Free Republic

It has been more than a month since the labor contract between California and the state's prison guards expired and the union now says it is digging in and preparing to go without a contract until at least 2007. Discussions have stalled as negotiators face a deadline--which could be as soon as today--to hammer out a deal and have it ratified by the Legislature before the end of the year. The negotiating teams have not met for more than a week after a late July session when tempers flared and both sides walked away displeased. The state and union have...

"What do you want?" NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi shouted to a pumped-up crowd of 20,000, his image projected onto the huge television screens from the overhanging scoreboard. "A contract!" they screamed back. "When do you want it?" he asked. The crowd roared: "Now!"If you pulled together even a fraction of the NYSUT members supporting the United Federation of Teachers in its long struggle for a new contract, you could, well, fill New York City 's Madison Square Garden .That's just what unionists from around the state did June 2, joining in a massive "Rock the Garden" rally marking the second...

When a deputy sheriff came to his door with a court summons, George Kneifel, a retiree in Union Mills, Ind., was mystified. His former employer was suing him. The employer, beverage-can maker Rexam Inc., had agreed in labor contracts to provide retirees with health-care coverage. But now the company was asking a federal judge to rule that it could reduce or eliminate the benefit. Many companies have already cut back company-paid health-care coverage for retirees from their salaried staffs. But until recently, employers generally were barred from touching unionized retirees' benefits because they are spelled out in labor contracts. Now,...

Conservative Talk Show host Joe Crummey is taking calls concerning the latest news about the grocery store lock-out and strike. Union officials were in Los Angeles yesterday to discuss current negotiations. Joe Crummey believes the grocery store strikers are being misled by their Union. He suggests that workers re-read their contract. Page 12 of their contract says that workers get $4.04 (company paid insurance benefit per hour) for every hour they work. Mentions also that civil disobedience has now been suggested by a sympathetic union supporter.