Free Republic

Daryl Turner, the head of the Portland Police Association, said Sunday that city politicians have not acted in the best interest of the city after weeks of violent protests and instead prioritized their own political agenda as the city burned. **SNIP** The situation on the ground in the city has been described as dire. Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf tweeted Friday, federal officers in Portland have been “assaulted with lasers and frozen water bottles” by suspects attempting to damage federal property. On Sunday, the Oregonian reported that hundreds of protesters gathered in the city’s downtown and the crowd doubled. The...

A Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) worker is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the union dues he was forced to pay must be returned, thanks to the 2018 Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union (AFSCME) decision. Benito Casanova was forced to pay dues to the local chapter of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) that represents CTA workers. He is represented by attorneys for the National Right to Work Legal Foundation (NRTWLF). The Court held in Janus that public sector employees who do not wish to join a union cannot...

United Teachers Los Angeles, a 35,000-strong union in the Los Angeles Unified School District, made those demands in a policy paper it released this week. The organization called on local authorities to "keep school campuses closed when the semester begins on Aug. 18." -snip Yet the union goes even farther than those requests, calling for "local support" in the form of defunded police departments and the shuttering of charter schools.  Police violence "is a leading cause of death and trauma for Black people, and is a serious public health and moral issue," the union writes. The document calls on authorities to "shift the astronomical...

Seattle Police Officers Guild President Michael Solan told "Outnumbered Overtime" Friday that the city is now the "closest I've ever seen ... to becoming a lawless state." Solan called for local leaders to help restore order after anti-cop protesters declared a six-block section of the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood to be an "autonomous" area and a "cop-free zone." Solan told host Harris Faulkner that legitimate issues of police brutality and racism had been "stolen by unreasonable activists in the city of Seattle. "And now, they control six square blocks," he added. "They control the precinct. And that is a direct...

The nation's two biggest teachers unions say they would consider strikes or major protests if schools reopen without the proper safety measures in place or against the advice of medical experts — raising the possibility of yet more school disruptions. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, previewing a reopening plan first with POLITICO, said funding is needed for a host of public health measures for schools, including personal protective equipment. Collective bargaining, strong enforcement of safety standards and protections from retaliation will be important for teachers and staff so they feel safe to speak up as schools try new...

A letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo to shut down the city’s subways and buses as a measure against the spread of COVID-19 was not met with agreement by the parties involved on Sunday morning. City Councilman Robert Holden’s office penned the letter that Holden and three other City Council members signed — Eric Ulrich and Peter Koo of Queens, and Mark Gjonaj of the Bronx. The lawmakers said that the striking number of transit workers deaths, as well as the prolific spread of the disease being something unique to New York City, should be considered. They also called on the...

Planned Parenthood of Greater New York has laid off or furloughed more than 240 workers, while temporarily closing 11 of its 28 locations — including the Staten Island and Bronx branches. The nonprofit, facing losses of $32 million amid the coronavirus crisis, says it remains committed to providing health services to those in need and is still booking what it deems essential appointments, including surgical abortions. But multiple staffers told THE CITY that the pandemic has wreaked havoc internally, and they’re concerned about the impact of the sudden recent cuts. The job reductions that hit the statewide staff of 800...

The Postal Service of the United States has apparently violated the federal law by allowing employees to work for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and their work was even funded by the union, a Fox News report states. The OSC determined that the USPS “engaged in systemic violations” of the Hatch Act, a federal law that limits some political activities of the federal employees. While they are allowed to do some political work while on leave, the report said the Postal Service showed a “bias” favouring the union’s 2016 campaign operation. The investigation was initiated several months ago, after Ron Johnson, who...

The union that represents healthcare workers in California announced it had arranged the purchase of 39 million N95 masks for hospitals and government agencies that badly need the protective equipment. Among the intended recipients was Kaiser Permanente, which placed orders for 6 million masks. A week later, none of those masks have materialized, and Kaiser is cooperating with a federal fraud investigation into the deal, a spokesman for the health plan confirmed.

In 2016, the Commonwealth established a Climate Finance Access Hub, based in Mauritius, and providing regional services as well. The hub helps small and vulnerable countries access international sources of climate finance, has already assisted the financing of several projects in smaller countries, and is there to provide capacity development, knowledge management, and technical expertise. The idea of the hub is excellent, but the ambition clearly needs to be much greater to tackle climate change on a much wider basis with increased support. The climate emergency is predicted to have a major effect on many Commonwealth nations, plus likely huge...

Hospital and health care workers are launching union drives and protests across the country to demand higher wages and improved working conditions. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) chapter covering Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Kansas told The Guardian that it is putting together a campaign to organize workers advocating to extend a $15 minimum wage beyond Chicago. The group said there are roughly 50,000 low-wage hospital workers in the Chicago metropolitan area, with about 10,000 of those workers represented by the union. “We’re trying to make sure every hospital worker across the city has a voice when it comes to...

Days ahead of the Nevada caucuses the state’s influential culinary union decided to sit this one out. They’re not endorsing anyone. Why? Well, because right now, they all suck. And if they don’t suck, they’re peddling action items that will screw them over. It’s become nasty between the Culinary Workers Union and the Bernie Sanders campaign after the former distributed leaflets to their members about the dangers concerning Sanders’ Medicare for All proposals that will gut 150+ million private health care plans. And a lot of union members’ health care plans will be shredded by a Sanders administration. For the...

The politically influential Culinary Union in Nevada released a statement on Wednesday claiming that its members have been “viciously attacked” by supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. after the union publicly warned its members against backing a candidate in the state’s Democratic caucus who supports “Medicare-for-All.” The union’s statement comes amid reports of harassment of union members over the phone and on social media by alleged Sanders’ supporters less than a day after the union released a flyer claiming that Sanders wants to “end culinary healthcare.” “It’s disappointing that Senator Sanders’ supporters have viciously attacked the Culinary Union and working...

Did you hear about Seattle’s latest group to unionize? A listener sent me a picture of a flier from an alley off of the Ave in the University District — a flier for a drug users union. AUDIO FILE ON ARTICLE SITE; This group celebrates drug use — in fact, they have formed a subculture that is all about drug use. The flier says, “Urban Survivors Union — Proud To Be a Drug User, Seattle’s Drug User Union.” We are a union that is, first and foremost, for and by drug users. Our first mission is to unite as...

The union that handles every shipping container that crosses West Coast docks is bracing for bankruptcy. It’s a rare prospect for a bargaining group, and it’s rattling organized labor nationally. (snip) But a $94-million federal jury award Nov. 4 to ICTSI Oregon Inc., a cargo terminal operator, has forced union leaders to warn that a filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection may be ahead.(snip) A Chapter 11 filing would force the union to disclose details of its finances and operations, a disagreeable prospect for an intensely private organization.

UNION TOWNSHIP — Theodore Jakubowski has seen this before. The 64-year-old man saw it as a child growing up in Union Township, as Italian, Irish and Polish families came to his community in droves after World War II and learned to live together despite their differences. And now things are changing again in Union, and in few places in New Jersey is that change happening as quickly or as completely as it is here in this town of 56,600.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing for a $600 million plan to raise the starting pay for new teachers... Nearly 1,000 teachers, who boarded 16 buses for a 10-hour bus ride to Tallahassee, had a sendoff that was also attended by Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Rep. Donna Shalala. “We’re fighting for better pay so we can make cost of living," said Mayade Ersoff, a teacher. “We’re fighting for no testing..."

CNN will pay $76 million in back pay to a group of former video contractors whose contract was terminated in 2003, according to a settlement signed Friday. The money, which will go to more than 300 former contractors, is the largest monetary remedy in the history of the NLRB and is more money than the board typically collects in an entire year, according to its news release. The workers were represented by two union locals of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-Communications Workers of America when CNN terminated the contract. The news channel then hired nonunion employees to...

In 2016, Donald Trump handily beat Hillary Clinton in the Buckeye State. As commentator George Will noted, for quite some time, the GOP presidential strategy was to win the south, the Midwest, the West, and then spend the equivalent of the GDP of Brazil to win Ohio. There are stories about George Bush knowing that his second term hinged on him winning Ohio, which he did. Barack Obama changed all of that. Yet, public opinion shifts like the tides. Trump won Florida outright, a state that has many worrying about the competitiveness of the GOP in national elections due to...

At this point, Red and Blue America are not even speaking the same language. We stand near the point of what divorce lawyers term “irreconcilable differences.” In increasingly strident and self-assured tones, the Left believes it is morally superior, intellectually untouchable, and wholly justified in pursuing whatever extralegal, corrupt, or violent methods available to implement their ideology. Talk of a breaking point has been circling conservative circles for some time, with three tangible options arising from the chatter: 1) continued focus on barely winning elections, appointing "conservative" judges that uphold Obamacare, keeping Arizona from going blue, etc.; 2) a “divorce”...