Free Republic

As federal employees braced for their first missed paychecks starting Friday, tension over the government shutdown reached a fever pitch, with House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer equating forcing people to work without pay to slavery. Speaking Thursday to a rally of unionized federal employees and their supporters outside the AFL-CIO’s headquarters, the Maryland Democrat spoke of the “440,000 people that are being asked to work with no pay,” adding, “You know, back in the 1860s,they talked about working with no pay.”

Canada’s government is joining President Trump in criticizing a Montana judge’s ruling that blocked construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. “We are committed to supporting our energy sector and the hard-working Canadians it employs. Our government has always supported the Keystone XL project, and we are disappointed by this decision,” Vanessa Adams, spokeswoman for Canadian Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi, said in a statement. “It is important for good, middle-class jobs in Canada and for a successful energy export market. The project has received all necessary approvals in Canada,” she said. Adams said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government “is taking...

Full title: Judicial Watch Victory: Federal District Court Reaffirms Constitutionality of Ohio Voting Law, Denies ‘End Run’ Attempt Around Earlier Supreme Court Ruling Judicial Watch Amicus Curiae Brief Referenced in Court’s Decision ‘This Court recognizes that the extreme relief sought by Plaintiffs on their only remaining claim could potentially be viewed as an end run around the Supreme Court’s decision …’ (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that U.S. District Court Judge George C. Smith for the Southern District of Ohio agreed with Judicial Watch in rejecting an attempt by the AFL-CIO’s Philip Randolph Institute to reinstate 1.5 million...

On Nov. 6, Americans will vote in one of the most important elections in our lifetime. Companies and their employees have a significant stake in the outcome. But too many people still say they don’t vote because they are too busy or their schedule won’t allow it.We’ve seen this before. In November 2016, about 40% of eligible voters did not cast a ballot. Some made a conscious decision not to go to the polls on Election Day. But many of these voters simply didn’t have a choice. Around half of states do not require employers to give employees paid leave...

President Trump on Monday slammed AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka over comments he made over the weekend, saying it’s easy to see why unions are doing so terribly.“Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, represented his union poorly on television this weekend,” the president tweeted. “Some of the things he said were so against the working men and women of our country, and the success of the U.S. itself, that it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly. A Dem!” Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, represented his union poorly on television this weekend. Some of the...

President Donald Trump started his Labor Day with an attack on a top union leader, lashing out after criticism from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Trump tweeted Monday that Trumka “represented his union poorly on television this weekend.” He added: “it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly. A Dem!” […] Asked about the low unemployment rate and economic growth, Trumka said “those are good, but wages have been down since the first of the year. Gas prices have been up since the first of the year. So, overall, workers aren’t doing as well.” On Monday, Trump touted...

On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka said President Donald Trump has “hurt workers.” On Trump’s performance for workers, Trumka said, “Unfortunately, to date, the things that he has done to hurt workers outpace what he’s done to help workers. He hasn’t come up with an infrastructure program that could put a lot of us back to work. He overturned a regulation that would deny over 5 million overtime that they would’ve had. He overturned some health and safety regulations that will hurt us on the job.” He continued, “Wages have been down since the...

One of the nation’s top labor leaders on Wednesday called on the Obama administration to immediately release the text of a far-reaching trade deal that spans the Pacific Rim to Latin America. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka wrote a letter to President Obama arguing that stakeholders, lawmakers and the American public need to see the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to start what is expected to be a long process of evaluating the deal brokered by the United States and 11 other nations. House and Senate Democrats have made similar appeals since the pact was brokered a week ago...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is getting an earful – on Twitter – from teachers union boss Randi Weingarten for reportedly keeping the door open to a possible Trump endorsement in 2020. Newsmax reported Wednesday that Trumka would not rule out a union endorsement for the president. “Every [candidate] will be looked at,” Trumka said. He added, “we will consider every candidate who’s running.” Trumka simply may have been stating union policy, not wanting to get ahead of an endorsement process that is nowhere close to starting, for an election more than two years out. At the same time, he noted...

Despite strong condemnations of the Trump administration for what he calls the “growing wage inequality” among Americans, AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka on Wednesday refused to rule out his union endorsing President Donald Trump for re-election in 2020. “Well, he will be looked at [for the labor endorsement],” Trumka told Newsmax, “Everyone [of the presidential candidates] will be looked at.” Pressed as to how serious he was about the AFL-CIO considering not endorsing the Democratic nominee for president for the first time since 1972, Trumka insisted “we will consider every candidate who’s running in 2020.” Recalling the last presidential race, the...

AFL‑CIO President Richard Trumka (UMWA) spoke at the Missouri AFL‑CIO’s 29th Biennial Convention yesterday, rallying a packed audience of local union leaders and working Missourians in the fight against Prop. A. He recalled the charge that President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered to Americans in the midst of the Great Depression: “True patriotism urges us to build an even more substantial America where the good things of life may be shared by more of us.” Working people in Missouri are speaking out and mobilizing their neighbors against a corporate-backed attack on our fundamental economic rights. As union leaders gather in St....

House Democratic candidates in town this week for training at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington got a visit from AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka for some tips on how they can win back working-class voters. “I don’t have to tell you that you can’t count on the D next to your name to gain our support,” Trumka told Democratic leadership and a room full of candidates on Red to Blue, the DCCC’s program for its strongest candidates. This is the first time the labor leader has spoken to DCCC candidates this cycle, though he has done so in...

JUSTICE ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court. Under Illinois law, public employees are forced to subsi­ dize a union, even if they choose not to join and strongly object to the positions the union takes in collective bar­ gaining and related activities. We conclude that this arrangement violates the free speech rights of nonmem­ bers by compelling them to subsidize private speech on matters of substantial public concern. We upheld a similar law in Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Ed., 431 U. S. 209 (1977), and we recognize the importance of following precedent unless there are strong reasons for...

President Trump’s proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports horrify Republican leaders in Congress — but they could yet pay political dividends. Trump’s move, cast by the White House as an effort to protect American manufacturing, has significant appeal in the Rust Belt states that were pivotal to his shock 2016 election win. Some Democrats in the region worry that senior figures in their party, especially those whose bases are in affluent coastal cities, are underestimating the political potency of Trump’s announcement. “It worries me as a Democrat that the national Democrats don’t see that Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and...

The effort to expand cynically named "right to work" laws says a lot about what is wrong with politics in our country. Disguised as protecting workers, the real goal is to silence workers’ voice, reduce our bargaining power and make our jobs more precarious. It’s about power—social, political and economic power.

The Democratic Party’s allies in the AFL-CIO’s unions are pressuring unions and companies to protect illegal-alien migrant employees from deportation, effectively converting the pro-worker unions into wage-cutting front-groups for employers. The conversion is described by the New York Daily News, which showed how progressive lawyers train local Teamster union leaders to negotiate workplace contracts which minimize employers’ cooperation with immigration enforcement agencies. The article says: At a Wednesday class, funded by the Consortium for Worker Education, Mike Spinelli of Local 553 listened carefully as trainer Luba Cortés walked everyone through the difference between an administrative warrant and a judicial one....

The Canadian energy giant TransCanada said Thursday it’s prepared to move ahead with the long-awaited Keystone XL oil pipeline and plans to start construction next year, laying to rest rumors that it would abandon the project in the wake of regulatory setbacks in Nebraska. In a statement, the company said it’s beginning to work with Nebraska landowners to secure necessary easements to allow the pipeline to go forward. “Over the past 12 months, the Keystone XL project has achieved several milestones that move us significantly closer to constructing this critical energy infrastructure for North America,” said Russ Girling, TransCanada’s president...

In his commentary "Unions ignore long history of excluding minorities from jobs," Missouri Rep. Shamed Dogan (R) highlighted past discriminatory practices in organized labor’s history as reason for implementing our state’s currently pending "right to work" law, along with other anti-worker measures such as ending prevailing wage and minimum wage requirements. To claim that unions continue to exclude minorities and are detrimental to working people is ridiculous and erroneous in the face of the facts. The truth is, enacting right to work and other anti-worker laws would only hurt the minority communities Dogan seeks to protect, by lowering wages, reducing benefits and...

Yesterday, President Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress released their new tax plan. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka responded to the proposal: The tax plan Republicans put out [yesterday] is nothing but a con game, and working people are the ones they’re trying to con. Here we go again. First comes the promise that tax giveaways for the wealthy and big corporations will trickle down to the rest of us. Then comes the promise that tax cuts will pay for themselves. Then comes the promise that they want to stop offshoring. And finally, we find out none of these things...

Professional NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick can't find a team to call home in the National Football League, but that didn't stop the NFL Player's Association from celebrating his charity work this week. The official player's union of the NFL named Kap as the organization's Week 1 "Community MVP" on Friday. He received the honor "for his commitment to empowering underserved communities through donations and grassroots outreach," the NFLPA announcement notes.