Free Republic

America’s largest union, the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) is a common utterance within the White House and will be a major player at the December jobs summit. In 2008 they gave almost $30 million to Obama’s campaign. SEIU President Andy Stern is the most frequent visitor to the White House according to their visitors’ log. Anna Burger, Treasurer of the SEIU and Chairwoman of their Change to Win campaign has even been appointed to Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board and is scheduled to attend the December jobs summit at the White House. The problem; until 2007, both Stern and...

Boeing plans to make all the parts for the 787 Dreamliner currently produced in the Puget Sound region at a second location so that the second final assembly line being set up in North Charleston, S.C., can operate independently.Local Boeing workers have long complained that only the vertical tail fin of the 787 Dreamliner is built in the Puget Sound region. But now even that small claim to uniqueness is going to be shared, as Boeing continues to turn the screws on the Machinists union after their two-month strike in 2008. The company said Monday it plans to use suppliers...

Kate Campigne Piercy, director of government reform for the Illinois Policy Institute, recently penned an interesting piece for The Chicago Tribune that informed us all that the Illinois Commerce Dept. bought $2,821 worth of Hot Sauce during fiscal year 2009. That's not all, either. What's the need for a typewriter in a computer-centric world? The Illinois Employment Security Department spent $245.80 on a Brother ML100 Typewriter -- in addition to $12,176.54 on a Canon Microfilm/ Fiche Printer. The governor's office shelled out $20,692.24 on "subscriptions." The Commerce Department spent $3,770 for golf carts, $280 on soy crayons and $2,821 on...

Over the last few months we've talked about several instances of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) committing vote fraud in elections for in-home helathcare workers to chose a union. We have also reported on the shaky UHW election in Dec. of 2008. (Here, here, and here) Even with those instances extant we have more SEIU vote fraud to report. The SEIU is still perpetrating fraudulent elections, intimidating union voters, and trying to strong-arm members into accepting SEIU dominance despite what they may want. Recently the Wall Street Journal had another story detailing the SEIU's un-democratic actions... Read the rest...

During the first year of the Obama administration, conservatives have directed much of their fire on the major legislation the president is pushing through Congress. This concern is justifiable, as Democrats are moving bills aimed at taking over the nation's health care system, creating a national energy tax to limit carbon emissions, and enabling unions to rapidly add members by denying workers a secret ballot on unionization. But as critical as it is for the right to expose the damaging consequences of such major legislation, conservatives must not lose sight of the fact that there is more than one way...

The transformation of America’s environmental movement began, as ex-United Steelworkers board member David Foster recalls, in late 2004 in a borrowed conference room at a table surrounded by union officials, top aides and the always-present group of Washington assistants. “We’re in this together,” Foster remembered Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope and Frances Beinecke, head of the Natural Resources Defense Council, telling USW President Leo Gerard. About the same time, another group of environmentalists began networking with equally unlikely partners. Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute, asked General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt to help lobby for a national...

“U.S. elected officials accused China on Tuesday of stealing American jobs.” I was trying to visualize how the Chinese snuck over and stole these jobs. They would certainly have used the largely unprotected southern border with Mexico to take the jobs, but how did they transport the jobs? The “U.S official” turns out to be Pennsylvania’s Gov. Ed Rendell who is an expert in jobs losses as he has lead Pennsylania from 5.5% unemployment when he was first elected in 2002 to a whopping 9.5% today (data available through September 2009). Playing on our fears about job losses and a...

Florida is right now at the vanguard of a new railroad project that could bring good news to those that care about solving bloated state budgets, common sense employment laws, and cutting the corruption that comes with unions by pushing for a non-union workforce with its proposed intrastate rail system. And the unions are incensed, naturally... Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

"SEIU is the largest union of immigrant workers in the country..."

The Essence and Future of Texas vs. California by Tory Gattis 11/21/2009 I know there have been a lot of articles and references to Texas vs. California recently in this blog, but, well, there's a new one with some genuinely new contributions to the argument ("America's Future: California vs. Texas", Trends magazine, hat tip to Jeff). And it says some nice things about Houston too, so how can I pass on it? The beginning of the article is here - including an overview of both states' situations - but here are some key additional excerpts: ...Both the Brookings Institution and...

With President Obama carrying on his “jobs summit” this week blaming business for “not hiring enough workers,” it is interesting to see the reaction of at least one major U.S. business to the Obama administration’s actions during this economic downturn. On November 11, David N. Farr, Chairman, CEO and President of Emerson Electric Co., announced at the Baird 2009 Industrial Conference in Chicago that President Obama has succeeded in chasing his multi-billion dollar industry right out of the U.S.A. Why? Onerous regulation, high taxes, and the over $1 trillion Obama debt should be reason enough for any business to consider...

It’s already being called the “Second Louisiana Purchase,” but the sad truth is that a controversial payoff to U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s home state of Louisiana is among the smallest of the thinly-disguised bribes and kickbacks that are being offered in Washington D.C. to secure passage of President Barack Obama’s socialized medicine proposal.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Peterbilt plant in Madison is shutting down for good on Tuesday. The truck manufacturer is consolidating production with its other plant in north Texas, leaving about 390 Tennessee workers out of a job. The plan temporary shut down in February, when Plant manager Larry Vessels told News 2 the plant would not resume production until the economy improves. Hourly workers at the plant had been locked out since June 2008 because of a labor dispute.

Union Violence: An African-American is beaten up at a political rally by thugs shouting racial epithets, and after three months his assailants are charged with the moral equivalent of jaywalking. Why wasn't it a hate crime? The beating of Kenneth Gladney by people wearing the purple shirts of the Service Employees International Union outside a Missouri health care town hall meeting three months ago met all the classic definitions of a hate crime. Time was, the beating of a black man outside a protest rally, and the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators, would be headline news. Gladney was working...

What happens when a private sector union gets far too many benefits to the point where the business for which its membership works goes under or whose existence is threatened? Punishment. Unions either take a reduction of benefits or pay -- or both -- and cuts in time or jobs in order to right the ship and keep the business afloat occur. Just like punishment comes to businesses that make bad business decisions, private employee unions also realize punishment for overreach. At the risk of losing the whole enterprise both for unions and owners, the market serves to correct excess....

“Every time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich.” That’s the starting point of my brother Tim Carney's new book released today, titled Obamanomics, How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses. Whether he likes it or not, President Barack Obama’s policies on finance, the economy, technology, the environment, and even health care are turning out to be boons to the most entrenched special interests. Meanwhile, smaller businesses, taxpayers, and some disfavored industries are bearing the burden. Our President believes in a “mixed economy” in which private enterprise and the profit motive...

Unions spent a fortune helping Barack Obama get elected. He owes them. Now, they want their payoff. Union leaders remind Obama of his debt to them on weekly basis. The most frequent visitor to the Obama White House is Andy Stern, the president of the Service Employees International Union. Stern visited the White House 22 different times during his first nine months in office....

Gov. Paterson's poll ratings may be poor, but that's no reason for him to try to buy union support with a bill that would destroy jobs. Alas, that seems to be his thinking in promoting legislation to force developers and landlords at state-assisted projects to pay workers, essentially, union scale. Salaries at such projects would have to be in line with "prevailing wages" -- i.e., union wages. In New York City, that would be a hefty $19.20 an hour -- nearly three times the $7.25 minimum wage. And, again, the bill would cover not just construction workers on a project...

Hauling brush and old tires out of the woods in Allentown early Friday, members of the Service Employees International Union learned an Eagle-Scout-to-be is just as forgiving as he is trustworthy, loyal and helpful. The Eagle Scout service project of Kevin Anderson, 17, of Upper Saucon Township was caught up in a national media firestorm after Nick Balzano, an Allentown union official, threatened to file a grievance over Kevin's work clearing a trail in Kimmets Lock Park. Conservative pundits seized on the remark as evidence of the SEIU's ''thuggery,'' and Balzano later resigned. To show there were no hard feelings,...

According to FollowTheMoney.org unions were some of the most generous with donations to political candidates and causes during the 2007-2008 donation cycle, the last cycle full reporting is known for. A close second place goes to the energy industry with Indian interests coming in third. Out of the top 50 highest amounts given to political efforts unions donated $223,533,678 to political causes showing that, while unions make up less than 20 percent of the American work force, they account for some of the largest in political donations. Unfortunately, many of those top donors are public employees unions meaning that our...

The Chicago Tribune printed a letter to the editor that perfectly describes the disconnect that state workers have between their pensions and the political process. These state workers stare wide-eyed in faux innocence pretending that they themselves, as individuals, are wholly innocent of the mess that is our state pensions are currently in. But the truth is, the financial ruins that our states are in ARE the fault of state workers. It is their fault directly and without question. Their protestations of innocence is a lie. Sadly, it is a lie they tell themselves and they believe it. Here is...

LARRY SAND We’re All Right-Wing Bastards Now —that is, if the NEA’s logic is to be believed. 20 November 2009 On the last day of the National Education Association’s convention this summer, its outgoing general counsel, Bob Chanin, gave a speech for the ages. After sharing fond recollections of his 41 years as the NEA’s top lawyer, he switched gears and started lobbing grenades at “conservative and right-wing bastards,” including Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. The NEA and its affiliates, by contrast, were “the nation’s leading advocates for public education and the type of liberal social and...

Plundering California Public-sector unions have brought the state to its knees. 23 November 2009 The economy is struggling, the unemployment rate is high, and many Americans are struggling to pay the bills, but one class of Americans is doing quite well: government workers. Their pay levels are soaring, they enjoy unmatched benefits, and they remain largely immune from layoffs, except for some overly publicized cutbacks around the margins. To make matters worse, government employees—thanks largely to the power of their unions—have carved out special protections that exempt them from many of the rules that other working Americans must live by....

Magie Thurber is reporting that Lucas County, Ohio County Commissioner Ben Konop is trying to force unions on non-union labor in his jurisdiction. What about freedom to chose? Forget it. Konop as big brother knows better. On Tuesday, the commissioners will discuss an agenda item ominously entitled "Incorporating Project Labor Agreements into Bidding Specifications for all County-Supported Projects." (Download PDF) Apparently the commissioners will be pursuing PLAs in all contracts in Lucas County's future. What is a Project Labor Agreement or PLA? I discussed this back in February right after President Obama signed his Executive Order 13202 pushing PLAs and...

If you’re a public employee union member of the CTA, or SEIU, you’re qualified to apply and sit on the commission. How can that be; shouldn’t someone who pays union dues to a huge political influence like the public employee unions be considered a politically involved citizen in the process of campaigns and legislation that comes from votes in the Capitol? These employees and union members, administration officials and bosses stand to directly benefit if the district lines produce more sympathetic politicos who eventually vote for contracts, pension plans and government workforce numbers. Worse yet, will we see ACORN organize...

Police arrested 18 members of the Service Employees International Union on Monday night after they blocked rush hour traffic on Market Street about a block from Civic Center Plaza to protest job cuts in the face of San Francisco's budget deficit.

The Service Employees International Union on Sunday reported spending nearly $1 million on an independent expenditure television campaign praising eight House Democrats for backing a health care bill earlier this month. Here's how the SEIU spent $998,000 among the eight districts: Baron P. Hill, Indiana's 9th district ($162,000); Dina Titus, Nevada's 3rd ($157,000);

It's called "pink sheeting," a practice employed by union bosses to bully their membership to vote the "right" way. The practice consists of forcing employees to reveal deeply personal information about themselves -- such as abusive relationships, addictions, or legal trouble -- so that these items can be used against the employees at a later date to elicit cooperative behavior. Union members are denouncing the practice of pink sheeting while union chiefs, particularly those of the hotel employees union UNITE HERE, are either denying that they use the method or saying that the practice has been stopped. Read the rest...

THOMSON, Ill., Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Thousands of jobs would be created in Illinois if the U.S. government purchases a nearly empty prison there to house terror detainees, a study indicates. The study, performed by the Obama White House Council of Economic Advisers and obtained by The Chicago Sun-Times, asserted that 2,290 to 2,960 jobs would be created in and around Thomson, Ill., in the first year after its conversion to house some of the prisoners now held at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility, the newspaper reported Sunday. Local residents in the Illinois-Iowa border town would be "good candidates"...

Chicago, Ill. -- The president of the Chicago Police Sergeants' Association has been caught stealing over $600,000 in union funds, authorities say. Sgt. John Pallohusky, 53, spent the stolen funds on gambling trips, lavish dinners, and online stock trading. He spent more than $163,000 on Ameritrade and $75,000 at restaurants including Ruth’s Chris, Smith & Wollensky, Kinzie Chophouse, Petterino’s, Gibson’s and Lawry’s, the arrest warrant said. This is just another example of the illegitimacy of unions, really. This guy has been doing this for two years. Did no one miss all that cash for two years? Were there no other...

The National Mediation Board, which oversees labor relations in the air and rail industry, this month moved to overturn 75 years of labor policy. The board plans to stack the deck for organized labor in union elections. Under a proposed rule, unions would no longer have to get the approval of a majority of airline workers to achieve certification. Not even close. Instead, a union could win just by getting a majority of the employees who vote. Thus, if only 1,000 of 10,000 flight attendants vote in a union election, and 501 vote for certification, the other 9,499 become unionized....

The Boy Scouts' motto is: Be prepared. Who knew it meant preparing to de fend themselves against union thuggery? Kids, pay attention: This is a teachable moment for all of you on power, politics and Big Labor's culture of corruption. At last week's City Council meeting in Allentown, Pa., a top official of the local Service Employees International Union chapter ranted about 17-year-old Scout Kevin Anderson's park-cleanup work. To earn an Eagle Scout badge, Anderson devoted some 200 hours to picking up trash and helping clear a 1,000-foot walking path with fellow members of Boy Scouts Troop 301 of Center...

A brouhaha over a Boy Scout and his Eagle Scout project has brought down a local union leader. Nick Balzano has stepped down as head of the local Service Employees International Union. Balzano was roundly criticized for crying foul over a Boy Scout's effort to clear a walking path in a park in Allentown. He said the project was taking work away from union workers. Six other high-ranking members of the union have also resigned.

Nov 19 2009, 11:20 am by Chris GoodHoffman Wants Recount, Blames ACORN, Unions For "Tampering" With Election Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman has seen his chances slip away of overtaking Democrat Bill Owens in the vote tallies in New York's 23rd congressional district, but he's now circulating an email to supporters announcing he's revoked his concession and that "ACORN and the unions" tampered with election results to prevent him from winning. The email, which is pretty long for a campaign fundraising note, lists all the regularities Hoffman has counted, and it reads sort of like a manifesto of all that's fishy...

GOUVERNEUR, NY - The computerized voting machines used by many voters in the 23rd district had a computer virus - tainting the results, not just from those machines known to have been infected, but casting doubt on the accuracy of counts retrieved from any of the machines

Considering the hike today at UC Board; why are they not defunding the millions directed toward their Labor Institute? Read more... The unions propaganda machine is alive and well, due to the mandates from politicians, threats from union bosses and the overall sock-puppets called the UC Board of Regents. The students that journey through these programs at Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses volunteer their time to benefit the liberal politicians, partisan political agendas, initiative campaigning and efforts of the public employee unions of California. I remember running across many of these students in 2003, organizing anti-recall protests at signature gathering...

Why do so many typical Americans hate labor unions, even here in union-dominated Massachusetts?  Because of stories like this: In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park. Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city's largest municipal union. Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing...

The plastics industry trade show on Tuesday said it is moving to Orlando, Fla., for 2012 and 2015 after nearly four decades in Chicago. The announcement follows a decision by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society last week to move its 2012 annual meeting to Las Vegas. Both shows cited the high cost of doing business in Chicago. The plastic show's decision to leave is "a very serious loss," Mayor Richard Daley said, calling on unions and others working at the convention center to change fee structures and onerous work rules so Chicago can better compete for major shows....

Last winter when Chrysler was groveling and crying about having to go bankrupt the Obama Administration took control of the company and struck a deal to justify putting $12.5 B of our tax money in its bank accounts. Chrysler promised it would produce a 500,000 vehicle fleet of practical “electric” cars in just four model years! Chrysler was merely the United Auto Workers’ bagman. Chrysler got our money then funneled it to the very unions that are killing the American auto industry. Last week these thieves quietly announced the end of the “electric car” scam which they knew was a...

Unions standing in the way of progress? I’m shocked, shocked I tell you! The Boston Herald reports that a plan that rewards teachers whose students receive passing grades on Advanced Placement tests — and offers incentives for the students, too — is, predictably, being opposed by the Boston Teachers Union.

23 projects statewide affected by bill. The 2010 Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill that was signed into law on Oct. 30 by President Barack Obama has reached the Western Slope, and has brought the Glenwood Springs wastewater treatment facility project, and many more around the state, to a screeching halt. the word came last week that the project would have to be put on hold, indefinitely, awaiting further clarification from the Environmental Protection Agency. Hecksel said that he was unsure as to why the Glenwood project would be included because the project was not seeking federal funding... The intent of...

Union ramps up efforts to organize T-Mobile Posted on November 18, 2009 at 11:37 AM Updated today at 12:05 PM WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. union officials are teaming up with their German counterparts in a bid to organize workers at wireless carrier T-Mobile USA.Leaders at the Communications Workers of America say the new arrangement with German union ver.di will help show a "double standard" between how European companies treat workers in their home countries compared with the United States.T-Mobile's parent company Deutsche Telekom AG is known as a union-friendly model in Germany, where cooperation with unions is encouraged by labor...

Supporters of President Obama's Amnesty plans attacked Tea Party Against Amnesty & Illegal Immigration demonstrators in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on Sat. November 14, 2009. One of the men attacked is 62 years old. Dave Caulkett of FLIMEN (Floridians for Immigration Enforcement) is assaulted and then kicked in the face while he is down. The other camera man from the Tea Party is hit with several signs. Those attacking the Americans that oppose Amnesty for illegal aliens were organized by ANSWER Florida.

Union blocks teacher bonuses By Edward Mason  |   Wednesday, November 18, 2009  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage Photo by Matthew West Grinchlike union bosses are blocking at least 200 of Boston’s best teachers from pocketing bonuses for their classroom heroics in a puzzling move that gets a failing grade from education experts.The Boston Teachers Union staunchly opposes a performance bonus plan for top teachers - launched at the John D. O’Bryant School in 2008 and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates and Exxon Mobil foundations - insisting the dough be divvied up among all of a school’s teachers, good and bad.“It’s insanity,” said Jim...

In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park. Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city's largest municipal union. Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park. "We'll be looking into the Cub...

NEW YORK (AP) - Investigators in New York City raided circulation offices at some of the nation's largest newspapers Tuesday as part of a union corruption probe, a law enforcement official said. Police officers working with the Manhattan district attorney's office searched circulation offices of The New York Times in Queens, the New York Post and the Daily News in Manhattan, and El Diario in Brooklyn, the official said, speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Investigators were seeking paperwork related to the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union, which packages and delivers...

Investigators in New York City raided circulation offices at some of the nation's largest newspapers Tuesday as part of a union corruption probe, a law enforcement official said. Police officers working with the Manhattan district attorney's office searched circulation offices of The New York Times in Queens, the New York Post and the Daily News in Manhattan, and El Diario in Brooklyn, the official said, speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Investigators were seeking paperwork related to the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union, which packages and delivers newspapers across the region....

17-year-old Kevin Anderson wanted to add another Eagle Scout badge to his well-earned collection and so spent some 200 hours over several weeks to clear a walking path along the river in east Allentown park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Little did young Mr. Anderson know it but he was about to prove once again that unions have a pernicious influence on governments everywhere. After Kevin's good deed the city's public employees union went gunning for the poor kid with threats and gyrations meant to shake down the city and scare off any citizen that might dare to imagine that they could...

A state worker is recovering after a bloody brawl at a union hall. He says members of the local SEIU 1000 beat him up and sent him to the hospital all because he wanted to expose alleged corruption within the union. Ken Hamidi is a state worker at the California Franchise Tax Board. Last night he walked into a union hall in Sacramento for an SEIU local 1000 meeting. "We had every right to be here, very simple; it wasn't anything private or anything exclusive," said Hamidi. But Hamidi says the union members did not want him there. "Three, four...