Free Republic

Just months after being slimed by President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, Mitt Romney supporter and businessman Frank VanderSloot was informed that he was going to be audited not only by the Internal Revenue Service, but by the Labor Department as well. VanderSloot’s saga was told by columnist Kimberley Strassel in the Wall Street Journal last July. In April 2012, VanderSloot, who served as the national co-chair of Mitt Romney’s presidential finance committee, was one of eight Romney backers to be defamed as ”wealthy individuals with less-than-reputable records” in a post on the Obama campaign’s website. The post, entitled “Behind the...

In another blow to the nation's dwindling labor unions, an appeals court on Tuesday struck down a federal rule that would have required millions of businesses to put up posters informing workers of their right to form a union.

As upstream oil and gas professionals near retirement, many companies in the sector are facing a major shortfall when it comes to the skilled and experienced people they need as the oil and gas industry continues to expand around the world. The “Great Crew Change” has focused plenty of minds within the upper echelons of the oil and gas industry. BP plc is one company that has recognized the need to take a proactive approach to training in order to obviate the skills gap challenges that it might face. In a recent interview with Rigzone, BP Head of Learning and...

This Friday, at precisely 8:30 a.m., everyone will be asking the same question: Why aren’t companies hiring more workers? That’s the same question America has been asking for the past six years. And the simple answer hasn’t changed: Because corporate executives don’t want to. The reasons behind that curt answer are a lot more complex. Some data might help explain it a bit. As of yesterday, a little more than half of the companies represented in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index had reported first-quarter results. And 69 percent of those companies came in with profits that were better than...

(snip)The issue is relevant because this spring, the U.S. Department of Labor is expected to issue a new interpretation of the “advice” exemption to the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. The Labor Department’s new interpretation would require businesses to do just that, report to the Labor Department the attorneys or consultants who advise them on union-organizing activities. (snip) The paperwork burden raises the cost of doing business The reporting requirement is one more thing companies have to spend time and money on. I calculate, based on the number of firms in America, that the cost of the proposed rule...

A group of congressional Republican lawmakers say the way President Barack Obama's labor secretary nominee handled three housing discrimination lawsuits against the city of St. Paul should be enough to block his confirmation. The central case, Magner v. Gallagher, involved St. Paul landlords who claimed that the city overreached with its strict housing inspections, which had the serious consequence of reducing the amount of affordable housing available to racial minorities. St. Paul officials, congressional Democrats and the Justice Department are dismissing the GOP's latest claims as politics as usual, but a 63-page report issued Sunday is certain to amplify discussions...

March 28, 2013 is a day that will be marked in Michigan history. Worker freedom officially takes effect today. Soon, most workers in Michigan will have the choice of whether they want to financially support their union or not. Right-to-work simply means that a union no longer can get a worker fired for not paying them. Despite claims by unions, collective bargaining largely will remain the same. Unions still can negotiate with employers over wages, hours, working conditions and almost anything except for the requirement that workers pay them simply to keep their jobs. Now unions need to prove their...

Professor Vernon Briggs, a Cornell labor economist, tells WND that “[a]mnesty for illegal immigrants sanctions the overt violation all of the nation’s worker protection laws.”

President Obama nominated Justice Department official Thomas Perez for Labor secretary Monday -- but the candidate could be haunted by a newly released report that found he gave incomplete testimony on the controversial decision to drop charges against members of the New Black Panther Party. Perez, an assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, would replace Hilda Solis at Labor if confirmed. Obama, touting Perez' personal story as the son of immigrants who became the first lawyer in his family, urged the Senate to act quickly on the nomination. *snip* Separately, the wide-ranging IG report...

Barack Obama (or whatever his name is) seems to be trying to out-do himself on terrible nominees. As of this writing, Thomas Perez has not been officially nominated as Secretary of Labor, but the word is out that he is Obama’s choice. I know I should never say “there could not be a worse choice,” because there could always be someone worse, but it would be tough to find a more anti-American, lawless subversive than Thomas Perez. Perez is currently an Assistant Attorney General of the “Civil Rights” Division in Eric Holder’s Department of “Justice” (DOJ), so he is already...

A top Obama administration Department of Labor (DOL) official sent an email to Department employees March 1, as workers were fearing furloughs as a result of sequestration, urging them to vote in an Episcopal Church-themed online game called “Lent Madness,” prompting outrage from Department workers who perceived the email as being in poor taste and a possible violation of separation of church and state. Carl Fillichio, senior adviser for communications and public affairs at DOL, sent an email from his government computer and official email account system to instruct DOL Office of Public Affairs employees to vote in an online...

The organic act establishing the Department of Labor was signed on March 4, 1913, by a reluctant President William Howard Taft, the defeated and departing incumbent, just hours before Woodrow Wilson took office. A Federal Department of Labor was the direct product of a half-century campaign by organized labor for a "Voice in the Cabinet," and an indirect product of the Progressive Movement. In the words of the organic act, the Department's purpose is "to foster, promote and develop the welfare of working people, to improve their working conditions, and to enhance their opportunities for profitable employment." Initially the Department...

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama proposed raising the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9 an hour. That would be almost a 25 percent increase. Let's look at the president's proposal, but before doing so, let's ask some other economic questions. Are people responsive to changes in price? For example, if the price of cars rose by 25 percent, would people purchase as many cars? Supposing housing prices rose by 25 percent, what would happen to sales? Those are big-ticket items, but what about smaller-priced items? If a supermarket raised its prices by...

It wasn't surprising that Big Labor Democrats would choose a labor union lawyer to present the White House talking points to justify his unconstitutional appointments of National Labor Relations Board members. However, when the labor concluded her opening remarks saying that congress having hearing regarding unconstitutional appointments made them shills for the 1%, she lost a lot of credibility. If she any credibility left after her opening statements, it was soon to be destroyed as were the White House talking points that she was shilling. Elizabeth Reynolds the lawyer from Allison, Slutsky & Kennedy was questioned by South Carolina Congressman...

The federal government has begun visiting employment insurance recipients at home as part of an "examination" being conducted while the program undergoes an overhaul. The majority of individuals selected for a random audit are receiving invitations, in person, to appear at their customary EI interviews as part of the project, which wraps up next month. Some recipients are already on edge, given the changes to the program that have seasonal workers fearing their benefits might be cancelled. ...snip... "Every year, unfortunately, in our employment insurance system, hundreds of millions of dollars are identified or are lost through false or fraudulent...

Alarm bells are going off for labor unions around the country. Four years after electing the most pro-labor president of the last half-decade, it looks like the scheme has backfired. In 2008 and 2012 labor unions used everything, including a little body English, ballot stuffing and voter intimidation to elect a president who would bring the prestige of presidential backing to recruitment efforts for labor unions.   Since then not only have labor unions taken historic defeats in former union strongholds, like Wisconsin and Michigan, labor union membership is declining at a rate that will make them a footnote in the...

ICE agents union to AFL-CIO president Trumka: ‘You don’t speak for us’ Posted By Caroline May On 12:34 PM 02/01/2013 @ 12:34 PM In DC Exclusives - Original Reporting,Politics,Yahoo! Linkbox,Yahoo! News | No Comments The ICE Agents union responded forcefully to AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka’s assertion Tuesday that “unions did have at one point some differences” but “the entire labor movement is entirely behind” the president’s immigration reform agenda now. “No President Trumka, there are still differences within the AFL-CIO, and you don’t speak for us,” the ICE union dispatched in a press release this week. According to the union,...

As we officially embark into President Obama's second term today, let's take a moment to examine the new economic normal with which the voting public is apparently quite comfortable. While we've finally, technically fallen below the national eight percent unemployment rate we heard so much about during Obama's first term, there is a very significant qualifier in that math that communicates nothing really uplifting about where our economy actually stands: The number of Americans age 16 or older who decided not to work or even to seek a job increased by 8,332,000 to a record 88,839,000 in President Barack ObamaÂ’s...

In the unfolding of recent events, well-informed citizens have likely noticed the hypocrisy that has shown through the actions and inaction of many affiliated with trade unions and the modern civil rights movement. Most recently, this hypocrisy related to union practices could be seen in last month’s union protest of then-pending right-to-work legislation in Lansing at the Michigan State Capitol. Just as is almost exclusively true with all public union activity, many of the protesters gathered in this assembly spewed insults and foul language and carried out violence against not only their outspoken detractors, but even against reserved individuals who...

The drama has long since died down, but there are still ongoing challenges to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's budget-balancing and public-sector union-disempowering reforms, as big labor will certainly use even its dying breaths to fight for their right to party. The legal battles will certainly continue, but Gov. Walker scored a win when a federal appeals court upheld his uber-controversial restrictions on public unions on Friday: A federal appeals court on Friday upheld Wisconsin Gov. Scott WalkerÂ’s contentious law stripping most public workers of nearly all of their collective bargaining rights in a decision hailed by Republicans but not undoing...

Hilda Solis, the outgoing Secretary of Labor made some surprising comments in an interview with Fox News Latino: In a wide-ranging, exclusive interview with Fox News Latino on Wednesday, Solis, the first Hispanic Labor Secretary in U.S. history, made it clear that despite her resignation, politics still flow through her blood. When asked whether she would consider running for the mayor of Los Angeles or governor of California, she proudly pandered to illegal aliens: ”I will absolutely make myself available,” said Solis, a four term congresswoman representing districts in the heavily Hispanic East LA area. “Many of the hardworking people...

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced Wednesday that she is resigning from the Obama administration. “[A]fter much discussion with family and close friends, I have decided to begin a new future,” Solis told her staff in an email. Following news of her departure, the president released the following statement: Over her long career in public service – as an advocate for environmental justice in California, state legislator, member of Congress and Secretary of Labor – Hilda Solis has been a tireless champion for working families. Over the last four years, Secretary Solis has been a critical member of my economic team...

I'm told that Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis will step aside soon, making her the five member of the administration to leave the cabinet (or announce her deparature) since the election. Only two of these departures -- Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner -- are white and male. Lisa Jackson, who's leaving the EPA, is African-American, and Solis was the first Hispanic woman to take charge of Labor.

Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid (Future) party, announced Thursday evening that his party would not join a nationalist government headed by Likud – Yisrael Beytenu. "To all those who asked," he wrote on his Facebook page, "Of course we will not sit as a fifth wheel in a government of Shas and the extreme right." "On the other hand – if we have enough Knesset seats, maybe we can establish a completely different government," Lapid added. "A moderate, centrist government in which we will be able to pass a law for an equal share of the burden, which...

The latest polls showed that last weekend's dust-up over Naftali Bennett's stance on how IDF soldiers who are uncomfortable with immoral orders are supposed to react has not had a negative impact on the Bayit Yehudi party's standing with the public. If anything, the controversy seems to have helped the party's prospects. Bayit Yehudi is now polling to come in as the third largest party in the Knesset, and is closing in to become the second largest. The party, headed by Bennett, continues to nip at the heels of the joint Likud-Yisrael Beytenu list, and the latest weekly poll by...

An Oregon woman who found a Chinese laborer's plea for help hidden in a box of Halloween decorations says she thinks the letter, which describes brutal conditions inside a work camp, is authentic. Julie Keith, 42, of Portland, bought a Halloween graveyard kit from Kmart last year and tucked it away in a storage box. When she opened the kit this October, she found the letter tucked in between two Stryofoam headstones. Sir: If you occasionally buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization. Thousands people here who are under the persicution [sic] of...

Oregon mother Julie Keith expected to find Styrofoam headstones in the graveyard kit she bought at Kmart for Halloween. What she didn't expect was a desperate plea for help from one of the Chinese laborers forced to make the holiday decorations in brutal conditions. The 42-year-old charity worker from Portland discovered the chilling letter hidden between the two novelty headstones when she opened the kit in October. 'Sir: If you occasionally buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization,' the unsigned note, that was folded into eighths, read. 'Thousands people here who are under...

The New York Times seems concerned that teens in the fracking belt of eastern Montana are opting to work in the new oil-field economy right after high school rather than going straight on to college. A front-page story warns: Taking a job is “a lucrative but risky decision for any 18-year-old to make, one that could foreclose on his future if the frenzied pace of oil and gas drilling from here to North Dakota to Texas falters and work dries up.” Let’s see. Where is a teenager more likely to learn the basic and transferable virtue of showing up every...

It's not about jobs. It's not about safety. It's not about improving dockworkers' living standards. The looming, long-planned East and Gulf Coast port strikes are about protecting Big Labor's archaic work practices and corrupt waterfront rackets. Are you ready for a fiscal cliff? The union bosses of an estimated 14,500 workers at 15 ports are preparing to send the economy plunging back into recession over productivity and efficiency rules changes. You read that right. Much more on that in a moment. But first, here's what's at stake. The International Longshoremen's Association's (ILA) grip extends from Boston to Texas to Florida...

The great thing about Democracy – as I’m sure you’ll all agree – is that once the campaigns, debates and battles are over and the people have spoken, everyone can pick up the pieces and get on with productive work to advance the principles each side believes in. Clearly, such is the case in Michigan, where defeated but undaunted union advocates have already begun dusting themselves off and …Nope. LANSING — A speaker at a union protest against right-to-work legislation said if Gov. Rick Snyder signed the bill he would get “no rest� and that protesters would be at his...

If you read me regularly, you’ll know that there are very few things that I feel strongly about ;-). I’m kind of a wilting violet in print, who tries hard not to impose his views on readers. Instead, I paint words pictures of objective fact, interlaced with strongly-reasoned logical progressions that allows readers to form their own opinions unguided by me. (Take a deep breath here, and clean the coffee off your nose, chin, lips and computer screen)   Today is no different.Unions suck.Really they do. I have said this before, as an objective fact:“They suck the money out of our...

This article analyzes the history of labor union violence, and how Rep. Capuano's comments are a perfect continuation of this historical truth. Labor Unions: A History of Murder and Sabotage The New American 28 February 2011 The raging union-led protests in Wisconsin have resulted in many Americans taking a closer, more critical look at labor unions and their political clout and influence in shaping policy. With the ubiquitous announcement from AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka that he is granted an audience at the White House “nearly every day,” the American people have become more skeptical of unions and the role...

Union bosses are fuming at the prospect of a Michigan Right to Work law, but New Yorkers concerned about protecting employee freedom and reviving their state’s flagging economy should consider Michigan’s example. It’s hard to imagine the Empire State adopting a Right to Work law — but it would be right for businesses, taxpayers and workers. Big Labor’s top officials huff and puff about Right to Work laws, but they never tell you what they actually do. That’s because nearly 80 percent of Americans support the Right to Work principle when it’s presented to them in straightforward terms. Right to...

So tell me, patriot, have you ever heard of ILAB ? Nope. Do they fix iphones ?Well, not exactly. ILAB is yet another dangerous Marxist-style agency in our bloated Federal Leviathan that almost no one has ever heard of. ILAB is an acronym for "Bureau of International Affairs" and is a sub-bureaucracy of the Department of Labor. It's stated mission is this: *** "The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) leads the U.S. Department of Labor’s efforts to ensure that workers around the world are treated fairly and are able to share in the benefits of the global economy. ILAB’s...

The November employment report appeared to be good news. The unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent, the lowest level since 2009, and the economy created 146,000 jobs. However, a closer reading of the details shows that the labor market is not recovering any faster but instead continuing its long, painful march to full recovery. The only reason that the unemployment rate fell was because more people dropped out of the labor market than actually found jobs. The labor force declined by 350,000 and the labor force participation rate, a measure of potential workers, declined to 63.6, the same level as...

Michigan Republicans touched off a firestorm Thursday with an abrupt push to pass right-to-work legislation, in what would be a blow to organized labor in the home of the U.S. auto industry. Right-to-work legislation prohibits unions from forcing workers to pay union dues. Unions and their Democratic allies adamantly oppose these laws -- but with little warning, Michigan Republicans on Thursday laid the groundwork to, in a matter of days, make their state the 24th with right-to-work legislation. "This is all about taking care of the hard-working workers in Michigan, being pro-worker and giving them freedom to make choices," Michigan...

A Panels Politics Institute poll...predicts the following elections results were they to take place today, before the resignation of Amir Peretz: Likud Beyteinu-39, Labor-19, Jewish Home-12, Shas-10, Yesh Atid-8, The Movement-6, UTJ-5, Meretz-5.

Amir Peretz, who occupies the Number Three spot in the Labor party's list for the Knesset, mounted an attack on party leader Shelly Yechimovich on Channel 2's Meet the Press Saturday. He demanded that Yechimovich state clearly that she will never sit in the Netanyahu government, and insisted that she spell out a detailed plan for peace with the Palestinian Authority. The presenter, political reporter Rina Matzliah, asked him if it was true that he was considering splitting off from Labor after the election along with six other MKs. He did not confirm or deny this, but said that at...

Marvin Miller, the most influential labor leader in sports history who ushered free agency into baseball, has passed away at the age of 95. The Major League Baseball Players Association this morning confirmed Miller's death.

Last week, when discussing the next steps for the company, and specifically the hope that mediation may resolve the epic animosity between management and workers, we stated that "What makes a mediation improbable is that the antagonism between the feuding sides has certainly hit a level of no return: "Several unions also objected to the company's plans, saying they made "a mockery" of laws protecting collective bargaining agreements in bankruptcy. The Teamsters, which represents 7,900 Hostess workers, said the company's plan would improperly cut the ability of remaining workers to use sick days and vacation." Sure enough, moments ago we...

The news about the bankruptcy of Hostess, maker of the Twinkie and other legendary junk foods, touched off some memories of growing up in a mid-sized Midwestern town in the 1970s and '80s. No, not that kind of memory, though come to think of it, the 1980s was the last time I actually ate a Hostess snack. What I'm recalling has a lot less nostalgic charm: the whole phenomenon of a kamikaze labor union that keeps demanding more for workers--who end up getting nothing when their employer goes belly-up. That's pretty much what the unions did, or tried to do,...

Who would have thought the ubiquitous education superstar Michelle Rhee would be sitting next to Andy Stern on the board of the Broad Foundation? Yes, that's right. The Republican governors' siren and CEO of StudentsFirst works alongside the former SEIU leader, who's visited the White House more than anyone else in the past four years and who said "workers of the world, unite" back in 2007. Stern is the same guy who called the left-leaning former KB Homes executive Eli Broad his "favorite billionaire" in 2005 when the union elites and progressive business owners got together to seriously implement their...

Volunteer crews who came to help restore power were allegedly told to leave because they are not union workers, according to a report. Several utility crews from Alabama who arrived in New Jersey to help restore power following Hurricane Sandy were allegedly told to leave because they are not union workers, according to a Huntsville news station. WAFF.com reports crews with Hunstville Utilities and Joe Wheeler Electrical Membership Cooperative made their way to Seaside Heights, New Jersey this week to help get power back on for thousands of residents left in the dark. But the groups were told by crews...

Posted on Sat, Oct. 06, 2012 Machinists vote to strike at Bombardier Learjet By Molly McMillin The Wichita Eagle Bombardier Learjet’s hourly workforce will walk off the job Monday after Machinists union members rejected the company’s contract offer and voted to strike. Union members voted Saturday 79 percent in favor of rejecting the company’s proposal of a five-year contract, which offered significant increases in health care costs and low general wage increases, and 79 percent in favor of a strike. Strikers will begin walking the picket line at 12:01 a.m. Monday, when the current three-year contract expires. The company said...

A new chart from the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee details the fact that, since January 2009, for every person added to the labor force, 10 have been added to those not in the labor force. Here's a chart showing the dwindling labor force: "For Every 1 Person Added To Labor Force Since January 2009," the chart reads, "10 People Added To Those Not In Labor Force." That is, in nearly the four years, since President Obama took office in January 2009, only 827,000 people have been added to the labor force, while during that same time period,...

To the shock of very few, the Labor Department came out with some help for Barack Obama today. (Not that the numbers are good but the degree of the move is dubious.) Knowing how adroit Obama and his 3rd world administration are at using federal agencies to usurp power, they probably had these employment numbers planned as their "ace in the hole" long before the Wednesday night debate. If Obama had performed competently in the debate, I have little doubt the numbers would have been calculated differently. What fool wouldn't believe that this administration WOULD NOT cook the books to...

Let’s get serious about the jobless rate here for just a minute. Number of “new jobs created” in September: 114,000 Number of first-time jobless claims in September: 367,000 (Week ending Sept. 28th) The average weekly first time jobless claims in September averaged over 360,000 which means in September, 1,440,000 people lost their jobs and had to find a new one. Does it stand to reason to anyone with a functioning brain that the unemployment rate could “drop” three-tenths of a percent with those numbers? It’s mathematically impossible! UNLESS YOU STOP COUNTING THOSE WHO’VE FALLEN OFF THE ROLLS, THOSE WHO’VE GIVEN...

Many Americans start from the premise that in any dispute between organized labor and management, labor should win. Yet it's hard to see why. We don't assume one party is virtuous and the other wicked when two parties are bickering over the price of a car on Craigslist. Labor fights are fights over more for me, less for you. They aren't (usually) battles of right and wrong. Bad laws beget bad laws, and that's been another feature of U.S. labor relations. The 1935 Wagner Act strips one party, employers, of the right not to bargain. Begotten by this bad law...

Monday's debacle only crystallizes what was already clear: NFL's substitute officials are a joke, and it's time for Commissioner Roger Goodell to end lockout.Hail Mary. Holy hell. On the final play of the final game of one of the most shameful weekends in NFL history, a last-gasp pass from the Seattle Seahawks fell from the sky into the arms of the Green Bay Packers on Monday night. Touchdown, Seattle. Chaos, NFL. Three weeks of gross incompetence by unqualified replacement officials crystallized in two moments Monday night that pushed the league's integrity to the brink. In one moment, Packers safety M.D....

Judicial Watch, the Washington, D.C.-based group that describes itself as a conservative watchdog, has taken on all types of government corruption and waste. Among them is the scandalous practice of union release-time, in which government employees are given paid time to perform union work, including lobbying and campaigning. Judicial Watch condemned Miami-Dade County, Florida Mayor Carlos Alvarez for allowing “public transit workers to be excused from their regular duties while still collecting taxpayer salaries.” Among Judicial Watch’s bill of particulars against the mayor was the “1,300 union police officers who make over $100,000 at the department Alvarez worked in and...