Free Republic

More than 100 groups will split $67 million to help people “navigate” the new Obamacare health insurance exchanges — more money than the administration initially said would be available but short of what advocates say will be needed to help people sign up, especially in states where the governors are hostile. The grants announced Thursday will go to 105 organizations, including community groups, health care providers, business groups and a handful of Planned Parenthood affiliates. The program, which got an extra $13 million from the health law prevention fund, is for those states that refused to set up their own...

Thousands of activists for immigration reform have gone missing after only four hundred turned up at Wednesday's rally in Bakersfield, CA outside the office of Republican Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy. Though the SEIU reported that "more than 5,000 people" had boarded buses to the rally, only a few hundred actually emerged in Bakersfield--potentially one of the greatest human tragedies in American history. The Associated Press offered a figure of 1,500 attendees, citing estimates from Bakersfield police. Those estimates are clearly erroneous, based perhaps on expected rather than actual turnout. A local CBS affiliate reported from Los Angeles on the morning...

"Comprehensive immigration reform," like virtually any initiative containing the magic word "comprehensive," looks good on the surface. But the details of the comprehensive immigration bill passed by the Senate in June by a 68-32 margin reveal a lot gone wrong underneath. Oblivious to this, top union leaders are gearing up for an all-out blitz this fall to secure passage of similar legislation in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Led by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (in photo), they are obsessed with providing 11 million or more persons living illegally in this country with amnesty and eventual citizenship, and with enabling millions...

With tea party Republicans threatening to shut down the government in an effort to roll back President Obama's healthcare law, several progressive groups are teaming up in a new effort to convince skeptical voters of the benefits of the new law. During the August recess, Americans United for Change and Protect Your Care plan to counter efforts by Republicans to disparage the law. The groups will stage protests at GOP events, organize their own town halls to publicize its perks, and provide “air cover” to the law’s defenders. Republicans “have overplayed their hand and that gives us the opportunity to...

<p>WASHINGTON — With union membership on the decline, labor leaders are getting more creative - and some say more desperate - to boost sagging numbers and rebuild their waning clout.</p> <p>Unions are helping non-union fast food workers around the country hold strikes to protest low wages and poor working conditions. They are trying to organize home day care workers, university graduate students and even newly legalized marijuana dealers. Members of a "shadow union" at Wal-Mart hold regular protests at the giant retailer, which long has been resistant to organizing.</p>

Activists are pushing for an hourly wage of $15 and the ability to organize. Cinnamon Tigner, an employee there who took part in the protest instead of working Tuesday, described the work as "modern day slavery" "I love my job, I love what I do," she told Patch by phone, but Tigner said she felt disrespected by restaurant management who she said act like they have power over employees.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono will tap Milly Silva, a Hispanic female labor union leader, as her running mate next week, sources say. Silva, vice president of SEIU 1199, which represents 7,000 nursing home workers in 74 facilities, will be be Buono's pick for lieutenant governor, according to three sources familiar with the decision who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss internal deliberations. The announcement is expected to come on Monday.

The Obama Administration will hire tens of thousands of health care professionals, union workers and community activists as “navigators” to help Americans choose Obamacare options. The “navigators” will be paid $20 to $48 per hour plus benefits. The Washington Examiner reported, via I Own the World: Tens of thousands of health care professionals, union workers and community activists hired as “navigators” to help Americans choose Obamacare options starting Oct. 1 could earn $20 an hour or more, according to new regulations issued Wednesday. The 63-page rule covering navigators, drawn up by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, also said...

"When there's no justice done, it just hurts." That's what SEIU 32BJ member Louis Medina, a security officer in Manhattan, had to say about the not guilty verdict issued last weekend in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Trayvon, a 17-year-old African-American, was walking back to his father's house from the store in Sanford, Florida on February 26, 2012 when he was racially profiled, shot and killed by George Zimmerman. Zimmerman, an armed Neighborhood Watch volunteer who pursued the unarmed teenager as Trayvon returned home, was found not guilty on manslaughter and second-degree murder charges by a Florida jury on...

Union bosses are not happy about Obamacare. Last week, the leaders of three major U.S. unions, including James P. Hoffa of the Teamsters, sent a scathing open letter to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, Democratic leaders in Congress. They warn that if the law does not change, Obamacare will "destroy the very health and wellbeing of our members along with millions of other hardworking Americans." Clearly they feel betrayed. Here is the first paragraph of their letter: "When you and the President sought our support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), you pledged that if we liked the health plans...

In response to Sarah Palin Weighs in on Yacht-gate: The 2012 election proved to me that we reached a tipping point. Why SHOULD the Regime respect a citizenry that would reelect this corrupt, scandal plagued collectivist, with his reverse Midas touch, whose crowning achievement has been described by one of its architects as a "trainwreck" that now has over a dozen implementation failures. Come on. I don't care how weak a candidate Mitt Romney was - does a rational, well informed citizenry reelect such a person? No, an irrational, on the dole, self-serving, badly informed citizenry does. Hence, the disrespect....

(Reuters) - Supporters of a U.S. immigration reform bill are launching a push for the legislation this week that includes phone calls to lawmakers from Catholic bishops, visits to Capitol Hill from high-tech lobbyists and an ad blitz sponsored by organized labor. The lobbying frenzy is aimed at overcoming resistance among many Republicans in the House of Representatives to the biggest overhaul of U.S. immigration laws in nearly 30 years. Immigration reform, President Barack Obama's top domestic priority, passed the Democratic-led Senate with bipartisan support but its prospects in the Republican-led House are bleak. While House votes could still be...

In 2009, Manuel Zelaya, a leftist thug, thief and “business partner” of Cesar Chavez was president of Honduras. He had long been mismanaging the nation via payoffs to supportive unions (sound familiar?), and was planning an illegal election to cement his power. There being no Constitutional method to remove him, both the Congress and the Judiciary asked the Military to assist in said removal. This they did and Vice President Roberto Micheletti took power as required by their Constitution. At no time did the military have power…not one second. The craven Obamites and all allies, SEIU, etc. demanded that the...

A broad coalition of advocacy groups is launching a multipronged campaign aimed at pressuring the Republican-led House to pass comprehensive immigration reform before the August recess. The Center for Community Change, a grass-roots organization based in Washington, said Tuesday that it is investing north of $1 million in an effort that includes paid radio ads, voter registration drives for the 2014 midterm election, and town hall events. The Service Employees International Union, which launched a seven-figure ad buy in advance of the Senate immigration debate, said it will continue its radio, TV and online ad campaign on immigration reform. And...

Today, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly voted to pass immigration by a vote of 68-32, fulfilling the call and dreams of American and immigrant communities across the country. All throughout the corners of America, we celebrate this monumental step the Senate has taken to finally pass historic immigration reform. SEIU was founded by immigrant janitors over 90 years ago, and immigrants have been an intricate part of SEIU's, and America's, history. We're thrilled that our country is steps closer to finally enacting historic, commonsense immigration reform that is worthy of our values.

NEW YORK, May 28, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Archdiocese of New York must fund abortion-on-demand and contraception as part of the terms of a contract negotiated by a major donor to President Barack Obama. The archdiocese acknowledged on Monday that it funds the morally objectionable services for 3,000 medical workers in the Catholic Health Care System, known as ArchCare, under a contract negotiated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The national union spent more money on behalf of the Democratic Party during the 2012 election than any other PAC, union, or group in the nation.

Opponents of the new Minnesota law that could allow thousands of child care providers and personal care workers to unionize are suing to stop it. The opponents say the legislation allowing the groups to vote on whether to bargain collectively with the state is unconstitutional. "What the suit says is that the Legislature can't set up an election procedure in which employers are represented by unions. It's just not allowed under federal labor law," said Douglas Seaton, attorney for a group of child care providers opposing the union effort. But home-based child care providers are exempt from the National Labor...

Ms. Faulkner is worth two billion dollars. More than 40% of the U.S. population will have its medical information stored in an Epic digital medical record by 2013. Clients include many of the country’s top hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins, and Cedars-Sinai. Faulkner largely shuns the press and leads a modest lifestyle.” From Real Clear Politics: Who is Judy Faulkner? Chances are, you don’t know her — but her politically connected, taxpayer-subsidized electronic medical records company may very well know you. Top Obama donor and billionaire Faulkner is founder and CEO of Epic Systems, which will soon store...

Labor is mounting an all-out push to fill the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) as the agency faces the prospect of being sidelined for the rest of President Obama’s second term. Unions of all stripes have told Senate Democrats that they need to move on all five of Obama's nominees to the labor board, even if it takes a controversial change to filibuster rules to make it happen. “Without this, there's nothing [to protect workers],” said Larry Cohen, the president of the Communications Workers of America. (CWA) “It's a floor and now the floor is caving in as well.” The...

The Michigan Capitol Confidential article about a leaked document from the Service Employees International Union on how the union hopes to continue its "dues skim" against home-based caregivers is interesting, but more significant is how the union explains the whole unionization scheme. The crux of the debate is over the unionization of more than 45,000 home-based caregivers. The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, which is representing some of those forced to be in the union, maintains that the skim was illegal because the caregivers are not state employees — they work for private individuals who happen to receive public money. If...