Free Republic

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...

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...

Professor Harry G. Hutchison of George Mason University recently took a look at the union favored Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and made a startling conclusion. He believes it will harm minorities. Saying that the EFCA is “arguably the most transformative piece of labor legislation” since 1935, Hutchinson warns that it will seriously harm the rights of workers and the status of minorities alike. To start, Hutchinson summed up the provisions of the bill. One of the newest attempts to transform labor relations is the EFCA. The first to disappear under the EFCA would be a system of union democracy...

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.

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.

James P. Hoffa is now saying that if Obama pulls the "public option" out of his healthcare bill, it is not a deal killer as far as union support is concerned. Hoffa said that he was only interested in what was "doable" and that they need to "get something done… and declare a victory." Now let's take a look at these quotes from Mr. Hoffa, shall we? What does it mean if we aren't seeing obliged union support without integrity for Obama's healthcare coming from Hoffa's Teamsters? Hoffa is saying that he doesn't care at all what healthcare "reform" will...

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...

It has to be the ultimate hypocrisy, but the Democrat Party has been touting its support for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a bill that would eliminate the secret ballot for potential union members, but recently decided that a secret ballot for Senators on whether or not to vote in committee chairmen is quite important. The hypocrisy is stark. I say again, even as Senate Democrats have found no reason to protect the democratic right of the secret ballot for union workers they’ve decided that it is a must for themselves when voting in or out Senate committee chairmen....

In Senator Specter’s own words regarding EFCA and the Secret Ballot… One answer to the Senate, the same to Sunday shows, the same to a townhall last week. …. and then three days later a different to a liberal crowd in Pittsburgh. Which is it?

With the introduction of the unions, things have turned violent. Remember, it was Obama who encouraged his supporters to "get in their faces and argue" and the Democrats pledged to "punch them back twice as hard."Perhaps now you understand the danger of the Employee Free Choice Act. The AFL-CIO says they "need the Employee Free Choice Act." The SEIU says they "support the Employee Free Choice Act."But card-check, the portion of the bill that most found to be very dangerous, has been removed. So what's the danger?Imagine the folks above, the type who stomp people and smash cameras into people's...

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...

The AFL-CIO recently posted a story on its blog that tired to paint a “contractor's group” that is supporting the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) as if it were an industry group unconnected to unions and coming over to its side on the EFCA. Of course, the AFL-CIO blog sort of failed to mention that the "contractors" in question are solidly unionized. The truth is, it is not just a normal industry group but one solidly on the side of unions in the first place. The AFL-CIO blog points to the announcement of the Association of Union Masonry Contractors and...

Despite rumors that the "card check" provision may be removed from EFCA, other clauses of this bill will still have a negative impact on the relationship between employers and employees. A few of the changes to the NLRA are neither the employer nor employee will have the right to turn down an arbitrator’s proposed contract. Also, all negotiation will not exceed 120 days of bargaining. Most contract negotiations go beyond 120 days. Maybe because unlike congress both parties read what they are signing!

Organized Labor: Card check may be a dead issue, but companies aren't yet free of the union threat. An anti-business provision of the perversely named Employee Free Choice Act is still under considerationIf the card check process were to become law, the traditional method for forming a union would be replaced with a pro-union system. In current practice, workers vote to either join the union or reject it through a secret ballot. A simple majority carries the vote. Under card check, a work force would become unionized if a simple majority signed the cards that are used to measure workers'...

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...

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...

Hundreds-of-thousands of multi-employer defined benefit union pensions are underfunded. The unions’ only hope is to force more and more companies to fund these massive failing pension plans. The companies will no longer be economically viable if they are forced by the government to fund these failing pension plans.

Of course we've talked endlessly about the fact that the Democrat's Orwellian named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) eliminates the employee's free choice to vote for or against unionization using the ages-old democratic practice of a secret ballot. Who hasn't, right? In fact, we've talked about it so much that even Democrats are turning against this aspect of the act and this is one of the reasons that the bill has not been able to muster enough votes to get passed. So, we can mark that as a tentative victory. But there is more in this horrible legislation that needs...

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.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein is getting squeezed by business and organized labor over her neutrality on legislation that would make it easier for workers to form unions. Feinstein was a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, commonly known as “card check,” in 2007. But she is the only Democrat in the California congressional delegation who is not a co-sponsor of this year's bill, which is labor's top legislative priority. The senator has expressed reservations about forging ahead with such a fundamental change in union-organizing rules during a deep recession. “This is an extraordinarily difficult economy, and there are very strong...

Passing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would result in millions in additional political funds for organized labor over the next 10 years, a business group opposed to the legislation will argue in a report to be released Tuesday. Unions would stand to gain an additional $320 million more to spend on political activities in year ten alone with a ten year total of $1.75 billion, according to a report put together by the anti-EFCA Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI). EFCA’s passage into law could generate billions of additional dollars for unions to spend on political activity to advance their agenda,"...

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.

I don't know why I do it, but I do. I love perusing the liberal blogs to see what filth they're spewing. And today, Ms. Hamsher offers up a doozy. She loves the Employee Free Choice Act. In you don't already know, I don't. It's an insult to workers and is likely unconstitutional. But I can live with the fact that she disagrees with me - a lot of people who similarly refuse to live in the real world do. What gets me, however, is that she doesn't realize that her argument for supporting it is itself a real good...

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:...

Recently, an effort to post all across the web fake comments supporting a key union cause has been discovered. In Internet activist talk, this is called "astroturfing." The term describes a campaign of fake comments posted on multiple websites where articles are discussing any particular issue about which the "astroturfers" want to have their position known. In this case the issue is the discussion of the woefully misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and the "astroturfing" is an effort by union supporters to explain away the dangers this act represents to the American worker. The end result is supposed to...

Patrick McIheran has a short piece on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's website that is a pretty good read. I think you should all check it out in its entirety here. The piece has several links to other articles in it, but the main point is about the overgenerous and unfunded pension plans that unions all across the country have been foolishly allowed to negotiate. These pensions are simply untenable and always were but most businesses and unions kept kicking this can down the road until it is finally hit a dead end. McIheran quotes Diana Furchgott-Roth as she discusses how...

When Arlen Specter became the 21st senator to switch parties while in office, he did so with considerably more flash than one predecessor. "I basically tried to move about without notice," said former Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. of Virginia. Byrd, 94, switched from Democratic registration to independent in 1970. "Colleagues were cordial, but I did my best to avoid everyone." Specter, 79, had little chance of repeating that feat Tuesday. His announcement kicked off a national frenzy of news stories and speculation about what it might mean for Pennsylvania politics, President Obama's agenda, the balance of power in the...

I just want to throw this out there. Has anybody heard if he's changing his position (again) on card check?

Politics: When Barack Obama won the election, Big Labor's ambitions soared. It spent $400 million to elect Democrats and expected an easy ride ahead. A hundred days into the Obama administration, it's playing defense. Organized labor has only itself to blame. With goals at odds with the interests of the country, it should have adapted itself to the national direction or else localized its aims.But that's not the approach it took. In varying ways, the two largest confederations, the AFL-CIO and the Change To Win coalition, focused on two unpopular efforts.One is the coercive Employee Free Choice Act, also known...

The New York Times is attempting to spin gold from straw, telling us unicorns are real, expecting the Tooth Fairy to bring a windfall. At least, that is what it seems if we are to believe the Times' fantasy card check union story from April 20. You see, the Times believes that an overwhelming anti-union vote held via secret ballot is proof that card check is necessary. This pretzel logic insists that the employer in question was so underhanded that even a secret ballot was corrupted by the efforts by the employer to scare off employees from supporting the union....

Just a few days after The Washington Examiner reported on links between the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) and organized labor it appears the self described group of non-partisan community activists has erased web site references to union affiliates that were cited in the article. Fortunately, Matthew Vadum, a senior analyst and editor with the Capital Research Center (CRC) who closely scrutinized ACORN and its many affiliates has a record of the web site. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and ACORN are essentially joined at the hip. SEIU Locals 100 and 880 were previously identified as...

It has been three hard months of political exile for those on the right, a time for them to count their grievances and dress their outrage in the trappings of centuries past. Some have donned colonial outfits to stage tea parties. Others have found the 1860s more to their taste, reviving the fiery language of secession fever. But they can all take heart from one development in the nation's capital. Good old K Street, where the big tea party never stopped, has all but halted organized labor's effort to make it easier for workers to unionize. After massive lobbying both...

One of the more objectionable features of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is the card check feature wherein a union can simply gather publicly signed cards by employees agreeing to become unionized, thereby eliminating the secret vote for the workers. Opponents say this process is ripe for union abuse leaving workers open to any sort of intimidation and quashing their vote of conscience. If any more evidence of how corrupt the card check system could be were needed, one need only look at a recent union organizer in Ohio to see the abuse that will happen with card check......

Both business, labor claim recess victories By Michael O'Brien Posted: 04/18/09 06:59 PM [ET] After two weeks of wrangling over the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) during the congressional recess, both business and labor groups are claiming victory before the return of Congress this week. Organized labor groups have cited what they claim was the largest grass-roots mobilization since the election as a sign of their success over the congressional break, while business groups point to signs that the legislation will fall short of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. The Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI) declared Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s (D-Ark.)...

If you have a long enough lever, you can move the world. That's an old saying attributed to Archimedes. But what Archimedes didn't add is that a long enough lever may splinter in your hands if the material is not strong enough. You may end up not moving the world where you wanted it to go and finding yourself in a position you didn't want to be in. That's pretty much the position of organized labor -- the leaders of America's large labor unions -- today. For the past several years, they have been attempting to move the world by...

Herold Meyerson of the Washington Post is a not a very good columnist. But he is a great ad copy writer that should be working on Madison Avenue. Oh, I won't say that all ad copy is filled with lies, but if lies sell then Meyerson would be the best of them all. Anyone that reads his April 7 pro-union column can only come away marveling at the malarkey this guy is peddling to sell the union cause. Meyerson begins by lamenting the troubles that unions have seen over the last few decades. Union membership has dropped to all time...

Although CNBC "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer has backed off his hyperbolic attacks on President Barack Obama ever since his "Daily Show" appearance, he's shown that he's not afraid to take on the Democratic-controlled Congress. So, to give credit where credit is due, the "Mad Money" host dedicated an entire segment to the Employee Free Choice Act, aka card check and how its passage by Congress could be detrimental to Wal-Mart's (NYSE:WMT) stock price on his April 3 program. And during the segment, Cramer used three references to Soviet/Russian communism to describe the Democrat effort pushing card check. "Right now,...