Free Republic

Former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern has been hospitalized for fatigue in South Dakota, a hospital spokeswoman said Tuesday. Jullie Ward, a spokeswoman for Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, said the 89-year-old former senator from South Dakota was admitted to the Sioux Falls hospital for fatigue after completing a lecture tour. McGovern, a South Dakota congressman from 1957 to 1961 and U.S. senator from 1963 to 1981, ran for president against incumbent Richard Nixon in 1972 and lost in a historic landslide. He ran for president three times, making a try for the nomination in 1968 and 1984 in...

Tuesday, March 11, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was reintroduced into both houses of Congress. This is an important step forward for the country. Senate bill S. 560 and House bill H.R. 1409, if passed, would help working Americans improve their wages and working conditions by making it easier to join a union if they choose, and passage would also be huge step out of the current economic crisis the country is in. Also, EFCA—and a stronger trade union movement generally—is key to building a bigger, more united progressive movement that can address all the issues of civil rights,...

MIAMI -- President Barack Obama told AFL-CIO union leaders Tuesday in a videotaped address that the controversial Employee Free Choice Act will pass, signaling his full backing for legislation that makes union organizing easier. "We will pass the Employee Free Choice Act," President Obama told more than 100 top labor officials in a closed-door meeting at the labor federation's winter gathering in Miami, according to people at the meeting. The bill would make it easier for unions to recruit workers because it would let them join unions simply by signing cards rather than through secret-ballot elections in which companies can...

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement after introducing the Secret Ballot Protection Act. The bill, authored by Rep. John Kline (R-MN), Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA), and Rep. Price, guarantees the right to a secret ballot to workers deciding whether to unionize. “The secret ballot is a pillar of American democracy,” said Rep. Price. “Unfortunately, congressional Democrats have said they are willing to throw the secret ballot aside in order to advance a political agenda and expand the influence of Big Labor in the workplace. Forcing a worker’s decision to be made public would open the door for coercive...

First Amendment? Secret Ballots? Fuggetaboutit! Labor unions have a lot at stake in 2008. The AFL-CIO’s PAC is spending $53M to help elect Barack Obama. More is being spent on behalf of Democratic incumbents and challengers in House and Senate seat races. There is nothing dearer to the hearts of Big Labor than securing the White House and a filibuster-proof Senate majority to help them obtain their number one legislative priority: the Orwellian named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). And Big Labor will stop at nothing, not even the First Amendment, to achieve their aims....

The AFL-CIO and several union-friendly groups filed a formal complaint against Wal-Mart on Thursday, charging that the retail giant is pressuring employees to vote against Sen. Barack Obama. Citing a Wall Street Journal report, the complaint accuses Wal-Mart of pushing its workers to oppose Obama (D-Ill.), who supports a measure that would allow workers to form unions without a secret-ballot election. The complaint calls on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to investigate whether Wal-Mart has broken federal election laws. Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) opposes the bill, called the Employee Free Choice Act. Among the groups filing the...

The Democratic coalition rubs its hands at the prospect of taking over Washington. If you ever want a window into the needs and desires of the labor movement, you should listen to Stewart Acuff. And if you get within 50 yards of Acuff, you’ll be listening: The snow-bearded activist, now the AFL-CIO’s director of organizing, projects his voice like an opera singer. He grips the podium, white-knuckled. He clasps his hands, then pulls them apart with a snap. When I saw him at the Take Back America conference in Washington in March, his reedy voice grew rougher and louder as...