Free Republic

The union that exploited Michigan’s home-based caregivers for the best part of a decade has seen its revenue tumble since the scheme that enabled the exploitation ended. SEIU Healthcare Michigan reported $5,398,383 in dues and fees in 2014. That's just 48 percent of the $11,307,314 it reported for 2012, the last full year during which the union's dues skim was in place. The information was contained in a financial disclosure report the union submitted to the federal government 57 days after the March 31 deadline it is apparently required to meet. The disclosure finally took place shortly after Michigan Capitol...

Union members broke into cheers when Hillary Rodham Clinton said she supported a $15-an-hour national minimum wage. “Thank you for giving me this chance to tell you all how much I support your movement,” she told a conference organized by the Service Employees International Union. “I want to fight with you every day.” Clinton’s words last weekend weren’t quite the endorsement they may have seemed. The next day, her campaign clarified her remarks, saying while Clinton supported the general push for higher wages, she wasn’t backing the more contentious $15 hourly minimum. In the eight weeks since she announced her...

A hack announced last week affected all current and retired federal employees, and hackers got their hands on much more personal information than previously announced, the American Federation of Government Employees said Thursday.A December breach of government systems containing personal information of millions of federal employees was worse than originally thought. A union of federal workers said Thursday that the attack, announced last week, had stolen confidential information of every single federal employee, past or present -- far more than was previously revealed. The government disputes those claims. It's the latest in a spree of damaging hacks against the government,...

Clark County management has informed its largest union that employees won’t receive salary or benefit increases anytime soon, citing a new state law and contending that the contract between the county and Service Employees International Union Local 1107 has expired. The freeze is expected to end in August or early September, when the county expects to have a new contract in place with the union. The county and union go to arbitration on July 1. Both sides had already planned to go to arbitration before a new state law was passed, after two years of fruitless negotiations for a new...

Clark County management has ordered Martin Bassick, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 1107, to report for work at a county job in a move that reflects the county’s interpretation of a new state law concerning paid leave for union representatives. The county’s human resources department notified Bassick in a letter Thursday to report at his county public works job at 8 a.m. Monday, according to correspondence obtained by the Review-Journal. The letter cites a bill that the Legislature passed this session and Gov. Brian Sandoval signed into law. An attorney for the SEIU, the county’s largest union,...

Ballot initiative threatens state worker retirement security A coalition of anti-union, anti-public employee groups, including the National Right to Work Committee, launched their latest attack against public employee pensions and the hard-earned retirement security of state workers. Their misleading campaign, called the “Voter Empowerment Act of 2016,” would undermine collective bargaining and require voter approval for changes to pensions and other retirement benefits, including medical insurance. “This dangerous initiative is a real threat to the financial security of our members and all public employees,” said Yvonne R. Walker, Local 1000 president. “It is more important than ever to become a...

The AFL-CIO, along with some public sector unions, announced a campaign finance freeze in March. Unions hoped the threat of withholding contributions would scare Democratic lawmakers out of supporting President Barack Obama’s Trade Promotion Authority, or “fast track,” to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership — a trade agreement labor groups say would hurt manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

Loretta Lynch's DOJ looks to further federal control of elections in ways that benefit the Democrats. The Obama Justice Department has quietly launched an effort to erode traditional state powers over elections. In the first instance, Attorney General Loretta Lynch has drafted and sent a bill to Congress which would force state election officials to turn over power to tribal governments to determine the location and number of polling places on Indian reservations in state-run elections. In the second instance, the DOJ is seeking to erode the power of states to prohibit the mentally incompetent from voting, as long as...

Reflections on the "minimum wage hike" protests today at McDonald's Oak Brook headquarters... On a cool May morning, as McDonalds’ shareholders met to determine the fast food giant’s future course, some 2000 protesters, hailing from as far as Kansas City and New York, descended upon them to present a list of demands. Raise the starting wage to $15/hour, they threatened, lest the company be forever branded with such monikers as Exploiter, Villain, Robber Baron and Tyrant! The Chicago Tribune, newspaper of record in the blighted metro area that McDonald’s calls home, was happy to give front page coverage to these...

Let all decent human beings this day remember Werner Foerster, a New Jersey state trooper slain in 1973 - for tonight there will be a nauseating gathering to celebrate (yes, celebrate) the armed prison break that freed one of Foerster's convicted killers. An organization that should know better, the big public employee union SEIU Local 1199, has opened an auditorium at its headquarters to a group that lionizes fugitive Joanne Chesimard, aka Assata Shakur, as a heroine whose "liberation" from prison 27 years ago it considers a bright moment in American history. Sponsors of the Hands Off Assata Campaign include...

While the term “school choice” is often perceived as a decision between public and private institutions, magnet schools offer an opportunity to introduce another option for parents and families within their public school district. With almost 3,000 magnet schools nationwide in 2012, the trend embracing more public school choice continues to rise. Originally conceived as an approach to decrease segregation in school districts, today magnet schools encourage more hands-on learning by tailoring instruction around a central theme. Various magnet schools focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); arts; business; culinary studies; medicine; languages and more. Magnet schools increase parental...

Jonathan Hoenig @JonathanHoenig Several folks protesting McDonalds pick up dinner from McDonalds. pic.twitter.com/iEWoZDh4c1

The fight to redefine a McJob is heating up. Protests for pay of $15 an hour and a union for fast-food and other low-wage workers are set to take place around the country Wednesday, marking the biggest effort yet in an ongoing campaign by labor organizers. The Fight for $15 campaign is being spearheaded by the Service Employees International Union and began in late 2012 with fast-food workers. Since then, organizers have used the spotlight to rally a variety of low-wage workers, including airport workers and home care workers. On Wednesday, adjunct professors will be the latest to join in...

Two of the country’s most powerful and politically influential labor unions are backing President Obama in the recent court challenge to his 2014 executive action on illegal immigration, saying they support the president’s effort because "undocumented workers" need more workplace protection and their participation helps the U.S. economy. The AFL-CIO and the National Education Association on Monday each filed so-called amicus briefs in a federal appeals court case in which Texas and 26 other states are challenges the president’s 2014 memorandum on illegal immigration. The memorandum essentially expands work authorization and delayed-deportation programs for illegal immigrants. And it provides similar...

Labor giant SEIU spent more than $100 million on union overhead and political activities in 2014, according to federal labor filings released Tuesday evening. The union collected about $320 million from its 1.8 million members, who are primarily government employees and health care workers. For every $3 that a union member contributed to its coffers, $1 went to functions outside of membership services. The union spent about $55 million paying union administrators and covering overhead costs, including more than $276,000 to president Mary Kay Henry.

On a recent Friday, Kwanza Brooks, a $7.25-an-hour McDonald’s worker, climbed into a 14-person van to take a four-hour ride from Charlotte, N.C., to Atlanta. As she and other workers headed south, Ms. Brooks, a short, fiery woman, swapped stories with her companions about unsafe conditions and unfair managers. Upon arriving, they joined more than 400 other people — including home care aides, Walmart workers, child care workers and adjunct professors. The gathering was a strategy session to plan for the fast-food movement’s next big wave of protests, which is now scheduled for April 15. But the meeting was also...

Over three days, some of the wealthiest people in Chicago, if not the nation, dumped more than $1.3 million into the political re-election campaign of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.. Among the donors was Citadel founder and billionaire Ken Griffin, who donated $250,000 to Emanuel. The mayor is battling to keep his seat against a surging Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia. Others who donated from March 3 to March 6 include: Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky, $200,000; Richard Melman, $100,000; and Jay B. Pritzker and M.K. Pritzker, who tossed in $50,000 each. Garcia recently took in a a $250,000 contribution from...

Warren, who is closely aligned with progressive union groups, ripped Walker in a tweet Saturday for what some saw as a comparison between union members and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria: "If Scott Walker sees 100,000 teachers & firefighters as his enemies, maybe it's time we take a closer look at his friends.” In a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, Walker said, “If I can take on 100,000 protestors, I can do the same across the world.” Walker, a possible 2016 presidential candidate for the GOP, tried to walk back his comments after his...

At CPAC, Scott Walker made a remark that caught the attention of many of the left, and some on the right: OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Thursday that his experience taking on thousands of protesters in his state helped prepare him to take on terrorists across the world. The likely Republican presidential contender sparked pointed criticism from labor union leaders across the country after remarks delivered on the first day of the Conservative Political Action Conference in suburban Washington. The annual conference features more than a dozen potential Republican presidential contenders over three days hoping...

Gerardo Hernandez, a spy for Communist Cuba and the man responsible for the murder of four humanitarian workers (three of whom were American citizens) over international waters, was freed from prison last year by the Obama administration, due in part to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). This was revealed at a February 6, 2015, celebration of Hernandez’s release, along with two of his fellow Cuban agents (collectively known as the “Cuban 5.. At the beginning of the event, an IPS official thanked all who who took part in the 17-year campaign and singled out a number of organizations that...