Free Republic

Public-sector unions have been gaming the political system for decades, bankrupting whole cities and plunging states into massive debt. How did this happen and can it be stopped? Akash Chougule, senior policy fellow for Americans for Prosperity, has the answers in this sobering video from Prager University.

The voters of Wisconsin and California spoke loud and clear. They are tired of the special privileges and lavish benefits given to government unions and paid for by taxpayers. Apparently unions in Michigan did not get the message. Last Wednesday, supporters of the so-called "Protect Our Jobs" Constitutional Amendment (POJA) submitted 684,286 petition signatures to the Michigan Department of State -- more than double the amount needed to put the measure on the ballot in November. If passed, the Amendment would enshrine collective bargaining in the Michigan Constitution. POJA would effectively destroy any chance for Michigan to give workers the...

The leader of the largest public sector union promises to mount the most sustained campaign of industrial action the country has seen since the general strike of 1926, vowing not to back down until the government has dropped its controversial pension changes. Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison – which has 1.4 million members employed by the state – described plans for waves of strike action, with public services shut down on a daily basis, rolling from one region to the next and from sector to sector. He said there was growing anger over a public sector pay freeze that...

Sacramento -- At an April 13 meeting of a state Assembly budget subcommittee, two executives with California's prison guards union enjoyed an unusual vantage point as the committee discussed the state's corrections department. Instead of sitting in the audience or at a table where bureaucrats or interest groups typically sit to testify, the members of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association were positioned on the raised dais -- spots normally reserved for lawmakers. Department of Corrections administrators found themselves looking up at the union representatives, who sat alongside the assemblyman running the meeting. In the push and pull among Capitol...