Subtopics on this page:
Your union dues go straight to the Democratic Party
Unions act as manpower pools for Democrat campaigns
The NLRB vs Boeing
Other news and commentary about the NLRB
Politicians and unions exchange favors constantly
President Obama is paying back the unions for their support
Your union dues go straight to the Democratic Party
When you write out a check for union dues, you might as well make the check payable to the
Democratic National Committee, because that's where the money is eventually going.
Labor unions appear to be little more than fundraising machines — and pools of temporary
manpower — for the Democratic Party. But the Democratic Party supports a number of
things that the average blue collar worker opposes, such as high taxes, gun control,
abortion, same-sex adoptions,
same-sex marriages, women in combat, radical environmentalism, radical feminism,
race-based hiring quotas, and a permanent multi-billion dollar welfare state.
In fact, the entire Democratic platform is
wildly out of step with mainstream Americans. But you are helping to promote this
platform when you pay union dues.
According to 1992 exit polls, 45% of all union members voted either for
George Bush or Ross Perot, not Bill
Clinton.*: If
you belong to a labor union, remember this: the union cannot tell you how
to vote! It is your decision, not theirs.
In the 2010 election cycle, the IBEW made $2,978,873 in contributions to federal candidates,
and $2,928,973 of that went to
Democrats. [Source]
California
teachers sue NEA over forced $1,000 union dues. Ten California schoolteachers on Tuesday sued the National Education
Association and California Teachers Association to escape mandatory union fees in a case that piggybacks on a 2012 Supreme Court
ruling against forced union dues. The teachers, represented by the Washington-based Center for Individual Rights, claim that
California's so-called "agency shop" law violates their free speech and free assembly rights and forces them to cough up $1,000 to
pay for the union's mostly Democratic political activities.
California
Non-Union Teachers Sue Unions Over Coercive Political Funding. The Center for Individual Rights, a public interest legal
group in Washington, D.C., filed the lawsuit Tuesday [4/30/2013] in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los
Angeles on behalf of 10 teachers from California and the Christian Educators Association. "The union spends millions of
teachers' hard-earned monies supporting causes and candidates that many of us oppose," said Rebecca Friedrichs, one of the plaintiffs,
in a statement. "The union is free to press its agenda, but individual teachers should not be forced to pay for it.
It is shocking to me and many other teachers that union officials have the power by law to spend our wages to press for causes that
many of us oppose on moral, fiscal, or philosophical grounds."
Are unions beginning to collapse? One union worker
I know recently opened his paycheck and was stunned to find a $100 deduction for union dues and a mandatory $30 "political contribution" on top of the
federal and state taxes already deducted. Just as taxes are unavoidable, union dues and their political contributions are inescapable for union
workers because they are a requirement of their working contract. To make matters worse, while polls show union members split between Republicans
and Democrats, more than 93 percent of union contributions go to Democrats.
Snap, crackle...racist. The Battle
Creek, Michigan-based W.K. Kellogg Foundation funneled a staggering $5.2 million in grants to the Applied Research Center (ARC),
which churned out a steady stream of propaganda aimed at convincing Americans it's somehow racist to require photo ID from a voter,
Media Trackers Ohio reports. [...] ARC also took in more than $200,000 in 2011 from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) for
"consulting."
Unions continue
spending spree in California. In Sacramento, the California Teachers Association, the state's behemoth
education union, spent more money on lobbying in 2011 than any other group in the Golden State, according a Los Angeles
Times analysis of data from the California Secretary of State's Office. The CTA, boasting 340,000 members, spent
$6,574,257 last year, a lobbying tab more than $1.5 million greater than the second-place spender (unsurprisingly,
another union), the California State Council of Service Employees, an affiliate of the Service Employees International
Union, one of the largest and most powerful labor outfits in North America.
Unions Say They
Plan To Spend $400 Million To Help Reelect Obama. Unions say they are gearing up to spend more than $400 million
to help re-elect President Barack Obama and lift Democrats this election year in a fight for labor's survival.
Wisconsin
Unions Spend Millions But Fall Short in Recall. Government workers in Wisconsin may be wondering
whether their effort to recall six state senators from office was worth the price. The government unions
directly spent more than $15 million in trying to recall six Republican senators as payback for their
role in reducing collective bargaining powers and the ability of unions to forcibly collect dues. The
reforms supported by the senators also made most state government workers pay more for their health insurance
and pension benefits.
Teachers
Union Takes First Step Toward Endorsing Obama 2012. The National Education Association — which
represents 3.2 million teachers and education professionals across the country — took its first step
Thursday [5/5/2011] toward endorsing Barack Obama for president in 2012, TPM has learned. The NEA is the country's
largest union, and the news makes it the first to signal formal support for Obama's reelection bid.
The Education plantation.
[Scroll down] From 1989-2010, 81 and 90 percent of campaign contributions made by the two largest education
unions in the country, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
respectively, have gone to that party. In return, Democrats fight tooth and nail to prevent any changes
in the status quo...
Unionsdämmerung.
Unions spent in excess of $400 million in the 2008 election cycle, and nearly all of that went to
Democrats, especially Obama. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) alone spent over
$80 million. (In January 2008, Obama told the union that he would "paint the nation purple with
SEIU" as president, referring to the union's signature color.) But if Obama doesn't consider his cozy
relationship with unions corrupting, taxpayers may feel differently. Since Obama took office, his
administration has rewarded unions on three major fronts.
Big
Labor Plans Nationwide Protest for 2012. Considering the fact that its strategy didn't end
well in Wisconsin, the labor movement's plan to stage nationwide protests leading up to the 2012 elections
sounds like a gift for Republicans. Politico reports that instead of focusing on Obama's presidential
campaign — as labor did in 2008 — the SEIU will devote much of its energy toward
building a "grass-roots movement of public protest and organization similar to the massive show of
pro-labor support that overran Madison, Wis. last month".
Union
members should know their leaders are betraying them. Did you know that your very own union bosses
are working against you? Did you know that nearly every union official is out to make him or herself wealthier
and more powerful — at your expense? And did you know that this is easy to prove, if you can just
assemble the puzzle pieces? ... Your money — the product of your labor, of your finite time on Earth
spent working — is being stolen and funneled to the same political party bent on destroying you.
The EPA is destroying jobs. The Department of the Interior is destroying jobs. The Department of
Labor's open borders advocacy is destroying jobs.
Union Members: Where Do Your Dues
Go? Union bosses claim to represent workers' best interests, but their spending reports tell a
different story. As union workers struggle to make their paychecks cover household costs, their union
dues are being funneled to Washington. Most union members aren't aware where their money is going.
Unions take dues directly from their members' paychecks. In 28 states, workers cannot even say no.
But the truth is that their money is being squandered in D.C. on bloated salaries, expensive construction, and
sleazy politicking.
Big
Labor May Still Reap Benefits Despite Election Losses. Ironically, the same Democrats who railed
against the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision — which struck down the parts of the McCain-Feingold
campaign finance legislation that limited how much unions and corporations could spend on political campaigns —
are the ones receiving the greatest benefit. The biggest spenders this election cycle were public sector
unions, giving almost exclusively to Democrats.
Union
boss: 'How dare you want to keep your money'. Apparently, to qualify as a working
American, you have to belong to a union that can pick your pocket and give the cash to liberal politicians
who will then give union bosses like [Richard] Trumka more power. (Card check, anyone?) According
to Trumka, allowing people to keep the money they have earned "throws away precious resources."
Throws away?! In other words -- what you make belongs to us. Has there ever been a more
loathsome expression of totalitarian ideology?
Big unions
treat workers like credit cards. Never take investment advice from a union leader. As usual,
organized labor emptied its pockets for Democrats in the recent midterm elections, spending at least $171.5 million
in an attempt to keep the electoral map blue. Ninety-three percent of that astonishing figure went to elect Democratic
politicians. Half of those union donations came from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees (AFSCME), which represents government workers.
Unions Give More Campaign $$ To Dems Than Corporations
To GOP. [Scroll down] That's right, unions give politicians money to make favorable laws
for unions. Politicians then make favorable laws for unions so that unions will give them even more
campaign cash and unions oblige so that politicians can then give them even more favorable laws and
regulations. It's a vicious circle from which the voters are wholly cut out.
Which
Special Interest Groups are Pouring the Most Money into Elections? [Scroll down] What is
most disturbing about this is that government is now indirectly the largest special interest group influencing
elections. How did this union get to be so powerful? Through gradual expansion of the size of
government. Now that AFSCME has become this powerful, it has enormous influence ensuring that
government remains bloated and continues expanding.
Public Employee Unions Funnel Public Money to
Dems. Who is the largest single political contributor in the 2010 campaign cycle? ... The real
answer is AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The union's president,
Gerald McEntee, reports proudly that AFSCME will be contributing $87,500,000 in this cycle, entirely or
almost entirely to Democrats. "We're spending big," he told The Wall Street Journal.
Campaign's Big Spender.
The 1.6 million-member AFSCME is spending a total of $87.5 million on the elections after tapping
into a $16 million emergency account to help fortify the Democrats' hold on Congress. Last week,
AFSCME dug deeper, taking out a $2 million loan to fund its push. The group is spending money on
television advertisements, phone calls, campaign mailings and other political efforts, helped by a Supreme
Court decision that loosened restrictions on campaign spending. "We're the big dog," said Larry
Scanlon, the head of AFSCME's political operations. "But we don't like to brag."
Obama's
Phony Campaign-Cash Attack. Team Obama's message in the closing weeks of the campaign was completely
eclipsed Friday [10/22/2010] by a union official who openly boasted in a story reported by The Wall Street Journal:
"We don't like to brag," but "we're the big dog" when it comes to campaign funding. Big as in $87.5 million.
Big as in the biggest spender of any outside group — all meant to protect the interests of unions, the new
"privileged class."
Public Unions: The 'Big Dog'.
Public employee unions are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on political campaigns while estimates of
underfunded rank-and-file public employee pension plans reach a staggering $3 trillion dollars. The
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has to date spent $87.5 million this
election cycle, according a Wall Street Journal report, and has spent a total of nearly $360 million since
the 1997-98 election cycle.
Aren't
Unions the REAL Special Interests, Mr. Obama? Reviewing the top donors from 1989 to 2010, we
see that the leading campaign giver — AT&T — spent $46 million, 55 percent of
which went to Republicans and 44 percent to democrats. The second largest donor — the
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, spent $43 million — 98 percent
of which went to Dems. ... Number seven, The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, gave 97 percent
of their funds to Democrats. And so on.
Public-sector
unions try to bail out Democrats. Afraid for their precious taxpayer-funded largesse, public-sector
unions are stepping up their campaign spending order to keep their hand in the public trough.
Dems
cash-poor tale of woe ignores $250 million coming from unions. House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi this week told the Huffington Post that Democrats were being outspent eight to one, in an article
that said liberal groups were set to spend a mere $7 million, in comparison to $200 million from
conservative groups. But unions and liberal groups have said for months that they are spending what
amounts to more than $200 million in this election cycle, and an updated count — including a
verification with major labor groups that their commitments still stand — shows that amount to
be more than $250 million now.
Unions Find Members Slow to Rally Behind
Democrats. A.F.L.-C.I.O. leaders say that they will spend around $50 million on races in
26 states and that unions already have 1,500 full-time campaign workers on the ground. The service
employees have budgeted $44 million for the election, while other unions will spend tens of millions of
dollars more. All told, labor strategists say their ground troops will make more than 10 million phone
calls to members' homes, distribute millions of flyers at workplaces and knock on millions of doors.
Surprise!
Six of top 10 overall PAC spenders are union groups. A new Center for Responsive Politics
analysis of PAC expenditures finds that six of the top 10 such groups are associated with Big Labor.
"Among political action committee contribution this election cycle to federal political candidates, four of
the top 10 entities are labor union PACs: the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; the
Operating Engineers Union; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; and the
International Association of Fire Fighters," said CRP's Dave Levinthal.
AFL-CIO Joins Communists, La Raza, ACLU, Other
Unions in Voter Registration Drive. Looks like the AFL-CIO is no longer even trying to hide the
fact that it no longer sports a traditionally American political outlook. The labor union has announced
that it is joining a voter registration drive called One Nation Working Together. This coalition is filled
with some of the most extremely leftist groups in America today including the ACLU, Enviro extremists, La Raza,
Code Pink, various anti-war groups, and the Communist Party USA.
Unions
will demand aggressive labor agenda even after midterm hit. Organized labor will press Congress
for big infrastructure spending and job creation programs even if voters throw Democrats out of office in
November's election, union leaders say. After the 2010 midterm elections and anticipated heavy losses on
the left, labor leaders say they expect a leaner, more aggressive Democratic Congress to push through measures
to create jobs.
Union
'mobilization' plans to blast GOP, stump for Democrats. Union leaders will unleash a concerted
attack against Republican candidates and their "right-wing agenda" beginning this Labor Day weekend as they
rally to stem expected Democratic losses in November's midterm elections.
True cost of the
union label. While some consider American unions a dinosaur of a bygone era, they are far from
extinct. Now instead of flexing their muscle on the picket lines, they are stuffing campaign coffers
for friendly politicians and teaming up with environmental activists to seek special rules to avoid the rigors
of the competitive market that has produced so much wealth. Time after time, union bosses have held one
hand out while curling the other into a fist, ready to punish politicians who don't toe their line. (Perhaps
that's why President Obama is spending the [Labor Day] holiday with his biggest special interest.)
AFL-CIO
and SEIU unions team up on campaign spending. Democrats are facing all sorts of bad news lately
but will no doubt take solace in learning that the nation's two largest and most-powerful unions are teaming
up to defend their interests in the 2010 elections.
Obama & State Takeover By Union:
Syndicalism. Given immense potential for shutdown and sabotage, and for use as vehicles of
propaganda and agitation, unions remain indispensable tools of Marxist ambition. Unions contributed an
estimated $400 million to Obama's presidential campaign. Despite comprising only 9% of US workers,
labor unions are still key to socialist schemes, and still have potential to badly damage our democracy.
As
Obama kowtows, unions eye the private sector. One of the interesting things about the Obama
administration is the strange dominance of labor unions. Yes, Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders
do owe the unions something: Unions gave $400 million to Democrats in the 2008 campaign cycle, and
they expect to get something in return.
Unions
spend $1 million to defeat candidate for CA county supervisor. Taking on the public
employee unions in California can draw massive resistance, as Shawn Nelson, a Fullerton city councilman
found out when he ran for County Supervisor.
IRS
asked to monitor unions' election giving. A conservative public-interest law firm has asked the
Internal Revenue Service to make sure three large national labor unions comply with tax and disclosure laws in
their planned spending of nearly $100 million to save Democrats in the 2010 congressional elections.
Unions to spend $100M in
2010 campaign to save Dem majorities. At least two influential unions will spend close to
$100 million on the 2010 election, with most of those funds going to protect incumbents. Union
officials told The Hill they plan to help endangered members — particularly freshmen —
who made politically difficult votes in a year during which an anti-incumbent mood has filled the country.
The Editor says...
No, they made politically suicidal votes in a year during which an anti-socialist
mood has filled the country.
Which Side Are They On?
Over 20 years, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees has donated $42 million,
98 percent to Democrats; the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, $31.5 million, 97 percent
to Democrats; the National Education Association, $30 million, 92 percent to Democrats; the Laborers
Union, $29 million, 92 percent; and the Teamsters, $28 million, 92 percent. Most important,
the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), considered the main Obamaite union, has disbursed $28 million to
politicians, with 95 percent to Democrats.
Breaking the Obama
Code: The Green Money Machine. [Scroll down] Obama knew he needed California to win
and green billionaires knew they needed Obama. A new loophole, the Unauthorized Independent Expenditure
(IE), could make it happen. IEs can spend and raise unlimited money as long as there is no coordination
with the candidate. An IE at its most brazen is SEIU's Committee on Political Education (SEIU COPE),
formed in order to raise $26,009,685.53 in support of Obama, and $3,163,276.29 to oppose McCain.
Anti-Tea
Party Web Site Part of Scheme to Funnel Funds. A new Web site targeting the tea parties is a
part of a complex network of money flowing from the mountainous coffers of the country's biggest labor unions
and trickling slowly into political slush funds for Democratic activists.
Your union dues are being spent on
political advertising.
Labor's Power Play.
Having received a tsunami warning, the purple shirts of the SEIU have sprung into action with a major ad buy
trying to pull the Senate candidacy of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley from the jaws of defeat.
The buy size of $685,000, extracted from the union dues of not-always-willing workers, is one of the biggest
of the election.
Biden's holiday
greeting features the Teamsters. For the probably thousands of Delawareans who recently
received Christmas cards from the vice president and his extended family (virtually everyone in the
newsroom did), there's [sic] a couple things that jump out. First is the disclaimer on the back
that tells the receiver of "joy" and "peace" that the card wasn't paid for by a Biden. It was
paid for by the Democratic National Committee.
Unions, Lenin, and the American Way
(Part II). American trade unions spent almost a billion dollars in the recent election to put pro-union
politicians in positions of power in Washington. The Service Employees International Union, in the words of its own
president, has "spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama." According to the Washington Examiner, the United Auto Workers
had taken a break from bringing the auto industry to its knees and gave $1.98 million to Democratic candidates, plus
$4.87 million in independent expenditures to Obama's campaign. The money came from the mandatory dues of the
workers who often wouldn't have donated or voted for these people.
Follow the Money.
Unions spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting candidate Obama's run for the White House. And,
not coincidentally, unions have been the biggest supporters of President Obama's call for a "public option,"
where the taxpayer money would be seized by the government in order to pay for health care coverage. ...[Why?]
Because the "public option" would create more government workers. And the unions need more government workers.
Big
Labor's Investment in Obama Pays Off. "We spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama —
$60.7 million to be exact — and we're proud of it," boasted Andy Stern, president of the
Service Employees International Union, to the Las Vegas Sun this week. The behemoth labor organization's
leadership is getting its money's worth. Whether rank-and-file workers and ordinary taxpayers are profiting
from this ultimate campaign pay-for-play scheme is another matter entirely.
Unions
budget up to $15 million for August campaign. Labor unions and liberal advocacy groups will spend between
$10 million and $20 million this month to twist lawmakers' arms over the stalled healthcare reform effort in
Congress. Much of the grassroots activity and television ads will be aimed at persuading centrist Democrats and
Republicans to support the creation of a robust government-run health insurance program.
Labor's
Greed: The Dow plunged below the 7,000 mark yesterday for the first time in
12 years — but don't expect that news to register in the fantasyland inhabited
by the Working Families Party. ... Big labor kicked more than $1 million into WFP coffers
last year, according to state campaign-finance disclosures — more than half the
party's total intake. Of that sum, fully $200,000 came from teachers unions around the state,
while the powerful health-care workers Local 1199 — a union threatened by equally
fictitious Medicaid "cuts" — chipped in more than $330,000. So let's say it like
it is: The WFP is the tail on Big Labor's dog.
Unions see better days ahead under Obama's leadership.
Happier days are here for the labor movement in the United States. The AFL-CIO spent $53 million and its trade
union affiliates $250 million to help Barack Obama win the White House, relying mostly on "field mobilization" campaigns
to turn out a favorable vote. The excitement level already has risen at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington.
"The most pro-working-family president in years," noted one staffer.
Union helps
non-profit groups pay for attack ads. The nation's largest public employee union has funneled
more than $5 million to a series of non-profits running ads attacking Republican congressional candidates,
federal election records show. Since July, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME) has donated almost $5.5 million to three groups: Campaign Money Watch, Patriot Majority
and Patriot Majority Midwest.
Big Labor's Billion
Dollar Bet on Obama. Big Labor is launching its largest political campaign in its history, and
this year, more than ever, Big Labor means Big Money. The union conglomerate is already sending teams
of canvassers to knock on doors in swing states. Unions are distributing 1.5 million flyers and
sending 500,000 targeted attack mailers to voters as well. The two largest union coalitions — the
AFL-CIO and the "Change to Win" Federation, a coalition of the American labor unions formed in 2005 as an
alternative to the AFL-CIO — have publicly admitted they will spend at least $300 million
combined on federal elections alone.
AFL-CIO getting ready to endorse
Obama. The AFL-CIO is preparing to give its stamp of approval to Democratic presidential nominee
Barack Obama. The leaders of the nation's largest labor organization started voting Tuesday [6/24/2008]
on whether to endorse the Illinois senator. The election, which is being done by fax, is scheduled to
end on Thursday. Obama's name is the only one on the ballot sent to the AFL-CIO's 56 unions.
Just one name on the ballot.
Sounds like Zimbabwe.
Barack Obama's AFL-CIO
nod gives him one more potent weapon. With just a few days left before June ends, there's a
clear frontrunner for the month's least surprising political development — the endorsement Barack
Obama received today from the AFL-CIO. The massive conglomeration of 56 national and international
unions — comprising about 10.5 million workers — steered clear of making a pick
during the primary season because there was no consensus choice among the group's various affiliates.
The Editor says...
If you are a member of a labor union, and a portion of your union dues — your money — goes
to support Barack Obama, I urge you to take a look at his voting record in the Senate, as well as the Illinois
legislature. There is no US Senator who is more radically liberal than Obama. Read about him
on this page.
The Union Party:
At the AFL-CIO forum in Chicago this summer, Barack Obama declared that "special interests have been shaping
our trade policy. That's something that I'll end." … But Obama and his rivals have had nothing
to say about the special interest that sat right in front of them at the forum — the one that really is
shaping our trade policy. That would be the labor unions. According to the National Institute for
Labor Relations Research, unions contributed $925 million to political campaigns and causes during the
last presidential-election cycle. Nearly all of that money went to Democrats.
Your union dues at work:
Donors pick
up convention tab. Labor unions and wealthy donors are helping to close funding gaps for both
national political conventions, sometimes contributing more than what they could legally donate to Barack
Obama or John McCain. The American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees (AFSCME) each recently gave at least $500,000 for the Democratic convention in Denver.
Docking Paychecks for
Politics. The mighty Service Employees International Union (SEIU) plans to spend
some $150 million in this year's election, most of it to get Barack Obama and other Democrats elected.
Where'd they get that much money? That's a question the Departments of Labor and Justice are being asked to
investigate by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Specifically, the labor watchdog
group wants Justice to query a new SEIU policy that appears to coerce local workers into funding the parent
union's national political priorities.
AFL-CIO Falsely Attacks McCain. It runs an ad
claiming McCain voted "against increasing health care benefits for veterans," when he actually voted
repeatedly to increase them.
Workers Get To Say No To Labor Bosses.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday [6/14/2007] that unions may not spend nonunion workers' fees for political
purposes without the workers' permission. Now the question is, will the unions obey the ruling?
Unions Allowed Back Into Utah's Payroll
System. Big Labor struck back against Utah's Voluntary Contributions Act by convincing the
state's 10th Circuit Court unions have the right to collect political contributions of members through
the state and local payroll systems.
FEC
Fines Group Allied With Democrats. A union-financed advocacy group that played
a major role in the 2004 elections has agreed to pay a $580,000 fine after the Federal
Election Commission concluded it illegally ran advertising against President Bush and
in favor of Democrat John Kerry.
Conscientious Objections
to Union Fee Increase. Federal law is clear that no employee can be forced to support political
or ideological causes with which he or she disagrees. Unionized employees have the right to become
religious or political objectors, either diverting their full dues to charity, or receiving a refund for
the portion of their dues which would otherwise be spent for political causes. In this way, employees
can ensure that their funds are not used for purposes which contradict their beliefs.
[In one recent year, the IBEW spent $4,637,733 per year on political activities and
lobbying.*]
Clinton Picks Up
Union Endorsement. The United Transportation Union on Tuesday [8/28/2007] endorsed
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president, the first national
union endorsement of the 2008 campaign. … The UTU also is one of the top political donors in
organized labor, contributing $1.3 million in the 2004 federal elections, with
84 percent of the money going to Democratic candidates.
Union
members can opt out of dues based on religious beliefs. An employee whose religious beliefs
conflict with the political positions of their labor union cannot be forced to pay dues, a federal judge
ruled. U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost's ruling broadens the category of employees who may opt out of
unions because of religious beliefs beyond Seventh-day Adventists and Mennonites.
AFL-CIO to
spend $200 million on 2008. The AFL-CIO and its unions said Friday [9/21/2007] they will spend
an estimated $200 million on the 2008 elections, with the nation's largest labor federation devoting
$53 million exclusively to grass-roots mobilization. In addition, the AFL-CIO said it would deploy
more than 200,000 volunteers leading up to the election, with special focus on battleground states such as
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Here is an excerpt from the article above...
"Today the AFL-CIO is sending a powerful message that we are going to change the
course of our country in 2008 by electing a president and candidates at all levels who are committed to
restoring the promise of America to working people," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said.
The Editor says...
This is the emptiest rhetoric I've heard in a long time. Who made (and then retracted) the
"promise of America?" And what guarantees do you have when someone has promised you "America"?
I'm sure the enthusiastic crowd cheered, even though Mr. Sweeney's statement makes no sense.
AFL-CIO
to spend $40 million in political fight. The AFL-CIO, a federation of 52 U.S. labor
unions, plans to spend a record $40 million in an attempt to unseat Republicans in this
year's congressional elections.
AFL-CIO Begins $40M Voter Drive. The AFL-CIO
launched a $40 million voter-drive yesterday [8/30/2006], targeting 21 states and hoping increased turnout
among union members swings competitive races in Ohio and Pennsylvania. … The vast majority of the
candidates who would benefit are Democrats in union-heavy states, especially the Midwest.
Democrats love unions, and unions love
Democrats. Whenever Democrats meet with organized labor leaders, it is a love fest. Indeed,
the love fest has been a central feature of this year's congressional session. Few things have been
more important to Democrats that pleasing organized labor.
Election 2008 — Notes on
Funding and Support. It is a well-known fact that unions invariably support the Democrat Party
with cash, workers and votes but, it seems the Democrat Party has forgotten to support the unions! The
Democrat National Convention on August 25-28, 2008 is scheduled to be held in Denver Colorado. Colorado
is known as NOT being overly supportive of organized labor. In the 2006 Mid-Term Elections, unions were
very useful in putting the Democratic candidates over the top in close contests and enabling Democrats to
take control of Congress.
Labor's man in
'08. While Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama soak up news media attention, John Edwards
has pushed for organized labor's support. No decisions have yet been made, but the former senator from
North Carolina and 2004 vice presidential nominee is the front-runner for winning over the big, dynamic unions
who left the AFL-CIO 18 months ago.
Nurse Sues Union for
Failure to Accommodate Religious Beliefs. Sacramento nurse Jennifer Le … is a Roman
Catholic who objected to membership because of the union's positions on moral issues such as abortion,
comprehensive sex education and domestic partnerships. The union informed Le that she could divert
her dues to charity. However, the union insisted that Le give her dues to one of five charities
such as Planned Parenthood and the AIDS Foundation.
Court hears
arguments in Washington state cases. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that labor unions may collect
fees from nonunion workers to cover the costs of collective bargaining performed on their behalf. But
the court has further held that's all they can take — the unions are forbidden from collecting and
using additional fees from nonunion workers to finance union political activities, unless those
workers grant their permission.
Unions using coerced revenues
for politics. The cases began in Washington State where teachers have been embroiled in a
conflict with the NEA-affiliated teachers' union over whether the union has a right to use nonmembers'
dues however it chooses. Passed by nearly 73 percent of voters in an initiative, Washington's
paycheck protection law has been on the books for over a decade. It requires that union receive the
"affirmative authorization" of workers prior to spending their mandatory dues or agency fees on politics.
The union flagrantly violated the law, even admitting to multiple violations during a state investigation.
Safeway Employee Hits Union with Federal Civil Rights
Lawsuit. Seattle-area UFCW union officials maintain discriminatory scheme, refuse to honor
worker's right to religious freedom under federal law.
Where will the labor defections
take us? The dissidents want to see less money spent on politics and more on organizing and
recruiting. On an individual level, a lot of union members are conservatives, many Christian
conservatives, and they are sick of paying dues to an organization that has been a rubber stamp of the left
and the Democratic Party.
Should union dues back
political causes? Fred Glass is fighting Proposition 75, an initiative that
goes before California voters on Nov. 8. It would bar public employee unions
from making financial contributions to political candidates or causes without its members'
annual consent to do so.
State Worker Ousted for Not Joining
Union. Pat Woodward, 64, of Olympia, Washington, was recently fired from her job as a
financial analyst for the Washington state Department of Licensing. The reason? She refused
to give a percentage of her paycheck to a union. "I decided not to join the union because it
would violate my religious and ethical beliefs," Woodward said.
AFL-CIO
Promotes Homosexual "Marriage". The political activism of labor unions is growing, and
drifting far from labor issues. Recently it was learned that the AFL-CIO has endorsed and is
using member dues to promote homosexual "marriage."
Metro Transit driver allowed to avoid
buses with gay-themed ads. A Metro Transit bus driver who objects on religious grounds is being
allowed to abstain from driving buses that carry gay-themed ads. Officials with the public transit system
said they've made a reasonable accommodation to her beliefs. But a union leader said the bus company is
condoning intolerance, and that drivers were never before exempted from buses carrying other ads they found
objectionable.
Grocery Union Hit with Federal Charges for
violating Safeway workers' right not to subsidize union politics. Union officials refused to provide
legally mandated breakdown of union expenditures. Under the Supreme Court decision Communication
Workers v. Beck and subsequent NLRB rulings, union officials must inform employees of their right to
refrain from formal union membership and the right not to be forced to pay for costs unrelated to collective
bargaining, such as union political activity.
Union Leader: Labor Can't
Just Back Democrats. Organized labor should help politicians who will advance labor's cause
rather than simply supporting Democrats, says a union leader pushing for changes in the AFL-CIO.
Not
Your Father's Labor Union. Most union members think their dues —
which amount to an average $600 per year, allowing unions to take in some $17 billion
each year — go to providing better representation at the bargaining table. But
most unions today now spend substantially more of their members' money on politics and
other non-contract-related activities than they do on bread and butter issues. Worse,
most members have no say how their money is being spent and many have no idea that their dues
are being diverted to far-Left causes that they would never support — everything
from abortion rights to opposition to the war in Iraq.
Firefighters Versus the Media. One of
the biggest stories of the presidential campaign is being ignored by the major media. It's how the president of
the firefighters union engineered an endorsement of John Kerry for president without asking his members about it. It
turns out most of the members of the union are Republicans who support Bush.
Machinists union employees are entitled to a 25% dues refund.
For 2004, the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers admits that 26.30% of International union dues,
7.98% of district lodge dues and 29.41% of local lodge dues are spent on political, ideological and other non-representational
activities for which no employee can be required to pay.
Free Pass. Amid the
uproar over the ads run by the "Section 527" political committee known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the
Establishment media have remained eerily silent about the massive union-funded 527s that
are spending exponentially more resources.
She's serious.
Should Democratic
Party merge with Communist Party? If you belong to the Democratic Party, I urge
you to take the time to study the platform of your party and compare them to the goals of the
communists. They are one and the same, although this will bring shrieks from the
likes of Marxist Hillary Clinton, it is the raw truth.
Union Sheep: After
eight years of Clinton in office the US steel industry was failing. Many countries such as
Russia and China were dumping steel here at below market prices to drive American companies out of
business. All under the Clinton watch I may add. But what do union sheep do best, they vote
Democrat out of habit and the onslaught continues.
Democrats'
labor problem: An aide refers to [Boston Mayor] Menino as "the last of the lunch
pail Democrats," but that has not stopped him from crossing many union picket lines over the
years in order to go about his business. He realizes that only a small portion of
today's working men and women belong to labor unions, and not all those members take orders
from their union leaders by any means. Nevertheless, to most Democrats, the link between
the party and organized labor is sacred and indissoluble.
Looking for the Union Label:
Labor unions are taking money from members and spending it on political candidates that many, if not most, of
their members oppose.
Workers don't get to know how their dues
are spent. Judge keeps union bosses' spending of forced dues on politics undercover in election year.
Union Political Involvement: Most union
members were only vaguely aware of the lengths to which their unions went to back the Democratic ticket.
And union officials carried out their activities in ways that kept members in the dark.
Big Labor's Massive Political Machine:
Ever wonder how much union dues cash Big Labor dumps into political campaigns?
Given labor's traditional ties with the Democratic Party, it is not
surprising that labor PAC donations are largely directed to Democrats. In
1994, for example, 96% of labor PAC contributions went to Democrats.
*
California Union and Legislators Receive Fleece
Award. The Pacific Research Institute announced in August [2004] that it has given its California
Golden Fleece Award to the California legislature for its treatment of the California Union of Safety Employees
(CAUSE). The union contributed more than $350,000 to state legislators and to then-governor Gray Davis,
who responded by personally negotiating with the president of CAUSE a pension increase 25 percent higher
than was given to other state workers. CAUSE lawyer Sam McCall helped write the enabling legislation,
SB 183. McCall openly admitted the deal was a quid pro quo. CAUSE gave Davis
$100,000 three days before the bill was amended, $5,000 the day it passed, and $250,000 two weeks after
he signed it.
Political Spending by Organized
Labor: Labor unions have traditionally played a strong role in American elections, assisting
favored candidates through their direct and indirect financial support, as well as through manpower and
organizational services. While direct financing of federal candidates by unions is prohibited under
federal law, unions can and do establish political action committees (PACs) to raise voluntary contributions
for donation to federal candidates.
Unions
Lurch to the Left in Massachusetts and Embrace "Gay" Marriage. Pro-family
coalition says unions' stance is "outside the mainstream."
Unions act as manpower pools for Democrat campaigns
When Democrats run for office, they like to be seen on television. When TV cameras are
around, the candidates like to be seen addressing large, enthusiastic crowds. When the
crowds are a little thin, a few phone calls are made, and before you know it, buses full of
warm bodies arrive, often wearing professionally silk-screened T-shirts for the occasion and
carrying identical signs. That's how you can tell it's astroturf: The crowds are
just a little too uniform.
Involuntary Astroturf:
Former SEIU organizer: I was 'required' to do
'political work'. In a case that could have wide-ranging implications for the political future of the Service Employees International Union, a
former SEIU organizer told a right-to-work group and a best-selling author recently that the union forced him and other workers to volunteer their time for
Democratic political campaigns. On a video segment provided exclusively to The Daily Caller, the organizer says he and other SEIU staff "had to do some
political work. We were required as staff to do that."
Plumber says union is forcing him to attend a pro-Obama rally. An
anonymous member of the Chicago Plumbers Union is claiming the union is forcing its members to back President Barack Obama. The plumber
told Bruce Wolf and Dan Proft on "The Don and Roma Show" on WLS that Plumbers Local 130 is requiring it's [sic] members to attend a massive
rally tonight [10/9/2012] at the plumbers hall at 1340 W. Washington, where Governor Pat Quinn, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and Illinois House
Speaker Michael Madigan, will urge plumbers to support the President.
Unions give Obama crucial backing in
Ohio. Ohio's labor unions are mobilizing a massive campaign to help President Obama win the battleground state in November,
providing volunteers to send thousands of mailers, work the phones and knock on doors.
Unions
preparing to send 300,000 volunteers out to support Obama's re-election. Labor unions plan to send out more than
300,000 volunteers later this month to canvass voters to support President Barack Obama's re-election.
Top 10 most dangerous liberals. [#8] Big
Labor: With pro-union Hilda Solis heading the Labor Department and the National Labor Relations Board stacked in its favor, President Obama has
returned the favor for the support Big Labor supplied for his election. He will need the unions even more in order to return for a second term.
With the rest of his base lagging in enthusiasm, it will take the dedication of paid-union goons to get out the vote.
About 200 union protesters attack Mitt Romney, call for
increasing federal minimum wage. About 200 union protesters descended on the parking lot of the Dunkin' Donuts on High
Street in Carlisle [Pennsylvania] just before 12:30 p.m. today [7/20/2012] to call for increasing the federal minimum wage and to attack GOP
presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The members of Service Employees International Union picked Dunkin' Donuts because the chain
is partially owned by Bain Capital, the private equity firm that Romney used to head. Some of the protesters wearing Romney masks
engaged in a pseudo counter-protest, based on what the union said is Romney's opposition to increasing the federal minimum wage.
Did Union Democrats Stage a Fake Fight at Ohio
Romney Rally? [Scroll down] First off, Al Neal claimed he was from Canton, but a search of voter records shows that
there is no one by that name in Canton or anywhere else in Stark County. In fact, he is a union organizer from Arizona. [...] And
finally, what about [Richard] Brysacz himself? He told the reporter that he was from Parma. He is registered to vote where he
claims he is, and he appears to be as very active voter indeed. As a Democrat.
SEIU boots join Democratic super PAC bucks.
One of the nation's largest unions has teamed with a Democratic super PAC to run $20 million in advertising aimed at keeping House seats out of
Republican hands, according to plans announced Monday [7/2/2012].
Caught
on camera: SEIU activists discuss $20 payment for Obamacare protest. Video footage obtained by The Daily Caller appears
to show a group of women dressed in purple Service Employees International Union-branded clothing, discussing how much they were paid
to attend a March 27 protest outside the Supreme Court. The video first appeared online Wednesday [3/28/2012].
Union
Thugs Threaten Citizen Election Watchdogs. The Communist (I do not use that term recklessly) publication
People's World has an article full of threats and libel from union thugs and Soros-funded voter fraud deniers directed
at law abiding Americans: "Labor raising an 'army of 400,000' for the 2012 elections." Groups like True the Vote
and Judicial Watch are working to cleanse the voter rolls of ineligible and dead voters, using federal laws Eric Holder's
Justice Department won't enforce.
Labor unions
push for Santorum win: Ultimate aim is to aid Obama. Rick Santorum has not run as a friend of
labor unions, going so far as to reverse himself and embrace a national right-to-work law, yet the social
conservative got a major boost Monday [2/27/2012] in Ohio from the big-money intervention of an unlikely
source: one of the country's premier unions.
Big Labor's Democratic Convention. Local
businessmen in the least-unionized state in the country are worried that organizers of the Democratic National Convention in
Charlotte, N.C., are putting the Democratic Party's alliance with organized labor ahead of local businesses — as
well as state law. As the Charlotte Observer has previously reported, the Democratic National Convention
Committee's (DNCC) master contract with the city of Charlotte mandates that union labor be maximized with respect to
convention-related work.
Public Sector Unions & Political Spending.
When assessing public sector union influence on politics, there are in-kind contributions that, while reportable, cannot
be objectively quantified. What would it cost a private sector interest to send busloads of activists to events to
demonstrate for the TV cameras, or use other assets such as existing office resources, in order to wage a political campaign?
Whenever a public entity does this, they are required to register this as an "in-kind" donation, and assign a monetary value to
this. But these in-kind values can be understated in the mandatory disclosures, and more significantly, these are
contributions that are in addition to the hard costs that are funded through collection of union dues.
Is
the Democrats' Attempt To Recall Scott Walker A Mistake? The national labor unions have accumulated
more than 500,000 signatures on their petition to recall Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, so they are getting
close. There is no process, apparently, for validating the signatures, so it is impossible to say how many
are fraudulent.
Unions back Occupy D.C.
by providing showers, amenities. Some of the country's most powerful unions are providing the
infrastructure and amenities to keep the Occupy D.C. encampment fortified going into the winter. The
camp's portable toilets are being provided by the Service Employees International Union, the 2.1-million-member
organization that helped Barack Obama win the presidency and recently backed his re-election bid. The
estimated 100 demonstrators staying each night in McPherson Square, just blocks from the White House,
can take a hot shower at the AFL-CIO headquarters on 16th Street Northwest.
Federal
union workers join Occupy protesters. "I definitely support Occupy D.C.," said Eugene Hudson Jr.,
a national vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees from Escondido, Calif. "I
believe there is a lot of greed and lots of money going to the 1 percent." The union members made a
direct connection between the loosely defined goals of the Occupy movement and federal employees.
Occupy
Wall Street, unions get their activism together. The Occupy Wall Street protests that began as a
nebulous mix of social and economic grievances are becoming more politically organized — with help
from some of the country's largest labor unions. Labor groups are mobilizing to provide office space,
meeting rooms, photocopying services, legal help, food and other necessities to the protesters. The
support is lending some institutional heft to a movement that has prided itself on its freewheeling,
non-institutional character.
Alinsky Rules Return For
Obama. The hippie horde attempting to mob and "occupy" Wall Street this week has a method to its
madness. It's all about getting President Obama re-elected by employing classic Alinskyite tactics. ... To
some, it may be a stretch to see the hand of the Obama political machine in what is claimed to be a grass-roots
effort. But the facts on the ground point to it. For one thing, the organizers of these protests
are the same ones who got Obama elected in 2008.
Organized
labor expected to join Wall Street protest. Organized labor will serve notice today on the
bankers and the politicians that the young protesters of Occupy Wall Street speak for millions. Tens of
thousands of transit and city workers, teachers, and maintenance and hospital workers are expected to march to
Zuccotti Park late today [10/5/2011] in a show of solidarity.
Labor crowd surrounds
Sarah Palin's Tea Party rally. Speaking at the tax day rally outside the Wisconsin Capitol,
Palin called the crowd in Madison courageous for having stood up to "death threats and thug tactics" of
those who opposed Gov. Scott Walker's collective bargaining bill.
Sarah
Palin praises Wisconsin governor for taking down 'rent-a-mobs'. Tea Party darling Sarah Palin
fought over jeers, protestors and snow as she encouraged GOP leaders to take a page out of Wisconsin governor
Scott Walker's playbook and ignore "violent rent-a-mobs". The former Alaska governor spoke at a Tea
Party Tax Dally rally in Madison, Wisconsin which earlier this year had been the site of virulent protests
over Walker's dismantling of the union's collective bargaining agreement.
In Wisconsin, it's
the unions vs. the people. The ferment in Wisconsin is no workers' uprising against the rich and
powerful. It is instead political muscle-flexing by a well-funded special interest group, which is
limbering up for President Obama's re-election bid. Obama's campaign, operating as Organizing for
America, is bussing protesters to the state capitol and manning phone banks to apply pressure to state
legislatures.
Obama joins
Wisconsin's budget battle, opposing Republican anti-union bill. The president's political machine
worked in close coordination Thursday with state and national union officials to get thousands of protesters
to gather in Madison and to plan similar demonstrations in other state capitals.
Big labor mobilizing Tea Party
alternative. "Wanted: unemployed voters." That's the message from one of the nation's
biggest labor unions, the AFL-CIO. Between now and Election Day, the union's community outreach
organization known as Working America will be recruiting jobless Americans for a new political movement.
The idea? To match the energy of the conservative Tea Party movement. The goal? To keep
Democrats in power in Washington.
If you belong to a union, you live under tyranny:
Man
Fired for Wearing Bush Sweatshirt at Obama Rally. Don't try wearing a Bush hat or sweatshirt at
an Obama rally. Duane Hammond says it's what got him fired. Hammond is a union stagehand who was
part of the crew that built the platform for the Obama event on campus. ... James Wright, a business representative
from IATSE Local 33, says the union is still investigating what happened. "If he was sent home
because of the sweatshirt, he will be paid for the day," he said.
Union
Fires Stage Hand for Wearing Bush Hat and Shirt. A stage worker setting up the stage was fired
for refusing to remove his hat and turn his sweatshirt inside out and the reason? The shirt hat and
shirt both had the name "Bush" printed on them but not just any Bush but, that of George H.W. Bush.
The IATSE (Local 33) union fired the worker even after he explained the shirt to his bosses.
At
'One Nation' rally, a unionized show of unity. Organizers of Saturday's "One Nation Working
Together" rally at the Lincoln Memorial are proud of their diversity. Before the event, they predicted
it would be the "most diverse march in history." It turned out they were right. Looking around the
rally, there were Teamsters Local 311, Service Employees International Union Local 1199, Communications
Workers of America Local 2336, American Federation of Teachers Local 1, United Auto Workers Amalgamated
Local 171, Transport Workers Union Local 100, and representatives of many, many other unions.
That's a lot of diversity.
Why
Big Labor couldn't match Glenn Beck's rally. The nation's biggest, richest and most powerful labor
unions spent months organizing the "One Nation Working Together" rally at the Lincoln Memorial Saturday.
With midterm elections approaching, they hoped to put on a show of political strength to energize struggling
Democratic candidates. But even after giving it everything they had, they still weren't able to draw as
many people as Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally in August. Why not? Because the labor movement
is shrinking, aging and divided.
More
about the One Nation rally.
The
Democrat-SEIU-Media Corruption That Will Make Milwaukee Famous. The SEIU — that's the
Service Employees International Union — is once again at the heart of Democrat skulduggery, if not
(this time) outright thuggery. The union that represents a sizable group of people whose salaries are
paid by the American taxpayer, and thus should be non-partisan, is openly going to war against one political
party, the Republicans.
Obama's political
toxicity on display today. Today [9/6/2010], President Obama is flying to Milwaukee to mark Labor
Day at a union picnic ("Laborfest"), at a far smaller venue than he used when marking the same event in 2008.
Don't worry about a rambunctious crowd, protest signs, or any other indignities, though. Admission is by
ticket only, with unions in charge of distribution. Even more curious is the absence of left wing Senator
Russ Feingold, facing re-election this year, and not showing a lot of strength in the polls.
Tea Parties vs.
Unions in November. Elections this month have enhanced the political clout of two groups widely
separated on the political spectrum. The tea party movement stands to play an outsize role in the fall
elections now that outsider Rand Paul has swept Kentucky's GOP Senate primary, while unions provided the
muscle for Democrats to win a key special election in Pennsylvania.
Hapless pawns spend their time lobbying against lobbyists:
Left
Plans Massive In-Your-Face Anti-Capitalism Rally on DC's K Street. The left-wing militants of
SEIU and the National People's Action group plan to shut down K Street, the heart of the lobbying industry
in the nation's capital, at a massive in-your-face rally and march planned for Monday [5/17/2010]. The
goal of the "action" — in organizing parlance — is a show of force calculated to
intimidate bank lobbyists and show support for sweeping anti-bank legislation pending in Congress.
AFL-CIO
goes after charter school supporters. The New York State AFL-CIO is targeting two of the Legislature's
staunchest charter school supporters — Sens. Jeff Klein of the Bronx and Craig Johnson of Nassau —
claiming they're anti-union. The 2.5 million member union umbrella group blitzed the two senator's
districts today with flyers accusing them of "siding with big corporations and against teachers and students"
by voting for a bill last week to expand charter schools "with no real reform."
Unions Target Moderate Dems For
Defeat In Ideological Purge. The 2010 election was already shaping up to be a bloody battle for
Democratic incumbents but some now have to worry about friendly fire as well: Big Labor is trying to
purge Democrats they don't like.
Labor unions put
heat on Democrats. While conservatives and "tea party" activists have made headlines pressuring
Republican candidates from the right this election season, a number of moderate Democrats are under attack in
primary battles and even third-party challenges from their labor allies on the left.
Democrats vie
for union endorsements. Democratic candidates for statewide office [in California] vied for
a key labor endorsement Saturday [3/20/2010], trying to outdo one another in their criticism of state employee
furloughs and other budget cuts that have affected union workers. The candidates appeared at Service
Employee International Union forums across the state that were linked into one video conference.
Unions
taking on Dems who don't toe labor line. Frustrated at seeing their legislative agenda stymied,
unions are becoming increasingly active in competitive Democratic Senate primaries. Across the country,
labor groups are using their organizational muscle early against candidates whom they see as having walked
away from their agenda.
Jerry Brown urges unions
to go on the offensive. Faced with the daunting prospect of being significantly outspent by his
likely Republican opponent, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown spoke to a labor group Tuesday and
urged it to go on the offensive. "We're going to attack whenever we can, but I'd rather have you attack,"
Brown said at a gathering of the California delegation of the Laborers' International Union of North America
in Sacramento.
Unions Calling in Their
Chits. "That's not the change America voted for." The implied criticism of President Obama comes not
from Rush Limbaugh or Fox News but from the AFL-CIO in a newspaper ad this week letting the president and congressional
Dems know unions' "bottom line for health care reform." The unions are calling in their chits. If health care
legislation doesn't include a public option, they won't support it. And if it does include a tax on so-called
gold-plated plans, they'll oppose it.
Students
and Unions Swoon for Obama and Obamacare. Obama didn't quite fill the 18,000 seats in UMD's Comcast
Center and appeared three hours later than the scheduled 9 am start time. ...[That] didn't seem to bother the
members of the Maryland Bricklayers' Union, one of several unions that bussed in workers for the event, giving them
paid time off for a chance to rally for Obamacare and kick back with friends. Several workers said this wasn't
the first Obama rally they've attended while on the clock.
Let's 'Share the Wealth'. "We just won
an election. It's no secret." By "we," Andy Stern means "American workers." He also means Big Labor.
Speaking on behalf of the fastest growing trade group in America, the Service Employees International Union — and
as one of labor's most powerful figures today — Mr. Stern sets this simple bar for the Obama presidency: "I
expect nothing less than what he said he was going to do, and we should hold him accountable." ... The bit about
accountability is no idle warning. Organized labor put up some $450 million to get Democrats elected.
AFL-CIO
kicks off largest Get Out The Vote effort ever. With less than two weeks to go before voters
cast their ballots, the AFL-CIO launched a massive Get Out The Vote campaign Tuesday [10/21/2008], targeting
over 13 million union voters across the country in presidential, congressional and gubernatorial
battleground states. ... The efforts will also target 12 Senate races and 60 House races in an effort
to secure a filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate.
Mexican
Trucks: Phantom Menace. Anyone worried that, once in charge, Democrats wouldn't be
vigilant in protecting our southern border can relax: The grave threat of Mexican long-haul truckers
has been shut down. ... The [Teamsters] union can't abide Mexican trucks: They represent competition,
and so must be blocked legal obligations, economic rationality and diplomatic sense aside.
Obama Says Teamsters Need Less
Oversight. Sen. Barack Obama won the endorsement of the Teamsters earlier this year after privately telling
the union he supported ending the strict federal oversight imposed to root out corruption, according to officials from the
union and the Obama campaign. It's an unusual stance for a presidential candidate. Policy makers have largely
treated monitoring of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters as a legal matter left to the Justice Department since an
independent review board was set up in 1992 to eliminate mob influence in the union.
Teamsters
Defend Endorsement of Obama. The Teamsters union vigorously denied on Monday [5/5/2008] that its decision to
endorse Senator Barack Obama in the presidential race was in any way tied to Mr. Obama's statement that federal supervision
of the union had run its course.
Culture of Corruption: Obama and the
Teamsters. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that last summer, Illinois Senator Barack Obama
told officials in the Teamsters union that he favored ending the Independent Review Board (IRB) that was created in
1989 by the federal government to rid the union of organized crime. Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Obama,
confirmed the story, saying that the candidate believed that the IRB had "run its course" because "organized crime
influence in the union has drastically declined." The Teamsters subsequently endorsed Obama for president, in
late February. Obama and the Teamsters bristled at suggestions that any deal was made.
Democrats' Risky Alliance with Big
Labor: This is one more instance in which Democrats have confused the interests of union power
brokers with the interests of working-class voters. Unions may want to do away with workplace democracy,
but real workers do not. Similarly, teachers' unions hate school choice measures, but working-class
voters whose kids are trapped in underperforming public schools like them.
Unions Support Democratic Presidential Candidates.
Last month the AFL-CIO held a press conference to announce its $53 million "McCain Revealed" campaign to portray McCain
as "anti-worker" and attack his support for President George W. Bush's economic policies. Unions already have
spent at least $7.3 million in independent expenditures on behalf of Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the
latter receiving $3 million from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) alone, according to Cox News Service.
The SEIU has pledged $150 million to support Obama in the general election.
AFSCME, MoveOn ad
targets McCain on Iraq war. A major labor union and the liberal organization MoveOn.org are
joining forces to air a provocative new ad portraying John McCain's Iraq policy as a prolonged presence that
would involve a new generation of Americans. Paid for by the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees and by MoveOn.org, the commercial represents an expansion by Democratic-leaning groups of
a campaign against McCain.
The Union Agenda:
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama visited the House of Labor this week, and Labor can't wait to invite one
back. Which one? Who cares. To read the press coverage, unions are as split as the rest
of the country over a Democratic nominee.
Hillary
Labor Pains: Powerful union bosses, including a key backer of Hillary Rodham Clinton, urged her
to sack chief strategist Mark Penn just days before she axed him, it was revealed yesterday [4/7/2008].
Clinton backer Gerald McEntee, who heads the powerful AFSCME union of government workers, says he told her
that Penn needed to go.
Voter Turnout or Voter Fraud? On
March 8 the Washington Post disclosed that George Soros has decided to help fund a state-of-the-art
database that will collect and organize detailed information on millions of voters. ... Harold Ickes, a former
Clinton White House deputy chief of staff, will organize the project and he will encourage labor unions and
liberal special interest groups to use its information. ... Ickes' job will be to help unions and advocacy
groups use its detailed up-to-date information on voters' likes and dislikes to push their hot buttons and
get them to the polls on Election Day.
Organized Labor Supports Democrats with Biggest
Voter Mobilization Ever. The labor movement geared up for its "biggest political blitz ever" in
the November 2006 elections, according to the Capital Research Center. The AFL-CIO announced it intended
to pour "$40 million into 80 targeted races in 21 states — the largest voter mobilization drive
in the history of organized labor." That is only the tip of the iceberg and doesn't account for in-kind
contributions such as volunteer hours, phone lines, brochures, etc.
US postal workers union endorses
Obama. US Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama on Wednesday [4/7/2008] won the endorsement
of the country's largest postal workers union in a fresh boost to his 2008 nomination race against rival Hillary
Clinton.
The NLRB vs Boeing
Apparently the National Labor Relations Board presumes to be able to tell a private corportation
(in this case, Boeing) in which states it may or may not build and operate factories. The
"right to work" states are the ones where businesses are to be discouraged.
Group
sues NLRB for Boeing documents. A conservative legal watchdog group has sued the National Labor
Relations Board for documents related to its case against airplane manufacturer Boeing that the panel has been
hesitant to release.
Obama administration is Using Executive Power to Support Union Goals.
Last week, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a complaint against Boeing that the firm cannot open
a new factory in a "right to work" state, South Carolina, because the move was undertaken to avoid strikes that
plagued the firm's factory in Puget Sound, Washington. Is this a new departure for the Board, and does it
in any way go way beyond its original mandate?
Pulling
Labor Law Out of Thin Air. Last week, the National Labor Relations Board's general counsel —
acting at the behest of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union —
filed a complaint against Boeing. According to the complaint, the company decided to locate a new production
line for the Dreamliner 787 airplane in South Carolina (a right-to-work state) instead of Washington (a state
in which unions are powerful and strikes have cost Boeing billions of dollars) out of anti-union bias.
Should the general counsel convince the board that Boeing violated the law, the company could be forced to
operate the line in Washington.
Red,
Blue Or ... Union. In his keynote address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Senate
candidate Barack Obama uttered the line there are no red or blue states, but only the United States.
According to Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue, that catchy depiction of national unity has lost all
meaning in the wake of the administration's war, waged through the National Labor Relations Board, against
right-to-work states and Boeing Co., which wants to expand into one.
NLRB continues
its crusade to unionize America. Fresh off its decision to ask an administrative law judge to
stop Boeing's move to step up production in South Carolina because Boeing cited its wish to lower the risk
of suffering more strikes, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is stepping up its game. Now
Obama's NLRB is planning on suing two states, Arizona and South Dakota, seeking to invalidate those states'
constitutional amendments that prohibit card check. This is just the latest step in Obama's campaign
to reward and empower unions (and their campaign piggy banks) at the expense of jobs and growth.
Boeing issues sharp response to labor complaint.
A complaint against the Boeing Co., by the National Labor Relations Board is based on "misquotations and
mischaracterizations," the company said in a response Tuesday [5/3/2011]. In late April, the labor
board's general counsel accused Boeing of retaliating against its Machinists union in the Puget Sound area
when it selected South Carolina for a second 787 production line in 2009. The Machinists had staged a
57-day strike against Boeing the previous year. The labor board cited several statements by Boeing
officials as evidence the company was punishing its employees here for work stoppages.
Big Labor's attack on
democracy. On April 20, NLRB staff issued an "unfair labor practices" complaint against Boeing
Co. for deciding to open a production line in a non-union state. The aerospace giant is expected Wednesday [5/4/2011]
to file its response to the board blasting the charge as having no basis in law.
Obama's Labor Board Accused
of 'Malicious Attack' on Right-to-Work States. The NLRB, prodded by a labor union, recently filed a
complaint against the Boeing Company for its plan to transfer a second production line to a non-union facility in
South Carolina. The NLRB says Boeing must maintain that production line in union-friendly Washington State.
The NLRB accused Boeing of moving the production line out of the Puget Sound area to retaliate for past strikes and
to avoid future strikes by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
GOP
Sen. Rand Paul questions whether White House has 'enemies list'. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asked
Tuesday [5/10/2011] if the White House had an "enemies list" in light of the National Labor Relations Board's
complaint against Boeing for moving some of its operations to South Carolina. The complaint stems from
Boeing's decision to move some of its production line for the Dreamliner jet to the right-to-work state to
avoid the work stoppages that have hampered the company in the state of Washington.
Sarah Palin chimes in on National Labor Relations
Board fight. Sarah Palin sent a subtle love note to South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Wednesday,
with a Facebook message attacking President Barack Obama and the National Labor Relations Board's fight with
Boeing. "Does the President support the rights of businesses and working class people in right-to-work
states to make sound decisions without government regulatory agencies unfairly punishing them?" Palin wrote.
Reid
defends NLRB over Boeing decision. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday [5/11/2011]
defended the National Labor Relations Board, which has come under heavy criticism from Republicans. Reid
said the NLRB "acts as a check on employers and employees alike" and is consistent with the "spirit of checks
and balances" established by the Founding Fathers. Reid's defense comes as Republicans have gone on
the attack against the NLRB over a complaint issued earlier this year that faulted Boeing for opening a new
factory for its Dreamliner 787 fleet in South Carolina.
The Editor says...
The Founding Fathers established "checks and balances" among the three branches of the federal
government — not on private companies. Unless Senator Reid went to public schools,
he probably is aware of this, in which case he is being dishonest.
NLRB
jettisons federalism for unionism. A federal agency wants to dictate exactly where businesses
can create jobs. Last month, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a complaint against
Boeing's decision to open a new aircraft plant in South Carolina. The agency charges that the
manufacturer's expansion plans constitute "retaliation" against unions, including the International
Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union.
NLRB
vs. Boeing — Tyranny vs. Freedom. One of the shameful hallmarks of a dictatorship
is the restriction of movement — telling citizens or groups they cannot travel or relocate freely.
We are now witnessing a shocking example of that dictatorial practice at the hands of the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB), which is insisting that a major U.S. employer may not move some of its operations
from one state to another because to do so might somehow violate workers' rights.
NLRB
Attack on Right-to-Work States is Bad Politics and Worse Economics. The NLRB has begun to sue
states whose citizens voted to protect themselves from coercion and intimidation by adding secret ballot
guarantees to their state constitutions, as well as attempting to deny a major corporation from operating a
facility in a right-to-work state, which would create thousands of new jobs. Why is the board attacking
right-to-work states in a down economy? Perhaps it is due to the overwhelming and unmistakable
connection between this administration and Big Labor bosses whose political spending has propelled not just
President Obama to his position, but consequently, their allies into appointed positions of influence within
government, starting with agencies such as the NLRB.
President Obama
is paying back the unions for their support
in the 2008 campaign.
Palin vs.
Reid — Heated words over Boeing and NLRB. Icons of American politics Sarah Palin
and Harry Reid have joined the battle over whether Boeing illegally trampled union rights with its
billion-dollar new plant in South Carolina. A U.S. Senate committee held a hearing Thursday [5/12/2011]
about the complaint against Boeing by President Barack Obama's National Labor Relations Board, which will
be heard by an administrative law judge in Seattle next month but could take years to resolve.
The Persecution of
Boeing. H. L. Mencken defined puritanism as the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may
be happy. The National Labor Relations Board is haunted by the fear that a company somewhere might be
creating jobs with a nonunionized work force.
Boeing and the
Union Berlin Wall. The Boeing incident makes it clear that right-to-work states have a
competitive advantage over forced-union states. So the question arises: Why doesn't every state
adopt right-to-work laws? Four or five are trying to do so this year, and have faced ferocious opposition
from the union movement.
The
New NLRB: Boeing Is Just the Beginning. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) raised a lot
of eyebrows by filing a complaint against Boeing for opening a new plant in a right-to-work state. But
that action is just the beginning of the board's aggressive new pro-union agenda. An internal NLRB
memorandum, dated May 10, shows that the board wants to give unions much greater power over employers
and their investment and management decisions.
Labor panel
wants union officials in corporate boardrooms. A memo leaked from the National Labor Relations Board makes clear
that President Obama and the radical labor advocates he put on it are embarked on a calculated campaign to make unionized firms
even harder to manage. The NLRB's recent suit against Boeing Aircraft Co. is merely the first step. The board sued
Boeing for opening a factory in South Carolina, a right-to-work state. Boeing's main plant is in Washington, a state where
employees have no choice but to join unions. It's also where the International Association of Machinists has struck Boeing
five times in 30 years, most recently in 2008.
Right-To-Work-State
Dems Won't Back Jobs, Boeing Over Unions, NLRB. One week after Republican senators introduced
a bill to counter the National Labor Relations Board's complaint vs. Boeing, not a single Democrat, not even
the ones who represent states with right-to-work laws, have signed on as co-sponsors. According to Sen.
Jim DeMint, R-S.C., they're not going to get any either, and that probably dooms the bill.
Hypocrisy: Obama's Stock And Trade.
Obama's National Labor Relations Board made itself infamous not long ago by attempting to tell Boeing in what
state it was allowed to build a new manufacturing plant. Indulging his penchant toward anti-business,
anti-capitalist sentiment Obama decided that he was the final arbiter on where companies were allowed to move
and set up shop. Boeing was evil, you see because they wanted to get out from under the business-destroying
grip of unions. The monsters at Boeing were "retaliating" against the unions said Obama and his NLRB.
Obama versus Boeing.
House Republicans are fighting back against President Obama's misuse of administrative power to punish
right-to-work states. On Tuesday [5/24/2011], Rep. Tim Scott introduced legislation to protect a Boeing 787
Dreamliner production plant in his South Carolina district from the outrageous complaint filed by pro-union
thugs at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The agency wants to force the airline manufacturer
to close up operations in Charleston and move the jobs to Puget Sound, where the labor bosses reign, because
setting up in South Carolina was allegedly an example of "unfair labor practices."
Republicans
Take on the NLRB. When the National Labor Relations Board's general counsel filed a complaint
challenging Boeing's decision to open a $2 billion plant in South Carolina — one of 22
"right-to-work" states that prohibit compulsory union membership — the state's governor,
Nikki Haley (R), launched a spirited opposition campaign, urging members of Congress, the GOP 2012 field,
and her fellow governors to weigh in on what she argued was an issue of national significance.
How Free Is America? Ask
Boeing. Or the Heritage Foundation, which puts the U.S. in a dismal ninth place in its 2011
Index of Economic Freedom. ... It is safe to say that these depressing stats would come as no surprise to
the higher-ups at Boeing, who had the temerity to act as if they were a private company operating in a free
market when they decided to relocate the company's 787 Dreamliner assembly from Washington state to a new
production facility in South Carolina.
Pawlenty:
NLRB's suit against Boeing evokes 'Soviet Union circa 1970s'. GOP White House contender Tim
Pawlenty is ramping up his attacks on the National Labor Relations Board for its complaint against Boeing
over the company's decision to open a non-union airline production plant in South Carolina, allegedly
retaliating against unionized workers in Washington state.
Time to Curb the NLRB's Mission Creep.
Like so many federal programs, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has expanded its mission far beyond its
original purpose in order to wage ideological battles on the taxpayers' dime. The NLRB was never meant to
micromanage where companies can locate or how many products they can manufacture, as the NLRB under the Obama
administration is currently seeking to do. To stop it, Congress should exercise its power of the
purse to return the board to its original mission.
The
NLRB's Kangaroo Court and Boeing Employees' 'Insurance' Option. On Tuesday [6/14/2011], the
Boeing Company will be heading to the NLRB's kangaroo court in Seattle, Washington to be prosecuted by an
agency controlled by pro-union extremists. The outcome, as far as the NLRB hearing is concerned, is
already a foregone conclusion. The hearing is a procedural nuisance that Boeing will have to endure to
eventually have its case heard in the federal courts — which is likely where the case will end up, barring
any "face-saving" settlement negotiated with the union and the NLRB.
The NLRB vs.
Boeing. The National Labor Relations Board accused Boeing earlier this year of illegally
retaliating against unionized workers by expanding its facilities in a largely nonunion state, South
Carolina. Republicans joined much of corporate America in denouncing the board's complaint, calling it
a barely disguised attack on state "right to work" laws that make it harder for unions to organize.
Questioning
takes partisan tone in NLRB-Boeing lawsuit hearing. With partisan shots, Congressional
members on Friday [6/17/2011] opened the hearing over the National Labor Relations Board lawsuit against
Boeing's decision to locate a Dreamliner manufacturing facility in South Carolina.
House panel takes up
NLRB complaint against Boeing. Gov. Nikki Haley has told a congressional committee that the
National Labor Relations Board complaint against Boeing has the potential to affect workers across America.
Obama and Boeing.
Mr. Obama has been touting his plan to double the country's export growth by 2015, thereby creating two million
new jobs. Now one of the country's foremost exporters is under assault for seeking a lower-cost venue
for manufacturing to stay globally competitive, and the President has had nothing to say.
GOP
Presses NLRB to Drop Case Against Boeing. Republicans are calling on the National Labor Relations
Board to dismiss its complaint against Boeing and get out of the way of job creation, though Democrats argue
Boeing is violating the law by retaliating against union employees.
NLRB faces
double-edged decision. The National Labor Relations Board's bid to prevent Boeing from moving
to South Carolina could harm the very state it is trying to protect by discouraging businesses from setting
up shop there, Republican lawmakers warn.
Obama
Agencies Announce Massive Attack on American Job Creators. Over the last year, the Obama
Administration, through its regulatory agencies, has been conducting a quiet war on American business — those
enterprises that are the nation's job creators. Earlier this week, the union extremists in Obama's
Department of Labor and the "independent" National Labor Relations Board (the same agency that may cause
1,000 Boeing employees in South Carolina to lose their jobs) launched an all-out offensive designed to
maximize unions' ability to unionize the 93.1% of America's private-sector employees who are union free.
Boeing
Grounded. As the administration tries to block Boeing from building airliners in South
Carolina, word from the Paris Air Show is that Europe's Airbus is once again "trouncing" America's
aerospace giant with record orders.
S.C.
lawmaker slams NLRB over Boeing move. South Carolina Republican Rep. Tim Scott said Wednesday [6/22/2011]
the complaints of organized labor over the opening of a $750 million non-union Boeing airline assembly plant
in South Carolina were "ludicrous." The National Labor Relations Board has filed suit claiming the aerospace
giant opened the plant in right-to-work South Carolina to punish unions in its manufacturing base of Washington
state.
All
the President's Union Henchmen. Back in April, at the behest of the union, the National Labor
Relations Board filed a lawsuit against Boeing. ... Why is the NLRB, "an independent federal agency that
protects the rights of private sector employees to join together, with or without a union, to improve
their wages and working conditions," fighting a union battle and standing in the way of job creation
in South Carolina? Because they're not an independent agency at all.
Judge
denies Boeing motion to dismiss NLRB lawsuit. A judge on Thursday [6/30/2011] denied Boeing's
attempt to have a National Labor Relations Board case against it dismissed. The NLRB has accused Boeing
of choosing to locate a new plant in South Carolina instead of Washington state in retaliation for strikes
by unionized workers there.
More about
activist judges.
Obama's assault
on the rule of law. [Obama is] using the National Labor Relations Board as a goon squad.
The NLRB sued in April 2010 to stop the Boeing Co.'s new $750 million Dreamliner plant in right-to-work
South Carolina because unions in Washington state objected. Nowhere in the Constitution does the federal
government have the right to tell businesses where they can operate. This kind of thuggishness happens
under communist five-year plans, not in America.
Allegations:
NLRB's Craig Becker is violating Obama's 'ethics pledge'. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
member Craig Becker must recuse himself from the case against Boeing or violate President Barack Obama's ethics
pledge, critics say. A union affiliated with Becker's former employer, the AFL-CIO, is suing Boeing for
opening a new factory in South Carolina, allegedly in retaliation against union workers in Washington state.
Time
To Cut, Cap And Balance National Labor Relations Board. On the average workday the National Labor
Relations Board spends more than $1 million, ostensibly to protect employees' right to collectively
bargain — or not — as is their choice.
The
SEIU NLRB Serial Job Killer. In just another example of the Obama administration making law by
fiat, the National Labor Relations Board head Craig Becker is proposing new rules that would shotgun the
formation of new union shops in as quick as ten days. After the defeat of card check at the legislative
ballot box, the former SEIU goon is acting creatively in order to implement portions of card check unilaterally.
What would one expect from a guy appointed to his position despite his nomination being rejected by the Senate?
As
NLRB deliberates on Boeing, union takes organizing into its own hands. Though workers in
South Carolina's new Boeing Company plant recently booted out union bosses trying to organize them, local
representatives from the International Association of Machinists (IAM) still linger around Charleston.
"Well, pretty much, they've been around for a few months now," said Anthony Riedel of the National Right to
Work Legal Defense Foundation. Sources tell TheDC that union bosses have even showed up at the homes
of Boeing's new workers in attempts to pitch their cases for unionization.
NLRB
fails to comply with congressional subpoena. The National Labor Relations Board ignored a
congressional subpoena on Friday [8/12/2011] that requested information about its lawsuit against Boeing
for building a manufacturing plant in a non-union state. "The National Labor Relations Board and
Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon have thus far failed to comply with a lawful subpoena," Rep. Darrell
Issa, the California Republican who issued the subpoena, said in a statement. "This refusal by NLRB
to abide by the law further heightens concerns that this is a rogue agency acting improperly. The
integrity of NLRB and its leadership is clearly in question."
National
Labor Relations Board Sued for Documents Concerning Boeing Lawsuit. It probably would not
surprise you to learn that the Obama administration is apparently using the National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB) as a battering ram to aid powerful (and financially supportive) unions. The target is the Boeing
Corporation. And Judicial Watch has launched a full investigation into the matter.
Memo On Upcoming Jobs
Agenda. On April 20, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a complaint against The
Boeing Company for the alleged transfer of an assembly line from Washington to South Carolina. Yet, not
one union employee at Boeing's Puget Sound facility has lost his or her job as a result of the proposed South
Carolina plant. Still, the NLRB is pursuing a "restoration order" against Boeing that would cost South
Carolina thousands of jobs and deter future investment in the United States.
Growing Proof of
Obama's Imperial Presidency. President Barack Obama's National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is
on a job-killing rampage. It's claiming unprecedented powers far beyond what federal law allows.
Taken with Obama's other agencies, these executive actions paint a picture of what has become an imperial
presidency. ... In a free-market society, government bureaucrats cannot dictate to a private company where
they can and cannot open factories or create jobs. Boeing — whose general counsel was
formerly one of the most brilliant federal judges in America, Michael Luttig — should win
this court battle.
NLRB v.
Boeing — and jobs. You have to wonder about a federal agency that sticks it to an
American manufacturer creating thousands of good-paying jobs inside the nation's borders instead of overseas.
Fortunately, we hope, you won't have to wonder about it for long. We suspect the end is near for the brief
reign of an overbearing pro-union majority on the National Labor Relations Board.
Congressman:
Dismantle the NLRB. To permanently eliminate the National Labor Relations Board, South
Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy recommends transferring its responsibilities to the Department of
Justice. Congress created the NLRB to enforce the National Labor Relations Act, but many
conservatives this year have expressed support for dismantling the board because of its pro-union
tendencies.
Romney:
NLRB Boeing complaint political payback. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney,
fresh from picking up former rival Tim Pawlenty's endorsement, criticized the Obama administration's
links to organized labor, arguing that a National Labor Relations Board's complaint against Boeing is
White House payback to unions.
House
bill would block case against Boeing. House Republicans, angry over the government's
labor dispute with Boeing Co., are taking up a bill that would prohibit the National Labor Relations
Board from ordering any company to close plants or relocate workers, even if a company flouts labor laws.
House
passes Rep. Scott's bill targeting Boeing labor case. The U.S. House of Representatives
has passed South Carolina Congressman Tim Scott's bill to "prohibit the National Labor Relations Board
from ordering any employer to close, relocate, or transfer employment under any circumstance."
The 1 p.m. vote broke largely along party lines, as expected, with the Charleston-area Republican's
colleagues supporting his bid to limit the federal agency's authority.
Craig Becker and Boeing.
Federal financial disclosure forms reveal that Craig Becker, a key union-friendly vote on the NLRB, owned
stock in Boeing at the beginning of this year. Becker is one of federal agency's Democratic board members.
According to documents obtained by the National Right to Work Committee, as of January 2011 Becker owned
between $1,001 and $15,000 in Boeing stock, earning between $201 and $1,000 in dividends.
Most
union households think NLRB outdated. A new survey has found surprisingly strong support among
union households for radically reforming the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and for requiring greater
transparency by union leaders on their personal finances, as well as their management of union spending.
The survey of 805 registered voters, including 142 households (18 percent) with at least one union
member, was conducted for Americans for Limited Government by pollster Kellyanne Conway ... and has
a 3.5 percent margin of error.
NLRB
documents shed light on Boeing fight in South Carolina. Lawyers for the federal labor agency
fighting Boeing's new factory in North Charleston, N.C., repeatedly joked among themselves about the dispute
and exchanged a political cartoon portraying S.C. Sen. Glenn McConnell as a crass-speaking confederate soldier,
according to internal documents released Wednesday [11/9/2011].
Labor
Board Facing Possible Shutdown Over Union-Rule Dispute. Members of the National Labor Relations
Board are on a collision course ahead of a meeting Wednesday [11/30/2011], as the panel's lone Republican member
threatens to resign — a move that would effectively shut down the board and prevent an impending vote
on union organizing.
Boeing,
Union Settle NLRB Suit Over S. Carolina Plant. Boeing and the machinists labor union have resolved
their highly contentious lawsuit after several weeks of secret meetings, nullifying the need for one of the most
controversial cases in decades to come before the National Labor Relations Board. The agreement would call
for a new 737 aircraft line to be built in Washington state and to increase pay and benefits for union workers in
the Puget Sound region.
Ambush Election Prevention.
The NLRB is the supposedly neutral federal agency charged with judging private sector labor law cases and
interpreting labor statutes. However, under Obama, it has gone far beyond that mission, to propose
sweeping rule changes favorable to unions. Some members of Congress are focused on this problem and
are trying to do something about it.
NLRB Scraps Controversial 'Quickie Election' Rule
Change. As sources predicted to Human Events late Tuesday evening [11/29/2011], the "Obama
majority" on the National Labor Relations Board did in fact refrain Wednesday from passing a highly
controversial rule change sought by union bosses. Though the odds are now extremely slim that
the so-called "quickie election" change will ever be enacted, controversy still looms large for the
77-year-old regulatory panel, and a showdown between the President and Republicans in Congress over
the NLRB seems certain in 2012.
Inspector General
Probes NLRB Republican. The National Labor Relations Board's inspector general is investigating whether
Republican board member Brian Hayes was improperly influenced to threaten to resign in order to hobble the agency, a
Democratic congressional leader's office said Monday [12/5/2011]. Republicans have accused the agency of favoring
unions over businesses under the Obama administration's watch and have recently fought a proposed rule that would speed
union-organizing elections. A resignation by Mr. Hayes would leave the board without the quorum it needs to
finalize the rule by year end or establish any other major rules.
NLRB
withdraws Boeing complaint. The National Labor Relations Board has dropped its controversial case
against airline manufacturer Boeing, which had become a lightning rod for conservatives. The labor board
argued for much of the past year that Boeing decided to locate a new plant to build its new 787 Dreamliner jets
in South Carolina, a right-to-work state, in retaliation for strikes by unionized workers at its existing
facilities in Washington state.
NLRB
Drops Complaint against Boeing; Unions May Be the Real Winner. When Boeing Co. two years ago
announced plans to open a plant in South Carolina to assemble many of its 787 Dreamliner commercial jets, the
decision triggered an outcry by the International Association of Machinists. The IAM's unofficial partner,
the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), filed a complaint against the company this April to block its opening
of the facility, located in a Right to Work state.
Obama's Freeloader Economy.
What, after all, is the NRLB-union gang tackle on Boeing — the idea that opening a union-free plant
in South Carolina is an unfair labor practice? How come, all of a sudden after Boeing agrees to build the
Boeing 737-MAX in union-rich Renton, Washington, everything is suddenly copacetic? It's pretty obvious.
Keep those union jobs in Washington State or else.
Why
Boeing's Not in Kansas Anymore. It doesn't make sense for a big defense contractor to alienate
its political base unless there are vital concerns at stake, and the reality is that the Wichita plant's revenue
stream has been slowly drying up for some time. With key programs coming to an end, the tanker effort would
have had to carry much of the underutilized facility's overhead, making it unnecessarily expensive.
Judicial
Watch Announces List of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians" for 2011.
In 2011, the Obama National Labor Relations Board sought to prevent the Seattle-based Boeing
Company from opening a $750 million non-union assembly line in North Charleston, South Carolina, to
manufacture its Dreamliner plane. Judicial Watch obtained documents from the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB) showing this lawsuit was politically motivated. Judicial Watch uncovered
documents showing NLRB staff cheerleading for Big Labor, mouthing Marxist, anti-American slurs and
showing contempt for Congress related to the agency's lawsuit against Boeing, including email
correspondence attacking members of Congress. And it starts at the top.
Labor's Under-the-Radar Power
Grab. Big Labor has made many ambitious and high-profile efforts to attract national attention, such as
the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, better known as "card-check"), stacking the National Labor Relations
Board with union-friendly hacks, and impeding Boeing's plans in right-to-work states like South Carolina. ... Unfortunately
for the unions, such efforts have met with only mixed success, in no small part because their publicity has provoked
a ferocious and expensive backlash by labor's opponents.
Can the U.S. tolerate more help from the
Labor Department? In 2010, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), led by Obama appointees, announced it was suing
Boeing for building a new airplane manufacturing facility in South Carolina. The NLRB said Boeing's decision to build a new
factory in a "right to work state" like South Carolina (translation: a state that allows workers to opt out of union membership
if they go to work in a unionized company) was made in retaliation for a union strike that occurred at Boeings main production
facilities in Washington State in 2008.
5 Ways Obama Is A Dictator. Obama's
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) threatened suit against South Carolina "for guaranteeing a secret ballot in union elections." The NLRB
eventually backed down, but then turned its attention to the Boeing Company, telling Boeing it could not relocate its plants. Once again, the
Board backed down "but only after the company and the union worked through an agreement."
Washington's
"Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians" for 2011. [Scroll down] In 2011, the Obama National Labor Relations Board sought
to prevent the Seattle-based Boeing Company from opening a $750 million non-union assembly line in North Charleston, South Carolina, to
manufacture its Dreamliner plane. Judicial Watch obtained documents from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) showing this lawsuit
was politically motivated.
Trashing the Constitution.
Constitution Day is Monday, Sept. 17, so I compiled a non-exhaustive list of the ways Barack Obama has violated the Constitution. [...] [For
example,] Using the National Labor Relations Board as a goon squad. The NLRB sued in April 2010 to shut down the Boeing Co.'s new
$750 million Dreamliner plant in right-to-work South Carolina because unions objected. Nowhere does the Constitution give
the federal government the power to tell businesses where they can operate.
Boeing and Obama sitting in a tree.
The Export-Import Bank is a taxpayer-backed agency that finances U.S. exports, primarily though loan guarantees. You'd think the bank would
spread the money around to nurture up-and-coming businesses. You'd be wrong, very wrong. In fact, President Obama's export subsidy agency
funneled 82.7 percent of its taxpayer-backed loan guarantees to just one exporter: Boeing.
Remember union threat to Boeing. The Charleston community woke up to
good news on April 9, reading that the Boeing Corporation would be adding 2,000 jobs to its sprawling plant in North Charleston. [...] But while celebrating
this great news, it's important to remember how close that plant came to never opening at all. As you'll recall, the International Association of Machinists
and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) pushed the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) acting general counsel Lafe Solomon to file a complaint against Boeing, charging
that locating their new plant in our community was an unfair labor practice.
Other news and commentary about the NLRB
Second Appeals
Court rules Obama's recess appointees invalid. A key argument used by Senate Democrats defending the National Labor
Relations Board during a hearing this morning was that while an appeals court had ruled in January that two of President Obama's recess
appointees to the board were unconstitutional, other courts had not. Therefore, the NLRB was right to ignore the ruling at least
until the Supreme Court could decide the matter.
Suit Against NLRB to Proceed. The D.C. Court of Appeals will allow
several employers to move forward with a lawsuit that would prevent the National Labor Relations Board from ruling on their cases.
Three companies had sued the NLRB on the grounds that it did not have the authority to rule on labor disputes. The motion of
consolidation issued by the judges will combine the suits and allow them to move forward with oral arguments scheduled for September.
Employers hoping for an
end to labor pains after NLRB picks ruled 'unconstitutional'. Over the last year, the National Labor Relations Board has
made 341 rulings, including some that have prompted critics to call it the most activist, pro-worker board ever. And now that
a federal court has ruled the current board was put together with unconstitutional recess appointments by President Obama, those
holdings are suddenly in question.
The NLRB Fight Heats Up. It started when the
president recess appointed Sharon Block, Terence Flynn, and Richard Griffin to the NLRB on January 4, 2012 — when the
Senate was not actually in recess. So the U.S. Chamber of Commerce took action. In support of its member, the Noel
Canning Corporation, the Chamber briefed, argued, and won the challenge to the recess appointments in the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the D.C. Circuit. The federal court held that the recess appointments were unconstitutional. Consequently, the board
lacks the quorum it needs to conduct business. The decision calls into doubt more than a thousand recent rulings by the board.
NEA's
Legacy: $310 Million in Direct Campaign Spending Since 2000. Almost $53.4 million came from NEA national headquarters,
while another $257.1 million was spent by affiliates. More than 47.3 percent of that total — almost
$147 million — was spent in California or on behalf of California ballot measures and candidates. The union
spent more than $92.3 million on candidates and party committees. About 86.3% of those were Democrat-affiliated,
and 11.5% were Republican-affiliated.
FOIA
finds two NLRB lawyers making way over $100k, but not for doing government work. The NLRB has been ground zero for much
of President Obama's tenure in the Oval Office for his efforts to reward Big Labor for its campaign support in 2008 and 2012.
As a result, the NLRB has issued hundreds of rulings since 2009 that critics in the business community and elsewhere say too often
give unfair — and sometimes maybe even illegal — advantages to the unions.
FOIA
finds two NLRB lawyers making way over $100k, but not for doing government work. The NLRB has been ground zero for much
of President Obama's tenure in the Oval Office for his efforts to reward Big Labor for its campaign support in 2008 and 2012.
As a result, the NLRB has issued hundreds of rulings since 2009 that critics in the business community and elsewhere say too often
give unfair — and sometimes maybe even illegal — advantages to the unions.
Board Must Defend Recess Appointments, Court
Says. A federal appeals court allowed a legal challenge to the National Labor Relations Board to move forward on
Friday [2/22/2013], casting additional doubt on the legitimacy of the Obama administration's embattled labor arbiter. A
three-judge panel from the D.C. Circuit Court ordered the board to file a written response defending President Barack Obama's
recess appointments.
Court
orders NLRB to justify continuing operation in wake of recess appointee ruling. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia today [2/22/2013] ordered the National Labor Relations Board to respond to a petition by a pro-business group
that it suspend any further action in a Rhode Island case. The same court had earlier ruled that two of the three current
board members were appointed unconstitutionally. Should the court grant the petition, it could force the NLRB to cease all
activity.
Obama
renominates contentious labor board picks. In a provocative move, President Obama Wednesday [2/13/2013] re-nominated two controversial
Democratic candidates to the National Labor Relations Board just weeks after a federal court invalided their recess appointments to the
posts. Mr. Obama again nominated Sharon Block, a former Democratic Labor Department official, and Richard Griffin, a Democratic
union lawyer, to serve on the NLRB.
President Obama's deep contempt
for the rule of law. One of the Constitution's essential checks and balances is the requirement of Senate "advice and
consent" for presidential appointments. The Recess Appointments Clause of Article II provides a narrow exception to that
requirement: the president can fill executive branch vacancies that occur between Congress's official sessions. Last year,
President Obama became the first president to make "recess appointments" while the Senate was still in session when he appointed three
members of the National Labor Relations Board.
NLRB sides with UFCW in Wal-Mart case.
The National Labor Relations Board went easy on the United Food and Commercial Workers union today [1/31/2013] in a case in which the retailer
Wal-Mart claimed the union was illegally picketing them. The board simply accepted at face value the union's claim that it
was not trying to organize the retail giant's workforce and its promise not to do it again ... for 60 days at least.
Obama's Act of
Constitutional Disobedience. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals emphatically smacked down the crazy idea that the president
has the power to make recess appointments while the Senate is not in recess. [...] The decision means the National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB), which lacks a quorum to function without the improperly appointed members, should shut down until legitimate board members are
confirmed by the Senate. But it won't.
NLRB Appeals to Multiply. Attorneys have been hard at work
readying appeals to National Labor Relations Board rulings since a three-judge panel unanimously ruled in Noel Canning v. NLRB that
President Barack Obama violated the constitution when he stacked the board with recess appointments while the Senate was still in
session. The court's ruling does not invalidate every decision that the NLRB has made since Obama appointed Democrats Sharon Block
and Richard Griffin in Jan. 2012, but it does boost the prospects of those seeking appeal.
New
Report Suggests National Labor Relations Board Under Obama Straying From Mission to Promote Unions. There's a new staff report in to
Fox News from the House Oversight Committee. It alleges numerous instances where the National Labor Relations Board appears to be acting as a
strong advocate for pro-union policies, instead of sticking to its traditional role as a neutral arbiter of labor disputes. One key case is in
South Carolina, a right-to-work state, where the NLRB has filed a complaint against Boeing, trying to shut down a non-union assembly line that employs
thousands of workers.
NLRB finally achieves solidarity.
Like much of the rest of Washington, the supposedly independent National Labor Relations Board has been the scene of bare-knuckled partisan conflict
for years now. But the White House may have finally found a way to resolve that: The new board will have no Republicans at all.
With no fanfare, Brian Hayes, the sole remaining Republican serving on it, stepped down Sunday as his term expired. That leaves just three people
on the five-member board, which enforces the National Labor Relations Act.
National Labor RICO Board. A recent lawsuit filed in a federal court
in California alleges that National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Richard Griffin was complicit in a scheme to cover up embezzlement at a
major labor union by terminating employees who attempted to expose the effort. The allegations appear in a lengthy complaint filed against the
International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE). The lawsuit alleges numerous violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations (RICO) Act, and names Griffin, IUOE's former general counsel, as a defendant.
McConnell:
Ruling on NLRB 'recess' appointments is bad news for CFPB head. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., hailed a
federal court's invalidation of President Obama's so-called 'recess appointments" as a victory for the balance of power, noting
additionally that the ruling undermines the appointment of Obama's top bank regulator.
Appeals
court panel rules Obama recess appointments to labor board are unconstitutional. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that allowing the president to make such appointments as a way around Senate opposition "would wholly
defeat the purpose of the Framers in the careful separation of powers structure" they created.
Court: Obama
appointments are unconstitutional. In a setback for President Barack Obama, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that he
violated the Constitution in making recess appointments last year, a decision that could severely curtail the president's ability to
bypass the Senate to fill administration vacancies.
Obama's Abuse of Power. President
Obama has shown increasing contempt for the constitutional limits on his power, and the courts are finally awakening to the news. A
unanimous panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday [1/25/2013] that the President's non-recess recess appointments are
illegal and an abuse of executive power.
What NLRB Court Ruling Means for Cordray.
When I heard that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled President Obama had violated the Constitution for making recess appointments to the
NLRB while the Senate was still in session the first thing that came to mind was Richard Cordray. The same day Obama made the NLRB
appointments he also appointed Cordray to head up the Consumer Financial Protection Board. Senate Republicans had filibustered Cordray's
appointment in 2011. There is a separate lawsuit before the courts challenging the constitutionality of Obama's appointment of Cordray.
A lesson for professor
Obama. President Obama's "recess" appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were ruled unconstitutional yesterday by a
three-judge panel from the federal Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. The case is a major blow to Obama's labor-friendly NLRB, and it
reins in an executive power that Obama was using to pervert the intent of the Founders.
Darrell Issa: NLRB recess
appointees should step down now. ["]As the Oversight Committee examined in a hearing a year ago, President Obama's appointments
looked like an obvious election-year pander to big labor bosses. Today, we know that it is American workers who are going to pay the price
for the Administration's arrogant miscalculation.["]
Obama recess appointments
unconstitutional. In a case freighted with major constitutional implications, a federal appeals court on Friday [1/25/2013]
overturned President Obama's controversial recess appointments from last year, ruling he abused his powers and acted when the Senate was
not actually in a recess. The three-judge panel's ruling is a major blow to Mr. Obama. The judges ruled that the appointments
he made to the National Labor Relations Board are illegal, and hence the five-person board did not have a quorum to operate.
Major
Court Defeat for Obama: 'Recess' Appointments Unconstitutional. President Barack Obama just suffered a humiliating defeat in
federal court. A top federal appeals court has removed three presidential appointees from power, and invalidated all actions they've
taken over the past twelve months.
Court
Finally Reins In Obama's Imperial Presidency. Four days after President Obama pledged to "protect and defend the Constitution," the
U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that he violated that oath in making several appointments last year. The court said Obama's three "recess"
appointments to the National Labor Relations Board weren't recess appointments at all, since the Senate was still in session when he made them.
Politicians and unions exchange favors constantly
Related section: President Obama is paying back the unions for their support.
Unions Rally Behind Amnesty. Organized labor has become a leading proponent of
President Barack Obama's immigration agenda, a departure from more than a century of hostility to foreign-born workers. Some of the nation's most
influential labor leaders have heaped praise on comprehensive immigration plans that will help grant citizenship to many of the nation's 11 million
illegal immigrants. The AFL-CIO, one of the nation's largest labor unions, kicked off a 14-city rally backing the president's plan on Wednesday [2/6/2013].
Obama's
minimum wage proposal a stealth pay raise for unions. "An analysis of union collective bargaining agreements available
from the Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards indicates that many service, retail and hospitality industry
labor unions — such as UNITE-HERE or the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — peg baseline wages to the federal
minimum wage," the Center for Union Facts (CUF) observes. "Thus, in many cases, raising the federal minimum wage will
either trigger wage renegotiations or automatic wage hikes for certain unionized employees."
Report: Minimum wage increases trigger raises in union contracts.
Unions Back Wage Hike. President Barack Obama's proposal
to increase the minimum wage will give a boost to union members who already earn more than the current federal minimum of $7.25 an
hour. Many unions in the retail and service industries have negotiated provisions into contracts that would boost union salaries
in the event of minimum wage increases, according to a study from labor watchdog Center for Union Facts (CUF).
Labor Department union boss: We were
happier under Bush. The local 12 chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is so frustrated with the political appointees
at the top of the Labor Department that they are now reduced to pining for the Bush years.
Non-Union Workers
Excluded from Hurricane Sandy Cleanup. In New Jersey, where Governor Chris Christie has said that relief measures for Hurricane
Sandy should be "above politics," non-union workers are now excluded from participating in cleanup and rebuilding efforts. That policy took
effect when the New Jersey state senate voted on Monday to expand an existing labor-agreement law that has been on the books since 2002.
Taxpayers Unwittingly Hand
Over $137 Million to Unions. U.S. taxpayers are footing the $137 million bill for federal employees to perform union
work while on the clock at their government jobs, according to Professor Mallory Factor in the Wall Street Journal. The
practice, known as "official time" is enshrined in the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA), according to the Workforce Freedom Initiative
(WFI), and lets government officials do work for unions while being paid by the taxpayer.
You think
your Right-To-Work state is safe from unions? There is, and has been since 2010, a concerted effort by union bosses to get their
union-bought cronies in the U.S. Senate to end the filibuster. Why? The obvious answer is: So, unions can enact legislation
that they want.
Solis leaves big labor losses
behind. When Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced Wednesday that she is leaving the Obama administration, my colleague
Philip Klein remarked that President Obama "may as well cut to the chase and nominate Richard Trumka" to replace her. It was a
reasonable idea, given big labor's influence in the Democratic world. But the fact is, even AFL-CIO chief Trumka could not
have been more loyal to organized labor's agenda than the departing secretary.
Marxist
Labor Leaders Used Latino Voters to Move California Left — Implications for All Americans. A group of socialist California
labor officials and Democratic Party operatives, led by Los Angeles County Federation of Labor head Maria Elena Durazo, targeted Latinos and
immigrants in a deliberate program to permanently drive Golden State politics to the left.
Unions dream big for Obama's 2nd term.
[R]ight-to-work advocates expect Mr. Obama to keep pushing his pro-union agenda largely under the radar, through agencies such as the National Labor
Relations Board and the Department of Labor.
The NLRB's Union Bonus.
Christmas came early for Big Labor last week when the National Labor Relations Board handed down a pair of decisions that overturned
longstanding precedent and will deliver a windfall to union finances.
Obama's
NLRB protects union thugs, not elderly. President Obama portrays himself as a president who stands up for the most
vulnerable in our society. Nursing home patients and their families in Connecticut got a look behind the rhetoric last week.
In the name of standing up for workers' rights, Obama's National Labor Relations Board — the one staffed by people he installed
through controversial "recess appointments" when the Senate was in session — sued to have a nursing home reinstate employees
who went on strike.
A re-elected Obama
rewards his Big Labor friends. Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported that the Labor Department will introduce a new rule
requiring employers to divulge all information on labor consultants they hire. The AP also reported that the National Labor Relations
Board — which is nominally independent but whose majority the president appointed — will issue a new rule requiring employers
to turn over all employee contact information during union organizing drives.
With Obama Win, Big Labor
Feels Its Oats. Is the United States becoming another France, with daily strikes not a bug but a feature? Sure looks like it, with a
surge of union actions in the wake of Obama's re-election.
NLRB sues to reinstate union saboteurs at nursing
homes. President Obama's National Labor Relations Board asked a judge this week to force a Connecticut nursing home to re-hire employees involved in a
labor dispute, including the workers who sabotaged patient homes as they went on strike. The Service Employees International Union members who worked at
HealthBridge went on strike after rejecting the company's final offer in contract negotiations.
Politicians and union leaders have a common goal: expanding the federal government.
This inevitably leads to higher taxes, but the union leadership sees that as a small price to
pay for greater leverage.
Trumka's Denial Of Budget Realities
Suggests Ugly Plans. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has declared there's no fiscal cliff and any address of runaway government spending is just "a
manufactured crisis." [...] In short, Trumka is arguing that there's no such thing as too much government spending, that deficits don't matter and that entitlements
cannot be cut. Such denialist thinking is beyond irresponsible in the face of a $16 trillion debt, highest on global record and a sign of an irrational
agenda often followed by would-be tyrants.
Reward: Obama NLRB looks to give
workers' private contact info to unions. President Obama's labor regulators are preparing to give his "army" of unions the private contact information of
workers employed by non-union companies, as part of an array of rules to facilitate and finance union expansion. "The National Labor Relations Board is expected
to start work on a rule that would force businesses to turn over workers' phone numbers, emails and shift times to union organizers," the Associated Press reported
this week.
The Delphi Legacy. Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan slammed President Barack Obama for
the Auto Task Force's treatment of nonunion workers who saw their pensions slashed by 70 percent, while their union coworkers lost no funds thanks to
a $1 billion "top-off" by GM, during a rally in Sabina, Ohio, on Saturday [10/27/2012].
Union members campaign for Obama on frontline of US election in
Ohio. In terms of volunteers and financial donations, the unions are one of Obama's biggest assets, the shadow army to his official campaign teams.
The union contribution tends to go largely unrecognised, their role in the campaign mainly ignored by the media, and with little in the way of thanks
afterwards from Obama and the politicians they help into office.
Hypocrisy United. Rep. Christopher Murphy (D., Conn.), who has said he opposes the
2010 Citizens United ruling because it "corrupts our democracy," has relied heavily on spending by outside, anonymously funded groups in his campaign
to fill the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I., Conn.). [...] However, the Washington Free Beacon has found that unions and
corporations are spending heavily in support of Murphy.
Government
Unions Plot to Have 11% Illinois State Income Tax on Top Earners By Changing State Constitution. And if one digs beneath the
surface of this plan, one finds government employee unions as a major source of money for supporters of the tax. The non-taxpayers want
more money. Illinois has a flat 5% and these greedy unions want 11% out of some people.
Progressive income tax: Brought to you by Illinois unions.
A coalition of progressive groups is beginning to coalesce around a proposal to create a progressive income tax in Illinois. Under their
plan state income tax rates will increase as one reaches higher incomes, up to a top rate of 11 percent for incomes over $1 million.
This plan would leave Illinois with one of the highest income tax rates in the country, increase Illinoisians tax bills by more than $8 billion,
and would most likely drive entrepreneurs and jobs from the state.
Government of unions, by unions, for
unions. In 2009, the U.S. government bailed out the auto industry, ostensibly to save the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who
work for automakers and their supporting companies. Sounds nice, except that this federal largesse was not distributed equally. In
fact, some employees who were also members of the powerful, politically influential United Auto Workers (UAW) union got far, far better
treatment from Uncle Sam than their nonunion brethren.
Union leader strives to ease Obama's
"white guy problem". Obama is on course to become the candidate with the lowest support from white male working class voters
to win a U.S. election if he triumphs over Republican Mitt Romney on November 6. Polls show support for Obama from white males
without college degrees at under 30 percent, well below the 39 percent he had when he defeated Republican John McCain four
years ago.
Labor Unions Suffer Defeat on
Taxpayer Revolt. Californians, struggling with an $18 billion budget deficit, stuck with a Sacramento political class owned by
Democrats who in turn are owned by labor unions, are facing a massive tax increase in November that will give California the unenviable distinction of
having the highest per capita tax burden in the Country. Even modest efforts to reign in spending or do serious pension reform are easily thwarted
by big labor lobbyists.
Obama's suicide pact
with Big Labor. The current alliance between special interests and government has re-created Chicago politics
on a national level. Washington Examiner Senior Political Columnist Timothy P. Carney has described this as the "Obama
model": rewarding businesses that play ball with the administration on issues like energy subsidies and factory construction
in areas that help pro-Democratic unions. AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka once remarked that he visits the White House two or
three times a week — and is in contact with someone in the administration almost every day. Close and unhealthy
relationships like this are cause for concern over the state of our democracy.
WH Logs Reveal
Obama Met With AFL-CIO & ACLU Lobbyists Over 50 Times Each. An interactive and searchable database of White House visitor logs is turning
up some interesting findings and reveals a "steady stream of lobbyists" visiting the Obama White House, reports the Washington Post. For
example, AFL-CIO lobbyist Bill Samuel visited the White House over 50 times, and American Civil Liberties Union lobbyist Laura Murphy visited
almost as frequently.
Big labor falls in line with Obama reelection campaign. Organized labor's rumblings
about sitting out President Barack Obama's reelection have turned out to be an empty threat. The Teamsters' Monday [5/7/2012] endorsement makes it the latest
major union to fall in line behind the president's campaign, joining the Service Employees International Union, the AFL-CIO and many other labor heavyweights.
Union Boss: I've talked second term agenda with president.
The White House may be tight-lipped about what a second Obama term would look like, but AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka has his own private insight. Trumka
said he has had conversations with the president and White House staff about the president's potential second-term agenda, in an interview with the Washington
Post's Peter Wallsten.
AFL-CIO Endorses Obama; Gears Up
Campaign Volunteer Army. In the eyes of the AFL-CIO, a president can never lean too far leftward. But if President
Obama hasn't made all the right moves, he's made enough of them to win its support.
Senate debating measure to nullify union
rules. The Senate began debate Monday [4/23/2012] on a Republican effort to overturn new labor regulations that make it easier and
quicker for unions to hold workplace elections.
Three weeks later, the courts stepped in...
Judge strikes down union election rules.
A federal judge on Monday [5/14/2012] struck down new regulations governing union elections, saying the National Labor Relations Board did not follow proper
voting procedures when it approved the rules last year.
Court strikes down NLRB rule to speed up union
elections. A federal judge ruled Monday [5/14/2012] that a contentious union election rule proposed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
is "invalid." In an 18-page memorandum opinion, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg struck the regulation down, saying the labor board only had two
members when it voted on the final rule in December 2011. Boasberg said the agency needed at least three members to have a quorum for action on
the rule.
Non-shocker of the day:
AFL-CIO endorses Obama.br>
Top 10 reasons to elect anybody but Obama.
[#8] SEIU (Service Employee International Union) and other union leaders have an open door to the White House, as the
mobilization of its thuggish army of workers is critical to Obama's reelection. So we see the president pack the
National Labor Relations Board with anti-business zealots who rule that Boeing can't build a plant in non-union South
Carolina. So much for that laser focus on jobs.
Obama Meets His Nemesis. [Scroll
down] Obama wanted millions of shovel-ready jobs; he sent his Ivy League-trained economists out to arrange it. He
wanted a health-care revolution, and he turned that over to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. And so on down the line — every
revolutionary program was assigned to some secretary or czar or union goon. The results have been what any normal individual
might have expected. As Americans, we have gotten next to nothing out of all this wasted effort and energy and cash.
No matter what Obama does, the unions will support him.
Despite
battles over pipeline and jobs council, Obama earns AFL-CIO endorsement. The nation's largest federation of
unions announced Tuesday [3/13/2012] that it would be endorsing President Obama's reelection effort, an
expected — but welcome — boost for the president's campaign. The endorsement comes despite recent
high-profile rifts between the administration and unions over the president's jobs council and Obama's move
to delay construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
NLRB Approves
Pro-Union "Ambush Election" Final Rule. If the Democratic-majority National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB) under the Obama administration has become a de facto union law firm, then its proposed rule mandating
"fast-track" or "ambush" elections loomed as its crowning achievement.
Obama's Union Point
Man. Unlike Obama's appointment of Richard Cordray, which was announced to a frighteningly enthusiastic
crowd at an Ohio rally, the Griffin appointment was done quietly, in a written announcement. The appointment
was a direct reward for the union bosses who made an enormous contribution to Obama's 2008 campaign and will be
critical to his reelection effort.
Government Unions
Support California Tax Hike. Two well-connected government unions in California are teaming with
Gov. Jerry Brown to support a multibillion-dollar tax increase. The California Teachers Association and
Service Employees International Union were the top two spenders for lobbying in 2011 with combined efforts totaling
more than $10 million, according to Sacramento Bee. Now they're using their muscle to champion
Brown's tax hike.
Labor board
chief to push union organizing rules. The chairman of the National Labor Relations Board plans
to push for new rules that would give unions a boost in organizing members, despite an outcry from Republicans
and business groups who say the board is going too far. Mark Pearce said he hopes the board will propose
the rules soon, now that it has a full component of five members. President Barack Obama bypassed the Senate
earlier this month to fill three vacancies.
The
Absurdity Behind President Obama's Non-Recess Appointments: In reading some of the news coverage and
commentary concerning President Obama's non-recess appointments of Richard Griffin and Sharon Block to the National
Labor Relations Board (NLRB) you would think they had waited months and even years under so-called "obstructionism"
in the U.S. Senate. In reality, anyone who undertook an objective analysis of the situation would have come to
the conclusion that the administration's complete disregard for the Constitution by ignoring the Senate's advice and
consent responsibility was a total handout to the Big Labor bosses bankrolling the president's campaign.
Your
Right to be Owned. Last year marked many labor/business conflicts, primarily spurred by a President
beholden to paying back the special interests that helped put him in office. Using Executive and Regulatory
Powers, there was an unprecedented flurry of pro Big Labor actions and enactments-many of which are being undertaken
to salvage a continually shrinking segment of the U.S. workforce.
Obama sidesteps GOP opposition to install 3 members on NLRB.
President Barack Obama recess-appointed three members to the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday
[1/4/2012], bypassing fierce opposition from Republicans who claim the agency has leaned too far in favor of
unions.
Public
workers union endorses Obama as 'only choice for the 99 percent'. The largest public employee union in the
country endorsed President Obama for a second term on Tuesday [12/6/2011]. With 1.6 million members, the
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is considered one of the more powerful unions
in the country, and it has long been allied with Democrats. The union echoed the rhetoric of the Occupy Wall
Street movement in endorsing Obama's reelection bid.
The Editor says...
Usually it's in places like Russia and North Korea and Cuba where the voters have only one choice.
Job
Creators Brace for New Pro-Union Labor Rule. [Scroll down] I think the better fix here
is to eliminate the minimum wage. That would allow more entrepreneurial jobs and more start up jobs
for young people at the start of their legal job career.
Sundays
with Sherrod: Union Reform is Unchristian. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) isn't merely the most extreme
Progressive in the U.S. Senate, he's also a religious scholar. Week in and week out, Sherrod preaches the
Gospel of Progressivism: Greater love hath no man than he who gives generously from his neighbor's purse.
SEIU
Announces Its Endorsement of Obama in 2012. The powerful Service Employees International Union has
announced their endorsement of President Obama in the 2012 general election. The announcement came from SEIU
President Mary Kay Henry, in a conference call to reporters.
Your union dues at work:
With winter looming, labor
unions fortify Occupy camp. Some of the country's most powerful unions are providing the infrastructure
and amenities to keep the Occupy D.C. encampment fortified going into the winter. The camp's portable toilets
are being provided by the Service Employees International Union, the 2.1-million-member organization that helped
Barack Obama win the presidency and recently backed his re-election bid.
SEIU Endorses Obama Re-Election.
As I read the memorandum in front of me, I am amazed how blind Americans are, how naïve, ignorant, credulous,
and unable to discern fact from fiction, reality from fantasy. How much more proof do they need before they
realize our country is on the path of purposeful destruction?
Jerry Brown, the Unions'
Governor. Since their inception, California's government unions have found no greater ally than Jerry
Brown. In fact, it was Jerry Brown who first authorized government employees to unionize in 1978 through
the Dill Act. Since then, unions have pushed government spending on benefits and pensions to the breaking
point. The self-interested unions have built a political machine of campaign spending that ensures their
candidates toe the line once elected.
Feds' Bid To Tip Scales Toward Unions. Originally
a federal statute, the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act required a company and its outside counsel to
file annual reports with the government if the company arranged for the lawyer to communicate directly with
employees. However, for more than 40 years, there has been a recognized exception to this requirement
if the lawyer is providing legal or practical advice to company managers on how they can communicate with employees
about unions, so long as the lawyer is only talking to management. This longstanding exception has now been
targeted by the U.S. Department of Labor, which is on a mission to help unions increase their power and membership.
Obama
Enlists IRS for New Union Shakedown of US Business. The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC)
has submitted Freedom of Information requests to the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service
following an announcement that the administration is investigating homebuilders in an attempt to bolster
union membership at the expense of housing sector jobs.
Chamber
sues NLRB over union poster rule. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has sued the National Labor Relations
Board (NLRB) to block its new regulation that would have employers post notices informing employees of their
right to form a union. The Chamber joins at least two other prominent business groups in Washington —
the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Federation of Independent Business — that
have sued the labor board over the union poster rule.
Hi-speed
train to financial ruin in California. Federal spending for high-speed rail is coming under close
Congressional scrutiny. Both political parties have begun to recognize the enormous capital costs required
for another Solyndra style payoff; in this case the billions of Federal dollars needed to fund a lucrative
union-only jobs program.
As
President, Obama Acts as Shop Steward in Chief. Fully one-third of the $820 billion
stimulus package passed almost entirely with Democratic votes in 2009 was aid to state and local governments.
This was intended to keep state and local public employee union members — much more numerous than
federal employees — on the job and to keep taxpayer-funded union dues pouring into public employee
union treasuries.
Manufacturers
sue NLRB over union poster rule. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) has
sued the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to stop a new regulation by the board that would
require employers to post notices informing their workers of their right to organize a union.
Do the math. It's $100,000 per job.
Can Obama save
teacher jobs? President Obama is looking to send billions of dollars to the states to
stem the crush of teacher layoffs. The proposal, which is expected to be unveiled Thursday night [9/8/2011]
as part of Obama's jobs agenda, will likely mirror a $10 billion measure he signed last August to
minimize the downsizing of teachers and first responders. That legislation is estimated to have
saved 100,000 positions.
New US
rules will soon require posting of workers' union rights. Beginning in mid-November, most
private U.S. employers will have to tack another poster on their employee bulletin boards: a notice
spelling out workers' union rights. The requirement — part of a flurry of pro-union rulings
by the National Labor Relations Board last week — applies to all employers under NLRB jurisdiction,
which excludes agricultural, railroad and airline employers.
AFL-CIO
Jobs Plan: More Government Borrowing and Spending. The United States does not have
a short-term debt problem, just a "jobs crisis" that can be solved with greater government stimulus
spending, according to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Speaking at a press conference on jobs
Wednesday [8/31/2011], Trumka called for greater government spending in areas like education and jobs.
At
N.L.R.B., Flurry of Acts for Unions as Chief Exits. The National Labor Relations Board
on Tuesday released a decision that would make it easier to unionize nursing home workers. It is
the latest in a flurry of moves favorable to unions that the board completed before the term of its
chairwoman, Wilma B. Liebman, expired on Sunday. The board released two other pro-union
decisions on Tuesday, both reversing decisions issued under President George W. Bush.
NLRB's
Labor Day Gifts To Unions. The National Labor Relations Board announced a trio of pro-union
rulings today that are, coincidentally or not, just in time for the Labor Day holiday. The first
announcement was the rollback of a pair of previous changes that made it easier for employees to contest
union representation. The second announcement was a ruling that will make it easier for unions to
organize smaller groups in workplaces, giving them a foothold in workplaces they have struggled to
organize in the past.
AFL-CIO to form super PAC.
The AFL-CIO is getting ready to pump even more money into elections by forming a super PAC and
targeting developments in the states, the Associated Press reported Monday [8/22/2011].
Obama Labor Department to Re-Define Term 'Employer' to Exclude Union Bosses.
Any day now, the U.S. Department of Labor, under former Big Labor treasurer and now Obama's current Secretary
of Labor Hilda Solis, intends to announce a new definition for the term "Employer" that will protect her union
boss friends.
The
Union Job Security Act Equals Endless Road Construction. Have you noticed how there is
more road construction than usual lately, which never seems to end? In some states it has gotten
so bad their departments of transportation have set up road closure email alerts on each highway.
This is a direct result of President Obama's stimulus spending. Last summer, Obama proposed spending
$50 billion on highways, bridges, transit, high-speed rail and airports.
Did
Obama's auto bailout chief say, 'I did this all for the unions'? Ron Bloom, Assistant to the
President for Manufacturing Policy, is quoted in a 2009 newspaper account and a 2010 book saying of the
auto bailouts that he "did this all for the unions." But when Bloom appeared before the committee on
June 22, he flatly denied ever saying those words. Other White House officials have reportedly
defended Bloom by suggesting that he did indeed say those words but was joking.
Obama
bailout chief changes story. Ron Bloom, the top White House auto bailout official who has flatly
denied accusations that he once said his work on the bailouts was "all for the unions," now admits that he
might, in fact, have said those words.
Obama's labor
union problem. Labor leaders bet big on an Obama victory in 2008, hoping Congress would enact,
and the Democratic president would sign, "card-check" — legislation designed to turn around labor's
sagging membership rolls by ending secret-ballot elections in organizing drives. But card-check has never
been able to pass the Senate — not even when Democrats took over Congress in 2006. Instead,
presidential appointees friendly to labor are deploying agency muscle. The latest example is taking
place largely out of sight — at the National Mediation Board, a little known agency that oversees
union elections for railroads and airlines.
New rule would speed up union
votes. The National Labor Relations Board unveiled new rule changes Tuesday [6/21/2011] that
could speed up votes on whether or not employees at a company want to belong to a union. The proposed
rules were cheered by the AFL-CIO and its allies in Congress.
Haste, in this case, can only mean one thing: deception.
The High Speed Unionization Drive-Thru.
The National Labor Relations Board, last seen attacking Boeing for having the unmitigated gall to open a
production line in a right-to-work state, is hard at work on some other initiatives to assist the flagging
union movement. The NLRB just proposed some "sweeping new rules," for union elections, as the
Associated Press describes them. These rules would "dramatically speed up the time frame for union
elections."
How
many new pro-union rules will the NLRB ram through in coming months? Currently, there's a
three-to-one Democratic majority on the NLRB. In August, the current chair Wilma Liebman's term will
expire. Later in the year, the term of recess-appointed union lawyer Craig Becker will also expire.
That would bring the board's composition down to a one-to-one deadlock. Given that Republicans have
taken an increasingly adversarial stance toward the NLRB in wake of its general counsel's move to sue
Boeing for building a nonunion factory in South Carolina, it's unlikely that the pro-union bloc will ever
get stronger than it is now. So there's a tremendous incentive for the board to ram through as many
union-friendly rules as possible as quickly as possible.
Obama
Administration Accused of Backing Union Agenda With NLRB. [Scroll down] Now, the National
Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is proposing to change the rules that could speed up elections held among employees
to decide whether to unionize. Critics say it's an attempt by Obama appointees to turn those declining numbers
around.
Labor
panel wants free pass for union thugs. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka boasted during a
February news conference that he's "at the White House a couple times a week, two, three times a week."
Trumka added that he has "conversations every day with someone at the White House or in the administration."
On Monday [6/20/2011], we learned conclusively that when the AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka speaks, White House
officials listen. His words come as a dog whistle to President Obama, who never misses an opportunity
to reward his biggest campaign donors.
Union bosses come first
for Obama. For decades, unions have perpetuated the myth that the interests of Big Labor's bosses
and of American workers are identical. A tenuous case for that proposition could be made decades ago when
unions represented a third of all private sector workers. But doing so today requires a studied refusal
to acknowledge reality when fewer than 7 percent are union members. Nevertheless, President Obama
often seems concerned only with serving the interests of the union bosses who are among his most frequent
White House guests.
Democratic fealty to unions subverts and circumvents the popular will.
Union
Owned and Operated. In this year's State of the Union address, [President Obama] proclaimed a
national goal of doubling exports by 2014. One obvious way to increase exports is through free-trade
agreements. But unions don't like them. No surprise then that for two years Obama has been
sitting on three free-trade agreements — with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea —
already negotiated by his predecessor.
AFL-CIO
urges recess appointment for Warren. The AFL-CIO is calling for a recess appointment of Elizabeth Warren
as the head of the fledgling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In an email sent to the labor
federation's activists Thursday [6/9/2011], AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka asks them to urge President Obama
to appoint Warren to the head of the agency.
Obama
and free trade: Appease big labor. President Obama is sacrificing economic growth and job
creation in order to placate organized labor. And as the crisis of the welfare state deepens, he is
trying to enlarge the entitlement system and exacerbate the entitlement mentality.
Unions
Not As Excited About Reelecting Obama, Says AFL-CIO's Trumka. Uh oh: President Barack
Obama faces waning enthusiasm from union members as he prepares for his 2012 re-election bid, AFL-CIO
President Richard Trumka said. "It will be more challenging this time than it was last time to
motivate our members," Trumka, 61, said in an interview today at Bloomberg's offices in Washington.
Obama
skirts rule of law to reward pals, punish foes. If Obamacare is so great, why do so many people
want to get out from under it? More specifically, why are more than half of those 3,095,593 in
plans run by labor unions, which were among Obamacare's biggest political supporters? Union members
are only 12 percent of all employees but have gotten 50.3 percent of Obamacare waivers.
Obama's Best Times.
[Scroll down] This week, Labor unions asked legislators to increase federal government union employee
benefits and, at the same time, place pay caps on the salaries of private businesses that do business with
the government, thus showing that left-wing extremists intend to continue with their efforts to intrude in
the day-to-day operations of private industry.
16
state workers laid off for politics will get $422,000. The state has agreed to pay a total of
$422,000 to 16 state transportation workers who a federal jury determined were fired because they were
Republicans during the Democratic administration of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, officials said Friday [4/29/2011].
The 16 were laid off from jobs at the Illinois Department of Transportation in July 2004, the second
year of Blagojevich's reign. They sued the agency for wrongful termination, and a federal jury agreed
last month that they had been "fired for their political affiliations," said Donald Craven, an attorney for
the workers.
Unions
still in the driver's seat. Big Labor's degree of influence in the Democratic Party has never been
greater. Whether we look at the nonstop access of Stern himself to the White House, the prominence of
organized labor in the list of top third-party donors, the foot-dragging on free-trade deals or the
appointments by this administration (Hilda Solis to the Labor Department and Craig Becker, formerly a lawyer
for the AFL-CIO and SEIU, to the National Labor Relations Board, to name two) it is hard to think of any other
special interest that wields more power than organized labor.
Obama
'transparency' Executive Order targets administration enemies. There is a very simple way to
prove that this Obama order is all about punishing his enemies and rewarding his friends: unions that
sign collective bargaining contracts with the federal government are exempt from the "disclosure" requirements.
Liberal groups, the largest of which are all unions, spent $95 million on outside expenditures alone
in the 2010 cycle alone.
Rainbow
PUSH Minister Prays for God to "Wither" Union Foes. I've never found the words "collective
bargaining" or "pension" in the Bible. And no offense, but I think God is a little bigger than
worrying about material things given by the state. But that apparently didn't register with
Rev. D. Alexander Bullock, head of the Detroit chapter of the Rainbow PUSH coalition. In his prayer
before the latest union protest on the Capitol steps, he prayed for God to "wither" the hands of anyone that
would sign bills reforming pensions or collective bargaining. I have to admit I don't think I've ever
heard a prayer — especially in such a public setting — seeking physical harm to opponents.
Gangsta Wrap.
[Q]: Supporting the SEIU isn't special-interest-group politics. It's protecting the common man,
the blue-collar guy, isn't it? [A]: If by "protecting the common man" you mean bending over
backwards for 12 percent of all workers, at the expense of the other 88 percent, then yes.
But I think that verges on abuse of the term "common." You're right to bring up the SEIU, which
happens to be Obama's favorite. They were the ones who made him a senator in 2004 —
something he has not hesitated to acknowledge. They and the AFL-CIO broke the bank in 2008 to elect
Obama and install as Democratic a Congress as possible. The unions' spending in that election was the
equivalent of a third presidential campaign, and so when you consider what the political environment was like,
it's amazing that Obama didn't do even better. That's the best explanation for the incredible access
that this White House has given labor leaders.
Obama
administration covers up union welfare program. The Obama administration is more than a
year late in releasing an important report on federal government union costs. Clauses within
collective bargaining agreements require that the government pay some federal workers for union
activities — using tax dollars. This practice, known as "official time," is documented
annually in the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) Official Time Usage in the Federal Government Report.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration has not released any official time statistics since taking office;
2008 is the latest information available.
Mayan ruins.
The president's trip to South America has been billed as a trade mission. And of course, trade is
an important part of any strategy to boost our economy. Unless, of course, you are part of the
union leadership, which has desperately tried to sink all trade agreements, including ones with Colombia
and Panama. And by the way, the unions happen to be to biggest supporters of this president.
Obama's
Shady Union Ties. Would most people consider it quite odd that the president of the most
infamous union in the country-the AFL-CIO-brags about how frequently he is a visitor to the White House?
In his words, that's two or three times a week, and that's in addition to his numerous weekly phone conversations
with White House officials. What union business could possibly require such a close alliance between
the AFL-CIO and president Barack Hussein Obama? Certainly, we can only hazard a guess, but if AFL-CIO
president Richard Trumka's actions in the recent past are any indication, he's getting more than tea
and crumpets during his visits.
Jamie
Dupree Washington Insider. The Obama Administration has rolled out another 129 waivers to
one provision of the new health reform law, with almost half of those new exemptions going to various union
groups. The extra waivers bring the total to 1,168, giving businesses, health plans, unions and others
an exemption from a portion of the law that in 2011 requires an annual benefit limit of no less than $750,000.
Bench Brawl in
Wisconsin. The Left long ago stopped pretending that court proceedings were anything other
than exercises in raw-power politics, and so they've taken their fight against Wisconsin governor Scott
Walker to the state supreme court — not in the form of a lawsuit, but in the form of a multimillion-dollar
intervention into an election to a ten-year term on the court. Wisconsin supreme court justice David
Prosser went to bed one night a respected former prosecutor, and woke up the next morning the target of a
$3 million union-run smear campaign, falsely accused of being an enabler of pedophiles.
Congress
should restore democracy to union elections. Major changes to the nation's labor laws should be
made by the people's elected representatives, not partisan presidential appointees serving on obscure bureaucratic
panels. But last year, without any deliberation by Congress, two Democrats on the three-member National
Mediation Board jettisoned the board's own legal precedent, dating back to President Franklin D.
Roosevelt's day, to make it easier for unions to organize railroad and airline workers and harder for
managers to offer counterarguments.
5
Reasons Unions Are Bad For America. At one time in this country, there were few workplace
safety laws, few restraints on employers, and incredibly exploitive working conditions that ranged from
slavery, to share cropping, to putting children in dangerous working conditions. Unions, to their
everlasting credit, helped play an important role in leveling the playing field for workers. However,
as the laws changed, there was less and less need for unions. Because of that, union membership shrank.
In response, the unions became more explicitly involved in politics. Over time, they managed to co-opt
the Democratic Party, pull their strings, and rewrite our labor laws in their favor.
War On Taxpayers Update: Massachusetts.
George Noel is the director of the Massachusetts Department of Labor. The Boston Herald reports that
he addressed a union rally over the weekend, in the company of such illustrious organizations as Code Pink and
MoveOn.org. Peering across the fruited plain to Wisconsin, Noel declared: "Make no mistake about it.
We are at war. This war is about everyone in the middle class... If [Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his
supporters] claim to love this country, why do they hate democracy?"
A decisive
moment: Public employee unions or the common good? The president is actively weighing in on the
side of the greedy — there is no other word for them — union bosses who refuse to relinquish
what years of cozy relations with irresponsible politicians have dropped into their laps. That presidential
obtuseness should serve as a wakeup call to the country. ... Is the co-dependency between organized labor
and the Democratic Party to be the demise of both?
Big
Business & Big Labor: Don't Stop Spending. Big Business and Big Labor don't often agree,
so it's news when they do. In a joint statement today, Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue
and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka praised President Obama's State of the Union address and encouraged
Congress to pick up the president's call for more "investments" — i.e., yet more federal spending.
Obama
uses 'green' emissions standards to push truckers into Teamsters union. President Barack
Obama's administration is using new "environmental standards" to force independent owner-operator truckers
into becoming part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a union that gave more than $2 million
to Democrats in the last two election cycles.
The Union Threat to the
Democrats' Future: There is a crisis in state and municipal finance. That much is clear.
What hasn't been fully understood is that the fate of the Democratic Party is bound up in the resolution of that
crisis. In the November midterm elections, the Democratic Party lost its congressional majority. The far
graver threat to the party, though, is that its base is made up disproportionately of public-employee unions,
liberals, trial lawyers and other special-interest groups.
Obama's
Department of Labor forces unionization. Labor unions give more money to the Democratic Party
than any other source, and critics have long accused President Barack Obama's administration of doing their
bidding. Now there is evidence that the White House has indeed put its thumb on the scale on behalf of
unions. After saying that "union jobs are, by and large, good jobs," the Department of Labor's "strategic
plan" for the next five years says: "many of the Department's outcome goals are furthered by high rates
of union membership."
Congress
Should Block Union Transparency Rollback. The Obama Administration recently rolled back union
financial transparency reforms. New regulations will exempt many union trust funds, such as strike funds
and apprenticeship programs, from financial disclosure laws. These regulations also end financial reporting
for many government unions.
The Obama Team's
Other Lost Election. President Obama has done more favors, more often, for organized labor than
any other president, outpacing even FDR and Harry Truman in the lightning speed with which he has rushed to
fulfill the union agenda. Calling Obama pro-union is putting it mildly. His paybacks to unions
have come in every conceivable form: appointments, executive orders, legislation, bailouts, regulations,
policy changes (notably at the Department of Labor), protectionism.
Former
union leader joins liberal think tank. Anna Burger, the former number two at the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU), has joined the board of directors at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
In a statement, John Podesta, chairman of the board, said the group was "pleased" that Burger was coming on board.
Obama to
Give Highest Civilian Award to Union Boss. President Obama today named AFL-CIO President Emeritus
John Sweeney as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. The
award is presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national
interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.
Union
chief doesn't deserve a presidential medal. According to the White House, Sweeney has been selected
to receive the nation's highest civilian honor because "he revitalized the American labor movement, emphasizing
union organizing and social justice, and was a powerful advocate for America's workers." Of course, the
claim that Sweeney revitalized the organized labor in any meaningful way is dubious. As recently as 1956,
organized labor was 38 percent of the work force. Today it's 7 percent and declining.
Lame ducks
paying their union dues. Last month, citizens across the country sent a strong message to
politicians — Republicans and Democrats alike — that they do not want more congressional
meddling. But the leaders of the lame-duck Congress didn't listen. One of Big Labor's top
objectives is to ram the so-called Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act (reintroduced last week as
S. 3991) into law. Under this cynically mislabeled legislation, all states and localities would be
denied the option to refuse to grant a single public-safety union the power to speak for all front-line
employees, including those who don't want to join.
Time to Tackle Right to
Work. There are many things Republicans in control of state governments should do: limit
spending, cut tax rates, reduce regulation. But there is one reform that stout-hearted Republicans
running those five rust belt states should definitely do: pass right to work laws. The Taft-Hartley
Act allows each state the option of enacting right to work laws, which allow workers to not join a labor union
as a condition of employment. Twenty-two states have adopted right to work laws, and these states closely
resemble the twenty-two states that Obama lost in 2008.
Unions
target your private retirement savings. Forcing everybody into a government
retirement system that pays out equally to Americans who have scrimped and saved and to
those in organized labor who have grossly mismanaged their pension plans seems almost too
crazy to contemplate. But unions are desperate, and Democrats are in hock to Big Labor
in a big way.
Sherman's
March. A California congressman wants to eliminate right-to-work laws in 22 states where workers
don't have to join unions. If even-higher unemployment is his goal, he has the right idea.
AFL-CIO
Joins Marxist/Progressive Get Out the Vote Alliance. On the national level it seems as if the
Unions have changed priorities. No longer is their primary objective to protect the rights of their own
rank and file, their objectives has moved into politics and selling the progressive and/or Marxist agenda.
Hence their support of many of the Administrations policies such as Obamacare, the auto bailout and the
financial regulation bill in some cases (such as Obamcare) over the objections of their membership.
With
Tax Hikes, Look For the Union Label. The sight of rich people pleading to be taxed more has attracted
attention to the November ballot initiative. But otherwise, support for the ballot measure, which would slap
a tax of from 5 percent to 9 percent on the income of those earning more than $200,000 a year ($400,000
for those filing jointly), is entirely predictable. The chief force behind it is the state's unions, who've
contributed some $2 million to the campaign for the initiative, led by the state employees' union, the teachers'
union and the Service Employees International Union, the largest union in the state with 100,000 workers, many
of them working in the heavily-regulated area of health care.
Tea Party Vs. SEIU.
[Catherine Engelbrecht] and her associates collected publicly available polling data to prove that the
fraudulent voting they saw was real, rampant and organized. ... One woman was found to have registered six times
in one day. There were 1,597 registrations that named the same person with a variety of signatures.
One person turned in more registrations in one day than was physically possible. "Vacant lots had several
voters registered on them. An eight-bed halfway house had more than 40 voters registered at its
address," according to Engelbrecht. "We then decided to look at who was registering the voters."
It turned out most of the fraudulent registrations were done by a group called Houston Votes, headed by Sean
Castle, who also works for the Service Employees International Union.
Obama
sacrificed non-union employees for UAW cronies. By turning President Obama into the storyteller-in-chief
again, the White House believes it can win back depressed and economically stressed voters. But victims
of Obama's Chicago politics don't want to hear any more of his own well-worn tales of struggle and sacrifice.
They've got their own tragedies to tell — heart-wrenching dramas of personal and financial suffering
at the very hands of Obama.
Then
there's Obama's favorite special interest, unions. Big business is a major corrupting influence
in Washington. But when it comes to influencing our elections, the president should probably note that the
biggest special interest in the country is not corporations. "Labor union PACs have spent more this year
than every PAC in these industries, combined: oil and gas, mining, Wall Street, commercial banks, defense
contractors, HMOs, telecom, and lobbyists," my Examiner colleague Tim Carney reported earlier this week.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, 12 of the top 20 biggest political contributors are
labor unions. Labor unions represent just 7.5 percent of the private work force and 40 percent
of public employees. They are the very definition of a special interest.
The special-interest
president. Hardly a week goes by without President Obama accusing Republicans of being beholden
to special interests. ... [On Monday 9/6/2010], he told union members that Republicans would "have those special
interests riding shotgun, then they'd hit the gas, and we'd be right back in the ditch." Fortunately, those
same union members will have their shovels at the ready to fill the nation's ditches with $50 billion in
stimulus funding the president proposed this week for use on infrastructure projects. Thanks to the
Davis-Bacon Act, most of that taxpayer cash will wind up in the back pockets of Big Labor. It's no
coincidence that this group played a decisive role in delivering the votes that put Mr. Obama in the White
House.
Michigan:
You're in the union now, like it or not . Imagine — one morning you wake up, and find
you've been forced to join the United Auto Workers against your will because of a special deal cut your Democratic
governor cut to reward the union for its political activity. That's the reality for thousands of Michigan
day care providers. Some of them are suing.
Stimulating the unions.
As President Obama's poll numbers continue to slide, congressional Democrats faced with increasingly tough
re-election contests are turning to their best remaining friend, Big Labor, for help. Tuesday's [8/10/2010]
enactment of a $26 billion "jobs bill" was carefully tailored to please public-sector unions,
especially those representing teachers.
Why
Democrats are Pushing the $165 Billion Union Pension Bailout. Somewhere lurking in the hot,
putrid halls of Congress this summer is a union bailout bill of epic proportions and long-term ramifications.
Whether or not Democrats can ultimately push it (or something like it) into passage is yet to be determined.
However, with rumors that Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) signed on as a co-sponsor on Thursday [7/29/2010], it would appear that
the union bailout is quietly creeping along. If it passes, though, its ramifications surpass the mere
$165 billion-plus price tag, as it will influence the political landscape for decades to come.
The
Labor Movement, Obama's Friend or Foe in November? House Republican Leader John Boehner of
Ohio says, "The fact is the president's policies are killing job creation in America, killing our economy,
and the American people know it... Let's stop this stimulus spending that all it's doing is running
up debt on the back of our kids and grandkids, and make sure they're not going to increase taxes at a time
when our economy is so weak." [AFL-CIO President Richard] Trumka is trying to steer his members away
from that line of thinking...
The Editor asks...
Can you not think for yourselves?
The Unionized
States of America. We now live in the Unionized States of America — a phrase that
evokes how Obama and company have gone into overdrive to empower their union allies at our expense.
Unions first, troops
last. Funding for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq could be held up by the war brewing on Capitol
Hill among congressional Democrats and the White House. When the Senate returns to take up the
$45.5 billion supplemental appropriations bill that passed the House on July 1, the central issue
to resolve will be how best to appease Big Labor.
Unions
are the Biggest Threat to Farm Workers. President Obama's team has discovered another errant
profit-seeking, job-producing villain — the blueberry farmers of America. ... Congress is considering
legislation that would limit migrant family income by raising the legal work age to 14, and by restricting
the hours that youngsters can work. On the surface, this proposal sounds well intentioned. Dig a
little deeper, however, and we find that it is yet another push by organized labor — the Obama
administration's closest ally — to increase its fortunes.
DISCLOSE
Act shields Democrat-leaning groups from disclosure requirements. Washington is shocked top
Democrats gave the National Rifle Association — one of the most powerful lobbies in town —
its own loophole in legislation designed to increase disclosure requirements on campaign spending following
the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. The untold story is that Democrats assuaged organized
labor's early opposition to the bill by tailoring its provisions to eke out space for unions.
Are
unions impeding oil cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico? President Obama is impeding clean-up
efforts in the Gulf by kowtowing to unions and members of the American maritime industry, critics have charged
in recent days. At issue is the president's refusal to waive the Jones Act, a century-old law that
effectively bars foreign-owned ships from moving between U.S. ports, a necessary component of participating
in the cleanup effort.
Obama's Tragic Union. My
colleague Hans Bader has [a] post up on the incomprehensible inanity of Obama's stunt of refusing foreign-flagged
help, as the Gulf Coast flounders ever deeper in oil that Team Obama could have stopped from reaching their shores
but did not for reasons of ideological rigidity.
International
Assistance Blocked by Regulations Obama Had The Authority To Waive. Crucial offers to
help clean up BP's oil spill "have come from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that ... possess
some of the world's most advanced oil skimming ships." But the Obama Administration wouldn't
accept the help, because doing so would require it to do something past presidents have routinely
done: waive rules imposed by the Jones Act, a law backed by unions.
The Elephant and the
Obama Question. President Obama has famously asked what he could have done personally about
the oil spill. He said he could not swim down there and suck up the oil with a straw, and he's right.
But when Norway and the Netherlands offered to send the world's best oil skimming ships to the Gulf to help,
Mr. Obama turned them down flat. He did this entirely to protect his pals in the maritime shipping
unions.
Surprise: Dems want different rules for corporations, unions.
The laws being contested in Citizens United treated unions and corporations the same. The Citizens
United decision treats unions and corporations the same. In fact, campaign finance law has attempted to
treat unions and corporations the same for 43 years. Democrats aren't having that anymore.
The union label: Paying
off Big Labor. Rewarding Big Labor for political support, the Obama administration is virtually
shutting nonunion contractors out of federal construction projects worth at least $25 million — and
sticking taxpayers with untold millions in higher costs. Just weeks after taking office, President Obama
signed an executive order encouraging use of project labor agreements (PLAs), which require contractors to agree
to union representation and work rules.
Obama
doing labor's bidding. In Barack Obama's Washington, a union card is a gold card. The
president is skewing policy to give the 12 percent of the American work force belonging to a labor union
100 percent of the advantages.
Obama
appointees rewrite the rules for airline unions. [Scroll down] Because the union needs an
absolute majority of employees, those who throw away their ballots and fail to vote are effectively treated as
"no" votes. It seems fair enough: if a majority of employees either oppose a union or are too
ambivalent or apathetic to choose it, the union probably does not have any business representing them.
But the change by the National Mediation Board ... means that now unions need only win support from a majority
of those who actually return ballots. ... To make matters a bit worse, says James Sherk of the Heritage
Foundation, the Railway Labor Act does not contain any process for decertifying a union.
Organizing For America.
Unions, grasping for relevance in a world where unionization is in steep decline, were thrown a life preserver
Monday [5/10/2010] courtesy of the Obama administration. Airlines were tossed an anchor. By a 2-1
margin, the National Mediation Board decided Monday to change a rule governing union elections. For
76 years, a majority of all employees was needed to vote in favor of organizing if a union was to be
recognized. Under the new rule, unions will be certified when only a majority of those voting agree.
Indentured
Servitude in the USA and the Biggest Ponzi Scheme Ever. To the casual observer, Democrat attempts
to steer all federal construction work to union contractors is the same as Republicans rewarding non-union
contractors. The Republican position is in fact, that all workers get a shot to work as long as their
employer proffers the lowest, best bid without regard to union status. Clinton first wrote the executive
order to steer federal construction work to union contractors. Bush reversed the policy, and Obama has
reinstated it. What most people never see is the true motive behind this policy of reserving public
work for union members only using the union-only PLA.
Fix Is On by Obama
and Congress in Union Fight. [Scroll down] The Public Safety-Employer-Employee Cooperation
Act of 2009 passed the House in 2009 but did not make it to the Senate vote for various extraneous reasons.
But it's back, and it will pass the House and Senate in this session of Congress, lifted by a Democrat majority
anxious to move on the bill before November, when it appears that the composition of both Houses will change
significantly. The bill is alarming. According to the National League of Cities, the Act violates
the National Labor Relations Act of 1934 that recognized the separation of federal authority over collective
bargaining within the states.
Dem-Packed NLRB May Rush Through
Pro-Union Rulings. After years of inactivity, the National Labor Relations Board is set to come
roaring back. And everyone expects it to give Big Labor a new edge in its dealings with management.
More silver pieces
for unions. Evidence rapidly accumulated that President Obama will pay any price, bear any burden,
meet any hardship in order to do the bidding of big union bosses. Now Washington's city council seems poised
to pursue the same, sorry course. ... The president's Executive Order 13502, which of course would have great
effect in the District because so much of the federal government is located here, would apply to federal
construction projects worth more than $25 million.
Radical Labor Law Changes After Becker's
Appointment? [Scroll down] So why should anyone care about this procedural maneuver?
"Because recess appointments last only until Congress adjourns at the end of 2011," noted former NLRB Chairman
Peter Kirsanow, a Bush appointee, "But if the Senate confirms Becker and Pearce in exchange for getting Hayes
on board also, Becker and Pearce's confirmed terms would be extended by approximately three more years —
plenty of time for the Obama-controlled board to make a substantial imprint on labor law."
Obama's Big Labor
payback. Big Labor played such an essential role in delivering the White House to President
Obama that the head of the influential government workers union, the American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees, told The Washington Times after the election that the union was expecting "payback."
Payback's name is H. Craig Becker. That's who President Obama nominated for a seat overseeing
federal labor laws on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Obama
Makes Labor Board Appointment During Recess Over GOP Objections. Despite intense Republican
objections, President Obama on Saturday [3/27/2010] used recess appointments to fill some administration
posts, including Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board.
Obama
names 15 recess appointments, including union lawyer. President Barack Obama on Saturday [3/27/2010]
wielded his recess appointment powers for the first time, clearing 15 nominees to assume posts that
have remained vacant for months due to insurmountable congressional roadblocks. Among the 15 named
just days before the Senate departs for Easter recess are Craig Becker and Mark Pearce, the White House's two,
hotly contested nominees for the National Labor Relations Board.
Bush's
union transparency rules retracted under Obama. The Obama administration promised increased
transparency in government but has rolled back rules proposed by the Bush administration that expanded the
financial disclosure statements required of labor unions and their leaders.
Unions
demand more from White House. Leaders of unions, a crucial constituency for Democrats, say they're
disappointed over how little U.S. President Barack Obama has delivered on labor priorities.
Big Labor's Big
Payback. For some time, the business community has been saying that Big Labor would stop at
nothing to obtain political "payback" in the form of forced unionization of America's employers. Union
bosses have tried unsuccessfully to ram their job-killing agenda, namely the Employee 'Forced' Choice Act
(EFCA) through Congress, at the same time, working their friends in the Obama Administration for favors
and awards. And it now appears President Obama is prepared to "payback" Big Labor's political
contributions and support with a recess appointment of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations
Board (NLRB).
Obama's Unholy Union — With Unions.
President Obama still has one unstinting and stalwart comrade: the unions. After decades in
inexorable and well-deserved decline, unions are back bigtime in the Obama-nation. It is an unholy
union. It's bad for business, bad for the economy, bad for our country.
Democrat
Caddell rips White House for obeisance to organized labor. Longtime Democratic strategist Pat
Caddell on Wednesday [2/17/2010] blasted the Obama White House for creating "a world in which there is no
dissent," following his banishment from Colorado Democrat Andrew Romanoff's campaign for Senate.
Obama's Love of Labor Makes for
One Unholy Union. President Barack Obama's union with labor unions has become a marriage made
in hell. If he wants to save his presidency, and his party, he should seek a divorce.
The Fourth Rail:
Supporters of unions have long argued, and with good reason, that in the early days of industrializing America,
unions helped eliminate child labor and forced companies to create safer working conditions for employees.
Do workers at the DMV, IRS, or your town's Public Transit Board (or their children) have substantial risk of
working 16 hour days in dark, dangerous environments? It's hard to imagine the founders of the AFL
thinking that unions would devolve into organizations whose primary goal is to make it impossible to fire bad
workers, to argue for an ever-increasing number of vacation days, and to eliminate secret ballots which are not
just a staple of union election history but also a fundamental underpinning of liberty.
Construction Industry Opposes Obama Pro-Union
Order. A federal commission has yet to enact a year-old executive order that President
Barack Obama thinks will avoid labor unrest but one that critics say discriminates against non-union
companies and non-union workers in federal contracting.
Senate
rushing to do favors for Big Labor before Brown is seated. Yesterday [2/1/2010], Senate
Democrats rushed through a party-line cloture vote on Obama's nominee for Solicitor General, Patricia
Smith. Smith got 60 Democratic votes even though a Republican senator produced damning evidence
that she lied in Senate testimony regarding her role in a controversial program that unfairly benefited
labor unions while she was New York State Labor Commissioner. Today, the Senate is again trying
to perform as many favors for Big Labor as it can before newly elected Republican Senator Scott Brown is
seated and Democrats lose their supermajority.
Time to Take On the Unions.
No other single cause has been more disruptive to our economy and the principles of the American Dream than the
pernicious undermining of commonsense capitalism by the greedy bullies in the teachers', auto workers', and
public sector unions. The restrictions placed upon corporate political donations by the McCain-Feingold
Act simply facilitated the ability of the huge labor unions to use their cash to purchase the Democratic Party
lock, stock, and Obama.
Labor Unions and the News
Media. Union ownership of a company is no guarantee that the unions won't
bankrupt it. The United Airlines employee stock ownership plan meant that UAL was
eventually owned by its unions, but that didn't stop them from driving it into Chapter 11. ... Having
run General Motors and Chrysler into the ground, the United Auto Workers now owns a sizable chunk of both
companies — after President Obama bailed them out and made sure the UAW was taken care of
first. Does this mean that the union will now look out for the profitability of those
companies? Don't count on it.
Obama, labor's
lackey. President Obama says the big problem in Washington is that politicians focus on pleasing special
interests at the expense of the general public. But his curious definition of "special interests" exempts one key
political force: organized labor.
Lost: 600,000 Jobs.
As if Big Labor hasn't been repaid enough for its help in electing Democrats, a new report shows that
protectionism — the unions' signature issue — costs 585,000 of the rest of
us our jobs.
Obama Admin Requiring Project Labor Agreements.
Almost as soon as he took office, President Barack Obama repealed a Bush executive order and issued EO #13502 which
once again forces all federally contracted building projects to suffer under a PLA [Project Labor Agreement]. The fact
is that President Obama stands in opposition to cost effective use of our federal construction dollars as well as free
enterprise. And why did he do this? Perhaps the millions of dollars raised by unions to fund Obama's
presidential campaign explains why? This is no less than a pay back to Big Labor.
Warning: This link goes to a
self-described Marxist web site.
Labor Union Celebrates Gay Pride and
History Month. "Join the UFCW [United Food and Commercial Workers International Union] in
celebrating Gay and Lesbian Pride Month!"
FedEx To Mount Campaign Against Bill
Viewed As Pro-Union. FedEx Corp. is launching what it describes as multi-million-dollar
campaign to derail proposed federal legislation that would make it easier for the company's workers to
unionize. The effort targets chief rival United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) in particular, reiterating
FedEx's recent criticism of the bill as a federal bailout for UPS.
Kneecapping FedEx.
FedEx Express is learning what could be the Democrats' economic motto — "Never Let Success Go
Unpunished." Led by Rep. James L. Oberstar, Minnesota Democrat, the House on May 21 passed legislation
that contains an almost hidden provision — a mere 230 words — that would hobble FedEx
Express. It would do so by completely changing the labor laws under which the company operates.
Unless the Senate removes the language from the underlying bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation
Administration, a mere dozen or so workers in just one city could hamstring much of the nation's overnight
delivery service.
Is
Obama Designing the End of Capitalism? All of Obama's economic policies thus far are designed
to drive America into full embrace of socialism. His chief means for this transformation: inflation.
He is attempting to inflate the currency through two primary means: intense deficit spending, and
pushing up production costs through union subsidization. In order to make these measures politically
palatable, he cites FDR as an example of good deficit spending; he cites the credit crunch as an excuse for
inflationary monetary policy; and he recommends unionization in order to boost wages.
Obama acts for unions.
President Barack Obama issued a series of executive orders today [1/30/2009] that he said should "level the playing field"
for labor unions in their struggles with management. Obama also used the occasion at the White House to announce
formally a new White House task force on the problems of middle-class Americans, and installed Vice President Joe Biden
as its chairman. Union officials say the new orders by Obama will undo Bush administration policies that favored
employers over workers.
Obama executive order favors union
labor. President Barack Obama on Friday issued an executive order backing the use of union labor
for large-scale federal construction projects. The order encourages federal agencies to have
construction contractors and subcontractors enter project labor agreements. Those agreements require
contractors to negotiate with union officials, recognize union wages and benefits and generally abide by
collective-bargaining agreements.
Detroit's
Faustian Bargain. A Democratic Green Industrial Policy was already gaining speed Thursday [11/6/2008] as
American automakers groveled for money before the most openly hostile-to-auto Congress in U.S. history. ... It is, of
course, no coincidence that the Big Three arrived at Washington's doorstep together. All three have labored
under "pattern bargaining" union contracts — Democrat-supported unions — that
made their wage and pension costs unsustainable against non-union foreign automakers.
Union Revival Act.
It was assumed that the new larger Democratic congressional majority would be a boost for labor organizers who
want to push workers into joining unions. The reality might turn out to be a bit different.
Colorado's Labor Showdown:
Right-to-work laws tend to make it harder to organize a union, and Big Labor's national priority these days is
reversing a long-term trend of falling union numbers. So at the first hint of the initiative, Colorado's
labor unions mobilized to defeat the measure, while escalating with four antibusiness ballot initiatives as
political retaliation.
Barack Obama Isn't Santa Claus. In
his speech, Obama speaks of America being "a better country than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the
equipment that he's worked on for 20 years and watch as it's shipped off to China." Yet he left out
that he recently told the Las Cruces Sun-News about his plan to give citizenship to all the undocumented
illegal immigrants already here taking Americans' jobs and undercutting wages. I wonder how all the
union employees who applauded this week as some 600 illegals were hauled out of their plant during an INS raid
in small town Mississippi would feel about Urkel Obama's plans to turn around and give all such cheaters
citizenship?
Labor Unions Prolonged the Depression.
Pre-Depression-era growth and prosperity did not return to the private sector until the early 1950s, when the spread of
state right-to-work laws prohibiting forced union membership and dues greatly reduced the detrimental effects of the Wagner
Act. The U.S. has just experienced another stock market crash, and Barack Obama, the candidate now favored to be the
next president, is in favor of what amounts to a new Wagner Act.
Unions Look to Democrats to Enact Sweeping Legislative
Agenda. What makes labor's current political activity so significant is that, unlike when Democrats controlled
Congress and the White House in the early 1990s, this time unions want a major overhaul of labor law. Unions are demanding
that Democratic presidential candidates commit to adopting their agenda, and a Democratic president will feel an enormous
obligation to uphold election promises. If Democrats hang onto the House and increase their Senate margin, Republicans
will have few opportunities to impede labor's broader agenda.
Unions pump $1 million into
phone-tax campaign. Organized labor has contributed more than $1 million to
help Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa persuade voters to approve a Feb. 5 ballot
measure that would maintain the city's telephone utility users tax. … Los Angeles County
Federation of Labor Executive Secretary-Treasurer Maria Elena Durazo said unions are
bankrolling the campaign because losing the telephone tax would hurt city services and the
public employees who provide them.
Big
Labor's Unfulfilled Wish List: The federal government's union watchdog agency will have to get
by on less next year. The mammoth omnibus spending bill passed last week hacks nearly $3 million
from the Office of Labor Management Standards — a small gift for Big Labor just in time for Christmas.
The budget cut was a setback for the office, which has recouped more than $100 million for American
workers since 2001 as a result of increased enforcement.
Large Union
Backs Obama; Another Is Likely to Do Same. Giving Senator Barack Obama new momentum, one of the
nation's largest labor unions, the United Food and Commercial Workers, endorsed him on Thursday [2/14/2008].
Another giant, the Service Employees International Union, was on the brink of backing him.
Don't Scrap
the Private Ballot. Democracy can be messy. You find that in any number of stories about
voting irregularities. For example, in Florida's 13th congressional district, Republican Vern Buchanan
won last fall by just 369 votes. Democrat Christine Jennings cried foul, noting that some 18,000
ballots were cast without a vote for either candidate. (The House of Representatives is investigating.)
Not to worry, though, because organized labor has a way to end electoral controversy: Eliminate the
private ballot.
Colorado
opens door too wide for unions. Will the proposed policy that would expand the access unions
have to state employees truly make Colorado a "union paradise," as Republicans claim? Is it Gov. Bill
Ritter's "thank you" to organized labor for its help in his winning election?
Union Members, Not Minimum-Wage Earners, Benefit
When the Minimum Wage Rises. Supporters of raising the minimum wage argue it will raise the earnings
of low-income workers. Labor unions are among the most prominent of these supporters, a fact that makes
little intuitive sense, because very few union members work for the minimum wage. Unions, however, are not
just being altruistic when they push to raise the minimum wage. A higher minimum wage increases the expense
of hiring unskilled workers. This makes hiring skilled union members more attractive.
The heroic era of organized labor is
long gone. Soon, perhaps, a majority of organized labor will be government employees. The
labor movement will be primarily government organized as an interest group to lobby and pressure itself.
Already New York City, which has about the same size population it had 40 years ago, has 30 percent
more city employees.
Labor's Under-the-Radar Power
Grab. Big Labor has made many ambitious and high-profile efforts to attract national attention, such as
the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, better known as "card-check"), stacking the National Labor Relations
Board with union-friendly hacks, and impeding Boeing's plans in right-to-work states like South Carolina. ... Unfortunately
for the unions, such efforts have met with only mixed success, in no small part because their publicity has provoked
a ferocious and expensive backlash by labor's opponents.
Money wasted on failed political maneuvers:
Lincoln Wins
this Round; Big Labor Suffers Big Loss. But it's more than just the money. It's a rejection
of the ideas the unions are peddling. The unions wanted this election. Bill Halter,
Lincoln's Democratic primary opponent, is for card check. Lincoln is not. Card check is the
unions' signature issue. This election is just weeks after big labor suffered another major loss.
In Pennsylvania, big labor wanted Arlen Specter, offering money and institutional support. That didn't
matter to the voters, who elected not to send Specter back to Washington.
White House official: 'Organized labor just flushed $10 million
down the toilet'. A senior White House official just called me with a very pointed message for the
administration's sometime allies in organized labor, who invested heavily in beating Blanche Lincoln, Obama's
candidate, in Arkansas. "Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members' money down the
toilet on a pointless exercise," the official said. "If even half that total had been well-targeted and
applied in key House races across this country, that could have made a real difference in November."
Your union dues at work:
Primary Lessons. [Senator
Blanche] Lincoln drew Big Labor's wrath for heresies like opposing "card check" legislation, which would have
eliminated secret ballots to facilitate union organizing. As payback, unions, aided by a battery of
progressive political action groups, put their full political clout into the race, sponsoring Halter to the
tune of $10 million. But while the lavishly funded challenge did force Lincoln into a runoff, the
unions' purchasing power came up short. As one agonized Obama White House official told Politico:
"Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members' money down the toilet on a pointless exercise."
SEIU fails in attempt to challenge Democrat who voted against
Obamacare. The SEIU made big noises about challenging Democrats who voted against
Obamacare. They even promised to create their own political party in North Carolina to challenge
Rep. Larry Kissell, D-N.C., as payback. However, it looks like either the SEIU's plans here were
too ambitious, they lacked support for a new party or both.
Obama picks a fight with Mexico on behalf of the Teamsters
Mexico Strikes Back in Trade Spat. The
Mexican government said Monday [3/16/2009] it would slap tariffs on 90 U.S. industrial and agricultural products, in a
trade dispute that underscored the difficulties facing President Barack Obama as he tries to assure business and global
allies that he favors free trade. Mexico said the tariffs were in retaliation for the cancellation of a pilot
program allowing Mexican trucks to transport cargo throughout the U.S. Unions have for years fought to keep
Mexican trucks off U.S. highways...
The Teamsters War. President Obama
often campaigned as a trade warrior, and now he's getting his wish. Mexico announced yesterday that it will raise
tariffs on 90 U.S. products, affecting some $2.4 billion in goods across 40 states. The move was
retaliation for the recent decision by Congress, signed into law by Mr. Obama, to close the Southern U.S. border
to Mexican trucks.
Mexico Bites Back. Congressional
Democrats have a bad habit of viewing treaty obligations as favors, forgetting that trade is a two-way street. Now
that they've broken NAFTA, the Mexicans are about to educate them.
Avoidable trade war.
Because the United States reneged on a good-faith commitment, we are engaged in a minitrade war with our third-largest
trading partner. And if the Great Depression taught us anything, the middle of an economic downturn is the worst
possible time to begin erecting trade barriers.
Meet Union-Buster
Nancy Pelosi. A blockbuster NewsMax Magazine story by best-selling author Peter
Schweizer exposes how Democratic leaders passionately fight for liberal policies, but go to
great lengths to avoid applying those policies in their personal lives.
Obama is paying back the unions for their support
Obama's Lawless Presidency. One of his very first
moves when he was swept into Washington, for instance, was to begin a program to give big payoffs to his union masters. His first move was
to put a union operative in as the head of the Department of Labor. Hilda Solis had been a union stooge her entire career and that stoogery
only increased when Obama took office and quickly put her in charge of the DoL. This is significant because the DoL is supposed to be
an unbiased arbiter between labor and the business sector.
A
White House That Punishes Adversaries, Pays Off Friends. Did the Obama administration stiff a group of non-union workers
and pay off a political ally in the 2009 auto bailout? Yes, it did, says the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Barack Obama: 'I owe those unions'.
In his book "The Audacity of Hope," then-candidate Barack Obama, when talking about his relationship with Big Labor union officials,
wrote: "I owe those unions. When their leaders call, I do my best to call them back right away. I don't consider
this corrupting in any way." Fours year later, it's become clear he did a lot more than just call them. Countless giveaways
to organized labor have ensured that Washington union bosses owe the president and will spend more than a billion dollars to ensure
President Obama's return to the White House. You see, the largest special interest in the upcoming elections is Big Labor.
Obama's $25 Billion Government Motors
Lemon. On Tuesday [8/14/2012], GM fell $0.26, or 1.3%, to $20.21. At that price, the government would lose another $995 million on
its GM bailout. The report notes the government still has 500 million shares of GM and needs to sell those shares at $53 each for the government
to break even on the bailout. Worse yet, the entire financial loss suffered by taxpayers is the result of a massive and planned redistribution of
wealth from them to the auto unions that form a key part of Obama's base and re-election drive. In its analysis, the Heritage Foundation says all
the taxpayer losses occurred because the administration manipulated bankruptcy law to shelter the United Auto Workers' compensation.
Unions
Get Waivers Bought With Political Cash. In a telltale Friday-night document dump, the White House released
records showing the latest lucky recipients of Obama-Care cost waivers. By the wildest of coincidences, 87% of
them belong to Big Labor unions. Interesting, since Big Labor pulled out all the stops to get the president's
signature on health care reform passed in March 2010. But as the waivers came, it's clear they never had any
expectation of paying for it.
Obama Excuses Over 500,000 Union Members From
Obamacare. Remember back in the days of the debate over Obamacare when unions were the biggest voices
screaming in support of the legislation? Many labor union bosses said that nationalized healthcare was exactly
what they wanted. Further they said it was what was good for the country. Yet now we learn that Obama has
given waivers to some 550,000 union members so that they don't have to suffer under Obamacare.
Unions 1, Workers 0.
The Obama administration, it seems, would rather propose rules to increase union membership than take steps to
reduce unemployment. One rule, which has already taken effect, permits the creation of "micro-unions."
Rather than all the employees at a specific plant or business joining one big union, there can be one just for
cashiers or one just for those who stock shelves. The attraction for union leaders is obvious: They
can cherry-pick the groups most interested in joining together for the purpose of collective bargaining, bypassing
workers who aren't interested.
The
Congress-optional president. On Oct. 11, after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had
taken extraordinary measures to stall an embarrassing vote as long as possible, the Senate decisively
rejected President Obama's "jobs" plan. The same day, in Pittsburgh, Mr. Obama explained to
his union allies that he would move forward regardless. "We're not gonna wait for Congress,"
Mr. Obama explained. "We can act administratively without additional congressional authorization
and just get it done." ... This remarkable disregard for the rule of law and proper constitutional
procedures fit a familiar pattern in this administration: What it cannot achieve legislatively
it will attempt to do by regulatory fiat.
Union bosses come first
for Obama. For decades, unions have perpetuated the myth that the interests of Big Labor's bosses
and of American workers are identical. A tenuous case for that proposition could be made decades ago when
unions represented a third of all private sector workers. But doing so today requires a studied refusal
to acknowledge reality when fewer than 7 percent are union members. Nevertheless, President Obama
often seems concerned only with serving the interests of the union bosses who are among his most frequent
White House guests.
Unionization via Regulation.
Union leaders, unable to reverse decades of continued decline in private sector membership, are seeking political
solutions to their ills — specifically, changes to labor law that would favor unionization. They
pinned their hopes on the election of Barack Obama as President, following the Democrats' winning control of
Congress in 2006. With Democrats running both elected branches of the federal government, pro-union
legislation — including "card check" and bailouts for underfunded union pensions — seemed
imminent in the early days of the Obama administration.
Gangsta Wrap.
[Q]: Supporting the SEIU isn't special-interest-group politics. It's protecting the common man,
the blue-collar guy, isn't it? [A]: If by "protecting the common man" you mean bending over
backwards for 12 percent of all workers, at the expense of the other 88 percent, then yes.
But I think that verges on abuse of the term "common." You're right to bring up the SEIU, which
happens to be Obama's favorite. They were the ones who made him a senator in 2004 —
something he has not hesitated to acknowledge. They and the AFL-CIO broke the bank in 2008 to elect
Obama and install as Democratic a Congress as possible. The unions' spending in that election was the
equivalent of a third presidential campaign, and so when you consider what the political environment was like,
it's amazing that Obama didn't do even better. That's the best explanation for the incredible access
that this White House has given labor leaders.
Ready for Unionized Airport
Security? As payback for union support, the Obama administration greases the wheels for the largest federal
organizing effort in history.
Labor Dept: If You Let Girl Scouts Sell Cookies,
You Have to Let Unions Come in Too. Obama's NLRB is trying to push a new rule that would force
any business that allows Girl Scouts or any other local groups like baseball or football teams, school bands,
charity groups etc. to sell their fundraiser items or solicit donations in front of or inside of their
businesses to also allow unions into their businesses to cajole employees to organize. Even when
the purpose of many union actions are meant to drive customers away from the business in order to force the
employer to accede to union demands, this rule would prevent a business owner from turning disruptive union
activists away from their businesses.
Obama the Posterizer.
Just when it looked like employers were getting less fearful about what President Obama might do next to worsen
the business climate, the National Labor Relations Board (now with its first Democratic majority in a decade,
thanks to Obama's appointees) announced on December 14 that private employers will be required to display
pro-unionizing posters in their businesses under a newly proposed federal rule.
Obama's
Department of Labor forces unionization. Labor unions give more money to the Democratic Party
than any other source, and critics have long accused President Barack Obama's administration of doing their
bidding. Now there is evidence that the White House has indeed put its thumb on the scale on behalf of
unions. After saying that "union jobs are, by and large, good jobs," the Department of Labor's "strategic
plan" for the next five years says: "many of the Department's outcome goals are furthered by high rates
of union membership."
NLRB
to require workplaces to notify workers of their right to unionize. The pro-union regulatory assault
continues. The National Labor Relations Board is now proposing new regulations requiring workers to be notified
of their right to unionize.
The Obama Team's
Other Lost Election. President Obama has done more favors, more often, for organized labor than
any other president, outpacing even FDR and Harry Truman in the lightning speed with which he has rushed to
fulfill the union agenda. Calling Obama pro-union is putting it mildly. His paybacks to unions
have come in every conceivable form: appointments, executive orders, legislation, bailouts, regulations,
policy changes (notably at the Department of Labor), protectionism.
NY's
electric pickpockets. State lawmakers ignored a $315 million budget gap last week, but they
did manage to take care of their labor-union pals.
Another Big Labor Union Payoff: Obama Adds
$3.3 Million to Construction Project. The government is over spent. This single fact
is beyond dispute. Even Democrats say so. We have but to recall that Democrat after Democrat
attempted to run for office this last election by claiming fealty to small government, cost cutting, and
lower spending. So with all this small government/low spending fever sweeping the political classes,
what does Barack Obama do? He forces policies on federal building projects that inflates costs by the
millions. And why would he do this? As a payoff to unions that gave him millions in campaign
contributions, of course.
The Unions Have Won! It was a
year ago that Obama nominated Erroll Southers for the top position at TSA. Union sycophant Southers had
to drop out of the nominating process, but Obama never did give up the idea of unionizing the TSA.
Obama to
Give Highest Civilian Award to Union Boss. President Obama today named AFL-CIO President Emeritus
John Sweeney as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. The
award is presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national
interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.
Union
chief doesn't deserve a presidential medal. According to the White House, Sweeney has been selected
to receive the nation's highest civilian honor because "he revitalized the American labor movement, emphasizing
union organizing and social justice, and was a powerful advocate for America's workers." Of course, the
claim that Sweeney revitalized the organized labor in any meaningful way is dubious. As recently as 1956,
organized labor was 38 percent of the work force. Today it's 7 percent and declining.
Union
payback. Having survived a near-death experience on Election Day thanks largely to massive donations
from labor unions, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is paying back his benefactors. The Democrat from Nevada
says that during Congress' lame duck session he will try to once again force through a measure giving police and
fire unions the upper hand in dealing with local communities.
Obama's $50-Billion Union Infrastructure
Boondoggle. President Obama calls his latest attempt to revive the economy a "Plan to Renew and
Expand America's Roads, Railways and Runways." I'm calling it "The Mother of all Big Dig Boondoggles."
Like the infamous "Big Dig" highway spending project in Boston, this latest White House infrastructure
spending binge guarantees only two results: Taxpayers lose; unions win.
Did
someone mention the Big Dig?
President
Obama's payout to community organizers. Elected in 2008 as our first community activist president
backed by a big government coalition that also included muscular public sector unions, Obama has taken their
agenda nationwide. He left little doubt early in his first term when he funneled hundreds of billions of
dollars of federal stimulus money to states and cities to preserve government jobs. The Obama administration
also went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that stimulus money was used to help its big government allies.
Obama
to appear at Labor Day rally with AFL-CIO president. President Obama will spend Labor Day alongside
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, the union announced Monday.
Obama & State Takeover By Union:
Syndicalism. Given immense potential for shutdown and sabotage, and for use as vehicles of
propaganda and agitation, unions remain indispensable tools of Marxist ambition. Unions contributed an
estimated $400 million to Obama's presidential campaign. Despite comprising only 9% of US workers,
labor unions are still key to socialist schemes, and still have potential to badly damage our democracy.
House Votes on 'XXXX' State Government Union
Bailout Today. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) summoned the House of Representatives
back to Washington into a special, pro forma session today [8/10/2010] for Democrats to pass another $26 billion
bailout bill. In such a hurry to put more funding into the hands of their union buddies this Congressional
election season, Democrats forgot to name the bill they passed through the Senate.
Stimulating the unions.
As President Obama's poll numbers continue to slide, congressional Democrats faced with increasingly tough
re-election contests are turning to their best remaining friend, Big Labor, for help. Tuesday's [8/10/2010]
enactment of a $26 billion "jobs bill" was carefully tailored to please public-sector unions,
especially those representing teachers.
Buying
Union Votes With Food Stamps. In an election year in which Democratic majorities in both
houses of Congress are threatened, no price is too high for extra votes — even if it means
taking from the poor.
Finance
bill favors interests of unions, activists. The financial reform bill expected to clear
Congress this week is chock-full of provisions that have little to do with the financial crisis but
cater to the long-standing agendas of labor unions and other Democratic interest groups. Principal
among them is a measure to make it easier for unions, environmental groups and other activist organizations
that hold shares to put their representatives on the boards of directors of every corporation in the United
States.
As
Obama kowtows, unions eye the private sector. One of the interesting things about the Obama
administration is the strange dominance of labor unions. Yes, Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders
do owe the unions something: Unions gave $400 million to Democrats in the 2008 campaign cycle, and
they expect to get something in return.
The Unionized
States of America. We now live in the Unionized States of America — a phrase that
evokes how Obama and company have gone into overdrive to empower their union allies at our expense.
Unions first, troops
last. Funding for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq could be held up by the war brewing on Capitol
Hill among congressional Democrats and the White House. When the Senate returns to take up the
$45.5 billion supplemental appropriations bill that passed the House on July 1, the central issue
to resolve will be how best to appease Big Labor.
Obama's
Hard Choices for Other People. Obama may speak of tough choices but he has been remarkably
unwilling to make them, or to force his close allies to do so. Democrats structured the stimulus
bill to help prop up public employee unions and Obama continues to plead for more stimulus. The
president angrily lashed out at automobile debt holders, including state pension funds, that complained
he was giving the United Auto Workers a sweetheart deal.
Unions
are the Biggest Threat to Farm Workers. President Obama's team has discovered another errant
profit-seeking, job-producing villain — the blueberry farmers of America. ... Congress is considering
legislation that would limit migrant family income by raising the legal work age to 14, and by restricting
the hours that youngsters can work. On the surface, this proposal sounds well intentioned. Dig a
little deeper, however, and we find that it is yet another push by organized labor — the Obama
administration's closest ally — to increase its fortunes.
The union label: Paying
off Big Labor. Rewarding Big Labor for political support, the Obama administration is virtually
shutting nonunion contractors out of federal construction projects worth at least $25 million — and
sticking taxpayers with untold millions in higher costs. Just weeks after taking office, President Obama
signed an executive order encouraging use of project labor agreements (PLAs), which require contractors to agree
to union representation and work rules.
Obama
pushing $23 billion teachers union bailout. Yet another example of public sector employee union
smash and grab, at a time when private sector workers are desperate for jobs.
ObamaCare's
Longshoremen Rules. The Senate Majority Leader's new version specifically exempts "individuals
whose primary work is longshore work." That would be the longshoremen's union, which has negotiated very
costly insurance benefits. The well-connected dock workers join other union interests such as miners,
electrical linemen, EMTs, construction workers, some farmers, fishermen, foresters, early retirees and others
who are absolved from this tax.
Unions Calling in Their
Chits. "That's not the change America voted for." The implied criticism of President Obama comes not
from Rush Limbaugh or Fox News but from the AFL-CIO in a newspaper ad this week letting the president and congressional
Dems know unions' "bottom line for health care reform." The unions are calling in their chits. If health care
legislation doesn't include a public option, they won't support it. And if it does include a tax on so-called
gold-plated plans, they'll oppose it.
Unions Look for New Life in World of Obama. Unions are
looking to Barack Obama and rising economic anxiety to reverse organized labor's long slide. Through
three decades of decline, union leaders have been predicting a renaissance that has not come. But labor
invested more than $300 million to help elect Mr. Obama and enlarge the Democratic majority in
Congress, and it expects both to enact legislation that will make it easier for millions of workers to
unionize.
The New Beast Of Big Labor.
Barack Obama's election has Big Labor strutting with confidence. But what union bosses such as Andy Stern want
should give any president pause. Can Obama stand up to them?
Big Labor's Bill to End Secret
Ballots Gains Momentum. In April, then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said in
Philadelphia, "I've fought to pass the Employee Free Choice Act in the Senate. And I will make it the
law of the land when I'm president of the United States of America." President-elect Obama will move
into the White House with increased Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, which also support
legislation designed to stem the tide of declining union membership.
Unions'
Creepy Push Against Secret Ballot. The first campaign promise Barack Obama should break is to
push through the Employee Free Choice Act. That harmless sounding piece of legislation would let union
organizers do an end run around secret-ballot elections: Companies would have to recognize a union if
most workers signed cards in support of it. We're not children here. We know how those majorities
can be reached. There's repeated harassment, bullying and more inventive tactics, such as getting
workers drunk, then sliding sign-up cards under their noses. Meanwhile, any strong-armed tactics by
employers can be dealt with.
After
Push for Obama, Unions Seek New Rules. After making millions of phone calls and knocking on millions
of doors to elect Barack Obama, the nation's labor unions have begun a new campaign: to get the new president and
Congress to pass legislation that would make it easier for workers to unionize. Unions, delighted that they
will have a friend in the White House after eight years of fighting President Bush, also plan to push for
universal health coverage and a huge stimulus program to create jobs and counter the downturn.
Meet the union organizers.
One of the Obama administration's first legislative priorities will be the passage of the so-called Employee Free
Choice Act (EFCA). Once EFCA becomes law, unionization will no longer be a concern primarily for employers in
the industrial Midwest. Instead, unionization will be thrust upon right-to-work states such as Texas. EFCA
is not just bad policy. It will end this state's competitive advantage as a low-tax, union-free environment
that encourages businesses to locate here and provide jobs for Texans.
A labor-union
problem looms for Obama: Two months before Barack Obama is to be sworn in as president,
opening salvos are being launched over what could become one of the thorniest issues his administration
will face next year. Organized labor, which spent more than $80 million to put Democrats in
the White House and Congress, wants Obama to deliver on its priority: new rules to make it easier
to unionize workplaces.
The New Beast Of Big
Labor: Barack Obama's election has Big Labor strutting with confidence. But what union
bosses such as Andy Stern want should give any president pause. Can Obama stand up to them?
Let's 'Share the Wealth'. "We just won
an election. It's no secret." By "we," Andy Stern means "American workers." He also means Big Labor.
Speaking on behalf of the fastest growing trade group in America, the Service Employees International Union — and
as one of labor's most powerful figures today — Mr. Stern sets this simple bar for the Obama presidency: "I
expect nothing less than what he said he was going to do, and we should hold him accountable." ... The bit about
accountability is no idle warning. Organized labor put up some $450 million to get Democrats elected.
The Editor says...
Wow -- $450 million in union dues going to the Democratic Party. If you are a member of a labor
union but you're not a Democrat, I hope you find that offensive. More information about labor unions
can be found here.
What we don't know about Obama: Obama,
for the entire campaign, said all the right things when it comes to keeping peace with Big Labor. He praised the
power and fairness of unions. He expressed skepticism about free trade agreements like NAFTA. Most of all,
he proudly sponsored legislation to make it much easier for workers to unionize. Lately, he sounds like a man
rethinking his enthusiasm.
Unions see better days ahead under Obama's leadership.
Happier days are here for the labor movement in the United States. The AFL-CIO spent $53 million and its trade
union affiliates $250 million to help Barack Obama win the White House, relying mostly on "field mobilization" campaigns
to turn out a favorable vote. The excitement level already has risen at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington.
"The most pro-working-family president in years," noted one staffer.
Obama acts for unions.
President Barack Obama issued a series of executive orders today [1/30/2009] that he said should "level the playing field"
for labor unions in their struggles with management. Obama also used the occasion at the White House to announce
formally a new White House task force on the problems of middle-class Americans, and installed Vice President Joe Biden
as its chairman. Union officials say the new orders by Obama will undo Bush administration policies that favored
employers over workers.
Obama Stimulates Unions, Inflation
and Debt. The George Soros-funded Center for American Progress, which was run by Obama's Transition Project
co-chair, John Podesta, said Obama would launch a "Green, Unionized Economic Recovery." The key word was "unionized,"
a tip-off that public money would subsidize expansion of the labor unions that backed Obama. One of those powerful
unions, the AFL-CIO, is headed by John Sweeney, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Obama Admin Requiring Project Labor Agreements.
Almost as soon as he took office, President Barack Obama repealed a Bush executive order and issued EO #13502 which
once again forces all federally contracted building projects to suffer under a PLA [Project Labor Agreement]. The fact
is that President Obama stands in opposition to cost effective use of our federal construction dollars as well as free
enterprise. And why did he do this? Perhaps the millions of dollars raised by unions to fund Obama's
presidential campaign explains why? This is no less than a pay back to Big Labor.
Payday For Unions.
If there's any question as to why union toughs turned up at recent health care town halls and got violent,
consider what they were gooning for: a $10 billion bailout for their mismanaged pensions —
at our expense.
Obama Administration Not Enforcing Union Reporting
Laws. Are you a union member trying to find out information of the criminal actions and shady financial
dealings of your union? Well don't expect Obama and his toady in the Labor Secretary's office, Hilda Solis, to
help you uncover any illegalities perpetrated by your union bosses.
Lost: 600,000 Jobs.
As if Big Labor hasn't been repaid enough for its help in electing Democrats, a new report shows that
protectionism — the unions' signature issue — costs 585,000 of the rest of us our jobs.
Obama, labor's
lackey. President Obama says the big problem in Washington is that politicians focus on pleasing special
interests at the expense of the general public. But his curious definition of "special interests" exempts one key
political force: organized labor.
Obama puts union
strings on federal jobs. Delivering on President Obama's promise to boost the labor movement, the
administration has announced a $35 million federal construction project in New Hampshire that requires union
representation for the workers and forces nonunion employees to pay dues and contribute to a union pension fund.
Mr. Obama issued an executive order in the first weeks of his presidency that would make the requirement, known as a
"project labor agreement" or PLA, the norm for all government contracts on large-scale construction jobs.
Follow the Money.
We have yet to see a bill from the Democratic Congress or the Obama White House that is not actually a
payoff to a key constituency. The tsunami of dollars unleashed by the Obama Treasury Department in
coordination with the Fed has obscured the fact that many of those dollars are ending up in the
pockets of Friends of Obama or Friends of Nancy or Friends of Harry.
Labor's $60 Billion
Payoff. Democrats seem impervious to embarrassment as they buy votes for ObamaCare, but their
latest move makes even Nebraska's Ben Nelson look cheap: The 87% of Americans who don't belong to a
union will now foot the bill for a $60 billion giveaway to those who do.
Obama's $59 billion
giveaway to unions: Public outcry over a $59 billion special deal President Obama cut with
unions on Thursday [1/14/2010] should be deafening. Repeatedly throughout his presidential campaign,
Mr. Obama promised that health care negotiations would be carried on C-SPAN precisely to prevent these
types of special-interest favors.
Obama Order Locking Out
Non-Union Construction Companies Marks One Year Anniversary. One year ago this past Saturday
President Obama signed an executive order that reshapes the bidding process for federal construction projects
in a manner that is heavily weighted in favor of unionized companies. This was done as a sop to labor
bosses who have thus far failed to win passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), despite large
Democratic majorities in both congressional chambers.
Obama's Unholy Union — With Unions.
President Obama still has one unstinting and stalwart comrade: the unions. After decades in
inexorable and well-deserved decline, unions are back bigtime in the Obama-nation. It is an unholy
union. It's bad for business, bad for the economy, bad for our country.
Unions
demand more from White House. Leaders of unions, a crucial constituency for Democrats, say they're
disappointed over how little U.S. President Barack Obama has delivered on labor priorities.
Big Labor's Big
Payback. For some time, the business community has been saying that Big Labor would stop at
nothing to obtain political "payback" in the form of forced unionization of America's employers. Union
bosses have tried unsuccessfully to ram their job-killing agenda, namely the Employee 'Forced' Choice Act
(EFCA) through Congress, at the same time, working their friends in the Obama Administration for favors
and awards. And it now appears President Obama is prepared to "payback" Big Labor's political
contributions and support with a recess appointment of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations
Board (NLRB).
Fix Is On by Obama
and Congress in Union Fight. [Scroll down] The Public Safety-Employer-Employee Cooperation
Act of 2009 passed the House in 2009 but did not make it to the Senate vote for various extraneous reasons.
But it's back, and it will pass the House and Senate in this session of Congress, lifted by a Democrat majority
anxious to move on the bill before November, when it appears that the composition of both Houses will change
significantly. The bill is alarming.
How to Fight Back
against Public Unions: A Primer. [Scroll down] Public employee unions will spend
millions to try to defeat measures to rein in their bloated salaries and pension benefits. They threaten
even longer lines at government offices (and fewer of them), shorter hours at libraries, park districts
cutting programs, and fewer policeman and firefighters. The list goes on and on of the plagues that
will hit us if we dare take on public unions. They never address high salaries, excessive days off,
sick days being used because government employees are sick of work, or pensions being used to buy piña
coladas in Pensacola. Government unions spend vast sums on this propaganda (and on lobbyists and
political campaigns to elect politicians to put in their pockets), and the exact amount is now almost
unknowable. Barack Obama, in the first few days of his presidency, issued an executive order shielding
unions from disclosure rules requiring them to report how they spend union dues.
In the Tank for Big Labor.
Labor union membership has declined dramatically in the past six decades, from over a third of the workforce in
1945 to just 7.2 percent of private sector employees in 2009; unions are now overwhelmingly concentrated in the
public sector. But organized labor continues to wield tremendous political influence. Unions spent
$400 million during the 2008 elections in support of Democratic candidates, and Barack Obama has been
grateful.
Feds threaten to
sue states over union laws. The National Labor Relations Board on Friday [1/14/2011]
threatened to sue Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah over constitutional amendments
guaranteeing workers the right to a secret ballot in union elections.
The Editor says...
Imagine that. The federal government is threatening to file a lawsuit to prevent secret
ballot elections.
Obama
uses normally-neutral board to pay back unions. President Barack Obama's administration
continues its private sector unionization efforts, this time with the historically "politically neutral"
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). A newly proposed rule from the NLRB would require private
sector companies to post employees' rights under the National Labor Relations Act, the legislation that
gives employees the "right" to unionize, in their workplaces.
Three SEIU
Locals Waived From Obamacare Requirement. Three local chapters of the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU), whose political action committee spent $27 million supporting Barack
Obama in the 2008 presidential election, have received temporary waivers from a provision in the
Obamacare law. The three SEIU chapters include the Local 25 in Obama's hometown of Chicago.
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