Free Republic

At CPAC, Scott Walker made a remark that caught the attention of many of the left, and some on the right: OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Thursday that his experience taking on thousands of protesters in his state helped prepare him to take on terrorists across the world. The likely Republican presidential contender sparked pointed criticism from labor union leaders across the country after remarks delivered on the first day of the Conservative Political Action Conference in suburban Washington. The annual conference features more than a dozen potential Republican presidential contenders over three days hoping...

Gerardo Hernandez, a spy for Communist Cuba and the man responsible for the murder of four humanitarian workers (three of whom were American citizens) over international waters, was freed from prison last year by the Obama administration, due in part to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). This was revealed at a February 6, 2015, celebration of Hernandez’s release, along with two of his fellow Cuban agents (collectively known as the “Cuban 5.. At the beginning of the event, an IPS official thanked all who who took part in the 17-year campaign and singled out a number of organizations that...

tates: Illinois entrepreneur turned governor Bruce Rauner ends the practice of forced union dues for government workers who don't want to join a union as he pursues right-to-work zones to promote growth. In Illinois, they're called "fair share" dues collected from workers said to benefit from the collective bargaining of the unions they're in thrall to, whether they want to join or not, moneys collected by force to pay for that representation. "Fair share" is a favorite mantra to liberals, but not to newly elected Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner. He believes that there's nothing fair about extorting money from people...

With all the protests by labor activists over the minimum wage and pay at retailers and restaurants this year, chances are you have become familiar with so-called worker centers. Unlike labor unions, these new models of labor activism don’t have regulations on length of picketing or filing spending reports. . . Research by the Center for Union Facts (managed by my firm, Berman and Co.) shows just how deeply national labor unions like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) are involved in the worker center agitation.Remember those fast-food strikes? The SEIU thought them...

WASHINGTON--In response to reports that H.R. 30 will be taken up by the House of Representatives, SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry issued the following statement: "A bill (H.R. 30) to be voted on by the House tomorrow (Thursday) would put 6.5 million workers at risk for part-timing by increasing the Affordable Care Act's hours threshold used to determine full-time employment from 30 to 40 hours. "This proposal would make it easier for bad-actor employers to manipulate the work hours of working women and men, depriving them of both benefits and wages. This bill would give employers a huge incentive...

Washington, D.C.-- President Obama has announced a proposal to make two years of community college free for responsible students. Below is SEIU President Mark Kay Henry's statement about the president's proposal: "Access to affordable education for America's students is essential to building a vibrant future for our economy, workforce, and communities. Today, too many hard-working students face skyrocketing tuition bills from poor quality for-profit institutions. President Obama's community college proposal is an important step in the right direction toward expanding access to affordable education for more students. [....] "Sixty-one percent of faculty at America's community colleges are part-time and often...

Adjunct faculty at Washington University in St. Louis voted narrowly to unionize this month, in a campaign marked by accusations of union intimidation and administration pressure tactics. . . . SEIU was accused of harassing adjuncts at home and generally riding roughshod over them. Mark Manteuffel, a biology instructor, told St. Louis Public Radio that union representatives showed up at his house when he wasn’t home and were “very pushy and rude” toward his wife. They asked her for his cellphone number without introducing themselves, and came back again when he wasn’t home, Manteuffel said: “And they kind of huffed...

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union is a heavyweight on the labor scene. It pays its president $350,000 a year. It’s holding its next executive board meeting in February at a swanky beachfront resort in Hollywood, Florida. And it just doled out nearly $8 million to influence the last election and lobby Washington. But when it comes to standing by the obligation unions made to provide pensions to retirees, UFCW pleaded poverty in persuading Congress to let chronically underfunded union pension plans cut the benefits of workers, including those already retired.“Declining participation and factors like the Great Recession have...

In The Trial, written a century ago in 1914, Franz Kafka paints a portrait of an unimaginably oppressive government with secret laws and trials in which the individual is crushed. Today, in 2014, Kafka would not have to invent these circumstances. He could find them in real life, at the National Labor Relations Board. It’s up to the 114th Congress to keep the NLRB in check.On Friday, just before the holidays, NLRB General Counsel Richard Griffin announced that he had issued complaints against McDonald’s franchised restaurants and McDonald’s USA, the parent corporation, as joint employers.  Workers complained that they...

A union operative generously praised New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman when he announced he was taking a Papa John’s pizza franchisee to court on behalf of workers who claim they were underpaid. The state attorney general, like the unions, called it “wage theft.” The thing is, the union official knew about the government’s lawsuit before the pizza franchise did. “Fast-food workers all across the city and country are organizing for higher pay and union rights,” said Kendall Fells, organizing director for Fast Food Forward, a group dedicated to increasing wages and benefits for fast-food workers. Fells added: "This suit...

".......An Instagram of that “No Cops No Prisons” banner displays a number of hashtags, including #turnuptheanger, a hashtag associated with TMOC. (The first mention of #turnuptheanger on Twitter, for example, directs to a Facebook page hosted by the Trayvon Martin Organizing Committee NYC.) It’s not the only apparent link between the “dead cops” chant and TMOC. At the beginning of the video and before the call to kill police, you can hear what sounds like, “arms up, shoot back!” That slogan appears on TMOC’s Twitter account....... [SNIP] ......There are not many TMOC members willing to openly admit that they’re part...

Mayor de Blasio held court on Friday with ringleaders of the city protests that have led to cop assaults and other mayhem — lending a sympathetic ear as they ticked off their demands. Hizzoner had tried to keep the location of his meeting with the members of Justice League NYC a secret, but reporters discovered it was at the Midtown offices of a union connected to the one that employs a man charged with busting an NYPD lieutenant’s nose on the Brooklyn Bridge. “They have a list of demands, some which I agree with, some which I don’t,” de Blasio...

I went down to Al Sharpton March at Freedom Plaza today, which featured the Mothers of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner with a crowd of mostly out of towners that numbered between 8,000 to 10,000 at the height of it all. The march and rally pretty much ended with around 3pm with Sharpton making a very brief appearance and mostly White Leftwingers hijacking the march afterwards as the out of towners headed for their buses. The signage held up by these Leftists radical included environmental messages, the overthrow of the capitalist system. One sign proclaimed that, "Capitalism was the disease...

NEWARK – A small crowd of about 50 labor leaders, community members and elected officials in Newark on Friday applauded a big move by U.S. President Barack Obama. On Thursday night, Obama announced he would use his executive authority to prevent the deportation of up to five million undocumented immigrants and allow many to work legally. The move echoed from Washington, D.C. to the steps of Grace Episcopal Church on Broad Street. “I am so, so happy. I want to say thank you to President Obama for this executive order. Me and my husband will benefit from this,” said Celia,...

Fresno resident Stephanie Kamey said Friday that President Barack Obama’s unilateral decision to halt deportations for nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants felt “bittersweet” and still leaves her family “wanting.” .... Kamey said members of her family are spread throughout the U.S., Mexico and Guatemala. Her two young nephews, whose father died, are being recruited by gangs in Guatemala because they “still have no pathway” to immigrate to America to live with her in a safer environment, Kamey said. “See, I’ll never know what it’s like to have my entire family sitting down for Thanksgiving or Christmas together and it’s because...

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Statement of SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry on the joint announcement that the United State and China have agreed to ambitious new goals for steep reductions in carbon emissions over the next two decades: "The U.S.-China pact on bigger, faster reductions in carbon emissions is a victory for working people the world over. This climate pact by the world's two largest carbon emitters will result in not only healthier air, but healthier communities and healthier economies. "We celebrate this victory on the heels of the biggest climate change protest in history, with a huge contingent of...

Video at link: Mary Kay Henry, international president of the Service Employees International Union, spoke at a press conference on Nov. 6, 2014 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., urging President Barack Obama to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens in the United States. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr) (CNSNews.com) – The chief of an international labor union said on Thursday that the Republicans are “bullying” President Barack Obama about taking executive action that would grant amnesty to millions of people who are in the country illegally. “Republican leaders are already playing politics by trying to stop the president from...

A raise negotiated by Fresno County supervisors for its largest union was rejected after voting came to a close Thursday afternoon. The vote was an “overwhelming no,” said Riley Talford, a senior shop steward for SEIU’s supervisory employees. He did not disclose the final results. He said the vote showed that the county has to do “a better job and show respect to the employees who are serving this county.”

In recent arguments against states requiring voters to show a photo ID, the United Auto Workers Local 6000 has compared concerns about voter fraud to belief in the fictional Loch Ness monster and Yeti. The union wrote on its Facebook page that requiring a photo ID for voting is the goal of the “billionaire funded” American Legislative Exchange Council, and is intended to create obstacles for voters who might support a more “progressive” agenda. When its own members, however, want to exercise their freedoms under the new right-to-work law in Michigan to opt out of paying union dues as a...

A community organization group with ties to labor unions and to George Soros is out with a dramatic get-out-the-vote ad featuring an African-American mother forcing her son to wear a bullet-proof vest in order to protect himself from being shot by police and “vigilantes.”Dream Defenders, the group behind the ad, first gained national attention last year when it held a 31 day protest at the Florida state capitol following George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. The group’s executive director is Phillip Agnew who is paid as an organizer by Service Employees International Union, one of the...