Free Republic

It is not clear whether words were exchanged between the officer and the woman, but both of them end up on the ground, where the officer straddles the woman and repeatedly punches her, according to the video. The video shows another man running and apparently trying to help the officer restrain the woman.

Despite significant advancements in workplace health and safety over the past four decades, 150 people will be killed on the job or die from job-related illnesses and diseases today, reports the 2014 edition of the AFL-CIO’s annual Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, released this morning.And that daily death toll, which has remained steady for the past several years, plus the 11.4 million work-related injuries and illnesses a year show:The nation must renew the commitment to protect workers from injury, disease and death and make this a high priority. We must demand that employers meet their responsibilities to protect...

For the first time, General Motors Co. could have an official of the United Auto Workers union on its board of directors. UAW Vice President Joe Ashton was nominated to a board seat controlled by a UAW trust fund that pays retiree health care bills. He plans to retire from his union post in June. The move, which would be considered common in Europe, is a first for General Motors, and a sign of how the relationship between the company and the union has changed in the past decade. Before that, the UAW battled with the company over wages, benefits...

Postal workers around the country protested in front of Staples stores on Thursday, objecting to the U.S. Postal Service’s pilot program to open counters in stores, staffed with retail employees. […] In Washington, D.C., more than 200 people gathered at a Staples, drumming on buckets and holding signs that read: “Stop Staples. The US Mail is Not for Sale.” One of them, postal service maintenance mechanic Robert Black, called the pilot program “a back-door way of privatizing the post office” and taking away jobs from postal workers. “It seems as though they are doing whatever they can to break down...

Platinum and palladium prices are dropping sharply on signs that South African mining companies are close to reaching a labor agreement that would end a four-month strike. Platinum fell $28, or 2 percent, to close at $1,400.70 an ounce. Palladium lost $29.30, or 3.6 percent, to $777.80 an ounce. …

Thus marks the end of the United Auto Workers’ foray into unionizing Southern auto manufacturing. Despite cooperative management at Volkswagen, the UAW failed to convince workers in its Chattanooga facility to unionize. The union alleged interference and demanded a hearing at the National Labor Relations Board to force a revote, but unexpectedly withdrew just before the hearing was scheduled to start:

Madison — Dealing unions their latest loss in court, a federal appeals court Friday upheld Gov. Scott Walker's tight limits on collective bargaining for most public employees. The ruling by the three-judge panel upheld a September decision by U.S. District Judge William Conley in Madison that the law known as Act 10 does not infringe on the rights of government workers. "Act 10 does not violate the First or Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. We therefore affirm the district court's judgment in favor of the state," the ruling reads. .

Racketeering, assault, and extortion -- these are just a few of the crimes that union organizers have been accused or convicted of committing over the past few weeks and months. You would think Big Labor bosses would be concerned with their image and whether or not it affects their ability to maneuver with friends in the Obama Administration. Not so. In fact, they have been emboldened by the actions undertaken by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which is currently seeking to expedite the unionization process so much so that workers and businesses will not be able to make informed...

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>