Free Republic

New York’s highest court on Tuesday held that the names of state and local government retirees receiving pensions may not be shielded from the public. The 6-0 decision by the New York Court of Appeals, which reversed a consistent string of lower court rulings, was a setback to public employee unions in the state that have fought for years to prevent a conservative fiscal watchdog group in Albany from collecting the pension records and including them in a searchable database.

In a letter sent to any member who opts to drop out of his union via Michigan's right-to-work law, Teamsters Local 214 President Joseph Valenti claims that employers are faking claims of deficits so they don’t have to negotiate in good faith. The letter states: “Right to Work laws are eliminating your right to be represented; these laws are attacking your pension benefits, your healthcare benefits, and employers are falsifying their claims of financial deficits in order to avoid bargaining in good faith. Employer budgets are prepared by the employer and they do not accurately reflect the true financial conditions...

Michigan State University is administering a program called the Building Trades Academy that teaches techniques aimed at unionizing employees. In reaction, state lawmakers are threatening to make cuts to MSU’s appropriations unless the university agrees to make changes. Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker, R-Lawton, chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the higher education budget, said MSU’s administration of such a program is not an acceptable use of state appropriation dollars. Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker, R-Lawton “Michigan State University, a public university, has taken over the duties of the National Labor College; a failed private entity previously run by the AFL-CIO,” Sen. Schuitmaker...

Almost 3,000 members of the Machinists Union Local Lodge 2003 are off their jobs today after rejecting a contract offer from L3 Army Fleet Support at Fort Rucker. The strike began Monday due to what union spokesperson Bob Wood said were issues over working conditions, eroding seniority rights and overtime procedures. Union members overwhelmingly voted against the latest contract proposal Sunday night. "The IAM is communicating with our membership and in contact with the company and Federal Mediation in order to build a path forward to resuming negotiations and solving the problems and returning our members to the mission at...

Having won the right to decide for themselves whether to join unions, Michigan workers are opting to desert an organization that many never wanted to join in the first place: the SEIU. Michigan voters put an end to forced unionization by approving right-to-work in the 2012 election. Republican Gov. Rick Snyder also signed a bill that ended a fraudulent dues-skimming scheme, perpetrated by the SEIU, which had allowed the union to collect $34 million in mandatory dues out of the Medicaid checks of unknowing home-based caregivers. No longer obligated to pay money to the SEIU, 80 percent of home-based caregivers...

It is not easy to demonize people who have spent hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money to help educate poor children. But some members of the education establishment are taking a shot at it. The Walton Family Foundation — created by the people who created Walmart — has given more than $300 million to charter schools, voucher programs and other educational enterprises concerned with the education of poor and minority students across the country. The Walton Family Foundation gave more than $58 million to the KIPP schools, which have had spectacular success in raising the test scores...

A trio of Michigan public school teachers is actually fighting with their union. “The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation brought a suit on behalf of Angela Steffke, Rebecca Metz and Nancy Rhatigan, who were forced to continue paying dues or fees to their union or face being fired,” Derk Wilcox reported in the March/April 2014 issue of the Mackinac Center’s report. “This status would have lasted for the next 10 years under the union’s ‘insecurity’ clause — a dubious collective bargaining agreement hastily enacted on the eve of the right-to-work law [in Michigan] taking effect.” “When the lawsuit was heard in...

JetBlue Airways Corp pilots voted by a wide margin on Tuesday to join the Air Line Pilots Association union, sending the budget carrier’s stock price down on concerns the move would raise the airline’s costs. About 71 percent of the pilots eligible to vote in the month-long election backed ALPA. JetBlue has about 2,600 pilots and 96 percent were eligible to vote. […] JetBlue warned earlier this year costs would rise largely because of an agreement reached with pilots to raise base pay rates by 20 percent. JetBlue said that increase was expected to add $145 million to its costs...

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The UAW announced today it is withdrawing objections filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regarding February's vote at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, effectively terminating the NLRB review process. UAW President Bob King said the decision was made in the best interests of Volkswagen employees, the automaker, and economic development in Chattanooga. King said the UAW based its decision on the belief that the NLRB’s historically dysfunctional and complex process potentially could drag on for months or even years. Additionally, the UAW cited refusals by Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker to...

As the labor movement tells the story, two months ago, the silly, ungrateful Volkswagen factory workers in Tennessee foolishly rejected the generous invitation of the company and the United Auto Workers to welcome the Detroit-killing union with open arms. In an election supervised by the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the workers in VW's Chattanooga plant rejected UAW representation by a vote of 712 to 626. Amazingly, the UAW and the automaker both refuse to take the workers' "no" for an answer. The two sides are acting in unison to overturn the democratically expressed will of the workers. Nullifying...

Here’s your history lesson of the day, and it’s a duzy. Do you all remember the department store chain Montgomery Ward? It was in the same class as JC Penney and Sears, and like Penney’s and Sears had a robust catalog business in the 20th century. The catalog ended in 1985 and the stores closed in 2000. The incident we are going to talk about happened during World War 2, in 1944. When I read this it initially put my jaw on the floor, but when I thought about it for a moment, I realized that it put all...

PHILADELPHIA -- Union College won its first NCAA hockey title Saturday night at the Frozen Four, scoring three times in a 1:54 span in the first period in a 7-4 victory over Minnesota on Saturday night. Mike Vecchione tied the score at 2 with 4:01 left in the first, Eli Lichtenwald gave the Dutchman the lead 57 seconds later, and Daniel Ciampini capped the spree with 2:57 to go. “I don't think anyone will call us Cinderella anymore,” said Shayne Gostisbehere, who had a goal and two assists. “These guys, my brothers, they do everything. I don't care about anything...

"GOP Rep: Obama Administration's OSHA Targeting Non-Union Plants with Inspectors Accompanied by Union Reps" On Wednesday’s “On the Record” on the Fox News Channel, Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL) laid out an argument that this administration is using the inspection powers of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to target non-union plants in South at far more disproportionate rate than anywhere else in the country. She added that also these OSHA inspectors were being accompanied by union representatives to non-union shops.

National Labor Relations Board members ruled Monday that NBC Universal, the parent company of the namesake TV network and the cable news channel MSNBC, was illegally refusing to deal with its employees' union, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians. It ordered the company to "cease and desist" avoiding the union. "[T]he Respondent has been failing and refusing to bargain collectively and in good faith with the exclusive collective-bargaining representative of its unit employees and has engaged in unfair labor practices," ruled a three-member NLRB majority. The announcement is ironic given that MSNBC has remade itself as a liberal...

The Ferndale school district's collective bargaining agreement made headlines recently because it gives preference to applicants of "the non-Christian faith." Under media scrutiny, Ferndale officials said they "somehow missed" the discriminatory language. Fortunately, they have now removed it. But large portions of Ferndale's contract still appear to be in violation of other state laws. Ferndale is one of an estimated 60 percent of Michigan districts that have worked to preserve collective bargaining language that is prohibited by state law. A series of recent reforms were passed in an attempt to make it easier for district officials to retain and reward...

Teachers Miriam Chanski and Ray Arthur say they hope their victory in getting out of the Michigan Education Association will embolden the 8,000 other teachers who have chosen not to pay union dues this year. Chanski and Arthur filed unfair labor practice complaints against the MEA when the union failed to honor their right not to pay dues or fees under Michigan's right-to-work law. The union claimed the teachers failed to give notice in August as required by union bylaws and because of forms they signed when they were hired as teachers. The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation represented Arthur and...

Going forward, every NATO member state must step up and carry its share of the burden. — President Barack Obama, March 26, 2014 On Wednesday, addressing an assembly of young Europeans, President Obama issued a challenge. Faced with a resurgent Russia, he said, and in view of the shaky global economy, Europeans must spend more on defense. His sentiment is well founded. Let’s be clear: EU defense spending is woefully inadequate. Excluding Britain, France, Germany, and perhaps Italy, the EU states are fundamentally incapable of full-spectrum operations. And the military of America’s greatest ally, the British, is being forced...

A Coopersville kindergarten teacher who resigned from the Michigan Education Association under the state's worker freedom law says she is glad her ordeal is over, but is concerned for her colleagues, according to a story in The Grand Rapids Press. "I am very thankful that the MEA has finally recognized my right to opt out, but my settlement doesn't bring justice to the thousands of other teachers in my position in West Michigan and across the state of Michigan," Miriam Chanski, who along with Petoskey teacher Ray Arthur is now free from the MEA, told The Press. "This is not...

As auto manufacturing has shifted to the South, the UAW has made a push to begin unionizing workers in right-to-work states. The words and actions of union officials are interesting compared to states where workers are still forced to pay money to the union. On the website for a UAW chapter in Alabama, which is trying to organize workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant, the union writes the following in its FAQ section: Q: Do I have to join the union? A: First of all remember Alabama is a Right to Work state; therefore, it is totally voluntary whether or not...

After a check of the last two years of disciplinary records at St. Paul Schools KSTP found dozens of records that show employees got off with relatively light punishments for serious violations. One employee, who worked on a bus route, missed 18 days of unexcused work, and only received a written reprimand. A teacher at a high school sent out dozens of Tweets with sexual references that students had access to and only received a one-day, unpaid suspension. Another employee showed up to school "under the influence of alcohol" and received a one-day, unpaid suspension. And yet another teacher called...