Free Republic

Four Democrats vying for their party’s presidential nomination honed in on the economic concerns of the black community during a forum Saturday in South Carolina, a state where nonwhite voters will play a major role in next year’s primary election. Appearing on stage one at a time, Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke all stressed the need to increase access to capital for black business owners as part of a broader effort to address wealth inequality. Warren expounded on what she’s called...

Workers at Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted Friday night against forming a factory-wide union, handing a setback to the United Auto Workers’ efforts to gain a foothold among foreign auto facilities in the South. The vote of hourly workers began Wednesday and concluded Friday. Preliminary results show 833 employees voted against representation and 776 voted for it, the German automaker said in a statement. VW said about 93% of the roughly 1,700 eligible employees voted. “Our employees have spoken,” Frank Fischer, president and CEO of Volkswagen Chattanooga, said in the company statement. He said results are pending certification by...

As NFL labor negotiations Opens a New Window. loom over the 2019 season, the NFL Players Association is already warning players to save money Opens a New Window. to prepare for a possible work stoppage in 2021. In a Tuesday email, NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith advised NFL agents to tell their clients to budget their income to account for a player strike or lockout by ownership. The NFL’s current collective-bargaining agreement expires after the 2020 season, and negotiations on the next deal are widely expected to be contentious.

Joe Biden officially earned the endorsement of the firefighters union Monday, putting in his corner a powerful organizing force that stayed on the sidelines of the 2016 race. The executive board of the International Association of Firefighters met and voted to ratify its endorsement of the former vice president within hours of his formal entry into the race on Thursday. The union had warmly welcomed Biden to their annual Washington convention last month with signs of “Run, Joe, Run!” General President Harold Schaitberger made the endorsement official in an online video. “Joe’s a lot like our firefighters. He's a problem...

<p>New Mexico is prohibiting local governments from enacting right-to-work ordinances that prevent employees from being required to join a union or pay union fees.</p> <p>Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Wednesday signed legislation that asserts the state’s exclusive jurisdiction over union security agreements.</p>

Reading aloud a letter addressed to her supervisors about retaliation she faced after reporting sexual misconduct within SEIU, Njoki Woods, a 42-year-old African American single mother of 4, begins to cry. Prior to joining the staff at SEIU United Healthcare West in 2015, Woods had spent a decade organizing her fellow co-workers as a certified nursing assistant and unit secretary at Riverside Community Hospital in Southern California. After leading a successful effort as a rank and file member to organize residual workers at nearby St. Mary’s hospital, Woods was offered a staff job in May of 2015. “I was excited....

Democrat Sherrod Brown brought a pro-worker message Saturday to Las Vegas casino workers who are members of what’s considered Nevada’s most powerful labor union, declaring that if he decides to run for president, he will be “the most pro-union candidate.” Brown, a U.S. senator from Ohio, said he’s going to make a decision about 2020 in the next month. He addressed workers in the union hall of the Culinary Union as he kicked off a trip to the early Western caucus state, which is seen as a key test of a candidate’s appeal to diverse demographics. Brown is the first...

The association that represents thousands of FBI agents says the partial federal government shutdown is affecting the bureau’s operations. The FBI Agents Association sent a petition Thursday to the White House and congressional leaders encouraging them to fund the FBI immediately. The association’s president, Tom O’Connor, told reporters in a conference call that Friday will be the first day that FBI personnel will not receive a paycheck. …

Need a career change? NJ Transit is hiring — and the job comes with big bucks. The nation’s second-busiest rail system has been struggling to keep its trains running on time, sometimes canceling as many as two dozen a day. Officials blame this commuting nightmare in part on a lack of engineers — the people who operate the trains. The shortage is exacerbated whenever a slew of engineers call out sick. The agency has been scrambling to fill training classes with recruits. Prospective job applicants might jump at the opportunity when they find out just how much the job pays....

Trade unions at Air France called Thursday for the company to name a French chief executive amid reports that the board is set to nominate Canadian Ben Smith at the helm of the group. Nine out of ten unions issued a joint statement, saying it was “inconceivable that the Air France company, French since 1933, falls into the hands of a foreign executive whose candidacy is being promoted by a competitor”. The statement appeared to be referring to Delta Airlines, the US airline which owns 8.8 percent of the capital of Air France-KLM, the parent group formed out of the...

The Trump administration announced Tuesday it planned to end what it suggested was an illegal Obama-era rule allowing unions to collect dues from state subsidies intended for home health workers -- including family caregivers. Federal law generally prohibits states from skimming money from Medicaid payments bound for independent in-home personal care workers. But in 2014, the Obama administration created an exception, saying that states could divert some of that Medicaid money to unions, on the theory that these workers effectively were public-sector employees. Eleven left-leaning states have used that provision to raise more than $200 million a year for unions...

The French government has agreed to absorb €35 billion in debt from the state railway SNCF, a top union official said Friday, as it seeks an end to nearly two months of strikes. Luc Berille, the head of the UNSA union, said that the state had proposed taking on €35 billion ($41 billion) of the SNCF’s €46 billion of debt, starting with €25 billion as soon as 2020. “The prime minister was specific,” Berille said after talks with premier Edouard Philippe, adding that the government would increase infrastructure investment by €200 million a year to reach an annual total of...

A Metra track inspector and two mechanics have been paid a total of $1.2 million in overtime in the past five years. That payout, one lawmaker tells 2 Investigator Brad Edward, is out of control. “There’s excessive overtime being paid,” says State Rep. David Olsen (R-Downers Grove). “That creates mistrust from taxpayers.” In all, Metra’s overtime costs soared above $119 million from 2013 to 2017, according to interviews and records. 2 Investigators counted 351 employees who earned at least $100,000 in that span. Topping the list is a mechanic who earned more than $366,000 in overtime. “I think that …...

France’s economy minister Bruno Le Maire said Sunday that Air France employees must resume dialogue with bosses and restart efforts to improve the company’s competitiveness, otherwise the airline “will disappear”. “I appeal to the sense of responsibility of everyone involved: flight crew, ground staff, the pilots asking for unjustified pay increases,” he said on French TV news channel BFMTV. “Take responsibility — Air France’s survival is at stake.” Le Maire added that “the state is not there to pay off the company’s debts”. …

French rail workers spoke of their anger over the government’s proposed reforms to France’s national rail service as they took part in a day of mass protests on Thursday. President Emmanuel Macron faced mass protests Thursday as trade unionists seek to galvanize striking train drivers, angry students and public sector workers and into a joint movement against his multi-pronged drive to overhaul the French economy. The hard-line CGT union has urged the broad spectrum of groups opposed to Macron’s overhauls to come together on the streets, with some left-wingers dreaming of a re-run of the huge May 1968 demonstrations that...

Rail workers across France have gone on strike for the first day of a three-month rolling walkout, the latest and potentially biggest battle over labor laws in the country since President Emmanuel Macron took office last May promising to transform the jobs market. Train services have been severely disrupted, with around 87% of high-speed trains and 80% of regional services canceled Tuesday, according to SNCF, France's state-owned rail company. Eurostar services were also affected, with one in four services from Paris canceled. High-speed Thalys trains towards Belgium and the Netherlands were operating almost as normal, but there were no services...

Teachers carried signs and marched during a rally at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City on Monday calling for higher wages. Last week, the legislature in Oklahoma City voted to give teachers an average raise of $6,000 per year, or roughly 16 percent, depending on experience. Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, signed the package into law, but teachers said it was not enough. They have asked for a $10,000 raise as well as additional funding for schools and raises for support staff like bus drivers and custodians.

The liquidation of labor unions threatens to further weaken the entire system of protection of labor rights in the Russian Federation. On January 10, 2018, by decision of the St. Petersburg City Court, one of the strongest Russian trade unions was liquidated - the Interstate Trade Union Workers Association ( MPRA ). The union was accused of receiving foreign financing with simultaneous participation in political activities. The MPRA appealed the decision of the court and is awaiting further hearings. The judgment on the MPRA is not just a neutralization of the protest mechanisms before the elections. The extension of the...

Nearly 5,000 JetBlue flight attendants will start voting Monday in an effort to join the Transport Workers Union. Ballots will be cast electronically or by phone in an election that will run until April 17. The National Mediation Board is overseeing the election. According to the TWU, an “overwhelming majority” of flight attendants last year signed cards declaring they wanted to unionize. […] JetBlue was not receptive to the TWU’s efforts to unionize its flight attendants. Inviting a “third-party” union was a bad idea, the airline wrote in flyers and emails to staffers in September. “TWU is an opportunistic and...

France does not want to treat its workers like the UK and US, with zero hours contracts and no protection for the unemployed, Philippe Martinez, the head of the hardline CGT, France’s biggest trade union, has said. Last year, Martinez and his leftist union fought an unsuccessful battle with President Emmanuel Macron over a raft of reforms aimed at freeing up France’s rigid jobs market. Those controversial reforms cut into the power of France’s trade unions and made it easier for firms to lay off staff. Martinez believes Macron is influenced by the “Anglo-Saxon” model but he does not want...