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Division of LaborBy Lowell PonteFrontPageMagazine.com | July 29, 2005 The convention was supposed to have been a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the umbrella group that overarches most major North American labor unions.But on the eve of this week’s AFL-CIO convention in Chicago, long-building pressures began to tear the labor organization to shreds. Two unions of the newly-formed dissident group of seven unions called the Change To Win Coalition announced that they were leaving the AFL-CIO. One was the leftwing Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the largest union in the...

For the last couple of months, many of the pointy-headed talking heads who inhabit The Fox Neocon Channel (FNC), PMSNBC, and the Communist Newspeak Network (CNN) have been babbling about the in-fighting on the Right. Many have wondered if the GOP Establishment's Golden Boy Mitt Romney has been damaged by the lukewarm rececption of him by the GOP's Conservative base. (As of this writing, it is unknown if the Bellvue staff has allowed Tokyo Rove to have shoe laces yet.) Night after night, we've had nothing but on air hand-wringing from the likes of Ann Coulter and the rest of...

These are the 10 largest unions, noting the number of employees who earn more than $200,000, leadership salaries and campaign contributions to federal candidates in 2009-2010. Union: National Education Association Membership: 3.2 million Assets: $216 million The NEA, representing most of the nation’s teachers, has 31 headquarters officers and employees who earn over $200,000. The president, Dennis Van Roekel, received $397,721 in salary and benefits. Of the $3.7 million NEA spent on political activities in the last election cycle, 98 percent went to Democratic candidates. The NEA has 98,000 members in Wisconsin. Before taking the helm in 2008, Van Roekel...

As the reality of Obamacare emerges, a disastrous calamity imposed on the American people, even the most compliant members of the Obama fan club are beginning to panic. Three union presidents have sent Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi a scathing letter decrying Obamacare, showing just how out-of-control this law has become. This astonishing reversal has been underreported so far, except by the ever-vigilant Tom Gara in the Wall Street Journal. The fact is that the crater of Obamacare is getting deeper, with sharper edges. The unions are first-tier political allies of President Obama and...

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - Salvadoran police have arrested the mother-in-law of a U.S. Teamster gunned down in El Salvador last month, along with five other suspects, describing the slaying as a contract killing that was the result of a family dispute. Jose Gilberto Soto, 49, a U.S. citizen of Salvadoran origin from Cliffside Park, N.J., was shot in the back on Nov. 5 outside his family's house in Usulutan, 70 miles southeast of San Salvador. Soto had arrived in El Salvador on Oct. 30 to meet with the country's trade union leaders and port drivers. Rosa Elba Ortiz,...

WASHINGTON, July 15 — The Teamsters reached an agreement on a new contract with United Parcel Service Inc. on Monday, 16 days before their current contract was set to expire. The agreement was reached after nine weeks of negotiations. Details of the tentative pact were to be revealed at an Atlanta news conference on Tuesday. “We have a definitive agreement,” said Teamsters spokesman Bret Caldwell. “We’re cleaning up the paperwork.” Caldwell said he expects results from a union vote on the proposed contract by mid-August. A two-week strike in 1997 cost UPS $750 million, and both sides said they wanted...