Free Republic

The Michigan Education Association has threatened to file an unfair labor practice complaint against the Northport Public Schools superintendent because of conversations he had with local union officials over removing illegal language discovered in the district's labor contract. The contract, signed on June 24, 2013, states: “Each bargaining unit member shall, as a condition of employment … join the Association (union) or pay a service fee to the Association.” Under the Michigan right-to-work law enacted in 2012, workers in a unionized workplace can no longer be forced to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. Union contracts...

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union is a heavyweight on the labor scene. It pays its president $350,000 a year. It’s holding its next executive board meeting in February at a swanky beachfront resort in Hollywood, Florida. And it just doled out nearly $8 million to influence the last election and lobby Washington. But when it comes to standing by the obligation unions made to provide pensions to retirees, UFCW pleaded poverty in persuading Congress to let chronically underfunded union pension plans cut the benefits of workers, including those already retired.“Declining participation and factors like the Great Recession have...

French taxi drivers have succeeded in persuading the French government to ban rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft. A harsh new law takes effect in January. The move is good for taxi drivers, but will cost consumers money. […] Pierre-Henry Brandet, a spokesperson for the French Ministry of the Interior […] said that as of January 1, the operators of mobile apps like UberPOP that connect non-professional drivers and riders would face punishment of up to two years in prison and a fine of €300,000 if convicted. Those provisions were specified under a new law that had been passed earlier...

The National Labor Relations Board issued a final rule on Friday aimed at modernizing and streamlining the union election process. The new rule will shorten the time between when an election is ordered and the election is held, eliminating a previous 25-day waiting period. And it seeks to reduce litigation that can be used to stall elections. It will also require employers to furnish union organizers with email addresses and phone numbers of workers. […] AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the NLRB’s “modest but important reforms” will help reduce delays and make it easier for workers to vote on forming...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Frank Walsh still pays dues to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, but more than four years have passed since his name was called at the union hall where the few available jobs are distributed. Mr. Walsh, his wife and two children live on her part-time income and a small inheritance from his mother, which is running out. Sitting in the food court at a mall near his Maryland home, he sees some of the restaurants are hiring. He says he can’t wait much longer to find a job. But he’s not ready yet. “I’d work for...

The head of the German union representing automotive workers is speaking out against Volkswagen working with anti-labor groups at its plant in Tennessee. In a statement issued Friday in Frankfurt, Germany, IG Metall President Detlef Wetzel called on Volkswagen to “show its true colors” in officially recognizing the United Auto Workers union as its bargaining partner at the Chattanooga factory once the union proves it has signed up a majority of workers there. “It is our objective to guarantee also under the politically difficult circumstances in the United States that labor union rights are respected and co-determination in the plant...

The AFL-CIO national campaign to build stronger communities by empowering eligible immigrants to become citizens and fully engage in the democratic process has become a reality in New Jersey, with the opening of the state’s first labor-led naturalization and community center.The We Are One New Jersey Hudson County Center officially opened on Oct. 28 in Jersey City. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre joined the New Jersey State AFL-CIO for the opening ceremony, along with Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Rep. Albio Sires (D-N.J.), New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech, New Jersey State AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Laurel Brennan...

Democrats who hate right-to-work laws in states that have them deride said laws as “right to work for less.” You dumbasses! Why would you not join the union when it’s going to get you more money and protect you from getting fired if you operate machinery drunk and stoned? You don’t know what’s good for you! But shockingly to the unions and their political protectors, some people prefer not to become part of the collective. And their judgment tends to be vindicated when we see how the overlords of the collective behave when this happens. You don’t want to join...

The United Auto Workers union said Friday it was creating a chapter at the only factory within auto giant Daimler’s global manufacturing system where workers lack union representation. The local chapter aims to represent the 3,400 US employees at a Mercedes-Benz plant outside of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in the southern United States, and is being formed with help from German trade union IG Metal.“This is the formation of a local union that will become the bargaining agent for workers at this facility,” said Gary Casteel, UAW secretary treasurer and vice chairman of the Daimler workers committee. “This isn’t a petition for...

A Michigan court ruled that the state branch of the powerful Service Employees International Union does not have to pay back tens of millions of dollars in dues taken from home health care workers who were forced into unionization. The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled last week that the SEIU Healthcare Michigan does not have to pay back more than $34 million in dues collected from over 40,000 home health care workers. Many were forced into the union under state requirements that they join because they were taking care of sick family members at home.

McDonald’s, Wendy’s and other fast-food restaurants are expected to be targeted with acts of civil disobedience that could lead to arrests Thursday as labor organizers escalate their campaign to unionize the industry’s workers. Kendall Fells, an organizing director for Fast Food Forward, said in an interview that workers in a couple of dozen cities were trained to peacefully engage in civil disobedience ahead of this week’s planned protests. Fells declined to say what exactly is in store for the protests in around 150 U.S. cities. But workers involved in the movement recently cited sit-ins as an example of strategies they...

Labor Day provides the opportunity to evaluate those government agencies that impact the workplace, and gauge if they are helping or hurting the employment situation in America. In the six Labor Days since President Obama took office, his appointees have gone to outrageous lengths to compel the 93 percent of the private-sector workforce who don't belong to an organized labor union to become dues-paying members. While the Labor Department and the National Mediation Board have each pushed hard to create rules that overwhelmingly favor union organizers over those employees who oppose unionization, it is the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)...

Cookouts now mark Labor Day, instead of parades honoring country’s labor movement, says AFL-CIO honcho Richard Trumpka. (Picture) Few recall the bloodstained origins of this holiday as we fire up the grill, throw on the burgers and dogs and turn on the U.S. And, in a sign of the times, the Sunday morning network news shows didn’t even offer their usual, token pre-Labor Day weekend spot for the head of the nation’s labor movement. “No,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka when I asked him. “No invitations this year.” I told the former mine worker-turned-lawyer that there seems to be a...

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. .