Free Republic

After an overwhelmingly successful informational campaign where the Mackinac Center’s August Opt Out Project told Michigan Education Association members statewide about their rights and the limits their union tried to put on right-to-work, the MEA continues its attempt to provide inaccurate information to its members and to the public. Regardless of how many teachers and other school personnel exercised their rights during the MEA’s arbitrary (and now ruled illegal) "August Window," the goal of the project was to make sure that every member knew about when and how to exercise those rights. Follow-up August opt-out postcard The second postcard sent...

A group of Walmart employees pushing for higher wages said on Friday they were planning protests at 1,600 Walmart stores nationwide on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year in the United States. The labour group, Our Walmart, said it had protested 1,200 to 1,400 Walmart stores last year on Black Friday, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Yesterday’s election was not so much a referendum on labor reform as yet another reminder that when elected officials protect freedom and taxpayers they do not need to fear the wrath of the union political juggernaut. These reformers winning and opponents losing cannot be easily dismissed as “it was a Republican wave which protected the politicians who took on labor reform.” Almost more striking than what was in the Republican wins was what was not in the Democrat losses. In Michigan for example, the birthplace of the UAW, the state with the 5th highest union membership rate in the country...

But remember, voters… there’s nothing to worry about. We’ve got the entire situation under control. Nurses across the United States will stage protest rallies and strikes on Wednesday over what they say is insufficient protection for health workers dealing with patients possibly stricken with the deadly Ebola virus.The California-based nurses’ union, National Nurses United, says hospitals still lack enough hazardous materials suits which leave no skin exposed and sufficient powered air-purifying respirators to properly protect nurses from exposure.“Inadequate preparedness for Ebola symbolizes the erosion of patient care standards generally,” National Nurses United spokesman Charles Idelson said on Tuesday. So...

In September 2013, the Michigan Education Association had a surprise for the nearly 8,000 public school employees who thought that by not signing up for the union’s e-dues that they were expressing their desire to disaffiliate from the union and thereby exercise their freedoms under Michigan’s newly enacted right to work law. The union announced that it was going to enforce its little-known bylaw purported to only allow members to resign during the month of August. Through the efforts of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation and four brave Saginaw school teachers, the so-called August window has been declared illegal. When...

Much of the discussion of last Tuesday's election results has addressed voters' ongoing dissatisfaction with what, by the numbers, is an improving economy. Commenters like Slate's William Saletan noted that Republicans won by using liberal-sounding economic rhetoric to play on income-stagnation angst. President Obama talked about the issue in a press conference, citing the dearth of high-wage jobs amidst the recovery. Today Josh Marshall of the progressive news and commentary site Talking Points Memo and Derek Thompson of the Atlantic poke deeper into the issue. They really poke the heck out of the issue, I tell you! Marshall's piece is...

Voters reject half-cent sales tax by 74 percent. Pueblo police and fire union members don't plan to lobby city council for more money in lieu of a public safety tax failing.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) last week released its annual Report Card on American Education, where it grades states’ education policy based on six areas: state academic standards, charter school laws, home-school regulations, private school choice programs, overall teacher quality and policies and digital learning opportunities. Interestingly, states sharing the same border often receive very different rankings. For example, Virginia education policies ranked very differently from neighboring Washington, D.C. Virginia received a cumulative “C-” while the District received a cumulative “B-”. Notably, the District provides families greater flexibility with more than 100 charter locations serving nearly 40,000 students, or...

Within two weeks of being sued by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, the Brighton Education Association and Brighton Area Schools agreed to strike illegal language in its teachers contract requiring non-union members to pay a fee to support teachers leaving the classroom to conduct union business. Brighton High School teacher Adam Neuman, the plaintiff in the case, says he is relieved as a non-union member to no longer live with the treat of payroll deductions for so-called release time. “This was never anything personal against the union or the district,” he said. “I’m glad that we got a resolution so...

Eighty-eight teachers over the last decade have been permanently removed from Colorado classrooms for sexual improprieties – the vast majority violating young victims from their own schools. ... not a single teacher lost their license for simply being a weak educator of children. To get decertified, records show it usually takes felony-level criminal allegations or lying on the teaching certificate application about lesser crimes. Karla Danzeisen says she spent years teaching Spanish to Denver high school students in a fog of pain pills, cocaine and methamphetamines. She told Halsne, “I was using drugs every day. I was going to teach...

Brighton teacher Adam Neuman went to Afghanistan to fight for freedom. Now he simply wants to exercise it back home. As a combat veteran who served in the Kandahar Province for nearly a year, the civics teacher regards attacks on his liberty as a personal affront. So, when the teachers union and his employer told him they were taking money from his paycheck to pay for a teacher to leave the classroom to work on union business, Neuman felt he had no choice but to sue. In August, Neuman quit the Michigan Education Association and its local affiliate, the Brighton...

The California city of Palmdale was ready to roll out the red carpet this summer when a Japanese company agreed to build a $60 million factory on a city-owned, vacant parcel on the southwest side of town -- but now the company is taking its project out of state and critics say union greed is to blame. As many as 300 people were slated to work at the 400,000-square-foot plant, painting and wiring light rail cars under a huge contract with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It was a coup for Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford, and a plan that...

In recent arguments against states requiring voters to show a photo ID, the United Auto Workers Local 6000 has compared concerns about voter fraud to belief in the fictional Loch Ness monster and Yeti. The union wrote on its Facebook page that requiring a photo ID for voting is the goal of the “billionaire funded” American Legislative Exchange Council, and is intended to create obstacles for voters who might support a more “progressive” agenda. When its own members, however, want to exercise their freedoms under the new right-to-work law in Michigan to opt out of paying union dues as a...

MADISON, Wis. — Here we go again — another roadside sign comparing Republican Gov. Scott Walker to Adolf Hitler. “WALKERS MOTTO DIVIDE & CONQUER SO WAS HITLERS,” proclaims the grammatically challenged, hand-written sign pinned to posts just off of Mariner Road near Wisconsin Highway 83 in Hartland. The sign is across the highway from Westbrook Church, an Evangelical Christian worship center at 1100 Wisconsin 83. SIGN OF THE TIMES: Another ‘Walker is Hitler’ sign, this one in Hartland, Wis., amid the state’s heated campaign for governor. If history is any indicator, expect more of these messages during the last 15...

Kaiser Permanente and other health providers are putting pressure on the powerful California Nurses Association (CAN) in negotiations for reductions in medical staffing and compensation due to the implementation of California’s version of Obamacare. Union nurses on Friday tried to launch a new initiative by demanding an extra compensation supplement and more staffing to be prepared to fight the Ebola virus. But just three years after union nurses won huge contract gains by striking, Obamacare rules that cut patient access to care could now result in huge nurse layoffs. ... the California Nurses Association and other labor unions that campaigned...

This week the AFL-CIO threw its considerable weight behind Democrat-turned-independent Greg Orman in his bid for U.S. Senate in Kansas. This came on the heels of a debate that was all about defining who Greg Orman really is: ... The AFL-CIO won't run TV ads for Orman, spokesman Jeff Hauser said, but his campaign will now be incorporated into the union's extensive ground game there. The AFL-CIO had previously endorsed Kansas's Democratic Party's gubernatorial nominee, Paul Davis, who is locked into one of the country's most competitive gubernatorial contests with incumbent Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. During Wednesday's debate, incumbent Sen....

Air France flight attendant unions on Friday called for a halt to services to the Guinean capital Conakry due to concerns about a "serious risk" of spreading Ebola. The daily Air France Paris-Conakry flight "carries a serious risk of spreading the epidemic, particularly in our country," read a statement from the two unions of flight crew and commercial staff. They called for a closure of the route until the epidemic is under control. They also slammed what they called totally inappropriate protection from Air France -- which provided them with "a simple pair of gloves" -- and called for more...

Joyce and Karen Koch aren’t related to each other. But that’s not important; they’re sisters “in spirit.” Besides, what they really want you to know is that they’re not related to the Koch brothers, the billionaire conservatives funding political candidates and causes nationwide. more...

Adam Neuman left the classroom in Michigan to serve in the army in Afghanistan. Michigan high school social studies teacher Adam Neuman was surprised when he saw the $80 deduction on his paycheck from the Brighton Public School District. Then, he was angry. The U.S. Army veteran, who served one tour in Afghanistan, had opted out of the Brighton Education Association and parent organization, the Michigan Education Association, in August, as was his right under the state's 2012 law. He knew he wasn't subject to dues withholding, yet the itemized stub showed the deduction. “I don’t feel that they should...

Flint Northwestern High School’s academic performance is not the type most would want to celebrate. The school has consistently been among the worst performing in the state. Yet in a recent visit, the leader of the National Education Association told union members at the school that Northwestern "did it right." NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia stopped at Flint Northwestern as part of statewide tour on Sept. 24 to celebrate it being moved off a Michigan Department of Education "priority schools list." The state applies this label to the lowest performing 5 percent of schools, which makes them subject to increased...