Free Republic

National Education Association is the most evil labor organization on the planet. All of the teachers’ unions are evil, but the NEA is the biggest, ... The teachers’ unions weren’t able to hide their nastiness from the public ... They did what they’ve always done — put their interests above those of the students and, as we are now finding out, doomed those kids to being forever behind. One of the more bizarre things we saw back then was the far-left regime in Chicago battling with the teachers’ union there to let the kids go back to school. Then-Mayor Lori...

The state of Illinois reached a new contract agreement with members of the AFSCME union that will cost taxpayers an additional $620 million over four years. Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday announced the agreement with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The state's previous contract with the union expired at the end of June. The $620 million in additional costs amounts to a raise of nearly 18% during that time. About $200 million of that would be during the current fiscal year. “Illinois is a pro-worker state, and when it comes to workers’ rights, my administration is...

Alternate headline: Pottery Barn rules apply to walkouts. In an 8-1 decision in which only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson fully dissented, the Supreme Court ruled today that unions have to reimburse employers for damages caused by striking workers. The National Labor Relations Act does not confer immunity to unions or workers — the latest ruling from a court that has stiffened the boundaries for labor activities in the last few years:The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that federal labor law did not protect a union from potential liability for damage that arose during a strike, and that a state court...

Eighty-four employees at Amazon.com Inc.’s Palmdale, California, location have agreed to organize their union–DAX8–with Teamsters Local 396, a move that marks the first time that Amazon workers have affiliated with the Teamsters.Drivers and dispatchers won what is known as “neutrality and voluntary union recognition” to join the local after negotiations with Teamsters Joint Council 42, the Teamsters said Monday in a statement.The agreement, which will be voted on by the members in the coming weeks, includes immediate pay increases, substantial hourly raises in the fall, provisions that hold Amazon accountable on health and safety standards, a grievance procedure and other...

Big Labor and its acolytes have been trumpeting a recent Gallup poll suggesting widespread public support for organized labor.According to the survey, about 71 percent of Americans expressed a favorable opinion of unions, up from 64 percent pre-pandemic and a low of 48 percent in 2009.Even more revealing, they say, are figures from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) showing the overall number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions increased by 273,000 — 1.9 percent — to 14.3 million during 2022 over the previous year.If true, it would be the best showing for unions since the 1960s.Both notions...

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...

Canada is demanding goodies from the United States Congress as part of the renegotiation of NAFTA.From The Globe and Mail: One group of negotiators spent all day Sunday working on the labour file, according to a schedule of the talks obtained by The Globe and Mail. One source familiar with the discussions said Canada wants the United States to pass a federal law stopping state governments from enacting right-to-work legislation; the source said the United States has not agreed to such a request. Canada believes that lower labour standards in the United States and Mexico, including right to work,...

You can’t really pin this one on the Trump Effect because it’s been in the works for a while, but Missouri’s legislature sent a new bill to the Governor this week which will be making some big changes on the labor front. If you were somehow able to buy stock in labor unions on Wall Street, this would be a good time to sell it because the Show-Me state is about to show forced unionization to the door. (St. Lois Today) A moment long dreaded by the state’s labor unions and their supporters arrived on Thursday, as Missouri lawmakers...

How’s about some commie ketchup on that burger? It’s extra red. A little Marxist mustard for your dog? What about a pinch of socialist sauerkraut on that bubbling bratwurst? Didn’t you know? That’s why you get the day off on Monday. That’s what your Labor Day barbecue commemorates: socialism. Delicious, juicy, smoky socialism with a side of potato salad (German, of course) and a game of Cornhole (everyone’s a winner!) – frills made affordable to Americans, American businesses and big government waste-fraud-and-abuse mills by, well, capitalism. I know, I’m a killjoy, and, call me a hypocrite, but I’m grilling out...

The right-to-work law promoted by Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin was struck down Friday by a judge in Dane County. ABC affiliate WBAY reports: The unions, including the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers and International Association of Machinists, argued the law amounts to an unconstitutional seizure of their property because it allows workers who donÂ’t pay union dues to still receive union benefits.State attorneys argued the law is constitutional since it technically doesnÂ’t take any money out of union coffers.Judge William Foust agreed the law amounts to taking the unionsÂ’ property without just compensation, and that it violates the state...

While taking place at the state level, this one could be very big for the Right to Work movement. The state supreme court in Michigan has dealt a double blow to the unions and the state government apparatus which is essentially owned by them. The Justices ruled yesterday that not only is Right to Work the law of the land for private industry, but it applies to public sector workers as well, and they can’t be forced to participate in unions against their wishes. (Detroit Free Press) The Michigan Supreme Court, in an opinion that has the effect of...

There are several egregious exhibits that clamor for more scrutiny of union contract negotiations with governments: vacant jails awaiting unionized staffing; ill-timed, even illegal teacher strikes; funding for salaries of union officers and bogus bonuses, to name a few. Here’s another: illusionary job inequities that elicit extra pay for some state workers and extra taxes for everyone else. In Washington State, collective bargaining between the Governor’s office and public unions is exempt from the state’s Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA). When public unions enter the breach of accountability they conjure secret covenants, secretly arrived at, and this is true in...

When I talked to a top Wisconsin legislative leader a few months ago, he was worried about the protests that might erupt at the state capitol if the legislature took up right-to-work legislation. It was likely an aftershock from 2011, when public-employee unions besieged the statehouse, occupying it for weeks on end. “And 30,000 teachers looks a lot different than 30,000 Teamsters,” he told me. On Tuesday, the legislature took its first steps toward making Wisconsin right-to-work, holding hearings on a bill that would bar labor agreements requiring union fees. The bill was announced late last week, and the legislature...

This week the AFL-CIO threw its considerable weight behind Democrat-turned-independent Greg Orman in his bid for U.S. Senate in Kansas. This came on the heels of a debate that was all about defining who Greg Orman really is: ... The AFL-CIO won't run TV ads for Orman, spokesman Jeff Hauser said, but his campaign will now be incorporated into the union's extensive ground game there. The AFL-CIO had previously endorsed Kansas's Democratic Party's gubernatorial nominee, Paul Davis, who is locked into one of the country's most competitive gubernatorial contests with incumbent Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. During Wednesday's debate, incumbent Sen....

I just returned from another trip to Tennessee where I was able to catch up with a few folks from the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga and see how things were developing. The conversations there had shifted quite a bit from earlier in the year when the vote regarding UAW unionization was raging, and recent reports make it clear that the big auto union isn’t going to be content with licking their wounds from their recent loss. As Ed reported back in April, the UAW had withdrawn their request for a hearing before the National Labor Relations Board, which some...

One for the hypocrisy hall of fame: Media Matters for America is apparently resisting an effort by Service Employees International Union Local 500 to unionize its staff.Last week, the union filed a representation petition with the National Labor Relations Board, indicating that the nonprofit media watchdog organization rejected an effort by the union to organize MMFA’s staff through a Card Check election.A filing with the NLRB does not necessarily mean that the union and management are in direct confrontation. For example, although Volkswagen tacitly backed the United Auto Workers’ recent effort to organize its Chattanooga, Tenn., plant, the company still...

As the labor movement tells the story, two months ago, the silly, ungrateful Volkswagen factory workers in Tennessee foolishly rejected the generous invitation of the company and the United Auto Workers to welcome the Detroit-killing union with open arms. In an election supervised by the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the workers in VW's Chattanooga plant rejected UAW representation by a vote of 712 to 626. Amazingly, the UAW and the automaker both refuse to take the workers' "no" for an answer. The two sides are acting in unison to overturn the democratically expressed will of the workers. Nullifying...

Alabama representative Martha Roby, a Republican from Montgomery, is concerned that the U.S. Department of Labor is targeting Southern vehicle and auto-parts manufacturers because of their failure to unionize. Automotive manufacturers in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi are all now subject to in-depth inspections, part of an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regional emphasis program that went into effect on January 15. This increased scrutiny comes a year after the agency also issued a rule clarification in response to a question from organized labor, newly allowing union staffers to accompany OSHA officials on inspections to non-union sites. “I find the...

77-year-old collapsed across street from DC firehouse (Newser) – Marie Mills' father collapsed Saturday afternoon in a shopping center parking lot across the street from a Washington, DC, firehouse—but firefighters didn't rush to his aid, despite repeated pleas for help, and Medric "Cecil" Mills, 77, died of a heart attack. Marie Mills tells WTTG that bystanders were "screaming and hollering" at a firefighter across the street, and three people even ran over to Engine 26, but they were told rescuers could not respond until 911 was called, the Washington Post reports. Sources say that when 911 was called, an...

SEATTLE/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing's machinists on Friday narrowly approved a crucial labor contract that secured thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity for Washington state but will cost workers their pensions. The vote of 51 percent to 49 percent to accept the deal means Boeing Co will build its new 777X jetliner and wings in the Seattle area, where Boeing has built aircraft for more than 90 years. Had the workers rejected the offer, Boeing would have considered making the successor to its popular 777 widebody jet elsewhere, and had received offers from 22 states interested...