Free Republic

Every failing city in America follows the old Detroit playbook. The only thing better than learning from your own mistakes is learning from someone else’s. Unfortunately, today’s urban leaders haven’t been paying attention. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago, New York, and other cities could have avoided their current dire conditions if only they had heeded the lessons of Detroit. In 1950 the Motor City was home to nearly two million people and built half the cars in the world. Today two-thirds of those people are gone and its auto industry is a shell of its former self. After decades...

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien told union members over the weekend that the White House has been asked not to intervene if United Parcel Service (UPS) workers strike, saying the administration should only be concerned with corporate greed. “We’ve been very clear with the White House,” O’Brien said on a UPS Teamsters members update webinar on Sunday when asked about the chances of the White House forcing a contract. “We told the White House — and I used this analogy throughout our negotiations, throughout our rallies and practice pickets that we have taken a strong position with the White House that,...

(WASHINGTON) – The following is the official statement of Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa regarding the ongoing blockade by the Freedom Convoy protest at the United States-Canada border. “The Teamsters Union denounces the ongoing Freedom Convoy protest at the Canadian border that continues to hurt workers and negatively impact our economy. The livelihood of working Americans and Canadians in the automotive, agricultural, and manufacturing sectors is threatened by this blockade. “Our economy is growing under the Biden Administration, and this disruption in international trade threatens to derail the gains we have made. Our members are some of the hardest workers...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — NAACP, state and local officials on Wednesday denounced what they called continued racism at an Amazon warehouse construction site in Connecticut where eight nooses have been found within a month, despite additional security measures added last weekend. The latest noose was found at the site in Windsor on Wednesday morning, the day of a scheduled meeting between workers and NAACP officials about safety and security, said Connecticut NAACP President Scot X. Esdaile. “We have a serious problem in America and it hasn’t gone away,” Esdaile said. “It's deplorable. It’s sickening. It’s a sick mindset that Black...

Amazon is halting construction at a facility in Windsor, Connecticut after workers discovered the seventh case of a “rope which could be interpreted as a noose” at the site. The first six were discovered at the work site during the last week of April. The latest was Wednesday, when officers on a private duty assignment “were made aware of the discovery of a rope which could be interpreted as a noose hanging within overhead beams on the site,” police said. “We continue to be deeply disturbed by the incidents happening at the construction site in Windsor and have ordered its...

A powerful teachers’ union was influencing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and their recommendations for school reopening since right after Joe Biden took office. Based on bombshell emails released through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, it seems clear that this “influence” went far beyond recommendations. They were calling the shots. All the while, we’ve continuously heard that science is guiding these recommendations. Questions being asked about the efficacy of closing down schools and keeping children at home for a disease that is far less deadly to them than the flu have been quashed. Now, it...

Four years ago, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo pushed through a plan to put New York at the forefront of a national movement to reshape American public education: He vowed that half of a teacher’s rating would be determined by student results on standardized exams. But his initiative met with immediate resistance from teachers’ unions and parents, especially those in New York’s wealthy suburbs and progressive urban pockets. They protested on the basis it would place undue stress on teachers and children, whose test scores are used for high-stakes admissions decisions and academic tracking. As a result, with Mr. Cuomo’s assent,...

When I taught U.S. History to my sixth graders and we discussed the founding of our country, I’m fairly certain I mentioned to these 12-year-olds that it was a pretty big deal at the time that we decided we would have no king.We’d have three co-equal branches of government. Legislative to make the laws. Judicial to interpret the laws.  Executive to enforce the laws. It was on the final test. All my elementary students passed it. It’s a test the Senate is failing.Senate leadership under Mitch McConnell would have us re-teach our students that there are actually only two branches of government left.  Senator McConnell has...

State Rep. Anne Stava-Murray says she is receiving warnings from lawmakers and unions that a “no” vote on his leadership bid will lead to retaliation.

In just two weeks, Americans will flock to the polls to cast their votes in the mid-term elections where all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 U.S. Senate seats are up for grabs. The people we elect on Nov. 6 will make policy decisions that will shape the future of our country for years to come.  As a federal employee, it’s your chance to make your voice heard and hold politicians accountable. Besides Social Security, health care, voting rights, and other important issues, your entire livelihood is on the line. It’s not about...

IMPORTANT: This information should not be downloaded using government equipment, read during duty time or sent to others using government equipment, because it suggests action to be taken in support of or against legislation. Do not use your government email address or government phone in contacting your Member of Congress.Each week, AFGE browses the World Wide Web for stories that matter to AFGE members. Here are the five stories you shouldn’t miss this week:Trump Demands 5 Percent Spending Cuts from Every Cabinet Agency President Trump on Wednesday ordered Cabinet secretaries to develop a plan to cut 5 percent of their agencies’ budgets,...

The union looking to organize workers at Boeing's South Carolina plant has put its plans in a holding pattern, claiming workers are so opposed to signing up that they chased labor leaders off their porches at gunpoint. The North Charleston plant, which opened in the right-to-work state four years ago and builds fuselages for 747s and 787s, employs about 7,500 workers. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers had been trying to build support for a vote this week on unionizing 3,175 production and maintenance workers, but called off the vote days before it was to happen.

The federal government has said in a major, closely watched lawsuit that McDonald's Corp. violated workers' union rights at its individual franchise restaurants. What officials haven't said is exactly how the corporation did this since it didn't actually employ the workers, the franchise owners did. To win the case, the government will have to prove that McDonald's is a "joint employer" of the workers with the franchises — a concept that runs counter to very understanding of what a franchise is: a legally separate entity that merely rents out the parent corporation's trademarks. The actual charging documents by National Labor...

In America, you have the right to remain silent, the right to rise—and soon the right to work. At least that is if you live in Wisconsin, or one of the other right-to-work states that allow private sector workers to opt out of union membership. Next week, it is expected that Gov. Scott Walker will sign legislation making Wisconsin the 25th state to pass right-to-work legislation. Interestingly, Walker didn't actively push for this legislation, but his signature will nonetheless guarantee one more feather in the cap of a Republican governor who has helped transform his state in recent years. You...

The Michigan Education Association has dropped an unfair labor practices complaint against Grand Rapids Community College, and also dropped its request for suspension of an election to “decertify” a union local which represents college secretaries. The decertification vote was authorized when one-third of the nearly 100 members of the Grand Rapids Community College Education Support Professionals signed a petition requesting it. The MEA filed its complaint and request a few weeks later. Supporters of the election say time was of the essence because the local bargaining unit’s contract expires June 30 and contract negotiations are set to begin April 1....

Organizers of a post-Thanksgiving protest on behalf of workers at a Walmart in downtown Washington, D.C. identified only one of the participants as actually working at that store. The admission underscores the fact that few Walmart workers have been involved in the protests. "Thirty striking workers from Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland took part in today’s protest, and Melinda Gaino, one of the striking workers, works at the H Street Store," said Julie Anderson, a spokeswoman for the 1.3 million member United Food and Commercial Workers union, which organized the event. Walmart spokesman Kory Lundberg claimed the number was far...

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...

DENVER — It’s harvest time in Colorado, and not just for pumpkins. Concerns are running high over door-to-door campaign workers asking voters for their mail-in ballots in what is known as “ballot harvesting.” Now that all-mail voting is the law of the land in Colorado, the challenge for campaigns is to persuade voters to drop off or mail in their ballots — or hand them to the foot soldiers who turn up on their doorsteps offering to do it for them..... [snip] .....“I guarantee you right now if you went to an apartment complex anywhere in Colorado, you would find...

To those who buy the romanticized image of labor unions - those brave champions of the working man who work day and night to protect the best interests of just plain folks against the robber barons in the boardrooms and the plush corporate offices - it’s hard to conceive of why anyone would not want to join the United Auto Workers. Democrats who hate right-to-work laws in states that have them deride said laws as “right to work for less.” You dumbasses! Why would you not join the union when it’s going to get you more money and protect you...

IMPORTANT: This information should not be downloaded using government equipment, read during duty time, sent to others using government equipment, or sent to anyone while in a government building because it involves election related activity. Today is National Voter Registration Day and while volunteers around the country will be on street corners, outside of groceries stores, at bus and subway stops and elsewhere to help people register, you can get started right now, right here with just one click.If we’re going to beat back the attack on working families by the likes of Mitch McConnell, Scott Walker, the Koch brothers and other...