Free Republic

During C-SPAN Newsmakers interview (8-8-10), AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka comments on the importance of the Employee Free Choice Act, saying "it's part of the solution to creating an economy that really does work for everybody." He also said he thinks EFCA will be back on the floor by the end of the year.

Washington (CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama, seeking to rally support for embattled Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections, on Wednesday pledged his support for a card check bill, which would eliminate secret ballots in elections to unionize workplaces. Obama told the AFL-CIO Executive Council that his administration has taken many measures to help union workers and move the beleaguered economy in the right direction.  “We passed the Fair Pay Act to help put a stop to pay discrimination,” Obama told the union leaders gathered in Washington on Wednesday. “We’ve reversed the executive orders of the last administration that were designed to...

Just headline so far. Did you really think Mad Dog Pelosi would rest? Awaiting similar news from Reid.

Trying to reclaim some of the excitement among unions who helped him win election in 2008, President Obama on Wednesday implored members of the AFL-CIO to be patient with the pace of the recovery and warned them they and the economy would suffer far worse under Republican rule. "I'm sure you're talking to a lot of your locals, I'm sure they're feeling like, 'Boy, change has not happened fast enough,' " he said. "I am happy as president of the United States to take responsibility for making decisions that are going to put us in a stronger position down the...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) addressed the Communications Workers of America, reaffirming her commitment to passing EFCA: “Of course we are committed in our party and we passed over and over again and we hope that it will be the law of the land soon, the Employer Free Choice Act.” Union pressure to pass EFCA, or the card-check bill, began in earnest over a year ago, but the legislation– at the time– took a back seat to the health-care reform and “cap-and-trade” energy bill debates. Under the proposed legislation, if union organizers can get a majority of workers to sign...

The Hill is reporting that Iowa’s leading Democrat, Senator Tom Harkin, is promising that the lame-duck Senate will again take up Big Labor's favored Employee Free Choice Act, (EFCA), the famous card check act that is neither good for employees nor one that facilitates "free choice" of any kind. Apparently, what's bad for the nation is easier to push when Democrats already feel that the 2010 election will erase their giant majorities in Congress so they want to launch a last ditch effort to sneak this through before the people can speak at the ballot box. And isn't that just...

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) suggested Thursday that Democrats might attempt to move "card-check" legislation this year, perhaps during a lame-duck session. Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, strongly disputed that the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, or "card-check") was dead in the Senate. "To those who think it's dead, I say think again," Harkin said on the liberal Bill Press radio show. "We're still trying to maneuver," the Iowa Democrat added, explaining that if Democrats can't move the bill in its entirety, they might try to pass key parts of the union-organizing legislation...

Isn’t it so satisfying to see a schoolyard bully get knocked flat on his back? Last week’s Arkansas Democrat Senatorial primary gave us just that image to savor. The Big Labor thugs and criminals took it on the chin and their attempt to bully and blackmail Blanche Lincoln failed. The sin Lincoln had committed is her failure to back Labor’s scheme to use the power of the federal government to force unwilling workers to join unions through all but rigged voting without benefit of the secret ballot. We won the showdown Lincoln is an opponent of the deceptively named Employee...

Business groups opposed to “card-check” legislation declared victory after Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s win in a Democratic primary in Arkansas. Unions had worked hard to defeat Lincoln, who opposed legislation that would have allowed unions to form if a majority of members signed cards indicating their intention of wanting union representation. The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was the No. 1 issue for unions in this Congress. “A massive investment on the part of union bosses, which they will not be able to duplicate in other races, resulted in a loss for Big Labor’s poster-child candidate, producing a general election where...

What does a man whose only political principle is his own survival do when attempting to distance himself from his former political party? If you answered “go pro-choice,” then you get the Florida kewpie doll. Charlie Crist has scrubbed his campaign website of its former support for the pro-life cause, but not quickly enough to keep Marco Rubio and Life News from noticing it: ..................................................... Recently, as Mr. Crist addressed the AFL-CIO, headlines emerged in Florida papers reading, “Crist: Open Ear About Employee Free Choice Act.” Crist stated he would be “open” to a bill that would put 600,000 jobs...

If we don’t finally kill Card Check it will kill us. So far we’ve beaten this monster but union gangsters and their Democrat comrades want our liberties and they won’t stop. Their repulsive plan would rob America’s workers of first our secret ballot rights, then our money in unnecessary union dues and finally our jobs themselves. Unions kill jobs. There is no disputing that. Nevertheless the AFL-CIO’s greedy hogs won’t quit. They are desperate trapped animals that can see their fall from power clearly in front of them. They know that unless they get a transfusion of cash they’re done...

...[T]he AFL-CIO removed the large banner supporting EFCA which had covered the corner of the building facing the White House for the past year or so...

Despite all our talk of CommieObamie being a socialist, it is a straight out fact that the far left in America are mad that Obama didn't turn us into the U.S.S.R. lite the second he took office. His pace at selling us out and turning us into a social democratic system ala France isn't happening fast enough for them. For unions the fact that Obama hasn't summarily castrated the business community and forced card check down everyone's throats yet is a downer. And with that in mind, unions have announced that they are taking their ire out on those mythical...

Over at the Washington Examiner, Mark Hemingway highlights a case which shows just how the Employee Free Choice Act might work in practice if it were ever enacted. The act would make union organizing radically easier by replacing federally monitored elections with alternate methods, such as the following: One day last fall, approximately 40,000 private day care owners in Michigan woke up to discover they had become members of a public sector union. Most had no idea what was coming. Here’s how it happened: The United Auto Workers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees worked with...

Unions: Republican senators have warned the president not to appoint Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board while Congress is in recess. But he will — and American workers and consumers will be worse off for it. There's good reason to oppose Becker sitting on the NLRB, the five-member federal agency that administers the National Labor Relations Act governing relations between unions and private-sector employers. It's not so much because Becker is a lawyer for the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union and would be the first NLRB member to come straight from the legal staff of organized...

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As reported exclusively on these pages last week, Union pension plans are in much worse shape than people feared. In fact, Moody’s September 2009 report measured 133 union pension plans. Out of the total 133 only 25 union pension plans are adequately funded, 43 of them are between 65-79% funded that classifies them as endangered. The remaining 65 union pension plans, one out of every two measured, are underfunded at a critical rate, less than 65%. For the full list click here. The proposed card check bill, which will allow unions to dramatically increase their rolls by eliminating the secret...

Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., will vote for cloture on card check if the pro-union legislation comes up for a vote, he told businessmen Tuesday. Specter’s vote alone is not likely to ensure passage of the bill, formally known as the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make union organizing radically easier. Democrats lack a 60-vote majority in the Senate, it has no Republican support and other Democrats are likely to oppose it. But Big Labor probably needed Specter to even have a chance. Specter may be feeling political heat.

The Associated Press posted a story lamenting that Big Labor has failed so far to get Obama to heel by their commands. Big Labor has said "jump" and Obama has but skipped. The article is correct, though, that Big Labor has failed in its two biggest goals: socialist healthcare and card check. At least, they've failed so far. A third failure has also been forced upon Big Labor. As a result of newly seated Republican Senator Scott Brown's win in Massachusetts, Big Labor was not able to install Craig Becker as the head of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)......

Explosion In The 6th Congressional District: Could The Implausible Occur? Is State Rep. Curt Schroder A Dark Horse For The Endorsement? BY CHRIS FREIND “FREINDLY FIRE” Hollywood couldn’t have scripted the drama any better in the GOP’s nomination race for Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional District. Try to follow along: Four-term incumbent Jim Gerlach tells the world --- repeatedly --- that he would NOT seek re-election, opting instead to jump into the gubernatorial fray. Based on Gerlach’s word, popular Chester County State Representative Curt Schroder announces he would seek the GOP nomination for the open seat, raising nearly $200,000 in just a...