Free Republic

Governor-elect Scott Walker raised the possibility of essentially abolishing state employee unions on Tuesday as one option to control rising employee benefits costs and eliminate the state's budget deficit. Walker, a Republican, said he's looking at a range of options that would weaken unions, including eliminating their ability to negotiate with the state. "Anything from the decertify all the way through modifications of the current laws in place," Walker said at a luncheon sponsored by the Milwaukee Press Club. "The bottom line is we are going to look at every legal means we have to try to put that balance...

Merry Christmas: The Union Got You FiredBy Michael ReitzFrontPageMagazine.com | December 20, 2005 The Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE), the state’s largest state employee union, is asking agencies to terminate dozens of workers, some just in time for Christmas. Why is a union, charged with representing the interests of employees, demanding that they be fired?Simple: They haven’t paid their union dues. The state’s new collective bargaining agreements, negotiated in 2004, require all covered employees—some 53,000 general government workers—to join the union or pay nonmember “representation fees.” Hundreds of state workers objected to the mandatory dues, as they were not...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In his State of the Union address on Wednesday and during an interview leading up to it, President Bush discussed the kind of judges he will nominate for the Supreme Court, as soon as there is an opening. Before the speech, President Bush conducted an interview with pro-life syndicated columnist Cal Thomas.The noted writer asked the president how he will ensure that Supreme Court justices he appoints will respect the rule of law and not disappoint pro-life advocates."We will do the very best we can to glean from writings and from, obviously, interviews, the way a...