Free Republic

The Democratic Party has battled for universal health care this year, and over the decades it has admirably led the fight against poverty — except in the one way that would have the greatest impact. Good schools constitute a far more potent weapon against poverty than welfare, food stamps or housing subsidies. Yet, cowed by teachers’ unions, Democrats have too often resisted reform and stood by as generations of disadvantaged children have been cemented into an underclass by third-rate schools. President Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, are trying to change that — and one test for the Democrats...

Unions Bend the Curve! I knew they'd find a way to punish Ford: The new UAW contract with Ford apparently does not give America's surviving non-bankrupt automaker parity with GM and Chrysler, reports Bloomberg: "The plan doesn’t include cuts to retiree benefits, such as vision coverage, that were granted to GM and Chrysler." Rather, the pain seems even more concentrated on future hires (if there are any) than with the GM/Chrysler deals. ... TTAC wonders whether the UAW had an extra incentive to resist giving concessions that might make Ford more successful now that the union owns a large chunk of its main domestic competitors.  ... P.S.: The argument that "the...

SEIU Local 1000 put out a list of DMV operations it said were affected by short staffing on Columbus Day Click here to view it. DMV says the list overstates what happened on Columbus Day. Less than 8 percent of DMV's 9000 employees "followed the union," department spokesman Mike Marando told The State Worker. (Worth noting: About 5,000 DMV employees are SEIU-covered). He said that of the 45 listed by the union as opening late, "only two delayed opening for one to two hours." Those were offices in Los Angeles and Compton. Four other operations shut down for the day:...

Obama Appointee Tied to Effort to Unionize Home Health-Care Workers October 15, 2009 The plot thickens -- as in SEIU's pay-to-play plots in state government, including its most recent naked power grab: Its repugnant effort to intervene between children with disabilities and their parents by making home health care workers for disabled children in Illinois a closed shop. In an editorial today on President Obama’s nominee to head the National Labor Relations Board, the Wall Street Journal shines a light on Craig Becker, an associate general counsel at SEIU whose career is traced back to Gov. Rod Blagojevich:One of the...

As government at all levels struggles with declining tax revenue and increasing operating costs, the elephant in the room largely ignored is the monumental expense of public employee retirements. A recent study by a taxpayer organization points out the behemoth of a problem by noting the obvious: When government agencies increase employee pension costs, they tend to increase taxes to cover the added expense. A study of municipal retirement systems shows that pricey pensions not only drive up costs, but ultimately also drive up taxes. This link between pensions and tax increases became apparent in a study of 17 cities...

MEXICO CITY -- Union members and their political allies filled the streets of the Mexican capital Thursday night to condemn President Felipe Calderón's recent liquidation of a state-run power utility, a surprise move seen by many as an assault on organized labor. Declaring the state-owned company so poorly managed as to be "unsustainable," Calderón on Saturday night authorized the seizure of Central Light and Power. He also deployed about 1,000 federal police officers in riot gear to enforce his decree; workers from another state-run power company swept in to take over the electric grid and keep the lights on. For...

Continuing hard times at Harley-Davidson came to something of a head Thursday with the announcement that the company was killing its Buell line of sport bikes almost immediately and actively looking for a buyer for its MV Agusta brand. Harley, which is based in Milwaukee, also disclosed continuing losses at its finance unit and a decline in sales of its heavyweight Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Overall, Harley’s net income for the third quarter plunged by 84 percent from last year, which was also a down year for the company. The Buell brand, based in East Troy, Wis., will shut down later this...

We've been reporting to you of the outrageous under-the-radar actions of Governor Pat Quinn and his Executive Order 9-15. This EO both handed the private information of Illinois citizens to unions and set up a payoff for his union supporters by automatically unionizing hundreds of Illinois home healthcare workers whether they want to be unionized or not. Well, one mother is fighting back. Pam Harris serves as the primary care specialist for her developmentally disabled son and in so doing receives some helpful funds from the state for that purpose. When she found out that Quinn's EO gave her personal...

One of Big Labor's priorities in Washington is to place allies in key government jobs where they can overturn existing labor policy without battles in Congress. This is a very good reason for the Senate to hold a hearing on the nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Mr. Becker is associate general counsel at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is most recently in the news for its close ties to Acorn, the disgraced housing shakedown operation. President Obama nominated Mr. Becker in April to the five-member NLRB, which has the critical job of...

America's largest public-pension fund, Calpers, revealed that a former board member had reaped more than $50 million in fees for arranging investments that could saddle state taxpayers with hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. The disclosure deepens concerns that alleged conflicts of interest are undermining state retirement funds. The California Public Employees' Retirement System said it is launching a "special review" into payments by money managers

The Democratic Party has battled for universal health care this year, and over the decades it has admirably led the fight against poverty — except in the one way that would have the greatest impact. Good schools constitute a far more potent weapon against poverty than welfare, food stamps or housing subsidies. Yet, cowed by teachers’ unions, Democrats have too often resisted reform and stood by as generations of disadvantaged children have been cemented into an underclass by third-rate schools. President Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, are trying to change that — and one test for the Democrats...

As an entrepreneur and resident of Ohio I am used to swimming upstream. Ohio's economy never actually recovered from the 2001 recession. We have been hemorrhaging jobs and population for over a decade. Except for two nuclear power stations and some tiny "green energy" pilot projects, our state is powered by coal fired power plants dotting our lakes and rivers. With our energy intensive manufacturing economy there are few places in the country which will be more affected by Cap and Trade legislation than Ohio. Short of a nuke-wielding dictator threatening to wipe us off the map, it is hard...

Eddie Rodzwicz (don't ask me to pronounce that one) is sure to claim he was railroaded. Like a good union thug he'll likely try to blame everyone else. But whatever Ed claims about the charges filed against him it seems he's run off the rails. It's charges of bribe taking and soliciting bribes being pressed against Rodzwicz we are told. It seems that this union criminal got up a full head of steam and chugged forward toward his troubles by contacting an attorney that was supposed to be taken off the union approved vender list because of the lawyer's ethical...

It is well known throughout the public school houses and roadside massage parlors of this great America that within any business, or grossly similar entity, there will be found a conflict between ownership and labor. This conflict mostly arises from a divergence of goals. Labor wants a just and fair compensation for a just and fair effort. Ownership just wants to eat their children. Given these irreconcilable dissimilarities there is not much wonder involved when labor withstands the demands of the all powerful owners by turning to the slightly more all powerful labor unions. Labor unions are not really all...

The president of a national labor union was arrested Tuesday for allegedly taking $20,000 in bribes from a St. Louis lawyer, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

WASHINGTON — A top labor lobbyist says about 30 unions will run a full-page ad in newspapers Wednesday announcing their opposition to the Senate Finance Committee's health overhaul bill. The ad says that unless the bill brought to the Senate floor makes substantial progress to address the concerns of working men and women, unions will oppose it. The legislative director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Chuck Loveless, says unions are unhappy that the legislation lacks a publicly run insurance plan and would tax insurers that provide expensive coverage. Sponsors included the AFL-CIO and the Communications...

Unionized state workers have rejected a contract proposal that called for 19 days of furloughs over two years, setting the stage for hundreds of layoffs, a State Employees Association official announced last night. Fifty-nine percent of voting SEA members rejected the deal, which also would have restored some bumping rights for state workers who might be laid off. The contract covers about 11,500 state workers. The votes, cast and mailed in over the last several weeks, were counted and released last night. "Even under the threat of massive layoffs, our members have stood strong in their fight for a fair...

Uncovered Video: Obama Leads SEIU Chant After Vowing to ‘Paint the Nation Purple’ http://www.breitbart.tv/uncovered-video-obama-leads-seiu-chant-after-vowing-to/ Breitbart.tv and Naked Emperor News

UNCOVERED VIDEO: OBAMA LEADS SEIU CHANT AFTER VOWING TO ‘PAINT THE NATION PURPLE’ Video at link.

Remember the Chrysler "hedge fund investors" that President Obama berated on national TV? Among these people labeled as "no-goodniks" by the President were organizations such as the the Indiana State Teachers’ Retirement Fund, and the Police retirement fund. The President of the United States was trying to intimidate retired teaches from exercising their rights as primary investors. That's the politics of change, screw a bunch of retired teachers to reward the UAW for helping you get elected. Apparently it was not only retired cops, teachers and other primary investors screwed by the GM/Chrysler Bailout deals (along with the American taxpayer),...

[Full title was edited to comply with space requirements, here's unedited version:] "Well-Kept Media Secret: UAW Conceded No Base Pay, Health, or Pension Benefits in GM, Chrysler Bankruptcy Run-ups" A New York Times article by Nick Bunkley on Friday targeted for print on Saturday about the status of contract talks between Ford Motor Company and the United Auto Workers piqued my interest in a previously neglected but important matter. Ford and the UAW are apparently close to an agreement. In describing what Ford workers are being asked to give up, Bunkley wrote the following (bolds are mine throughout this post):...

NFL Players executive director DeMaurice Smith on Saturday made a move to solidify the union against a bid by conservative talk show radio host Rush Limbaugh as part of a group that aims to purchase the St. Louis Rams.

It is often portrayed by the Old Media that Big Labor is lining up behind Obamacare with gusto. While many unions are doing just that, the not all unions are so happy with Congress' current plans. We discussed this last month when we reported that the various propositions to tax so-called Cadillac healthcare plans has gotten some unions nervous. Now, 157 House Democrats have sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi (D, Calif.) declaring their opposition to taxing high-end healthcare plans. One of those reasons is that many unions have given away pay raises in order to enlarge their benefits packages...

While there may have been a collective sigh of relief across America after the news that the Census Bureau severed ties with ACORN, it made me wonder who other Census partners were. In short, ACORN or not, the 2010 census will be an organizing tool for the American Left. Here is a partial list of other census partners, according to the Census website: AARP A. Phillip Randolph Institute AFL-CIO American Federation of Government Employees AFSCME American Federation of Teachers Coalition of Labor Union Women Coalition of Black Trade Unionists Community Action Partnership Families USA International Brotherhood of Teamsters Labor Council...

The federal government is building a new $35 million Jobs Corps Center in Manchester, N.H. And true to its word, the Obama administration is requiring it to be built under a "project labor agreement," better known as a PLA. PLAs pervertedly are touted as giving taxpayers more bang for their buck. Union labor supposedly assures "greater quality" because "fair" wages must be paid, which promotes "labor peace" and efficiency. Actually, it's nothing but bribery, extortion, collusion, discrimination and restraint of free trade all rolled into one putrid ball

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) reached across the aisle to praise President Obama on education reform this morning. President Obama has angered teachers' unions by supporting merit pay, a policy that would pay teachers based on their students' test scores. Obama has also called for a longer school year, while teachers' unions have proposed shorter school weeks to prevent layoffs. "I am very, very encouraged, and excited that the president has taken on a core constituency of his party, which is the teachers union," Bush said on MSNBC's Morning Joe.

Castle Rock, CO In the 1930's, labor unions got legitimacy. Under the Roosevelt administration, labor unions got protection and the ability to organize industrial laborers. The Unions then represented workers who made things. The United Auto Workers, Mineworkers, Steelworkers, etc. It was good to be a Union boss. Now we are in the 21st century and so many U.S. manufacturing jobs have disappeared. Unions have seen their membership shrink as the reason for their existence has withered on the vine. Union bosses have a good rich life, paid for by the dues of their workers. So the bosses made the...

President Obama's nominee for the top legal job at the Labor Department won a key committee vote Wednesday, but a Republican senator vowed to delay the confirmation on the Senate floor over what he called a "lack of candor" by New York Commissioner of Labor M. Patricia Smith during confirmation hearings. Sen. Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming, ranking Republican of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, announced he will place a hold on Ms. Smith's nomination after the committee voted 13-10 along party lines to send Ms. Smith's nomination as labor solicitor, the No. 3 post in...

Stimulating the economy isn't nearly as important to President Obama as putting federal dollars into the pockets of his union cronies. Because of Obama's PLA Executive Order, thousands of jobs are going to unions in states that have few union members. The Washington Times, for instance, reports that Obama has grandiosely given a $35 million federal construction project to the New Hampshire. But there are strings attached, strings that pull federal pay levers for the exclusive benefit of unions. In February Obama signed Executive Order 13202 that demanded that project labor agreements be forced on every federal construction project. These...

Union members represent one of the biggest and most powerful Democratic constituencies and their support of any health care reform proposal is viewed as essential to getting a bill passed in Congress. So far Big Labor is all for Obamacare, the SEIU even sent bouncers to some of the town hall events to beat up on some of the anti-Obamacare protesters at the events. Of course when some of the burden of paying for state controlled health care is placed on the Unions, they begin to fight. And they are already beginning to fight against one element of the Baucus...

Governor Pat Quinn signed Executive Order number 09-15 earlier in the year. This order gave the state government the OK to hand over the private information -- the addresses, names, and telephone numbers -- of hundreds of families that have developmentally disabled children and other family members with chronic medical problems in their homes. Many of these people are considered home-based healthcare workers by the state and they receive state aid to help them take care of their disabled family members. Unions like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)...

BANGKOK, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Hundreds of striking workers forced U.S. auto maker General Motors Co [GM.UL] to shut its Thai assembly plant on Monday, company and union officials said, raising the stakes in a pay dispute with management. About 200 of 800 unionized workers at the plant in southeast Rayong province joined the strike, a GM spokeswoman said. The rest were asked to take paid holidays pending negotiations with union leaders, she added. But GM union leader Suriya Pochairuak put the number of striking workers at about 700. The GM plant, which has about 1,700 employees on its payroll,...

Is SEIU’s Purple Brand Fading to Pink?Posted By Don Loos On October 6, 2009 @ 7:46 am In ACORN, Big Labor, Economics, Featured Story, Politics | 25 Comments Stern’s New Big Labor Same as the Old Big Labor For the past four years, the highest profile Big Labor Boss was Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern.  Stern has deliberately parlayed his controlling style as that of a New Labor Boss, and he has painstakingly worked on the SEIU “purple brand.”  And yet, Stern and the SEIU union have failed to live up to the New Labor Boss identity...

The New Tammany Hall October 12, 2009 By Fred Siegel, Dan DiSalvo PRINTER FRIENDLY Public sector unions have become a labor aristocracy and they are bankrupting states and municipalities. Ever since the 1972 Democratic convention nominated George McGovern over the objections of the AFL-CIO, the standard wisdom has been that organized labor's power in American politics has declined dramatically. The failure of the current Democrat-dominated Congress to pass labor's highest legislative priority, the Employee Free Choice Act ("card check"), is taken as indicative of unions' political incapacity. But the picture looks very different on the state and local level...

Two hours into a government shutdown last night, the Michigan legislature caved on passing a set of budget bills and instead approved a temporary measure that keeps the government running for another 30 days. The midnight hold-up: approval of a K-12 budget that cuts school aid fund spending by less than 3% ($218 per pupil). The demand: higher taxes on Michigan residents...

Six demonstrators were arrested Monday morning at UnitedHealth Group's corporate headquarters in Minnetonka after they blocked the doors and refused to leave during a protest over health care reform. About 110 protesters sang and spoke about the need to change the way health care is organized and financed in the United States, and said that insurers such as UnitedHealth are making people sicker because the system doesn't offer proper coverage for many patients. They cited what they said is UnitedHealth's practice of "denying care and claims in order to generate record profits." The demonstration was organized by a group called...

Democratic lawmakers in a handful of states are facing pressure from Republicans to distance themselves from the Service Employees International Union as a result of its ties to Acorn. Republicans in Kansas, Virginia and Illinois in recent weeks have called on union-backed Democrats to return SEIU campaign contributions, citing the close connection between the union and the community organizing group, whose full name is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

Michigan slides toward partial government shutdownBy Kathy Barks Hoffman, Associated Press Writer – 12 mins ago LANSING, Mich. – One of the nation's most economically battered states stumbled toward a partial government shutdown Thursday as Michigan lawmakers failed to agree on a spending plan in one of the only states without a budget in place. A deal to fill a nearly $3 billion shortfall with federal recovery dollars and more than $1 billion in cuts fell through, as many lawmakers discovered they couldn't stomach deep cuts to schools and local services such as police and fire protection in the stricken...

Dear Mark: It is vital we defeat the “Card Check” Bill. Your TV ad targeting Senator Reid in his home state of Nevada may be the most important part of this fight. That's why, to help the National Right to Work Committee target Senator Harry Reid where it hurts the most, in his backyard.........

Organized labor is turning to House Democrats to oppose a tax on high-cost insurance plans that is under consideration to help pay for healthcare reform. Unions are blasting the idea in the Senate Finance Committee bill, as many union members would be affected because they either have expensive insurance to cover dangerous professions or negotiated for better benefits instead of higher wages. So far, at least one union has now turned to the lower chamber to stop the proposed tax from becoming law. An e-mail accidentally sent to The Hill on Wednesday by a senior lobbyist of the International Union...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and fellow House Democratic leaders next week are expected to wade into the treacherous waters of how to pay for the House healthcare bill as they continue to negotiate the shape of the bill behind closed doors. Throughout September, House leaders held more than 60 hours worth of caucus meetings with rank and file Democrats. But many problematic issues remain unresolved, and so far they have not decided what taxes to raise, or whether to raise them at all. The most public debate is about the "public option," as Pelosi tries to mediate a burgeoning feud...

The crew cut, the workingman's clothes, the blunt manner - no one embodied the popular image of a union leader better than Rudy Kuzel. But that was the surface. Underneath was a smart, well-respected and complicated man tough enough to battle auto company executives and pragmatic enough to cooperate with them if it helped workers. Kuzel, who led United Auto Workers Local 72 in Kenosha for 12 tumultuous years in the 1980s and '90s, died Thursday. He was 73. "He was always two steps ahead of everybody else in the room," said John Drew, who was vice president of Local...

What goes up must fall just as hard. Case in point: cash for clunkers: "The dramatic decline in sales reported Thursday by the Big Three automakers suggested the extent to which the stimulus act has propped up the economy. The government’s wildly popular “Cash for Clunkers” program drove consumer spending to its highest level in eight years in August. But after it ended, so did the growth in auto sales. General Motors’ sales plunged 36 percent in September compared with August. Ford plummeted 37 percent. Chrysler dove 33 percent. Cash for clunkers “was a one-time boost of sales followed by...

Illinois is a bankrupt state, yet our accidental Governor Pat Quinn is handing over millions of state dollars to ACORN/SEIU and any other union that wants to put its hand out. Join me and Americans For Prosperity to Say NO to ACORN.com. Take the first step today. Please visit our website often, share with friends and join our effort to put the heat on state leaders and urge them to launch a real investigation into ACORN and its affiliates. It’s time to end the culture of corruption in Illinois. Join us, sign the petition and Say No to ACORN. Read...

The Associated Press is reporting that the poverty rate in Illinois has jumped from 10.7 percent in 2000 to 12.2 percent in 2008, the last year for which we have Census Bureau data. That comes out to about 1.5 million Illinois citizens living below the poverty line. Hardest hit were some of the counties in Northern Illinois in and around the Chicago area. The drops in income were particularly steep in several northern Illinois counties, DuPage, Kane and Winnebago. For instance, in DuPage County, the median income has declined $10,690 since 2000, from $87,723 to $77,033. One of the things...

Since its entry into the Union, in the aftermath of war and the midst of gold fever, the state has seemed an improbable colossus. But again and again, California has made its way through hours of challenge – not only surviving intact, but emerging as a model for the rest of the nation. In the 19th century, despite immense geographic, ethnic, political, and social differences, Californians managed to form a cohesive identity, resisting numerous efforts to divide the state. They overcame the "curse of natural resources" that so long afflicted other commodity-rich states (and still afflicts some, like Alaska), laying the groundwork...

Where is ACORN’s Union? September 18th, 2009 by J. Justin Wilson I’m beginning to lose track of how many employees ACORN has fired since news broke that the embattled community organizing group was willing to offer advice on running an underage prostitution ring. The questions in my mind are: What about their union? Where is the SEIU? Shouldn’t SEIU’s lawyers be burning the midnight oil writing Unfair Labor Practices for such capricious firings? Where was the hearing? What about the grievance procedure? Was their shop steward notified? Oh, wait, that’s right. ACORN busted the last union that tried to organize...

Sol SternSchool of Crock The Bloomberg administration and the UFT have increasingly joined forces on the schools. 30 September 2009 In 2002, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg convinced the state legislature to give him control of the city’s schools. He argued that the old Board of Education had become “dysfunctional” and thus incapable of producing significant academic improvement. The board’s seven voting members were separately appointed by six different (and often competing) elected officials. That meant, Bloomberg maintained, that “no one was in charge” and no one could be held accountable for the school system’s dismal performance. But Bloomberg...

Big business. Big labor. Big government. These are not entities in opposition but in balance, much like the three branches of the federal government. Each jealously guards its power from the other. They do not argue about acquiring power, but about how that power is divided or shared. Regardless of what any idealist on the Left may think, this is the inevitable ruling troika that socialism requires to govern and function in the future. Whether you choose to label this relationship as fascist, communist or socialist is irrelevant because above all it is totalitarian. Whether you choose to label its...

The Alliance for Worker Freedom has decided to send a letter to replacement Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois asking him how much his favoritism and goodies given to unions in the state have cost the taxpayers of Illinois. (I say "replacement gov." because Quinn is the former Lt. Gov. that became the accidental gov. when Rod Blagojevich was indicted and then impeached from office) Quinn is guilty of handing over the personal information of thousands of Illinois home-based support workers that receive state aid to take care of family members with severe medical conditions to several unions so that the...