Free Republic

Angry that one promised raise disappeared and that they're being asked to work longer days without what they consider to be an adequate pay increase, Chicago teachers are considering authorizing their first strike in a quarter-century. In a signal of their mounting anger, teachers are voting this week - before a summer of negotiations and a recommendation from an independent fact-finder - on a strike that wouldn't happen until the next school year starts. If they do authorize a strike, teachers in the nation's third-largest school... "This is a reflection of the treatment we as teachers have been subjected to...

Public sector unions have reached their high water mark. Let the cleanup begin as the red ink recedes. Despite a last-minute smear campaign accusing Scott Walker of fathering an illegitimate love child, the governor’s recall election victory sends a clear message that should resonate around the nation: The fiscal cancer devouring state budgets has a cure, and he has found it. The costly defeat for the entrenched union interests that tried to oust Walker in retribution for challenging their power was marked by President Obama’s refusal to lend his weight to the campaign for fear of being stained by defeat....

A federal court on Friday struck down key parts of Gov. Scott Walker's controversial collective bargaining legislation, ruling that the state cannot prevent public employee unions from collecting dues and cannot require they recertify annually. The collective bargaining bill, also known as Act 10, established a system in which most of the public unions were required to have a majority of their members vote every year to recertify. The law also took away some unions' rights to collect mandatory dues. The court ruled that the state did not have the right to pick and choose which public unions could charge...

Democrats and unions are hailing Tuesday's vote to repeal an Ohio law curbing collective-bargaining protections as the sign of an invigorated movement that could boost Democrats next fall. That is, if they've got enough fight left in them. The campaign to overturn the Republican-approved union law cost unions and their supporters millions of dollars. It followed another costly campaign in Wisconsin to recall state Republicans behind that state's anti-union law. And it precedes a new fight in Wisconsin to recall GOP Gov. Scott Walker. With millions of dollars going from union coffers to preserve union benefits and protections, and punish...

Lawmakers have tinkered on the edges of the state budget during the fall veto session, but it now appears they could close shop for the year on Thursday without plugging the deep hole at the budget’s core: Illinois’s underfinanced pension systems. Pension reform has been one of the most contentious issues of this legislative session. The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago has engaged in sharp-elbowed lobbying to increase workers’ pension contributions and sponsored a $1.5 million television campaign, under the name “Illinois is Broke.” Unions brought hundreds of state workers, teachers and police officers to Springfield two...

Illegal Forced Dues and Money for Politics Right to Work Foundation attorneys continue federal class action lawsuit against union officials to recover millions in illegally confiscated dues Lansing, MI (May 11, 2011) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, five homecare workers have reached a settlement with Governor Rick Snyder ensuring that Michigan will no longer be able to force home-based childcare providers into union ranks. Carrie Schlaud, Diana Orr, Peggy Mashke, and Edward and Nora Gross originally filed a class-action suit against then-Governor Jennifer Granholm and a United Auto Workers (UAW) and American Federation...

In 2008, supporters of Barack Obama sub scribed to the view that his election would, not to put too fine a point on it, "change everything." Maybe they were right. For the last two years, the old ways of Washington have been crashing down like pillars of Mordor at the end of "The Lord of the Rings." Then-candidate Obama was himself fond of noting that the conventional wisdom -- or "CW" -- was that a black guy with a funny name could never be elected president. He not only won, he captured such "impossible" states as Indiana and Virginia. Obama...

California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment have reached a tentative labor agreement with Gov. Jerry Brown. Here are the highlights: * 3% increase to employee pension contribution * 4% increase to top of salary step for all classes * All employees to receive 1.73 hours of additional leave * Contract protection, which ensures that should any other bargaining unit currently without a contract receive a better overall compensation package, members would be entitled to the difference.

The Obama campaign and other liberals are looking to tap into the populist current of today's politics and turn the Wisconsin union fight into a national issue in the 2012 election. While the liberals can wield rhetorical pitchforks and light political torches, they should realize that it's their guys who are living inside the castle today. Specifically, public-sector unions -- by many measures the most entrenched special interest in American politics -- are not fighting against The Man, which is to say the entrenched powers of government. In this struggle, The Man is the government unions, which are sitting in...

WASHINGTON -- Until a few weeks ago, there was a disconnect between the financial disaster the United States faces and the battles its mainstream political actors were waging. The White House and Congress were busy expanding government while anti-government critics, including the tea party movement, were more interested in crusades than in restoring fiscal and regulatory sanity to the nation. Thanks to controversial efforts by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to cut some benefits and collective bargaining rights, as... --snip-- The United States has been getting away with surreal levels of debt for far too long. If the dollar were not...

Madison - Labor contracts for state workers dramatically stalled in the Legislature late Wednesday after the leader of Senate Democrats defied his party and cast the deciding vote to reject them. In a rare lame-duck session before Republicans take over the Legislature, the no-pay-raise contracts for tens of thousands of workers were approved by slim majorities in the Assembly with a decisive vote cast by a lawmaker released from jail. But senators tied 16-16 with one senator absent on the contracts and outgoing Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker (D-Wausau) and Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) voting with all Republicans against...

Here come the howls of outrage. "You are anti-union." Well, you're only partially right. I'm anti-government employee union. I don't have a particular problem with the legality of private-sector unions, so long as: (1) Employees vote by secret ballot as to whether or not the union will be formed; and (2) No employee should ever be forced to join a union nor should they be forced to pay dues to any union. Government employee unions? Those are a completely different matter. These are people who spend millions of dollars to elect their bosses and then demand raises, pension plans and...

Only in government can you run almost entirely on taxpayer money, get not one but two emergency infusions, spend all but $250,000-or-so of your handouts, and have the audacity to claim you have a surplus. If that's the track of reasoning the New Mexico Rail Runner really wants to travel, then officials owe New Mexico consumers a refund. Yes, the commuter train's revenues outpaced expenditures by $254,481 for fiscal 2010 ($22,261,918 vs. $22,007,437).But only $2.927 million of that revenue came from the fare box. A big chunk — $11.95 million — came from a regional sales tax for mass transit....

Who is the largest single political contributor in the 2010 campaign cycle? You can be pardoned if you answer, erroneously, that it's some new conservative group organized by Karl Rove. That's campaign spin by the Obama Democrats, obediently relayed by certain elements of the so-called mainstream media. The real answer is AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The union's president, Gerald McEntee, reports proudly that AFSCME will be contributing $87.5 million in this cycle, entirely or almost entirely to Democrats. "We're spending big," he told the Wall Street Journal. "And we're damn happy it's big." The...

A Stink in El Segundo Over Cadillac Salaries Cops earn $175,000, firefighters $210,000, in a town with few criminals or fires The debate over skyrocketing government-worker salaries got nasty in El Segundo when a homeowner published the six-figure salaries flowing to the small town's cops and firefighters on his Gundo Blogger website — only to have a police captain track him down by phone at his UCLA job and chew him out. The uneasy homeowner, David Burns, tells L.A. Weekly that Capt. Robert Turnbull "called me from his office to complain about my blog. ... He insisted on talking about...

MILLIONS of commuters in London endured a grim journey to work today after staff on the Underground train network walked out for the second time in a month, sparking calls for tougher strike laws. People were forced to walk or cycle in heavy rain, squeeze on to packed buses or brave heavy traffic by driving as only 30 per cent of the Tube trains were running in the morning rush hour, according to operator London Underground. The strike follows a walkout in early September as part of a dispute between trade unions and London Underground managers over the planned axing...

French commuters squeezed onto limited trains or fought for rare parking spots Thursday as a second round of strikes against President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to raise the retirement age to 62 hobbled trains, planes and schools across the country. Fewer than half of the Paris Metro's lines were working normally, according to the RATP public transit network, and about half of France's long-distance trains were being canceled, according to the SNCF state-run rail system. The strikes are seen as a test for the conservative Sarkozy and are being watched elsewhere in Europe, as governments struggle to rein in costs with...

Amtrak spokesperson Cliff Cole would like to inform you that the company doesn't conduct searches because there's an actual threat. That would be silly! Instead they do it randomly, you know, just to make sure you're paying attention.

<p>Without quoting the article, a New York Police Department officer, Olfonso Mendez, refused to give 11-year-old Brooklyn girl CPR despite being trained in CPR.</p> <p>The officer then blocked the mother's car with his own squad car from bringing the girl to the hospital as she gasped for air. Then, made the mother stay with the girl at the scene while he tried to write her a ticket.</p>

Public transit ground to a halt across France and on the London Tube on Tuesday, with tourists and commuters bearing the brunt of a wave of discontent over government austerity measures. French unions challenged unpopular President Nicolas Sarkozy with a major nationwide strike over plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, shutting down trains, planes, buses, subways, post offices and schools.