Free Republic

In Mauston, it’s easier for the School District to fire teachers. In Jefferson County, seniority no longer determines who is laid off or promoted. In Waukesha County, road maintenance workers can’t count on overtime pay when they work odd hours. In New Berlin, teachers work longer days and can wear school sweatshirts on only a limited number of days. Across Wisconsin, school districts and local governments are replacing union contracts with policy manuals that give public administrators a clear upper hand for the first time in 50 years under a state law that essentially ends union rights for most public...

Workers angry as Black Friday creeps into ThanksgivingBy Kavita Kumar St. Louis Post-Dispatch Friday, November 18, 2011 ST. LOUIS – Lyndsey Shaw has been on the front lines of Black Friday in years past, helping to open the Best Buy store in Brentwood, Mo., by 5 a.m. But when Best Buy decided to follow other retailers this year in moving up its opening time to midnight on Thanksgiving, Shaw worried she would have to miss her family’s tradition of going out to see Christmas lights after their holiday dinner. “We don’t usually get everything cleaned up and out the door...

Natasha Nimer had a simple question: As a trustee in a local labor union representing City of Phoenix employees, did she have a duty to check the books of a taxpayer-funded insurance account it managed? So she asked the executive board of AFSCME Local 2960. The response was an emphatic “no.” She dropped the matter and thought it would end there. She was wrong. In the months that followed, union officials tried to strip Nimer of her duties as a trustee and steward. They tried twice to force her out of AFSCME, only to have the international headquarters order her...

VACATION: Vacation is earned from the first day of employment, but cannot be used until the employee has six months classified service. Full-time employees earn vacation based on the following table. Less than full-time employees earn vacation on a pro-rated basis. Employee status under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Years of Service Non-Exempt Hours Earned Each Year Exempt* Hours Earned Each Year During first 5 104 120 5+ to 10 144 160 10+ to 15 160 176 15+ to 20 184 200 20+ to 25 200 216 25 and Over 216 216 * Some Exempt employees do not...

As the UAW rank-and-file continues to vote on the contract offer hammered out between management and UAW honchos, the Detroit Free Press reports that at least one local has rejected the offer, even though it includes a $6,000 cash bonus, a $3,700 profit sharing bonus and at least another $1,500 cash for each of the four years on the contract for a total of $15,700 on top of wages and benefits. (Snip) No wonder some auto companies needed a bailout. $56 and $58 an hour? Most CEOs and small business owners make less than that.

While Obama and Buffet are working on finding new ways to fleece middle class America of more of our money to finance the salaries of the new storm troopers, the SEIU, Teamsters and Teacher’s unions and the various ACORN spawned organizations, the two are simultaneously prosecuting an all out war on the private sector. To hear the old kook tell it the idea came to him while he was playing in the bathtub. Those of us who no longer believe in the tooth fairy prefer to to dig a little and find out just exactly how did this seemingly Archimedian...

by John HillStand With ArizonaObama's choice of honored guests to sit in the First Lady's Box (with wife Michelle) during his speech tonight speaks volumes about his comtempt for the rule of law on immigration - and for American workers. Besides GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt - whose company paid no taxes last year thanks to "green jobs" boondoggles, and shipped thousands of jobs to China, Obama has invited 3 major league pimps for illegal alien amnesty. Let's take a look: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio VillaraigosaVillaraigosa is a former member of the racist Mexican separatist group MEChA, which openly advocates for...

WGN Postal service may shut down for winter WGN News 3:03 PM CDT, September 5, 2011 Without emergency funding the postal service may have to shut down for the winter. The U.S Postal Service faces a $9 billion dollar deficit. The New York Times reports the agency doesn't have enough money to pay its bills and a $5.5 billion dollar payment is due this month. Possible cost cutting measures include eliminating Saturday delivery, closing up to 3700 post offices and laying off 120,000 workers. A congressional hearing on the matter is set for Tuesday.

This is yet another example of why it’s tough to calculate the actual job-stimulating benefits of the stimulus plan. The Recovery Act’s success is typically measured by looking at how many jobs have been created. But there’s also job “shifting,” which happens when a business uses stimulus funds to hire someone who was already employed at another company. And according to a new study from George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, that’s been the case with nearly half of the workers hired under the Recovery Act:

Hundreds of striking Verizon workers sporting red shirts and holding candles while chanting of ”No contract, No peace!“ and ”What’s disgusting? Union busting” held a vigil outside the Mendham, New Jersey home of CEO Lowell McAdam. The strikers were bused in by their union in an effort to highlight the differences between executives and blue collar workers.

NEW YORK - Verizon Communications (VZ.N) is sending its 45,000 striking workers notice that their health insurance benefits will expire at the end of the month if they are not back at work. The company said on Tuesday that it has started to send out letters to the strikers in response to questions about how healthcare coverage will be affected by the strike, which started on August 7. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) called a strike after they failed to reach a labor agreement with the company

Last year, when Larry Scanlon, the Director of Political Operations for one of the nation’s largest government unions, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), stated “the more members coming in, the more dues coming in, the more money we have for politics,” it was symbolic of a system corrupted by union bosses who enrich themselves at the expense of America’s taxpayers. While AFSCME and other government unions are settling contracts that require members to pay more for their health insurance and retirement, as well as furlough days,

CHICAGO (Reuters) - With Chicago still facing a lingering deficit in its current budget, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Friday unveiled steps that will lead to up to 625 layoffs. They include privatization of custodial services at city libraries and airports, benefits services and the water billing call center. Also about 126 seasonal workers in Chicago's transportation department would be discharged, resulting in a drop in curb, gutter and sidewalk improvements this year. "Today, I'm taking steps because I cannot wish away this budget shortfall," the mayor told reporters. Earlier this month, Emanuel said he would eliminate $20 million of the...

Mexican soldiers discovered the largest marijuana plantation in the country's history, hidden under black cloth in the middle of the desert. The 300-acre plantation is four times larger than the previous record discovery by authorities and workers had even installed toilet facilities, the Defence Department said. The towering pot plants sheltered under black screen-cloth in a huge square on the floor of the Baja California desert, more than 150 miles south of Tijuana, across the border from San Diego.

Lawson Software Inc. laid off workers on Wednesday, but it's not clear how deep the cuts were or what part of the business was affected. Minnesota Public Radio posted news of the cuts; a spokesman called them an "expected outcome" of its acquisition earlier this summer. St. Paul-based Lawson recently was sold for $2 billion to GGC Software Holdings Inc. Cuts were indeed expected by some. When the sale was announced, an analyst told the Star Tribune that administration jobs at Lawson's St. Paul 800-person headquarters could be cut by 25 percent.

For the second time in the past week, hundreds of laid off state workers rallied in the hot sun on the steps of Minnesota’s closed State Capitol to protest the state government shutdown. Wednesday’s rally again took aim at familiar theme: Taxing the state's wealthiest residents to help solve the state’s $5 billion budget deficit. One man held a sign that took his frustration a step further – he had changed it from “Tax the Rich” to “Eat the Rich.”

Link only - Failure to Raise U.S. Debt Cap Seen Idling 800,000 Workers

Contractor Don Pedro — like farmers across Georgia — is worried that the state's tough new immigration law is scaring away an illegal immigrant workforce. Reporting from Wray, Ga. — It was a Tuesday afternoon at the height of blackberry season, and the Paulk family farm was short 100 pickers. It was Don Pedro's job to find them. The Georgia Department of Agriculture this month released a survey of farmers who said they needed to fill more than 11,000 positions lasting from one day to a year. Critics of U.S. farming practices have long said Americans would take such jobs...

Economy: President Obama says he wants businesses to "step up" and hire more. If he's really sincere about wanting more jobs, he should stop demonizing and punishing American corporations for their success. 'Companies ... (are) making a lot of money," President Obama told a town hall meeting Thursday, "and now's the time for them to start betting on American workers and American products." But the fact they're not "betting" more isn't their fault. It's Obama's — and his Democrat allies in Congress. Their tax-and-spend policies have pushed our nation to the brink of financial ruin, creating uncertainty and an unstable...

Cleveland, OH - The Cleveland Municipal School District, scratching for every penny, could use the nearly $5 million paid to employees who have retired since last summer. Records show that 269 employees cashed in that amount of accumulated vacation and sick leave since the fiscal year started July 1. Topping the list are two administrators who each collected about $83,000, one after working in the system for four years. Nearly 70 percent of the employees picked up at least $10,000 in what the district calls severance; more than 40 percent received $20,000 or more.