Free Republic

Last week’s three-day strike at Lufthansa drew attention to structural problems at a company that is critical to Germany’s globalized economy. The flag carrier is losing ground against competitors, but its pilots are remaining firm. […] (Vereinigung Cockpit)’s slogan for the strike, “Stop the profit greed” […] ended up backfiring on the pilots’ union. In the public and the press, on television and in many Internet forums, discussions of the pilots’ strike, instead of triggering debates over greedy fund managers, were focused on the pilots themselves. People across Germany were talking about whether the strike was justified or excessive. The...

Richard Griffin, the new general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, wants to give unions a veto over a unionized employer's decision to relocate. If Griffin has his way, and he most assuredly will, some unionized businesses will be pinned in place at the discretion of their unions. The change Griffin is contemplating is unnecessary and inconsistent with both the law and the dynamics of our free-enterprise system. It will upset the balance mandated by the Supreme Court and should send a chill up the spine of unionized companies contemplating relocating an operation. Griffin's intent was disclosed in a...

Questions abound after the Albuquerque Police Department released video footage of cops shooting and killing a homeless man whose alleged crime was camping in an unauthorized area. Police came upon Boyd while he was sleeping outside in the Sandia Foothills. Camping is not allowed in the area. He was instructed to accompany police down the mountain and seemed to agree to the demand. That’s when cops shot a flash grenade at him and sicked a dog on him. Boyd turned away, and was holding a knife, according to police reports. He was then shot. “Please don’t hurt me anymore,” he...

....Welcome to Doc’s Union Pub, an establishment owned and operated by the top brass of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98, one of the most powerful construction unions in Philadelphia. The bar is reportedly named after John Dougherty — “Johnny Doc,” as he’s known locally — a high-paid union business agent with a reputation for using intimidation tactics to advance the goals of his union, political or otherwise.

Hatred for Charles and David Koch is now so pervasive among the far-left that unions are actually protesting a hospital that committed the cardinal sin of accepting a $100 million donation from the infamous billionaires–even though the money will likely create jobs for unionized employees of the hospital. The donation, made by businessman and philanthropist David Koch, is the largest in the New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s history, and will be used to build a new wing at the facility, according to The Washington Free Beacon. The Free Beacon’s Andrew Stiles pointed out that the donation “will presumably create a fair number...

HOUSTON, TX – The nation’s leading labor union will plan to spend $300 million in 2014 trying to unseat Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and four other Republican Governors. More: AFL-CIO to Target Walker, Other Governors People’s World reported that the AFL-CIO announced on Thursday morning during a press conference in Houston that they would spend money trying to unseat Governor Walker. Other Governors that the labor organization is targeting are John Kasich (R-Ohio), Tom Corbett (R-Pennsylvania), Rick Snyder (R-Michigan), and Rick Scott (R-Florida). The American Federation of Teachers backed the AFL-CIO’s plan. President Randi Weingarten said: “In many ways it...

DETROIT — The United Auto Workers' membership and dues are down sharply from just six years ago. In another sign of weakness, the union suffered a stunning defeat this month when it tried to organize a Tennessee factory run by labor-friendly Volkswagen. The rejection, by a close vote, was a major setback in the union's effort to expand in the South, where non-union, foreign companies such as VW, Nissan and Hyundai are rapidly growing. But instead of relief, Detroit's three automakers — Ford, Chrysler and General Motors — are increasingly anxious about the 78-year old union's future. For them, it's...

The United Auto Workers (UAW) filed a legal challenge late Friday with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to the certification of the organizing vote it lost last Friday at Volkswagen's auto plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The challenge was submitted just hours before the seven day post-election filing deadline expired. On Tuesday, attorney Joseph Farelli, a nationally recognized labor law expert, told Breitbart News the UAW would have little chance of success if it filed a challenge to NLRB certification of the election. "I don't think the NLRB is willing to break new ground and state the conduct of a...

The federal government indicted several union members on Tuesday for burning down a Quaker meetinghouse in 2012. Why? Because it was employing non-union workers, of course. Ten members of Philadelphia’s Ironworkers Local 401 were charged with “allegedly participating in a conspiracy to commit criminal acts of extortion, arson, destruction of property, and assault in order to force construction contractors to hire union ironworkers,” the FBI statement reads. “Eight of the 10 individuals named in the indictment are charged with conspiring to use Ironworkers Local 401 as an enterprise to commit criminal acts. … The indictment details incidents in which the...

Electrical workers’ union posted signs outside the Trolley Car Diner protesting Weinstein’s organization Philly Office Retail’s decision to hire non-union workers. Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) placed signs outside the Trolley Car Diner and handed out fliers charging Ken Weinstein, the president of Philly Office Retail, of “helping to destroy wages and benefits” on Thursday, Feb. 6. The labor union objects to Philly Office Retail hiring McCoubrey/Overholser, a Mt. Airy based general contractor, to convert the former St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, located at the corner of Wayne Avenue and Harvey Street into a private school....

A vote by workers in Tennessee that could yield the first labor union victory at a foreign-owned auto plant in the U.S. South will be difficult to challenge, no matter the outcome, despite growing controversy over the election. Volkswagen AG employees at the German company's Chattanooga plant on Friday will complete three days of voting that has seen intense political infighting between anti-union forces and the United Auto Workers (UAW) over unionizing the plant.

<p>Workers at a Volkswagen factory in Tennessee have rejected the United Auto Workers union.</p>

Pres. Obama headed to Milwaukee after State of Union address January 26, 2014, by Mike Lowe, Pres. Obama headed to Milwaukee after State of Union address MILWAUKEE (WITI) — President Barack Obama is set to deliver his State of the Union address this week. According to the White House, the speech will be optimistic and focus on the middle class. After the speech, President Obama will take his message on the road to four places — one of which is Milwaukee. This is not the first time President Obama has used his big speech to put the spotlight on Wisconsin....

Here’s what Wisconsin’s legal system and its teachers unions have just taught the nation: If you’re a teacher and you get fired for looking at porn at work, you’ll get your job back. Such is the case of Andrew Harris, former seventh-grade science teacher at Glacier Creek Middle School in the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District. The district’s school board Monday voted in a special closed session to comply with an arbitrator’s 60-page order that demands Harris be reinstated. He was fired in 2010 after receiving and viewing multiple pornographic and sexually inappropriate images and videos, according to a complaint....

Labor Law: The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a case that will determine if a Medicaid recipient caring for her child is a state worker required to turn part of her meager resources over to union bosses. Illinois resident Pam Harris is a 55-year-old mom earning less than the minimum wage who cares for her son Josh Harris, 25. He has Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome, a muscular degenerative disease, compounded by physical disabilities and mental illness. Josh and his family qualify for an Illinois home-based support-services program that lets disabled adults live at home. He gets $721 each month from...

Two of the most powerful unions in the country have voiced objections to a bill that would provide better background checks for teachers, Campbell Brown writes in a Thursday Wall Street Journal column. After the Government Accountability Office found “hundreds of potential cases of registered sex offenders working in schools” across the United States in 2010, the House passed a bill that would streamline the vetting process and close inconsistencies across state lines. The bill is a common sense measure, according to Campbell, yet powerful teachers unions are opposed to the new standards. Anyone with violent or sexual convictions against...

A Democrat State Representative, a former Democrat State Senator and a local Union President walked into a public high school in Connecticut to receive a Communist award. Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke right? I only wish it was… According to an article on the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) News, People’s World, in December of 2013 a Communist award ceremony was held in a New Haven Connecticut public high school auditorium where the Democrat State Rep, Former Democrat State Senator and the local Union President all received awards: >snip "Former state Senator Ed Gomes, a steelworker, state representative...

I really hope this video goes viral. These union goons don't even care that their violence is being caught on camera:

The board of mediators appointed by President Barack Obama to help resolve a 3½-year contract dispute between the Long Island Rail Road and most of its unions rejected the LIRR’s claim that it can’t afford to give workers raises. […] The presidential board recommended annual raises for workers averaging 2.83 percent over six years, and increased health care contributions for all workers. It did not call for any changes in LIRR pension plans or to any work rules. […] The MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) would agree to raises, but only if they were funded by other concessions. That includes the...

DWP union chief refuses to turn over financial records to auditor The politically powerful head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s largest union has refused to cooperate with a city audit of two nonprofit trusts established to improve relations between management and labor at the city-owned utility. City officials began trying to account for more than $40 million in ratepayer money poured into the nonprofits after The Times reported in September that the DWP had only scant information about how the money has been spent. The nonprofits, the Joint Training Institute and the Joint Safety Institute, are...