Free Republic

WHEREAS Gov. Bruce Rauner issued a sweeping executive order Monday "respecting state employees' freedom of speech," and WHEREAS this order began with 26 "Whereas ..." paragraphs, many of which mistily invoked the violated rights of public sector workers who are now "forced against their will" to fund "activities to which they object," and WHEREAS our patience for hand-waving, smoke screens and general rhetorical folderol is limited ... THEREFORE let's cut the rubbish. Rauner's order isn't animated by empathy or some fastidious concern with constitutional fine points. It's animated by a desire to put public employee unions into a death spiral,...

And so it begins. Gov. Bruce Rauner fired his first shot Monday in his campaign to give all Illinois workers the right to choose to work for less money. Rauner’s legally dubious executive order relieving state employees of the requirement they pay union dues was a loud declaration the new governor aims to restore Illinois to prosperity — by undercutting the organizing power of its work force. The governor’s initial targeting of public employee unions was no surprise given his election rhetoric, but his use of an executive order to impose his will seemed to catch everyone off guard. “I...

"CHICAGO (CBS) — State workers who do not agree with their union’s political activities would not have to pay dues under an executive order signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner."

Congressional Republicans launched a drive Monday to repeal a recent National Labor Relations Board rule updating procedures for union representation elections, setting up a likely veto showdown with President Barack Obama. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said the GOP will employ a little-used law that permits the Senate to reject some federal agency regulations by majority vote and denies opponents the ability to thwart action through a filibuster. Alexander said that by shortening the time between a union’s request for representation and the actual balloting, the NLRB had cleared the way for a new type of “ambush election” to take place...

The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) announced that loading and unloading operations at all 29 West Coast ports would temporarily be suspended this weekend in response to union slowdowns that brought freight movements at the ports to a near standstill. PMA members stated that they cannot afford the almost $1,200 per day cost to employ International Longshore and Warehouse Union members to do little work. After Breitbart broke the story on Thursday that union members of the ILWU planned to “walk out within the week,” the PMA employer group announced they can no longer continue to pay workers the premium pay...

Sen. Rand Paul and House Republicans have introduced legislation to strictly limit the ability of unions to force workers to have to pay them dues. Both right-to-work bills would amend the National Labor Relations Act to prohibit contracts between labor unions and businesses that force all of a company's workers to join a union or at least pay it a fee as a condition of employment. (SNIP) "Every American and their employer should have the power to negotiate the terms of their employment, and no American should be forced to pay union dues just to get or keep a job....

(Reuters) - Workers represented by the Building Trades Unions will return to Marathon Petroleum Corp's (MPC.N) refinery in Catlettsburg, Kentucky on Monday, even as a strike by the United Steelworkers drags into a second week, documents obtained by Reuters show. The USW began a strike Feb. 1 at nine refineries and chemical plants, including Marathon's 240,000 barrel-a-day Kentucky plant. Buildings Trades Unions' workers will not be replacing striking workers' running the plant, according to the letter. While the Building Trades Unions say they continue to support the USW's cause, their return work comes at a sensitive time for the steelworkers...

New information from the federal government suggests workers’ interest in unions continues to fall, with union membership reaching its lowest rate in 100 years. According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today, the union membership rate fell to 11.1 percent, with just 14.6 million wage and salaried workers maintaining membership. In 2013, the union membership rate was 0.2 percentage points higher, at 11.3 percent. The rate of union membership has been on a steady decline over the past three decades. It grew slightly from 12.1 percent in 2007 to 12.4 percent in 2008. During President Obama’s first...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Union leaders on Thursday rejected the sixth contract offer Royal Dutch Shell made to U.S. refinery workers and a pause in negotiations was called on the fifth day of a strike, though talks are expected to resume.

Forget zero tolerance. Bay City Public School teachers for years could be caught repeatedly under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol without being fired. Teachers in possession or under the influence of illegal drugs could be caught three times before they lost their job, and they got five strikes if they were drunk on school grounds before being fired. A school district official said the language in the union contract that protects teachers for those instances "was incorporated into the teacher Master Agreement in 1997." Those protections also were included in the Bay City Education Association teacher’s contract that...

Anti-union forces claim UAW ‘stuffed’ ballot box. Workers in Alabama are staging a fourth attempt to kick the United Auto Workers (UAW) out of their plant following claims that stuffed ballot boxes derailed their last vote. Employees at the NTN-Bower Corporation, a ball bearings manufacturer, have unsuccessfully tried to boot the labor giant out of their factory for two years. Workers voted to decertify the UAW in an earlier election, but an Obama-appointed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) panel threw out the election. Another election was held in January of this year. The UAW prevailed, but it was later revealed...

LOS ANGELES — Employers could lock out West Coast dockworkers in as few as five days if the two sides do not reach a new contract. That warning came Wednesday from the head of a maritime association who is negotiating a new deal with a union representing longshoremen at 29 ports that handle about $1 trillion in trade annually. Pacific Maritime Association CEO James McKenna said he wanted to avoid a coast-wide port shutdown, but employers wouldn't keep paying workers who aren't moving cargo at their normal rate if the ports become much more gridlocked. He said that could come...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka released the following statement on President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2016 budget proposal:In the State of the Union, President Obama forcefully advocated for working families and the bold actions we need to create an economy that truly works for all working people. His budget follows through with a number of proposals that would benefit American workers, such as repeal of harmful sequestration cuts, higher taxes on capital gains and a financial crisis fee on the largest financial institutions. These are all pieces to a robust program to raise wages.But when it comes to fixing our rigged corporate tax...

Posturing as champion of needed public investments and fairness, President Obama wants new taxes on the overseas earnings of American businesses. That would kill jobs and punish retired Americans. Although special deals permit some corporations to pay low taxes, most pay a heavy burden. The estimated effective U.S. corporate tax rate is about 27 percent, and well above the 20 percent imposed by other industrialized countries. The United States is virtually alone by taxing the overseas profits of its multinationals when those are repatriated. This has encouraged U.S. firms to invest nearly $2.1 trillion of their earnings abroad, instead of...

In November the frustrations of Maryland’s voters with their state’s failed Democrat leadership finally boiled over and provided Larry Hogan an upset victory over the Democrat’s chosen candidate Lt. Governor Anthony Brown. It would be easy to dismiss this victory as the revenge of Maryland’s far rural parts if places like Howard County, a bedroom community of both Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD, hadn’t also elected new Republican leadership. It’s obvious this election had deeper meaning: voters clearly repudiated the Democrats and their cronies’ failed leadership and commitment to business as usual. Yet, some in Maryland think they can continue...

(AUDIO-AT-LINK)There is not a lot of love between the U.S. labor movement and those on the long list of potential 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls. But there is one name among the GOP prospects that labor truly despises — and fears. He is Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who weakened unions in his own state and appears ready to make his battles with labor a centerpiece of a bid for the White House. Walker's approach on a recent Saturday in Iowa was telling. In a downtown Des Moines theater full of conservative activists, he spoke for 22 minutes. But right off the...

State lawmakers will surely haggle over education policy this legislative session, but hopefully they will remember the purpose of any education system during their battle over budgets: excellence in education and an equal opportunity for every child to succeed. The term “education reform” has taken on many meanings since its inception, but its foundations are based on educational freedom: Freedom for parents to determine their child’s education; freedom from the teachers unions that cloak ineffective teachers; and freedom from the archaic ideas of what creates a successful individual. It is disheartening that some fight against the idea of educational freedom...

Six strikes and she’s not out. The city Department of Education has failed to fire a teacher rated “unsatisfactory” for six consecutive years. Ann Legra, 44, a first-grade teacher at PS 173 in Washington Heights, racked up “six years of failing her students,” the city ­argued in a 16-day termination hearing. Hearing officer Eugene Ginsberg upheld charges of Legra’s “inability to supervise students,” excessive lateness and absence and poor lesson planning in the 2012-2013 school year. But Ginsberg dismissed evidence that Legra was a lousy instructor, saying she didn’t get enough coaching. He imposed only a 45-day suspension without pay....

Union leaders called strikes on Sunday at nine U.S. refineries in a bid to pressure oil companies to agree to a new national contract covering workers at 63 plants. The walkouts, the first held in support of a nationwide pact since 1980, target plants that together account for more than 10 percent of U.S. refining capacity. The discord comes as plunging crude prices force oil companies to slash spending. Royal Dutch Shell, the lead industry negotiator, indicated talks had broken down. ... Shell activated a strike contingency plan at its sprawling joint venture refinery in Deer Park, Texas, to keep...

Teacher pensions are a huge and growing crisis waiting to explode without major reforms, warns a new report released Tuesday by an educational think tank.“Do the math on teacher pensions and it just doesn’t add up,” argues the National Council on Teacher Quality in its report, Doing the Math on Teacher Pensions. Total unfunded teacher pension liabilities in 2014 were a whopping $499 billion dollars, the group found. That amount is surging rapidly; in 2012, the total was just $394 billion, meaning that pension debt is growing by over $50 billion a year.Some states are in a particularly huge hole....