Free Republic

If you want to teach those unscrupulous Democrats down there in that Congressional Cesspool the value a secret ballot follow these instructions. 1. Establish a small temporary office manned by two people in each congressional district. Post a big sign in the office “Your share could be thousands of dollars !”. 2. Put the following ad in the newspapers, on the radio and television. “Order your absentee ballot now – bring your blank ballot to the office listed below and receive your share of the canceled one trillion dollar stimulus package if the republicans gain the majority in the House...

PHOENIX—Times are tough for labor unions. They may have seen a small increase in enrollment last year—the first in 25 years—but that was almost entirely attributed to new federal, state, and city hires rather than private sector employees deciding to organize or join an existing union. Overall, membership is in steep decline. While union workers made up 20 percent of the national job force in the early 1980s, today that number has dropped to just 12.4 percent, with some experts pinning the cause on a mistrust of union representation among young professionals. Big labor's efforts to revitalize private sector unionization,...

The GOP victories reveal fissures in the coalition that elected Barack Obama. If you were watching television on Tuesday night as the election returns came in showing Republicans capturing the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey, you probably missed seeing the biggest losers of the evening. You may have caught the concession speech of Creigh Deeds, who ran 12% behind Barack Obama's winning percentage of the vote in Virginia, and that of Jon Corzine who, after spending over $100 million of his own money on three... --snip-- Instead, support evaporated as Democrats from places as dissimilar as Arkansas and California...

Why is Newt Gingrich undercutting our efforts to stop Big Labor's Card Check bill? Right to Work activists will be disturbed to learn Newt is backing an outspoken supporter of forced unionism and the union bosses in a special election for Congress next week in New York 23. Does Mr. Gingrich really think it makes no difference whether the Republican Party is pro-worker freedom or not? Just like the final few years when he was Speaker of the House of Representatives, for Newt, it is appears it is just about power and party over principle. You’ve probably heard some of...

Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Committee, opens up a can of whoop ass on Newt Gingrich: Right to Work activists will be disturbed to learn Newt is backing an outspoken supporter of forced unionism and the union bosses in a special election for Congress next week in New York 23. Does Mr. Gingrich really think it makes no difference whether the Republican Party is pro-worker freedom or not? Just like the final few years when he was Speaker of the House of Representatives, for Newt, it is appears it is just about power and party over...

Useless Unions by: Sarah Carlsruh, September 21, 2009 According to a recent ad campaign sponsored by American Rights at Work, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is all about “letting workers choose to join a union to earn better pay and benefits.” Yet Diana Furchtgott-Roth and Andrew Brown of the Hudson Institute disagree, referring to the “sorry state of unions” as a reason the organizations are embracing EFCA, which is currently pending in Congress. Their September 2009 study, Comparing Union-Sponsored and Private Pension Plans: How Safe Are Workers’ Retirements? states that “many of the major national unions advertise that union...

The AFL-CIO's new president on card check, health reform and the challenges facing the union movement.Pittsburgh The new boss looks the part. There's the Walesa-esque moustache and burly former linebacker's physique. The Polish-Italian roots in the southwestern Pennsylvania mining town of Nemacolin where he went down the coal shaft at 19, following his grandfather and father, before rising up union ranks. There's the reputation for toughness, a short fuse and gruff sense of humor. To supporters, Richard Trumka boasts the right résumé to head up America's largest labor federation; to doubters, inside the movement and out, the AFL-CIO went with...

Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union, has just released a statement vowing not to be "silenced" by "right wing attack dogs" targeting "progressive individuals" and "community organizations." Stern, whose union has sometimes been linked with the community organizing group ACORN, which yesterday suffered an enormous blow when the House of Representatives voted 345-45 to cut off all federal funds for the organization, said his union will not be intimidated by a right-wing "backlash" that is "fierce, ugly and anti-American." Here is the full text of Stern's statement:This is a moment of profound change for this country—from kitchen...

On Tuesday, Senator Arlen Specter R D-Pa. raised expectations when he told the A.F.L.-C.I.O. convention in Pittsburgh that the Senate has “pounded out an Employees Choice bill which will meet labor’s objectives” and predicted it would pass this year. There was only one problem with his announcement, it was fantasy. The Senate presently has 99 members (because of the death of Ted Kennedy) Arlen Specter was the only one of the 99 that knew about the compromise. In other words it never happened. The Hill spoke to other Senators who tried to politely pull away from Specter's statement

As the president and Congress considers passing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) in which the “card check” feature is still a major provision, a federal agency is trying to prevent its own employees from using the card check practice to organize. The Legal Services Corp., a congressionally chartered, taxpayer-funded entity has hired legal counsel to try and prevent its employees in its oversight office from using the card check procedure to become unionized... Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

The all-consuming debate over health care has effectively sucked all of the oxygen out of the policy world leaving little room for discussion, let alone action on other major elements of the progressive agenda—or so it would seem. The mammoth bills winding their way through Congress will certainly upend our health care sector, if they are enacted. Little known, however, are several provisions that will provide an enormous pay-off to one of the Democrat parties most loyal constituency—Big Labor.

While the Obama administration and its Democratic allies in Congress press to allow private-sector workers to unionize by signing authorization cards instead of voting by secret ballot, the government's legal-aid program for the poor has declared the so-called "card check" strategy "unreliable" and rejected an effort by some of its own workers to organize that way. The Legal Services Corp., a congressionally chartered, taxpayer-funded entity, even hired a law firm to rebuff the efforts of workers in its oversight offices to gain union representation by the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), forcing the workers to conduct a...

Controversial legislation that would make it easier to organize unions will pass this year, Vice President Joe Biden said today. Appearing at a Labor Day rally in Pittsburgh, Biden praised the role of unions in building the middle class and said the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) will make it through Congress before the end of the year, the Associated Press reports. That's a very optimistic timeline, considering that Democrats are already putting all their legislative muscle behind healthcare reform.

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, a popular American comedy duo during the 1940s and 50s, performed a number crowd pleasing skits. Even today, their "Who’s On First" skit is still well known. Another of their famous skits, "Union Loafers", would probably be considered 'politically incorrect' by today's far-left activists. Nonetheless, the humor of this comedic routine seems to be an appropriate reminder since looming on the horizon is the "card check" scheme to end private unionization ballots. In this one, Abbott gets a loafing job at a bakery and Costello can’t understand that he gets paid for it. Video: Union...

Some scholars squabble about the particulars, but there is no question that democracy's roots go back at least 2,500 years to practices developed in the Greek city-state of Athens. But the adoption of a key pillar of democracy — the secret ballot — came far more recently. In England in the 1830s, disenfranchised working-class men and sympathetic members of Parliament launched the Chartist movement. The most crucial of its six objectives was universal suffrage for all men over 21, but not far behind was the secret-ballot provision. It took decades, but eventually the secret ballot became the democratic norm —...

Congress will likely deal unions a disappointment on labor law reform this year. Prospects are dimming for a vote in the Senate on legislation that would allow labor groups to organize via card signing campaign instead of a vote. The House of Representatives has not yet approved the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) but is expected to do so this session. The holdup is in the Senate. Although talks to craft a compromise, led by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), continue behind the scenes, more-urgent legislation is threatening to push consideration of any compromise into next year. Health care reform is...

As you watch it, try to figure out whether the Card Check supporters are running it or whether it is the opponents. Specter is such a craven, unprincipled hack that this ad could have been run by either side in this debate, as it focuses on his unreliability and flip-flopping, starting from his party affiliation all the way down to individual issues like this one. The money clip (shot last week at the Nutroots Nation conference) is at the end.

The debate over the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is being reframed now that the notorious “card check” provision—which would have taken away the right to secret ballots on union representation—will be pulled from the bill. Business groups and members of Congress on the fence will now come under tremendous pressure to support the act, although equally objectionable provisions, such as mandatory arbitration, remain. Yet there has been virtually no debate over the bill’s onerous and unprecedented penalties against employers who may fall afoul of vague National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rules as workers try to unionize. These penalties will...

Just on Rush: 1. Dems have beaten-down Blue Dogs on Obamacare -- vote may happen Friday 2. Reid to put card check into Obamacare Bill as amendment to avoid a separate vote on it in Senate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOKEif6Tg-Q The union bosses are counting on your Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb to join President Barack Obama in support of their radical agenda. Number one on Big Labors list? The Card Check Forced Unionism Bill. If passed, workers will lose their right to secret ballot elections when union organizers assault their workplaces. Instead, union militants will be able to target workers with lies, intimidation, threats -- and worse -- all to get them to sign so-called union authorization cards and accept union boss control. The result? Millions of workers and small businesses would be FORCED under Big Labor...

Yesterday a warning from TheTruthAboutTheEFCA.com was published that, despite the news reports, card check was not a dead issue. Dead, weakened, whatever, at least it looked as if the widening disdain for the card check feature of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was a step in the right direction. But, some are beginning to wonder if card check was merely a tactic all along. A recent National Review editorial thinks that the loss of card check would be meaningless if its removal from the EFCA meant that passage was easier. After all, the EFCA is far more egregious and...

Thought #1: If the 2012 presidential election were held today, a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey says, President Obama and possible Republican nominee Mitt Romney would be all tied up at 45% each and President Obama would beat Alaska Governor Sarah Palin by six points – 48% to 42%. It’s foolish to read very much into a poll looking three years into the future, but while it tells us very little about potential Republican challengers, it may say something about Barack Obama’s popularity that only 45 percent think they would vote for a second term. The Rasmussen Reports daily...

Senate Democrats on Friday floated a huge trial balloon announcing a possible compromise deal on the Orwellian-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).  Better known as “card check,� the compromise that was floated would drop the provision that would ban secret ballots for workers when deciding whether or not to unionize their workplace. The bill still contains one of the most damaging elements:  mandatory binding arbitration. Mark McKinnon, a former Bush and McCain strategist and spokesman for the Workforce Fairness Institute, spoke with HUMAN EVENTS on Friday about this latest in the ongoing saga of unions attempting to cash in on...

Politicians don't typically broadcast their defeat, and when they do it pays to watch for the blindside hit. That's surely the case with last week's reports that six liberal Senators are abandoning part of labor's top priority, "card check" legislation. The legislation to eliminate secret ballots in union elections has in fact been comatose for weeks, since Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas declared their opposition. So the real purpose of this "concession" is to shift to Plan B, which is to repackage most of what labor wants with new ribbons and wrapping. The bill that Senators Tom...

A group of senators are discussing dropping a key provision in the card-check bill in order to win centrist support in the upper chamber. But congressional aides and union officials said no agreement has been hammered out yet on an alternative to a bill that is organized labor’s top legislative priority. They stressed that that every piece of the legislation is up for discussion in order to earn 60 votes to beat back a certain Senate filibuster. A report in The New York Times Thursday said senators led by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) had decided to remove the card-check or...

A half-dozen senators friendly to labor have decided to drop a central provision [card check] of a bill that would have made it easier to organize workers. ... In its place, several Senate and labor officials said, the revised bill would require shorter unionization campaigns and faster elections. ... Though some details remain to be worked out, under the expected revisions, union elections would have to be held within five or 10 days after 30 percent of workers signed cards favoring having a union. Currently, the campaigns often run two months. To further address labor’s concerns that the election process...

One of the main premises of the Orwellian-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is the card check feature. This feature eliminates the right of potential union employees to have the benefit of a secret ballot when they vote for or against organizing under a union. Recently, Rasmussen did a poll on the basic concept to see what the prevailing feelings were and it looks like the union position comes out heavily on the losing end of the stats with this one. What’s more, most people agree with the Republican position that opposes the union’s... Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama told labor leaders Monday he remains committed to passage of legislation making it easier to form unions, but he did not offer any timeline. The Employee Free Choice Act — also known as "card check" — has been stalled for months as lawmakers work out a compromise that can satisfy several wavering Democrats. The union bill needs 60 votes to defeat an expected GOP filibuster in the Senate. "We believe his commitment to that is as strong now as it ever was," said Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America. "He said...

Thirty percent (30%) of Americans say it is fair to form a union without having a secret ballot vote if a majority of a company’s workers sign a card saying they want to unionize. But a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 52% of adults do not believe it is fair to form a union without a secret vote. Eighteen percent (18%) are not sure. Sixty-five percent (65%) of Republicans believe it’s unfair to establish a union without a secret ballot. Democrats and adults not affiliated with either party are more closely divided, although pluralities of both groups...

Less than six hours after he was sworn in as MN's junior senator and two hours after casting his first vote (against an amendment sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to the Homeland Security Appropriations Act), Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) announced that he has already co-sponsored his first bill. "As of about a half an hour ago, I became the co-sponsor of my first piece of legislation in the Senate," Franken told a gathering at the AFL-CIO headquarters this evening. "And it's something called the Employee Free Choice Act." The fight over EFCA is highly-charged, and the battle is taking...

An interactive game about present day Organized Labor (Unions) push for doing away with the secret ballot and replacing it with public card signing. Play this interactive flash game to learn what life would be life if the so-called “Employee Freedom of Choice Act” passes and “card check” becomes the law of the land. Be sure to Contact Your Legislator Forward this link to your email forwards

Unions: We’re Better Off Without Them How the Obama administration's push for the Employee Free Choice Act could cripple the backbone of the economy: small businesses. By Kevin Kelly | NEWSWEEK Published Jul 6, 2009 I got the call from my assistant just as I was getting seated on a plane with my family heading to Dallas for Thanksgiving. "I thought you better know this," she said with pain in her voice, "OHSA is here." Three words that would chill any business owner. Because if an Occupational Health and Safety Administration inspector shows up unannounced it means someone in your...

Thuggery remembered.

The L.A. Times had a very interesting piece last week on the unusually close relationship between Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern and President Obama. The story revealed how Stern "enjoys unusual access to the White House," and how often Stern is invited to attend meetings the administration holds on policy even as other union heads are left out of the loop. The piece does cast some doubt on just how much clout Stern might have with Obama as several of the initiatives he has pushed hard for have yet to come to fruition -- but it should also...

When we’re finally done with Obama his “Czar System” circumventing the constitutional confirmation process will stand out. Since he has a Czar for everything, count on a Labor Czar who will be his enforcer. Andy Stern, President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) will be Labor Czar. He’ll direct Obama’s ACORN brown shirts and intimidate workers into surrendering to Card Check and nobody will be able to stop them. Who is Commissar Stern? Stern’s a favorite son of the Democratic Socialists of America, whose name spells out its aims. Stern’s SEIU is ruthlessly lawless. More than 3820 Unfair Labor...

Unions claim the Employee Free Choice Act aka Card Check is needed because employers intimidate workers during the voting process, however their own research proves the opposite. From the Heritage Foundation Organized labor argues that Congress should effectively take away workers’ right to vote in secret ballot elections because employers allegedly intimidate workers in the run-up to elections by firing and threatening to fire pro-union workers. However, a recently released study commissioned by two union-funded organizations, American Rights at Work and the Economic Policy Institute, shows that employers rarely break the law during organizing campaigns.

New study by former union organizer sheds light on the real union agenda. Kate Bronfenbrenner published "No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing". One of the points she makes is that only 9% of non-union workers want to join a union but 47% of union members think that most workers want one.

While we were distracted by the dislocation of Erin Burnett's hairdo yesterday, we missed the news that she has fallen afoul of the labor movement. It seems that Erin comparing the situation in Iran to the impending Employee Free Choice Act, labor's favorite piece of legislation, during her "Stop Trading" segment with Jim Cramer. After Erin's comemnts yesterday, the SEIU instructed its members to bombard Burnett and Cramer with emails pilloring her “irresponsible journalism” and “reckless reporting.” SEIU says that thousands of emails have been sent. Erin's long been a favorite target for the left, accused by a Huffington Post...

Usually when there's turmoil in the Middle East, you'll see a spike in the price of oil, but not this time. On June 15, the first day of trading since the public backlash in Iran began from what many are calling a fraudulent election, the price of oil has actually declined - after a rally over the past few weeks. But as CNBC's Jim Cramer pointed out on his June 15 "Stop Trading" segment on "Street Signs," oil is falling because this was expected. "North Korea, Syria - I mean these are places when they always have elections, there's always...

The unions at United Parcel Service are demanding the Democrats kill FEDEX for them. They can’t do it themselves, so they are demanding their bought and paid for party do it for them. For years Democrats have changed or ignored laws designed to stop union gangsters from squeezing the life out of defenseless private companies and local governments. Nevertheless, over the past 40 years union membership has continually dropped from about 35% to 12% nationally. This has the union gangsters in a panic mode and demanding their Card Check scheme, to forcibly unionize the whole country, be rammed through by...

Imagine working at a company that treats every employee exactly the same, irrespective of their individual effort. No matter how hard you work or how much your co-workers slack off, you get exactly the same pay. For millions of people, America's outdated labor laws and one-size-fits-all collective-bargaining agreements make this a reality. Maybe this is why studies show union members are less satisfied with their jobs than are nonunion workers and many Americans simply refuse to work in union shops. Indeed, just 9 percent of nonunion workers tell pollsters they would like to join a union, and private-sector union membership...

Almost half of the nation’s 20 largest unions have pension funds that federal law classifies as “endangered” or in “critical” condition due to being underfunded, an Examiner review of federal actuarial reports shows. Pensions with less than 80 percent of the assets needed to cover present and projected liabilities are considered “endangered,” while those that fall below a 65 percent threshold are classified as “critical” under the Pension Protection Act of 2006. The growing number of local and national union pensions that lack sufficient resources to cover their obligations could threaten the retirement security not just of union members, but...

The next governor of Virginia will have little impact on the heated debate over the Employee Free Choice Act, but that's not stopping one candidate from using the controversial issue to win headlines. Former Attorney General Bob McDonnell (R) has spent several weeks repeatedly bringing up the legislation, the so-called "card check" measure that would make it easier for unions to form. At a time when Virginia, like the rest of the nation, is hemorrhaging jobs, McDonnell casts card check as bad for businesses that need all the help they can get to begin rehiring employees. "It's a big issue...

Big Labor: If you thought "card check" legislation that would kill off workers' right to a secret ballot is dead, think again. Despite public repudiation, it's back — with its advocates using sneakier tactics.The Employee Free Choice Act would permit the establishment of new unions solely on the signatures of a company's employees, taken either on the fly or with union thugs standing in their doorways. Besides denying workers a right to a secret ballot, "card check," as it's known, also forces federal arbitration onto companies for union contracts, ensuring that either unions dictate the wages they want or a...

As Democrats and Republicans stand increasingly at odds over measures to help improve the economy, one bill under consideration highlights how critical party loyalty could be in determining policy measures. Mitt Romney, a likely contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, joined a forum of business advocates in Northern Virginia on Thursday to denounce a union-backed bill, the Employee Free Choice Act, as little more than political payback from Democrats that would worsen the nation's economic footing. The bill would be "catastrophic for the economy," Romney said. "The impact long term is people start less businesses here. It's not great...

Union leaders, clergy and liberal members of Congress gathered in the mostly empty U.S. Capitol Visitors Center early Tuesday morning to hear multicultural choir music, speeches from religious leaders--and to pray for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The event was a prayer breakfast sponsored by Faith Leaders for Workplace Fairness--a coalition of liberal religious groups that was formed for the sole purpose of promoting EFCA, commonly known as the “card-check” bill.

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Union leaders, clergy and liberal members of Congress gathered in the mostly empty U.S. Capitol Visitors Center early Tuesday morning to hear multicultural choir music, speeches from religious leaders--and to pray for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The event was a prayer breakfast sponsored by Faith Leaders for Workplace Fairness--a coalition of liberal religious groups that was formed for the sole purpose of promoting EFCA, commonly known as the “card-check” bill. Under this bill, union organizers could compel an employer to recognize a union as representing the employer's workers any time more than...

In the Ozark Mountain town of Rogers, Ark., more than 250 business owners gathered for lunch at a construction company last month to focus on what they saw as a major threat -- a proposal in Congress to make it easier to form labor unions. At each place setting, attendees found pre-stamped postcards and pre-written letters to be sent to Arkansas' U.S. senators, Democrats Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, who had supported the labor bill in the past. After lunch, the business owners were ushered to computers to send e-mail messages as well. Five days later came the good news:...

Although Barack Obama is often compared with FDR, the current president is actually more radical than was Roosevelt. That was among my comments when I appeared on a panel this morning on ‘Money For Breakfast’ on the Fox Business channel. Hosted by Alexis Glick, my fellow panelists were Elaine Chao, Labor Secretary‌ in the administration of Pres. George W. Bush, and Al Lewis, of Dow Jones Newswires. My argument on Obama being more radical than FDR was this: Roosevelt created the modern welfare state. Dubious as was that achievement, the change Obama would impose is even more fundamental. He seeks...

After many setbacks, the “card check” bill’s chief Senate sponsor is expressing new optimism that the legislation, which would ease union organizing, could be on the Senate floor this summer.In recent weeks, Tom Harkin , D-Iowa, has been meeting with a small number of senators, with occasional input from Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., to hash out alternatives to the legislation (S 560, HR 1409) that would still reflect its basic purpose: making it easier for workers to certify and join viable unions.Compromise has been on the agenda since the legislation was introduced in March, but strategies have...