), Cox said, “AFGE objects to many recommendations of this...