Free Republic

The two authors [Dylan Bennett of the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha and University of Washington Ph.D. candidate Hannah Walker] construct their argument calling Walker a racist by observing that the city of Milwaukee is home to the largest concentration of black people in Milwaukee. As in many metropolitan areas, many of the suburbs surrounding Milwaukee “such as Brookfield and Waukesha” are chockablock with white residents. Thus, the white scholars contend, any effort to reduce the scope of government is racist even if — especially if — proponents of limited government never use any overtly racist language. “Governor Walker engages a strong,...

Governor Scott Walker made his name reforming Wisconsin’s labor laws. Now he proposes to do the same at the federal level. In a speech yesterday, Walker detailed solid labor-policy reforms that conservatives should embrace. His reforms boil down to eliminating union power over the government and focusing private-sector labor law on employee choice. Walker sees creating government unions as a policy mistake that unnecessarily increases government spending. Neutering Wisconsin’s government unions enabled him to eliminate a $3.6 billion budget deficit and cut taxes by $2 billion. Federal unions are not as powerful as state and local government unions — they...

Yes, yes, Scott Walker doesn’t have enough pizazz or excitement for some Republicans. Let’s just toss out this bold agenda while we’re at it. >>>Walker will propose eliminating the National Labor Relations Board, which he will say has “become a one-sided proxy for the big union bosses — often at the expense of taxpayers and workers.” He will also propose eliminating “big-government federal unions,” saying the time members of those unions spend on union efforts takes away from the time they spend doing their jobs serving the American people. Walker’s plan would also make Right to Work nationwide, giving employees...

..... On Monday, the Wisconsin governor released his plan to strangle unions, titled “My Plan to Give Power to the People, Not the Union Bosses.”....Under President Obama, the NLRB has been more aggressive for labor than the business-friendly boards of previous administrations. In August, for example, it made it easier for unions to negotiate on behalf of workers at companies that rely on contractors and franchisees. If fast-food workers at McDonald’s or software testers at Microsoft want to unionize, employers have to come to the table to negotiate. For Walker, this decision is evidence that the NLRB is now “a...

[Hillary] used the social media platform to accuse Walker of employing “bullying” tactics when dealing with unions. “Unions help keep working families strong. Scott Walker’s attacks on unions and workers’ rights aren’t leadership—they’re bullying,” Clinton wrote. The tweet was signed with her initial, indicating she personally authored the tweet. A few hours later, Walker responded — and hit back hard. @HillaryClinton Actually, we’re protecting the American worker from being forced to support candidates like you,” [SW]

Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) is proposing the elimination of federal employee unions as part of broader package of policies aimed at curbing the influence of unions across the country. Walker rocketed to national prominence on the back of his own anti-union policies back in Wisconsin, so he’s looking to elevate that push to the national level as he works to rebound from slipping poll numbers. The plan, released Monday morning, includes shuttering the National Labor Relations Board, a government agency that protects employee’s ability to join unions and rules on unfair labor allegations. Walker plans to call the NLRB a...

MADISON, Wis. — Sinking in the national polls, the bumbling campaign of onetime frontrunner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, is preparing to double down with renewed attacks on working people. Career politician Walker’s desperate bid to remain competitive on the backs of the middle class and working people will be unveiled in a Monday speech in Las Vegas Nevada, hometown of anti-union, Walker mega-donor Sheldon Adelson. “Scott Walker has always been willing to do or say anything to try to win an election,” commented One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross. “It’s no surprise he’s...

In a report by Lansing TV station WLNS on a public meeting related to the Grand Ledge public schools, teachers made claims about their pay that don't stand up to scrutiny. The district’s latest teachers union contract expired June 30. The report quoted teachers who said they haven’t had pay raises in 10 years. One described a stipend of up to $4,000 to teach one extra class period a day as “tiny.” The TV station reported: “Some teachers say they haven’t gotten pay increases in 10 years and that’s led some to resign.” That is contradicted by the last union...

Employees with access to their employer’s email system have the right to use it for union organizing and other communications about wages and working conditions, but only during “nonworking time,” the National Labor Relations Board ruled Thursday. The ruling overturns a 2007 board decision stating employees don’t have a statutory right to use their employer’s email system for such purposes. Since then, the board’s makeup has changed and the board’s three Democrats agreed to overturn the earlier decision. The two Republican members dissented. The ruling, part of a rush of decisions the board is expected to make by Dec. 16,...

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Emails released by the State Department Monday night show that the leader of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the nation's top unions, had direct access to the office of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Several emails show that requests from Tina Flournoy, union President Randi Weingarten's assistant at the time, for private meetings or phone calls were given priority by Clinton. For example, in a July 20, 2010, message to Clinton's private account "HDR22@clintonemail.com," Flournoy, using her American Federation of Teachers address, said: "Have a little issue I would like to discuss with you over the phone. Not...

Rosemary Stawasz wasn't sure what Michigan's right-to-work law, enacted at the end of 2012, would mean for her. Stawasz, a special education teacher with the Van Buren Intermediate School District, worried about what would happen if she exercised her new right to not be forced to financially support the local teachers union. Under the previous law, paying union dues or fees was a condition of employment. Now, she had a choice. Educators can find out more about that choice at www.AugustOptOut.org. “I have had no problems at all," she said of the decision she made to leave the union. "The...

Powerful and well funded, 1199 SEIU has unprecedented reach into city and state government. ... Medicaid is one of the primary sources of funding for the hospitals employing workers from 1199 SEIU, the powerful hospital and nursing-home employees’ union. ... The union’s clout can be assessed by several measures: the sheer size of its membership, its spending on campaigns and lobbying, and the depth and breadth of its connections with New York’s ruling elite. With well over 300,000 members in Massachusetts, Maryland, Florida, Washington, D.C., and New York (where over half of that total resides), 1199SEIU is the largest union...

A Civil War monument in Petersburg was vandalized at some point early Saturday morning. The Monument to Union Soldiers stands on Wakefield Street and is across from Walnut Hill Elementary School. Petersburg police and the National Parks Service are working together to investigate the damage. If you have any information that could help investigators, call Petersburg police at 804-732-4222 or Crime Stoppers at 804-861-1212.

A college student was sexually molested at LaGuardia Airport by a uniformed TSA agent who demanded she go into a bathroom with him after she got off a flight so she could be searched for a weapon, sources told The Post. The 22-year-old victim, who is Korean, had gotten off a Southwest Airlines flight from Salt Lake City around 8 p.m. Tuesday when the agent, identified as Maxie Oquendo, 40, approached her near the B4 gate of Terminal B. Ogendo then asked her to follow him so she could be searched to see if she was carrying a knife or...

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has become a lightning rod for controversy under President Obama, with its aggressive actions fueling sustained warfare between business and labor. From the labor board’s bitter fight with Boeing, to the creation of new union election rules, the NLRB has repeatedly moved to the forefront of political debate, drawing in Congress, the White House and even the Supreme Court. The NLRB’s latest bombshell was dropped on Thursday, when the board determined the waste management agency Browning-Ferris should be considered a “joint employer” of temporary workers. The decision expands the definition of what it means...

America! It’s the land where anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and make their mark if they’re willing to put in the elbow grease, ingenuity and drive to carve a path to success. Or, you could just join a union. An elementary school teacher has been allowed to keep his job even though he was late for work 111 times over a two-year period.In a decision filed Aug. 19, an arbitrator rejected an attempt by the Roosevelt Elementary School to fire 15-year veteran Arnold Anderson from his $90,000-a-year job, saying he was entitled to progressive discipline.Anderson was...

When Ready for Hillary, a pro-Hillary Rodham Clinton “super PAC,” wanted to take out a million-dollar loan five months before it planned to go out of business, it turned to a bank that was founded to guard the savings of New York City garment workers.When the Democracy Alliance, an influential club of liberal donors, sought to recruit members in advance of the 2016 elections, the bank’s president helped to make introductions.And when workers-rights groups wanted to embarrass Walmart and the Gap for unsafe working conditions at factories supplying their stores, Amalgamated Bank, which manages $40 billion in pension fund assets,...

In 2005, the Michigan Education Association had 130,882 voting (active) members that were teachers and support professionals. According to recent disclosure documents, in 2015 the state's largest teachers union has 96,561 members, a decline of about 34,000 since 2005, or 26 percent. The numbers on the most recent MEA membership came from the Portage Education Association’s website which cites MEA Secretary Treasurer Rick Trainor as its source. The numbers significantly differ from the MEA’s federal report from the previous year. The MEA didn’t respond to an email seeking comment on its overall decline in membership. There are four main reasons...

In an apparent effort to make it even more difficult or even stop school employees from exercising their right under right-to-work to not pay union dues or fees, the state’s largest teachers union has quietly set up an obscure post office box address to which members must send the required opt-out paperwork. It's P.O. Box 51 East Lansing, MI 48826. Based on a letter the Michigan Education Association sent to members who had tried to get out, and discussions with some of them, resignation requests sent to the regular union headquarters address will not be honored. An extensive search of...