Free Republic

Hard hats, transit workers, machinists, teachers and other labor unionists railed against the U.S. government's proposed bailout of Wall Street on Thursday in a protest steps from the New York Stock Exchange. Several hundred protesters yelled their enthusiastic support as union leaders decried a proposed $700 billion plan aimed at reinvigorating the credit markets by relieving financial institutions of distressed debt. "The Bush administration wants us to pay the freight for a Wall Street bailout that does not even begin to address the roots of our crisis," said AFL-CIO National President John Sweeney. "We want our tax dollars used to...

Iran's Brutal Labor Crackdown New York Post Amir Taheri A year ago last Saturday, Ali Khamenei ordered the abduction of trade-union leader Mansour Osanloo. In so doing, Iran's top ruling mullah hoped to kill in infancy the independent trade-union movement that Osanloo had launched in '05 with the help of colleagues among bus drivers and conductors in Tehran. A year later, Osanloo is still in prison, sentenced to five years on a charge of "undermining the security of the Islamic Republic." Yet the free-union movement that he inspired has spread like wildfire. Transport workers in Tehran and its suburbs have...

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com ***** By Jennifer Skalka The AFL-CIO is dropping a tough mailer in PA today noting that while John McCain's war service is admirable, his political views -- on the Bush tax cuts, NAFTA and overtime pay, in particular -- are out of sync with the needs and values of working Americans. "

U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-OH, blamed labor unions and partisan politics for a U.S. House vote this week rejecting an amendment that could have kept the Delta Queen riverboat from having to phase out its overnight cruise packages. The historic riverboat has been operating with a special Congressional exemption from the federal Safety at Sea Act since 1968, an exemption that has been renewed eight times. The safety act bans the use of wooden vessels for overnight cruises. Backers of the exemption claim the Delta Queen deserves special treatment because of its historical significance and recently upgraded fire-safety systems. With...

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sidestepped the superdelegate controversy as she opened the California Democratic Party convention tonight in San Jose, instead taking aim at likely Republican presidential nominee, John McCain. Pelosi noted that McCain campaigned alongside Governor Schwarzenegger during the polarizing special election the governor called in 2005. Schwarzenegger tried to pass ballot measures aimed at weakening the power of public employee unions, changing teacher tenure rules and clamping down on state spending. Californians rejected those reforms and she predicted they'd reject McCain as well. The gathering at the San Jose Convention Center continues through...

State troopers in Colorado have voted to form a union, according to Colorado WINS, a labor union coalition seeking to organize approximately 32,000 state workers. The state trooper employee organization, known as the Association of Colorado State Patrol Professionals, is the first of its kind to form since Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter issued an executive order in November supporting state worker efforts to unionize and form employee partnerships.

A lawsuit filed by seven hotels seeking to avoid paying a higher minimum wage has cost roughly 2,000 workers a combined $4.7 million in lost income, according to a report to be released today by a pro-union nonprofit group. The Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, which last year persuaded the City Council to pass a $10.64-per-hour minimum wage at hotels near Los Angeles International Airport, said the ongoing legal fight has delayed implementation of the law -- denying each hotel employee anywhere from $350 to $4,400 since the measure was approved in January 2007.

America is gap crazy. Legions of policy wonks and social scientists have carved comfortable careers exposing gaps and torturing data and logic to make these gaps seem wider or more sinister. Politicians, meanwhile, have ensured their incumbency by redirecting gobs of other people's money to fund dubious efforts to close these gaps. Connecticut, for example, has gone through several generations of plans and many millions of dollars in a futile effort to close the achievement (education) gap. But there are many other gaps: a justice gap, marriage gap, environmental-health gap, age gap and a bunch more. One thing is certain:...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Illinois Democrats close to Sen. Barack Obama are quietly passing the word that John Edwards will be named attorney general in an Obama administration. Installation at the Justice Department of multimillionaire trial lawyer Edwards would please not only the union leaders supporting him for president but organized labor in general. The unions relish the prospect of an unequivocal labor partisan as the nation's top legal officer. In public debates, Obama and Edwards often seem to bond together in alliance against front-running Sen. Hillary Clinton. While running a poor third, Edwards could collect a substantial bag of delegates...

Big Labor is growing new political muscles. Even as the number of unionized workers falls nationwide, labor unions are showing increased power in this topsy-turvy election season. By deploying new strategies to use their money, unions have regained their position as the single-strongest force in elections, outside of the presidential candidates and the national parties. That's a boost for Democrats, since labor is a pillar of the party. Many thought campaign-finance reforms enacted in 2002 would diminish the clout of labor along with that of business. The law was meant to stem the influence of big money in politics by...

The Supreme Court intervened in a dispute between organized labor and management Tuesday, agreeing to decide the validity of a state law that limits employers' ability to weigh in on union organizing. The case accepted by the justices comes from California, where a law passed in 2000 prohibits employers from using money they receive from the state to oppose or support unionization efforts.

Where did Reagan go away? Republicans help Labor unions to a major victory How could these Senate Republicans help labor unions to a major victory? Call your Senator now to stop S.2123. The misnamed and egregious "Public Safety Employer-Employee cooperation act of 2007" was introduced by Senator Gregg on October 1 with enough Republicans (11 Republicans) to invoke cloture and pass the Bill.

So, now we know. When he was running for the highest office in the state, we all heard a lot of promises from Bill Ritter: promises about consultation with Colorado’s major constituencies, collaborative government, moderation — all the “new Democrat” codswallop. Maybe you thought we had elected a “moderate.” But at this point, everyone on this side of the sod should know that we elected a weasel. The governor’s plan to unionize government flies in the face of everything he promised during his campaign. At least, everything he promised publicly. Evidently, there were other, more serious, promises made behind closed...

When Coloradans elected Bill Ritter as governor, they thought they were getting a modern-day version of Roy Romer, a pro-business Democrat. Instead, they got Jimmy Hoffa. Ritter campaigned under the guise of a moderate "new Democrat" but now we know he's simply a toady to labor bosses and the old vestiges of his party — a bag man for unions and special interests.

How could these Republicans help Labor Unions to victory? Stop S.2123 now! Call your Senator To all who read this: Copy and paste it and send it along to your family and friends. Call your Senator now to stop S.2123. The misnamed and egregious "Public Safety Employer-Employee cooperation act of 2007" was introduced by Senator Gregg on October 1 with enough Republicans (nine Republicans) to invoke cloture and pass the Bill.

MARLBORO— Gov. Deval L. Patrick yesterday signed a bill that will expand public workers’ rights to organize. The Majority Authorization bill, signed during an appearance yesterday at the Massachusetts AFL-CIO’s annual convention, will allow public employees to unionize by garnering majority support in writing, known as the “card check” option, instead of going through secret-ballot elections.

The AFL-CIO leadership just put a number on its commitment to the general election: $53 million, the federation is set to announce. That's money that can be used for unrestricted "member-to-member" communication in House, Senate, and presidential races around the country.

The battle lines are being drawn, the tear gas and the placards stockpiled. France is preparing for a political war that is unlikely to be over by Christmas. Nicolas Sarkozy, the hyperactive new President, is taking on the self-proclaimed defenders of the rights of the French worker, the unions. Not any old unions either, but the railway workers, miners, fishermen, employees of the vast national electric company and many of the country's bureaucrats who, as they have proved on numerous occasions, are capable of paralysing the country. This week Sarkozy is expected to announce that he will end the generous...

The summer that shook the American workplace The new threat and hidden agenda of Labors new Government By Will Fine, Executive Director National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights This summer has been the summer that shook the foundations of the Employee -Employer relationship as no time has in nearly thirty years. While our national security is being defended overseas, our domestic security has become imperiled by governmental transformation at the hands of Labor Union Central Command that has deployed a government it can control. The credibility of Congress is at stake to defend a free workplace.

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is getting the endorsement of two unions, the United Steelworkers and the United Mine Workers of America, on Labor Day. Edwards is scheduled to be in Pittsburgh, home of the Steelworkers' international headquarters, for a Monday rally and will accept the endorsements there. "The members of the Steelworkers Union and the Mine Workers union are some of the country's hardest-working, bravest, most courageous workers," Edwards said. "It is their tireless hard work which has helped build a stronger America that benefits all of us. I honor what they do every day." The former senator from...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Democratic presidential candidates argued Saturday night that organized labor is an essential part of the nation's economy whose troubles mirror the deterioration of the middle class way of life. "The only way to reinvigorate the middle class is to reinvigorate the labor movement," Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware told several hundred union members at a labor forum in eastern Iowa. For all the candidates, it was one stop in a busy several days leading to a Sunday morning debate in Des Moines. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York leads the Democratic field in national polls...

National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights Demands Governor Schwarzenegger Save Secret Ballot Elections for Workers in California urges veto of Senate Bill 180 robbing our workplace freedom S. 180 is a bill denying civil liberties to the most vulnerable people in California - those who work the farms of the state. Farm workers deserve better than to loose their hard earned rights to the schemes of the labor bosses.

July 17, 2007 Honorable Members United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. Dear Representative, You are currently considering H.R. 980, the Public Safety employer-Employee Cooperation Act. This ill conceived legislation would expand federal power into the area of local labor relations in an unprecedented and dangerous manner. We, the undersigned organizations, call on you to do everything in your power to defeat this blatant pay-off to organized labor.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - If one man's trash is another man's treasure, then one politician's old papers are potentially another politician's — or journalist's — gold mine. Which explains why Republican Fred Thompson's previously little-noticed personal papers at the University of Tennessee from his eight years in the Senate are suddenly in demand as he nears a decision on a 2008 presidential run. Thompson donated the documents four years ago when he gave up his political career in favor of acting. Academics haven't paid much attention, chief archivist Bobby Holt said, but journalists have been poring through the more than 400...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WASHINGTON, DC / PR FREE / Jun 19 2007 -- NAWER praises the good work of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation and the people of Washington state who worked tirelessly to remove the yoke of Big Labor from the shoulders of hard- working families. The unanimous SCOTUS decision last week took away Labor's presumed intent to decide for workers who disagree with them where and how their union dues are being spent .

State lawmakers on Monday approved a bill that would make it easier for workers in public sectors -- already a labor stronghold -- to join a union. Congress this week is debating a similar measure for U.S. private sector workers

JEFFERSON CITY — Overturning a 60-year legal precedent, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that teachers and other public employees have a constitutional right to engage in collective bargaining with their government employers.

Missouri Right to Work: Thank you Rep. Hunter By Will Fine, Executive Director National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights Courageously, Rep. Hunter (R) and like-minded Missouri Representatives who supported him on March 1 passed the first Right to Work Law (H.B. 439) out of committee in recent Missouri History. Rep. Hunter's RTW Bill is now 54th on the Calendar for a full vote. The people have spoken: with pro-worker and employer majorities in the Senate, House and with Governor Blunt there has never been a better time to pass a right to work law in Missouri and pass it...

The Employee Free Choice Act would be more aptly-named the Employee No Choice Act. This misnamed bill would actually eliminate the freedom of employees to vote in a private, secret-ballot election on whether or not to form a union. The House already passed it in a 241-185 vote and the companion bill has been introduced in the Senate. Under card check, there is no private choice -- and no clear end to the election process. Union organizers can take as much time as they want to push someone into signing a card -- and they can go into the employee's...

With Democrats in control of both Houses of Congress for the first time since 1994, a top priority will be to eliminate the right of employees to vote for or against unionization in secret ballot elections and to dictate contract terms to employers.

Governor Romney's Initiative To Protect American Workers: Governor Romney Believes Hard Working Americans Have The Right To Not Pay Union Dues If They Do Not Belong To A Union. A bill working its way through the Iowa Legislature would allow public employee unions to charge union fees to nonunion workers. - Governor Romney Believes This Legislation Is Bad Policy. Employees - whether in the private sector or the public sector - have a right to choose whether to contribute to a union. This bill would force tens of thousands of school teachers and city, county and state government employees to...

The state House gave final approval Monday to a proposed law that would make it easier for workers to organize... House Bill 1072...changes Colorado's Labor Peace Act, which has been on the books since 1943. Business groups oppose the measure, saying making it easier to require all workers to pay union dues will deter prospective employees and employers looking to locate in Colorado. The full House passed the bill 35-29 Friday, with almost all Democrats for it and all Republicans against... A main sticking point among Republicans: All-union agreements require all of a company's employees to pay union dues as...

Nearly 90 percent of American workers do not belong to a labor union, according to new data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet when reporters for The New York Times and Associated Press reported the development, they relied heavily on labor union sources to push a biased storyline about why so few Americans look for the union label. AP’s Will Lester quoted four men in his January 25 story, two labor union activists and two college professors, all of whom lamented the historically low 12 percent of Americans who pay union dues. None of Lester’s sources suggested that...

When Cy Thannikary left India to come work at the UN in Manhattan, he settled in Flushing, Queens, and loved the excitement of living in the city. After starting a family, though, he traded New York’s hubbub for Freehold, New Jersey, a quiet suburb with lower taxes and affordable housing. That was 25 years ago. These days, Thannikary sometimes feels like he’s back in Gotham as he watches his taxes soar and hears neighbors grumble. He has started a new group, Citizens for Property Tax Reform, to fight the special interests that have turned both state and local government into...

Perhaps you've heard those mean-spirited, hyper attack ads on Denver radio slandering Colorado Secretary of State Gigi Dennis. They're sponsored by Clear Peak Colorado, one of those free-wheeling 527 groups that sprang up to get around campaign finance reform laws like McCain- Feingold. This one is bankrolled by Pat Stryker and Tim Gill, a pair of liberal Democrat fat cats who lavishly support a cornucopia of partisan and left-wing causes. According to Clear Peak's most recent IRS filing, through June of this year Stryker and Gill have poured in just under $180,000 to the cause. Former Colorado Democratic Party Chairman...

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MARCH PLANNED FOR LABOR DAY, SEPTEMBER 4TH IN MAJOR U.S. CITIES. INTELLIGENCE ON THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MARCH PLANNED FOR LABOR DAY, SEPTEMBER 4TH IN MAJOR U.S. CITIES. The Washington D.C. planning conference of ILLEGAL ALIENS for what is to follow between now and the ELECTION IN NOVEMBER took place in Washington D.C., July 28 -30th. At the bottom of this email you can read what organizations where there and which of their leaders spoke and held “training sessions”. In addition to that, EFE, a Hispanic newswire service, quoted Nativo Lopez, one of the March 25th Coalition organizers as...

We're grateful to our police officers. We count on them. We're proud of them.  Our state is going broke paying for them.  Same goes for teachers. We wish we could afford them, but we're having trouble.  We're having trouble paying for New Jersey's nearly 500,000 public employees. Especially at their current salaries and fringe benefits. Especially with New Jersey's property taxes among the steepest in the nation and rising.  Especially now that state officials have closed a $4.5 billion budget gap by raising taxes and cutting services while sidestepping the subject of how we compensate unionized public workers.  This isn't...

CNN business contributor Andy Serwer reported on a curious policy change at Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) stores: they’re giving first-time shoplifters a break for inexpensive merchandise. The story was not meant to be publicly announced and could cause an up-tick in shoplifting at the stores. Yet Serwer left out that The New York Times broke the story after being handed internal documents from an anti-Wal-Mart group funded by labor unions. “If you are caught in a Wal-Mart stealing less than $25 of merchandise and it’s your first time, you get a pass,” Serwer reported in a “Minding Your Business” update on...

(English-language translation) Nine hours of deliberations over two days were enough for a jury to unanimously find today 10 former leaders of the Authentic Independent Union (UIA) guilty of Federal charges of conspiracy, embezzlement, and money laundering. Federal judge José A. Fusté agreed to a request from prosecutors and ordered the immediate imprisonment of the 10 convicts. "A conviction of this magnitude requires extreme measures.....Society must get the message that this conduct is in no way acceptable," the judge stated. "This type of crime has serious consequences, so I am not of the mind that this can be permitted," said...

Labor leaders in Korea are not disappointed to see Hyundai CEO, Chung Mong Koo, take a fall. What union leaders ( I hate unions ) hope for is that this will give Hyundai Motors a chance to make another leap forward because they will be out from under the 'emperor-like' rule of Chung. Hyundai is the world's number 7 auto-maker and Chung now owns 5.2% of it from jail. Though he owned such a small portion he had near absolute control and was even said to be a micro manager to the point of deciding what color the parts under...

A Democratic stalwart warns that labor's old strategy can't win against a new competitive reality. Many of my friends will consider this view heretical. But it is based on stark reality... It can be galling to hear companies argue that they have to cut wages and benefits for hourly workers — even as they reward top executives with millions of dollars in stock options. The chief executive of Wal-Mart earns $27 million a year, while the company's average worker takes home only about $10 an hour. But let's assume that the chief executive got 27 cents instead of $27 million,...

The state imposed a $140,000 penalty for what it called "willful, continuing, and egregious" violations of the price law... The Minnesota Commerce Department on Thursday announced plans to fine a gas station chain $140,000 for repeatedly selling gas below the state's legal minimum price. The fine against Midwest Oil of Minnesota is twice as large as any imposed on a company since 2001, when the state established a formula based on wholesale prices, fees and taxes to determine a daily floor for gas prices. Kevin Murphy, deputy commissioner of the department, called the violations "willful, continuing, and egregious and warrant...

While no congressional incumbent has yet introduced articles of impeachment or a resolution of inquiry into grounds for impeachment of Bush and Cheney, numerous 2006 candidates are committed to doing so. I know because they're contacting ImpeachPAC, a political action committee I work for which was recently created to support pro-impeachment candidates. Today ImpeachPAC announced its first endorsement, that of Tony Trupiano, Democratic candidate for Congress in Michigan's 11th District. Tony has already been endorsed by Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and by the Michigan Teamsters Union Joint Council 43. He'll be challenging Republican incumbent Thaddeus McCotter, a pro-Bush, pro-war,...

The shade from the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market sign is minimal around noon; still, six picketers squeeze their thermoses and Dasani bottles onto the dirt below, trying to keep their water cool. They're walking five-hour shifts on this corner at Stephanie Street and American Pacific Drive in Henderson—anti-Wal-Mart signs propped lazily on their shoulders, deep suntans on their faces and arms—with two 15-minute breaks to run across the street and use the washroom at a gas station. Periodically one of them will sit down in a slightly larger slice of shade under a giant electricity pole in the intersection. Four lanes...

Wal-Mart (WMT) is the favorite whipping boy of labor unions and leftists who blame the retail giant for everything from low wages to a lack of health insurance. But don't tell the people of Oakland, Calif........Wal-Mart workers and customers see things differently. Take those at the new store in Oakland. Built on a once-empty field, it has brought 350 jobs averaging $10.82 an hour to a heavily minority area. It'll also bring in a half-million badly needed tax dollars.And how many people applied for those 350 jobs? 11,000. No, we didn't accidentally add a zero. That's 31 applicants for each...

They call it a perfect storm—a confluence of events creating a crisis of major proportions—and organized labor may have one on its hands. Leaders within the AFL-CIO are currently brawling over how to reverse organized labor’s declining political clout. After spending a reported $45 million on a failed attempt to oust President Bush in 2004, old-guard federation president John Sweeney is up for re-election in July. He and other AFL-CIO executive officers have issued a proposal to boost political spending in order to reclaim the White House and Congress. Meanwhile, upstart reformers within organized labor are advocating for a renewed...

Argentina's Congress Names Duhalde as President By Alistair Scrutton BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - Argentina's Congress on Tuesday appointed Eduardo Duhalde, a populist powerbroker in the Peronist Party, as the new president until 2003, with the task of ending recession and social chaos in Latin America's third-largest economy. Duhalde, a stocky 60-year-old who became the fifth president in two weeks, faces a nation plagued by bloody protests and looting as bankruptcies and unemployment grow and Argentina heads for a record sovereign debt default. ``My commitment from today is to finish with an economic model that has brought desperation to the ...

Five labor unions are drawing up a framework for a new coalition to represent their 5 million members because they are increasingly dissatisfied with the AFL-CIO's strategy to bolster the labor movement.     The unions plan to outline a strategy tomorrow to start a new group and raise $1 billion over the next five years to fund organizing efforts and to breathe life into a floundering labor movement.     The new group would include the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Unite Here, Laborers' International Union of North America, and Teamsters union.

The president of America's national labor federation, the AFL-CIO, has won the support of a wavering union president by vowing to boost the labor movement's outreach to the Republican Party. The AFL-CIO's president, John Sweeney, 71, who is up for re-election at a convention in Chicago next month, made the promise recently as he worked to beat back a challenge from dissenting unions that have charged Mr. Sweeney with moving too slowly to overhaul the labor federation. The change in political strategy was disclosed yesterday by a labor leader who has long advocated a more bipartisan approach, Harold Schaitberger of...

WASHINGTON, April 14 - The Bush administration is rapidly expanding audits of the nation's labor unions, citing a need to ferret out and deter corruption. But union leaders assert that those increased efforts are nothing more than crude political retaliation. Pointing to embezzlement of hundreds of thousands of dollars by the presidents of the ironworkers union and Washington's teachers union, Labor Department officials say the number of audits fell too far in the 1990's and needs to be restored to previous levels. They note that the number of national unions and locals that were audited fell to 206 in 2000,...