Free Republic

While some of its dues-paying members are taking pay freezes, top executives of the Michigan Education Association took salary raises ranging from $13,591 to as high as $48,385 in 2014, according to the financial reports the union recently filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. Rick Trainor, the MEA’s secretary-treasurer, had the biggest increase. His salary jumped 44 percent from $109,911 to $158,296. Nancy Strachan, the MEA vice president, saw her salary increase 16 percent from $124,603 to $144,700. Steve Cook, the union's president, had his salary increase 11 percent from $182,698 to $203,144. Gretchen Dziadosz, the MEA’s executive director,...

Is Wisconsin better off with weaker unions? Some conservatives think so. Legislators will consider the question when right-to-work legislation is introduced early next year. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said members in his house would begin debate within weeks. But I think Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican leadership should tread carefully. There is scant evidence that right-to-work laws boost job creation; there is evidence that weaker unions hurt working people. And there is no doubt whatsoever that a fight over right to work in Wisconsin will be bloody. Remember Act 10? Under right-to-work laws, workers in unionized shops...

EXCLUSIVE: Eight Environmental Protection Agency employees who racked up a total of more than ten years’ worth of paid “administrative leave” between 2011 and 2014 -- valued at more than $1,096,000 -- apparently did so because they were involved in “cases of alleged serious misconduct,” Fox News has learned. In a memorandum sent from EPA’s acting assistant administrator, Nanci E. Gelb, to EPA’s inspector general, Arthur Elkins -- a draft also was given to Fox News -- the agency has revealed that at least three of the affected employees have now left EPA. All of the eight “were or are...

A union operative generously praised New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman when he announced he was taking a Papa John’s pizza franchisee to court on behalf of workers who claim they were underpaid. The state attorney general, like the unions, called it “wage theft.” The thing is, the union official knew about the government’s lawsuit before the pizza franchise did. “Fast-food workers all across the city and country are organizing for higher pay and union rights,” said Kendall Fells, organizing director for Fast Food Forward, a group dedicated to increasing wages and benefits for fast-food workers. Fells added: "This suit...

Multiple far-left groups are using Ferguson as a pretext to rehearse widespread civil disobedience when the Welfare State taps the brakes. The scaling down of the Welfare State in America is not a question of “if,” but “when.” The status quo is unsustainable. “Unsustainable” is one of those Washington D.C. words with a history of meaning little -- like Foggy Bottom’s use of “unacceptable.” But unlike unacceptable, unsustainable, when applied to the Welfare State, is a derivative of mathematics -- a major determinant of the wealth of nations. The American Welfare State is unsustainable -- destined for significant downsizing by...

After wasting millions of dollars on losing Democratic candidates in this month’s midterm elections, the American Federation of Teachers has completely gone off the deep end and banned Coca-Cola and Coke products from its events and facilities. The teachers union — America’s second largest — based its prohibition on America’s best product and, certainly, its best export, on allegations of human rights violations that were described in a trio of books published several years ago... Larry Sand, president of the California Teachers Empowerment Network, a group that frequently stands athwart teachers unions, spells out the motivation more clearly: ”Obviously, they...

Columbia County, Ark. — There’s no sign of it here in Magnolia, Ark., but the boycott season is upon us, and graduates of Princeton and Bryn Mawr are demanding “justice” from Wal-Mart, which is not in the justice business but in the groceries, clothes, and car-batteries business. It is easy to scoff, but I am ready to start taking the social-justice warriors’ insipid rhetoric seriously — as soon as two things happen: First, I want to hear from the Wal-Mart-protesting riffraff a definition of “justice” that is something that does not boil down to “I Get What I Want, Irrespective...

The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Bargain hunters heading to Walmart, in addition to looking for holiday deals, may find workers participating in Black Friday Strikes.Since 2012, Our Walmart, which is an employee labor group, has been staging strikes on the day after Thanksgiving.

WASHINGTON -- Dirk Rasmussen had Friday off and could have slept in if he wanted to. Instead, the Maryland resident and Teamster rose early and drove to downtown Washington, eager to join a post-Thanksgiving protest against Walmart. "Our local [union] president encouraged us to take part," said Rasmussen, 58, who works in a lumber and building-supply warehouse. "I raised eight children on a Teamsters benefit package and Teamsters wage. I'm a firm believer in collective bargaining, and I'm very concerned about the security of this next generation." Black Friday may be most famous for doorbuster shopping deals, but among progressives...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued the following statement in reaction to the grand jury decision in the shooting case of Michael Brown:The reactions to today’s grand jury decision in the case of the shooting of unarmed teenager Mike Brown reflect a deeper feeling that our justice system is biased against communities of color. While we can all agree that justice must take its course, we cannot deny or marginalize the perception that the system itself is not yet color blind. As a labor movement, we have begun working with local community organizations to address issues of racial and economic inequality...

An Illinois judge has ruled unconstitutional a controversial plan to reduce state employees’ retirement benefits. Labor groups sued the State of Illinois for passing a bill reducing their members’ pension benefits. The unions representing downstate and suburban teachers, university employees and most other state workers argued the state constitution says, specifically, that retirement benefits can’t be diminished. On Friday, Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge John Belz agreed.Belz quoted directly from the state constitution in his six-page decision, citing the passage that states retirement benefits “shall not be diminished or repaired.” He singled out components of the bill that narrowly passed...

On Tuesday, the human resources department at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., released a new policy allowing for voluntary recognition of multiple unions at their plant. The company said it would recognize any union that can show it represents at least 15 percent of the employees in the plant. As detailed below, the company will bestow greater privileges upon organizations that prove they represent more workers. These include use of company facilities and meetings with VW’s human resources department and executive committee. On Monday, USA Today reported that UAW hailed the policy “as a vehicle to soon gain representation...

President Obama met with more than a dozen prominent civil and immigration rights activists Thursday ahead of his speech debuting a series of new steps that will extend deportation relief and work permits to as many as 5 million illegal immigrants. Attendees at the meeting included AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, NAACP president Cornell Brooks and Al Sharpton. The MSNBC host has come under fire in recent days after The New York Times reported he and his companies were at one point subject to $4.5 million in state and federal tax liens. Also in attendance was Janet Murguía, the head of...

Today is an important step toward rational and humane enforcement of immigration law. On behalf of America’s workers, we applaud the Administration’s willingness to act.  We have been calling upon the White House to halt unnecessary deportations since Spring 2013 because our broken immigration system is an invitation for employer manipulation and abuse, and U.S.-born workers as well as immigrant workers are paying the price. By extending relief and work authorization to an estimated 4 million people, the Obama Administration will help prevent unscrupulous employers from using unprotected workers to drive down wages and conditions for all workers in our country. ...

Detroit bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes called on the state to address the underfunding of local government pension benefits in his oral opinion. He stated that the state has a “constitutional, legal and moral obligation to assure that the municipalities in this state adequately fund their pension obligation.” A government’s own employees should not be its largest creditors, nor should retirement benefits they have earned be placed at risk, as happened in Detroit. There are a number of current bills that would help local governments avoid underfunding, and the Legislature should consider passing them. When an employee earns pension benefits, the...

The bus drivers who cart Facebook employees to and from Silicon Valley voted on Wednesday to unionize, a move expected to kick off wider efforts to organize the men and women at other companies responsible for getting the tech industry to work. Drivers for Loop Transportation, a company contracted by Facebook, voted 43-28 to form a union, with 11 drivers who did not cast ballots. The drivers voted at secret ballot stations set up in the small, 10-bed trailer at a San Carlos Loop bus lot used as a rest area by dozens of Facebook drivers.

File this under always double-check before hitting send.As reporters fell over themselves Wednesday morning to confirm the breaking news that President Obama had plans to announce his immigration executive order Thursday and expand upon it  Friday, some received an e-mail confirmation by mistake.AFL-CIO spokesman Jeff Hauser inadvertently forwarded an e-mail intended for immigration activists to a long list of national reporters, including several at The Washington Post.

President Obama is expected to announce his executive order to grant legal status for millions of illegal immigrants in an address Thursday night, according to sources close to the administration. Mr. Obama will give a broad outline of his action Thursday and follow it up with a trip Friday to Las Vegas to provide more details. The White House would not confirm the report Wednesday morning, nor have Mr. Obama’s aides announced any travel plans for later this week. But a spokesman for the AFL-CIO inadvertently disclosed the tentative plans in an email Wednesday. “We hear there will be a...

[a/k/a: "The War on Teachers"] The stats leave no doubt. There is huge dissatisfaction among teachers. The turnover rate is very high. We need to answer the obvious question, why don’t principals and administrators take better care of their teachers? The most recent MetLife Survey revealed: “Teacher Dissatisfaction At An All-Time High.” The NEA Today website continues: “Teacher job satisfaction has plummeted to its lowest level in 25 years, from 62 percent in 2008 to 39 percent in 2012 –- a total of 23 points…More than one-half of teachers report feeling under great stress several days per week, as opposed...

Taking aim again at government pensions, an angry creditor in Stockton’s bankruptcy case is appealing a pivotal court ruling that preserved the city’s retirement plans. Franklin Templeton Investments filed a notice of appeal this week, challenging the Oct. 30 decision that approved Stockton’s reorganization plan. The plan keeps the pensions fully funded but pays Franklin, which loaned the city $36 million during better economic times, just 12 cents on the dollar. The case in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Sacramento has been a major legal test of the sanctity of public pensions in California. City officials and CalPERS, which runs the...