Free Republic

That's why the participants want the secret history of the 2020 election told, even though it sounds like a paranoid fever dream–a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it.“

Production workers at Nickelodeon’s Animation Studio are fighting for their first contract alongside already-organized artists (writers, designers, colorists, storyboarders and background painters) who have been working under an expired contract for two and a half years. The workers collectively produce animated shows: The Loud House, Rugrats, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Spongebob SquarePants. The artists have been members of IATSE Local 839, The Animation Guild (TAG) since 2002, and 3D computer graphics staff joined in 2013. After a vigorous campaign, the production workers joined in January 2023. These workers keep things coordinated, flowing and on schedule. Production workers have lost...

A group of teachers in Massachusetts remain on strike as schools in Newton, Massachusetts, have been closed for over a week and the striking teachers plan to gather at different bars and restaurants in the area. The teachers are under fire for what an opponent of the strike, Fran Yerardi, described to a local Boston NBC News outlet as a "pub crawl," as they planned four events at different restaurants and bars in Newton. "If you're not doing everything you can to put kids in school, you should be ashamed of yourselves," Yerardi told the media outlet.

WARREN, Michigan (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden won a strong pledge of support on Thursday from union autoworkers crucial to his reelection bid in Michigan, while protests over his backing of Israel's actions in Gaza shadowed the trip. Biden's travel to the election battleground state was intended as a celebration after the United Auto Workers (UAW) union recently endorsed his reelection bid. But his visit was also met with protests from some of the state's sizable Arab-American community, who demand the president seek a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war and have refused to meet his campaign. Biden visited a...

NEW YORK (AP) — Journalists at The New York Daily News and Forbes walked off the job Thursday amid contentious contract talks with management and a difficult few weeks in the news industry. Both strike are historic: It’s the first-ever at the business-focused magazine in more than a century, and the first at the storied newspaper in more than three decades, according to the NewsGuild of New York. The one-day strike at the Daily News coincides with Forbes walkout, which runs through Monday. In midtown Manhattan, dozens of Daily News staffers and their supporters picketed Thursday outside a small co-working...

Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed legislation for New York to recreate a new waterfront commission to fight the kind of Mafia corruption made famous in Marlon Brando’s 1954 flick “On The Waterfront.” But the union representing dock workers in the Empire State said Hochul is living in the past and urged lawmakers to sink the measure. Hochul proposed the new waterfront unit for New York’s side of the harbor to replace the prior Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, a bi-state agency founded in 1953 by a Congressionally authorized compact between New York and New Jersey.

Layoffs ‘disproportionately’ impact people of color, according to the chair of the L.A. Times Guild Unit Council Caucuses within the Los Angeles Times Guild designed to represent diverse communities within the newsroom will be "decimated" by the liberal paper’s decision to lay off at least 115 staffers this week, according to the Guild. "If these layoffs are allowed to go through, our caucuses will be decimated. The Latino Caucus will lose 38% of its members. The Black Caucus will lose 33% of members. The AAPI [Asian American and Pacific Islander] and MENASA [Middle East, North Africa and South Asia] caucuses...

I'd think Joe Biden has to be sitting around wondering how he managed to put himself in his current position, but I'm not sure he even has the cognitive ability to process how bad things are. We've all seen the polls, which will likely tighten in a general election, but other factors are at play as well. ... The latest flashing red light comes courtesy of the National Education Association (NEA), the nation's largest teachers union. A far-left entity that has long served as a lynchpin for Democrat politicians, its members are now demanding Biden show support for Palestinian terrorists...

Collective bargaining through a labor union is supposed to “level the playing field” for workers, enabling them to obtain better terms than if they bargained on their own. That is the justification for federal and state laws that give elected unions exclusive representation power, meaning that all of the workers must accept the union as their representative. Individuality is out. That arrangement is fine with many, but what if some workers are unhappy with “their” union? What if they don’t think the union operates in their interest? What if it makes public statements they disagree with? The unions reply, “Too...

(CHICAGO) – Workers at SCR Medical Transportation, a subsidiary of Beacon Mobile, have elected Teamsters Local 727 to be their sole collective bargaining representative. After months of SCR’s anti-union tactics and unlawful behavior, workers in both the Chicago Pace ADA and Chicago Public Schools/Pace Taxi Livery divisions voted yes for the union. “Despite SCR’s disgusting union busting behavior, hundreds of workers voted to become Teamsters,” said John Coli, Jr., Secretary-Treasurer of Local 727 in Park Ridge. “I am in awe of our 850 new brothers and sisters for standing strong in the face of a nasty campaign from SCR management...

The Biden administration is facing a new congressional probe after an agency that distributed tens of billions of dollars from the American Rescue Plan failed to stop $127 million from going to deceased participants in a Teamsters’ pension fund. The House Education and Workforce Committee sent a letter on Tuesday to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), demanding records related to the agency’s “mismanagement” and “overpayment” to the union pension plan, according to a copy of the missive exclusively obtained by The Post. “As part of this investigation, the Committee requests documents and information relating to PBGC’s disbursal of these...

Workers who make Bud Light and other top-selling beers are threatening to strike in demand of significant wage increases, job security and improvements to retirement and benefits in the first big union contract battle of 2024. Five thousand workers, represented by the Teamsters at 12 Anheuser-Busch breweries in the US, are threatening to strike after voting 99% in favor of a strike authorization last month. Their current union contract is set to expire on 29 February. “Without a contract by February 29, there won’t be any beer come March,” the Teamsters warned on X. The contract fight is the first...

An annual report from the Inspector General of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) revealed that millions of dollars worth of tech devices were reported lost or stolen “without appropriate search and recovery efforts.” The fiscal year 2023 annual report released Tuesday states CPS schools reported 77,505 tech devices as lost or stolen during the 2021-22 school year, totaling well over $23 million in original purchase price. The discovery, as a result of the district’s first post-COVID-19 inventory, calls the numbers “unacceptably high” and says the oversight process is in need of a “serious overhaul.” The report said the missing items included...

As he kicks off his most meaningful administration, a combination of oversized union power with a meddling judiciary has suspended a package of labor reforms. The three-judge court will rule on a legal challenge brought by the main union group, the General Labor Confederation (CGT), which argued that ‘the changes affected workers’ rights.’ Reuters reported: “The ruling by the National Chamber of Labor Appeals temporarily blocks enforcement of the labor regulations in Milei’s so-called ‘mega-decree’, which includes more than 300 measures aimed at deregulating the South American country’s economy. Labor elements of the decree include the repeal and modification of...

Despite months of feverish recruiting and manipulation of its numbers, United Teachers of Dade (UTD) came up short in its attempt to bring its membership up to the threshold necessary to avoid a recertification election required under terms of a new law passed by Florida’s legislature this past summer. On Dec. 19, UTD President Karla Hernandez-Mats confirmed the union hadn’t been able to persuade 60 percent of the 30,000 teachers it officially represents to become dues-paying members. A few days earlier, she claimed the union had increased its numbers to just more than 58 percent, including 800 new members. What...

Once in place, it is nearly impossible to get rid of a public union. Florida governor Ron DeSantis found a clever way to make it possible...Union Decertification Legislation in FloridaIn May, governor DeSantis signed a bill that requires at least 60% of workers in a bargaining unit to be dues-paying members. United Teachers of Dade (UTD) did not hit the threshold.Also, unions also can no longer automatically deduct dues from paychecks, members have to opt in. Much of the dues are used for political purposes and resentment from many teachers has built up.Teachers Union Showdown in FloridaThe Wall Street Journal...

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten recently said that school choice “undermines democracy.” In a video of her remarks, Weingarten slammed former White House Education Secretary Betsy Devos, City Journal journalist Christopher Rufo, and prominent school choice activist Corey DeAngelis. “[School choice proponents] have not one thing that they offer as a solution other than privatizing or voucherizing schools, which is about undermining democracy and undermining civil discourse and undermining pluralism, because 90 percent of our kids goes to public schools still. They just divided. Divided, divide, divide, divide,” Weingarten claimed. “What did Rufo say? Rufo, DeAngelis, Devos,...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Board of Education are following the lead of other major cities and eliminating gifted school programs in the name of achieving greater racial and social “equity.” Eleven “high-achieving selective-enrollment schools” will be eliminated, according to Chicago Board of Education CEO Pedro Martinez, to reduce “stratification and inequity.” As we have previously discussed, major cities with failing public education programs are erasing performance gaps in their schools by decapitating the top performers rather than elevating the performance overall. Other schools have also eliminated or lowered proficiency standards to achieve higher passage rates.According to the...

The Teamsters union announced Saturday that its members overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike against Anheuser-Busch’s breweries in the U.S. if the union and beermaker are unable to reach an agreement on a new labor contract early next year. The union said that of the 5,000 Teamsters members who work at 12 Anheuser-Busch breweries in the U.S., 99% voted to authorize a strike if the two sides don’t secure a new labor contract raising wages, protecting jobs and securing benefits. The union’s current contract expires on Feb. 29, 2024. "Teamsters stand firm in our fight for the best contract at...

Stacy Davis Gates owes more than $5,500, but makes more than $289,000 ... The progressive president of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) owes thousands in unpaid utility bills despite making an eye-popping salary ... Stacy Davis Gates owes the city of Chicago $5,579 in unpaid water, sewer and trash bills as of Nov. 7, 2023, despite bringing home "at least" $289,000 a year. Documents uncovered by the group show Davis Gates started a payment plan for the amount in July 2023, but quickly defaulted. ... This latest revelation adds to the mounting evidence of her hypocrisy. She spurns responsibility and...