Free Republic

Thousands of layoffs will continue as planned at Boeing, no matter how union Machinists vote on the latest contract proposal aimed at ending a strike now in its eighth week. Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union, including 17,000 members from the Boeing plant in Everett, will vote Monday on the offer union leadership announced Thursday. A simple majority of yes votes would end the strike, and send Machinists back to work. A no vote would extend the strike that has cost the company billions of dollars and led to Boeing launching a $21 billion stock...

The New York Times website could be shut down on election day as the newspaper’s Tech Guild has threatened to go on strike. The union sent a letter to the Board of Directors on Friday, warning that an agreement must be made by election day to avoid interruptions. TIME IS RUNNING OUT, @nytimes!! We’re at Grand Army Plaza today, Scabby in tow, to warn NYC that their hometown paper is at risk of shutting down — unless we get the contract we deserve! ✊ pic.twitter.com/h6d8Xnsio8 — New York Times Tech Guild (@NYTGuildTech) November 2, 2024 Negotiations between the union and...

The leader of the United Auto Workers (UAW) made a last plea to union members to vote for Kamala Harris on Tuesday night casting the presidential election as a fight between the interests of the working class and billionaires. “I want you to know where your union stands. I want you to listen to how your UAW leadership thinks about this election and I want you to keep an open mind,” said Shawn Fain, president of the 391,00-strong union. “I know that so much of our political system in this country is focused on bullshit, the back and forth, the...

The United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), the major teachers’ union in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), passed a resolution last week backing an arms embargo against Israel proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The resolution, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, calls upon California’s Sens. Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler, both Democrats, to back Sanders’s resolution in the Senate’s “lame duck” session after the November election. The Times reported: Union materials prepared for a board of directors meeting, which were obtained by The Times, state the rationale for taking such a stand: “the arms named have been used...

Teamsters president Sean O’Brien hit back Wednesday at Democratic vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz for suggesting that certain union leaders lacked “courage” by refusing to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. Walz, 60, had told “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart Monday that “some of those union leaders didn’t show the courage they needed to” by sitting out the 2024 election cycle without backing either Harris or former President Donald Trump. “That’s kind of a knucklehead statement — I show courage every day,” O’Brien, 52, told Fox Business Network, using the Minnesota governor’s own excuse when confronted with his past misstatements....

During an interview with Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” on Monday, 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) responded to some unions not endorsing the Harris-Walz ticket by stating that “They have tough politics inside those. These are folks that are directly responsible to their members,” and “Some of those leaders did not show the courage they needed to. The vast majority of union leaders showed the courage, they’re backing us.” Host Jon Stewart asked, “Why have the unions, though, been more reluctant, in this cycle to –.”

Some 200,000 mail carriers have reached a tentative contract deal with the U.S. Postal Service that includes backdated pay raises and a promise to provide workers with air-conditioned trucks. The new agreement, which still needs to be ratified by union members, runs through November 2026. Letter carriers have been working without a new contract since their old one expired in May 2023. Since then they have continued working under the terms of the old contract. Both the union and the Postal Service welcomed the agreement, which was announced Friday. ...

Europe’s electricity has become so expensive that trade unions have started warning of the threat of deindustrialization. Deepening Europe’s crisis, the Biden administration has announced a pause in liquefied natural gas export license approvals. U.S. policymakers should heed warnings from Europe, and embrace a policy of making American electricity once again the most reliable and affordable on Earth. Copied After years of misguided energy policies, Europe’s electricity has become so expensive that trade unions have started warning of the threat of deindustrialization. The warning will hopefully prove a salutary one for the U.S., which is now headed down the same...

A union representing roughly 1.8 million teachers and other educational workers used taxpayer-funded dues to book a trip to a famous casino and to pay for meals at luxury restaurants. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) spent over $370,000 on expenses at Caesars Palace, a luxury hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, disclosure forms show. In addition, the AFT also used dues collected from its members to help pay for trips to Europe and South America, as well as to pay off five-figure tabs at upscale restaurants. “My suspicion is that this is a case of ‘rank hath its...

Chicago’s Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson nominated seven appointees to the city’s board of education early last week after the previous board collectively resigned in early October. The move stunned the city and the rest of the nation. The drama is the latest sad episode of Chicago’s downward spiral, thanks to its Democrat mayor and the teachers union.The direct cause of the previous school board resignation was sparked by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) contract negotiation. With more than 30,000 members, the CTU is one of the nation’s most powerful teachers unions. The CTU’s current demands included “a 9% annual raise,...

This strike isn’t over. It’s just delayed until after the election, so it doesn’t hurt the Democratic party at the polls. We have been told many things about the longshoremen’s strike over the past week. Most of the reporting has been in half-truths, at best – possibly because the press doesn’t know any better (the operations of our seaports are an admittedly obscure area of specialization), or possibly because the press doesn’t want to share information so damning to the side they instinctively favor. Here are just a few of the misleading statements thrown at us in the past week:...

As East and Gulf Coast ports begin to operate as normal again, one of the country’s top entrepreneurs is weighing in on “the trouble” with union workers’ demands. “The trouble with East Coast ports is they’re very old, they’re very inefficient,” O’Leary Ventures Chairman and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary said on “Varney & Co.” Friday. “And when you start to compare them against other international ports like Singapore and the other Asian ports,” he continued, “we’re just not holding much up against them. And that’s very bad for productivity.” US dockworkers returned to work Friday morning after reaching a...

On Friday’s “CNN Newsroom,” White House National Economic Adviser Lael Brainard responded to a question on if International Longshoremen’s Association President Harold Daggett’s large salary came up during negotiations over the port strike where higher wages were demanded by stating that “the president thought it was very important to get the two parties back together, to get the collective bargaining process back on track, to get the ports re-opened. He pushed really hard for that and he got it done.” Host Jim Acosta asked, “Lael, Daggett is facing criticism for giving — for some of these demands of his, companies...

On Friday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” acting Labor Secretary Julie Su responded to International Longshoremen’s Association President Harold Daggett’s threat to “cripple” the economy by stating that “anyone who’s been a part of these things knows that when negotiations are going on, they can get heated, people can say a bunch of things.” And “longshoremen play a very critical role in our economy, and this negotiation helped to highlight that.” Co-host Carl Quintanilla asked, “There was this video of Harold Daggett mentioning that he would — ‘I will cripple you‘ was the phrase he used trying to...

Nearly 50,000 dockworkers launched a strike this week at ports from Maine to Texas — but, in a bizarre quirk that has resulted from massive concessions to the union over the decades, the affected ports only employ 25,000. There’s a massive gulf in the numbers between those who show up for work and total membership in the powerful International Longshoremen’s Association, which won a deal late Thursday for a 62% wage increase over the next six years. That’s because half of the dockworkers at the East and Gulf coast ports are allowed to sit at home collecting “container royalties” negotiated...

On October 1, 2024, Leandra Blades, president of the Placentia-Yorba Linda (Calif.) Board of Education appeared at a candidate forum at Travis Ranch School in Yorba Linda and recounted what she and her colleagues achieved over the past four years. A former police officer who was reluctant to seek elective office, Blades recalled how she was persuaded to run for a seat on the Board of Education by concerned parents who wanted “a voice in their children’s education.” So she threw her hat into the ring and was eventually elected to the Board in 2020. At the time, the schools...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that he has ordered the Florida National Guard and Florida State Guard deploy to ports affected by the Longshoremen strike to maintain order and potentially resume operations. During a press conference in Manatee County, DeSantis discussed three executive actions he’s taken amid the ongoing hurricane recovery efforts in Florida. The first action he announced was the lifting of time restrictions on rentals, so residents who need a place to stay while they repair their homes are not limited. The governor said he also authorized supervisors of elections in the hardest-hit counties to make appropriate...

Growing lines of container ships continued to line up outside major U.S. ports on Thursday as the biggest dockworker strike in nearly 50 years entered its third day. The choke points are threatening shortages of everything from bananas to auto parts and are anticipated to grow in coming days if no resolution is forthcoming. Reuters reports no negotiations were scheduled between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and employers, but the port owners, under pressure from the White House to hike their pay offer to land a deal, signaled they were open to new talks.

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Harris-Walz Surrogate Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) argued that there will be fewer strikes if 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris is elected and that the head of the dockworkers union is “a Trump guy” who might want to cripple the economy for political purposes.

Vice President Kamala Harris sided Wednesday with dockworkers who launched a massive strike this week that threatens to cripple the economy. “This strike is about fairness,” Harris said. “Foreign-owned shipping companies have made record profits and executive compensation has grown. The Longshoremen, who play a vital role transporting essential goods across America, deserve a fair share of these record profits.” Harris also threw in a barb at her opponent, accusing former President Donald Trump of making “empty promises” to workers and promising that she will “have workers’ backs” and fight for an “opportunity economy.” “Donald Trump, on the other hand,...