Free Republic

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters declined to endorse a presidential candidate on Wednesday after releasing internal polling that showed a majority of its members supported former President Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris. *** “Unfortunately, neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before Big Business,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said in a statement. “We sought commitments from both Trump and Harris not to interfere in critical union campaigns or core Teamsters industries – and to honor our members’ right to strike – but were...

Tech union workers at the New York Times have threatened to strike on Election Day over a bizarre list of demands that include pet bereavement leave, a four-day work week — and even a ban on scented products in break rooms, according to a report. The Times Tech Guild’s laundry list of demands during its protracted two-year battle for a contract has also included a call for unlimited sick time, job security for non-citizens who are in the United States on work visas in the event of layoffs and mandatory trigger warnings when discussing news events, Semafor reported. The union...

The union representing the nation’s postal workers, who will handle millions of ballots as part of the mass vote-by-mail system, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president on Thursday. Voters are being asked to trust an election system in which a key part of the process of casting votes is controlled by an organization loyal to one candidate. In a press statement, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) announced its endorsement: The nation’s 290,000 active and retired city letter carriers represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) are proud to announce our endorsement of Vice President Kamala...

New York’s City Council is set to vote Thursday to authorize a controversial a task force to study reparations for black residents — a move that could lead to a call for billions in tax payer spending, as it has in other cities. The city legislation would charge a nine-member task force with examining the “impact of slavery and past injustices for African Americans in New York City” and determining what, if any, monetary or nonmonetary reparations are necessary. Minority Leader Joseph Borelli (R) told The Post he would leave the city before he paid reparations. “I’ll move before I’ll...

Postal contractor Midwest Transport Inc. is winding down... An Illinois-based trucking and logistics company, which contracted with the U.S. Postal Service to haul mail has notified over 650 employees, including more than 480 drivers, that the carrier is ceasing operations ... Former truck drivers for Midwest Transport Inc. (MTI), headquartered in Robinson, Illinois, told FreightWaves that they received telephone calls from their regional managers late Thursday notifying them the company was winding down operations. ... According to an email sent to MTI employees and drivers about the closing late Friday, which was obtained by FreightWaves, the company stated that postal...

Weeks after their contract expired, thousands of workers are going on strike in hopes of better pay and benefits. Nearly 17,000 AT&T workers are on strike as their union, the Communication Workers of America, accused the company of "unfair labor practices." The 17,000 workers are in the AT&T Southeast region and serve the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Striking employees include technicians, customer service representatives, and others who install, maintain, and support AT&T’s residential and business wireline telecommunications network, the union said. The Communication Workers of America filed a grievance with...

Douglass Academy High School had 35 students with nearly 900 seats unfilled. None were proficient on the SAT. The Chicago Teachers Union wants to add at least eight staffers there and at every other school in the district at a cost of $1.7 billion. Only 35 students enrolled in Douglass Academy High School for the 2023-2024 school year, but the building can hold over 900 students. Logic would say it should be closed, but the Chicago Teachers Union prohibits closing it and other underused schools. In fact, CTU sees the 23 staffers at Douglass as inadequate. CTU’s new contract demands...

Alaska’s Supreme Court justices on Friday reversed a Superior Court ruling that struck down key components of the state’s correspondence school program. Nearly 23,000 homeschool students may continue to use their allotments of state education money to pay for private school tuition until the Anchorage Superior Court reconsiders the case. The Supreme Court made its decision a day after oral arguments in an appeal of the ruling in State of Alaska, Department of Education and Early Development v. Alexander, in which plaintiffs argued that it is unconstitutional for public education money to be spent on private school tuition. The justices...

Schools in the progressive haven of San Francisco are facing a major budget crunch. Things are so dire that the district may have to actually close some schools. It’s amazing that these schools are having cash flow problems when you consider the taxes people pay to live there. Officials from the school district recently met with some financial experts who gave them some tough love. ... Late last week, two fiscal experts — appointed a few years ago to give guidance to the district — were authorized to suspend or reverse financial decisions made by the superintendent or school board....

More than 30 people are now without jobs after the sudden closure of all three remaining OCF Coffee House locations throughout Philadelphia. Workers said they announced a plan to form a union a week earlier.

The left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is cutting staff numbers in what the nonprofit calls an effort to streamline operations. Sixty jobs are believed to have been axed in the move. Fox News reports several of the reported layoffs hit top officials in the organization’s union, which was reportedly formed in 2019 to fight “inequitable” practices amongst the workforce. “Today, SPLC — my employer — laid off over 60 of our union members, essentially shuttering multiple departments,” Hannah Gais wrote on X. today, SPLC — my employer —laid off over 60 of our union members, essentially shuttering multiple departments....

As it issues endorsements for the November election, the union representing Portland Public Schools teachers is asking candidates for city office whether Portland should do more to respond to “the ongoing genocide in Palestine.” The Portland Association of Teachers sent a questionnaire to City Council candidates prior to a May 30 group endorsement interview. WW has obtained a copy of the questionnaire, which included questions submitted by union members. “Do you believe Portland elected officials have done their due diligence in responding to the ongoing genocide in Palestine?” one of the 15 questions read.

The NewsGuild of New York, which represents journalists at The New York Times, Reuters and Condé Nast, has now hired an outside law firm to investigate tweets from a staff member who called Zionists “butchers” and “depraved monsters” on social media.On a Wednesday call to discuss increased dues with members, representatives were instead inundated with questions about antisemitic posts by union leaders.

California now leads the nation in imposing dumb wage laws. The state just raised the hourly minimum wage for fast food workers to $20. Gov. Gavin Newsom said, “We saw the inequities … we had a responsibility to do more.” Unions pushed for the higher minimum, and in Democrat-run states, unions usually get what they want. CNN announced, “Half a million California fast food workers will now earn $20 per hour!” Gullible leftists at the Center for American Progress claim, “A higher minimum wage would boost millions of families out of poverty and further stimulate the economy.” Yippee! It’s a...

Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans have spent years aggressively turning the state into a haven for school choice. They have been wildly successful, with tens of thousands more children enrolling in private or charter schools or homeschooling. Now as those programs balloon, some of Florida’s largest school districts are facing staggering enrollment declines — and grappling with the possibility of campus closures — as dollars follow the increasing number of parents opting out of traditional public schools.

The United Auto Workers union is challenging the results of last week’s organizing vote of Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama, in which workers voted against union representation, and is asking federal officials to order a new election. ... Union organizing failed at the Alabama plant with 56% of the vote, or 2,642 workers, casting ballots against the UAW, according to the NLRB, which oversaw the election. More than 90% of the 5,075 eligible Mercedes-Benz workers voted in the election.

It is hard to overstate just how much public education in the United States was permanently changed by extended school closures of 2020 and 2021. For an entire year, millions of students across the country were forced to attend classes via Zoom, wear masks that affected their cognitive abilities, and were generally socially isolated. At the same time, decision-makers in school districts from Virginia to California were pushing a political agenda that blatantly sought to shut parents out of the education of their own children. The swift and intense backlash from parents changed the politics of education forever. And documenting...

This is outstanding. Nancy Pelosi waltzes into Oxford Union Debate and gets a populist spanking from Winston Marshall. Nancy interrupts several times.

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is negotiating a new contract with the public schools system and is understood to be calling for an extra $50 billion to pay for wage hikes as well as other demands such as fully paid abortions for its members, new migrant services and facilities and a host of LGBT-related requirements and training in schools. To put the figure into context, the total base tax receipts for the state of Illinois last year were $50.7 billion.

The Chicago Teachers Union's contract is set to expire in June which will soon prompt negotiations between educators and the school board. Union President Stacy Davis Gates said in early March that her proposed contract for 2024 to 2028 'will cost $50 billion and 3 cents.' 'And so what?' Davis Gates added. 'That’s audacity. That’s Chicago.' The teachers union is demanding nine percent cost of living adjustments every year. According to Indeed, the average salary of a teacher in Chicago Public Schools is $67,718. With raises every year for four years, teachers would be getting paid about $95,000 a year...