Unions

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Larry Sand - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

Tribute, Turf Tax and the Teachers Unions

January 28, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Larry Sand

Before the Reformation, it was common for Europeans to pay Tribute to the Church. People across Europe would have to give something to Rome as a way of submitting to, or showing allegiance to, the church.

Tribute in another form came about in the U.S. the 1920s when organized crime carved up cities and claimed certain areas as their turf. Any legitimate person who wanted to start a business in a gang’s territory would have to pay a street or turf tax to the thugs just to do business.

While these concepts may seem alien to many of us in the West today, people here in our own country that toil away in non-right-to-work states must pay Tribute — in the form of union dues — if they want to be employed in certain professions.

Teachers in 28 states and Washington D.C. fall into this pay-to-play category. While this type of Tribute goes pretty much unchallenged, every now and then something comes up that you’d think would enrage those who are being victimized.
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Tribute, Turf Tax and the Teachers Unions”

ACORN - Andrew Breitbart - Anita MonCrief - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Judges - Law - Texas - Warner Todd Huston

Lefties Trying Preemptive Assault on Texas True The Vote Event

January 27, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The left-wing website Talking Points Memo (known as TPM) is worried that the Tea Party-backed True The Vote effort in Harris County, Texas — home of the City of Houston — is going to successfully enlist Texans to join an effort to “true the vote” by battling vote fraud. Because of this fear, TPM has been trying to undermine the event with several left-slanted blog posts.

TPMs latest posting is artful for its vague accusations and spin, but it is short on any actual proof of the nefarious goals that the left-wing site is trying to ascribe to the True The Vote National Summit, coming up on March 25 and 26. Read closely TPM’s post also has the odd effect of coming to the support of vote fraud by seeming to discount the True The Vote event. Sadly, this dismissive attitude is of a piece with the left’s desire to shy people from paying attention to the massive vote fraud that they, themselves have been involved in for decades.
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Lefties Trying Preemptive Assault on Texas True The Vote Event”

AFL-CIO - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Realizing They Have Bad Reputation, Launch PR Campaign

January 27, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

So, what is the first thing that you do when you find out that everyone hates you? What do you do when you finally come to terms with the fact that you have the worst reputation possible? Do you sit yourself down and reassess your actions to try and pinpoint why everyone thinks you are a jerk? Well, that might be what a serious person or group might do. So, what has the AFL-CIO, the SEIU and other big unions done upon this realization? Why, hired a public relations firm, of course.

After all, the unions can’t possibly be at fault can they? Why, it can’t be the union’s fault that everyone hates them, could it? It simply must be that people out there are too stupid to understand that unions are wonderful, right?
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Unions Realizing They Have Bad Reputation, Launch PR Campaign”

Budget - Economy/Finances - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Pensions - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Quinn’s Pension Mess

January 27, 2011 by

From John Bambenek…

Last night the Governor’s office confirmed what many have suspected, that the Illinois pension systems are the subject of an SEC investigation. You can read the Wall Street Journal article on the subject.

With our pensions systems not only falling below 50% funding, but selling assets to keep the lights on, this is disturbing news. The best guess estimate I have is that the pension debt for the state alone is around $140 to $150 BILLION dollars. And despite the massive tax hike, no real work has been done to stabilize these funds. At this rate, they will be insolvent and unable to pay benefits by 2015.

Like many of you, I was appalled at the job-killing tax hikes that were passed in the final hours of the last legislative session. What was worse is that not only was spending not cut, they actually expanding state spending. The so-called “spending caps” are illusory at best for two reasons: it does not limit spending out of “special funds” and the spending caps are set higher than even the most optimistic estimates of the revenue that we will have.
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Quinn’s Pension Mess”

Business - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Leftists Use Crosshairs to Attack Walmart Over Unionization

January 24, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Remember that “new tone” the left keeps talking about? Remember how they went ape-nuts over Sarah Palin’s use of crosshairs symbols on her electoral campaign map? That was “violent,” the left claimed. That was lowering the level of debate, they chirped. It was evil, they slobbered.

Well, I guess the left isn’t too upset at the whole use of crosshairs thing. After all, a bunch of left-wing, anti-capitalist, union thugs types in Washington D.C. have been using that motif on their flyers aimed at forcing retail giant Walmart into abandoning its quest to build there. And not a word has been said of it on the left, either.

Nice double standard the left has there, eh?
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Leftists Use Crosshairs to Attack Walmart Over Unionization”

PCism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

A Union Thug Emails Me

January 21, 2011 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Usually when union thugs email me the content it not suitable for a general audience as their missives are so filled with venom and foul language. But I just got one that I can safely post for all ages.

Now, I am also quite pleased with my reply, so I am posting that as well.

Union thug Mr. sbandos writes:

Its always been my observation of people who are against labor unions as much as you are , are usually people who never had to put in a good day of hard labor in their life.

Of course, sbandos is an idiot. I suppose this union thug assumes I am some rich dude that never had to work for my country club life and my trust fund. My bank account would beg to differ and so would my first two kids that hardly ever saw me until they were older for the over time I was putting in just trying to pay the bills. But, hey, union thugs don’t need facts. They have their thuggery to warm their tiny brains.

I really liked my response, though. Here it is:

It’s always been my observation that people who are for labor unions as much as you are, are usually people that once put in a good day of hard labor and got in a union so that they’d never have to do it again.

Sometimes I kill me.
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A Union Thug Emails Me”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Constitution - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Liberals - NLRB - PLA - President - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Now a Regulation Slayer? Hardly!

January 19, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Tuesday, President Obama had an op ed published in the Wall Street Journal. In it Obama insisted that our economy has been hurt by “unreasonable burdens on business” and that the regulatory sector had “gotten out of balance.” He promised that he’d make efforts to trim away regulations costly to business. While the sentiment is certainly a good one, it strains credulity to imagine that Barack Obama would be the one to make those cuts especially in light of the huge regulatory state that Obama has spent enlarging at every opportunity over the last two years.

To be sure Obama needs to gain the confidence of the business community. After all, as far s the business sector is concerned Obama has considered them his number one enemy since he began running for president back in 2006. The economy has stalled precisely because everyone is afraid of what punishment via his regulatory powers that Obama will next mete out to them.

But Obama claims he’s going to change all that and just in time for him to ramp up his 2012 reelection campaign, too. He’s signed an Executive Order, he says, in order to “strike the right balance” between regulation and business success.
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Obama Now a Regulation Slayer? Hardly!”

Arizona - Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Card Check - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - DOL - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Nanny State - NLRB - President - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Right To Work - South Carolina - South Dakota - Taxes - Unions - Utah - Warner Todd Huston

Obama to Sue States to End Worker’s Right to Secret Ballot

January 19, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Barack Obama has given more payoffs, sweetheart deals, and new favorable regulations to Big Labor than any president in history. They should love him for his incredible largess. Next, in his never ending quest to harm the business community, defy the will of the voters, and give his pals in Big Labor paybacks, Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) — a federal labor regulatory agency — is about to sue any state that dares attempt to protect the right of workers to have secret ballots in their workplace elections. The states have made the mistake of sponsoring worker’s ballot protection laws.

Recently the NLRB announced its intentions to sue Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah because those states had the gal to implement constitutional amendments to their state constitutions guaranteeing that workers have a right to a secret ballot in union elections.

With this the Obama administration is moving to deny workers their right to a secret ballot, a right that has been sacrosanct in democracies for hundreds if not thousands of years. Why does Barack Obama want to take away the right to a secret ballot? Because his union pals don’t want workers to feel safe voting against a union.
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Obama to Sue States to End Worker’s Right to Secret Ballot”

Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Newspapers - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Newspaper Ignores Facts in Teacher’s ‘Vagina Dance’ Song Controversy

January 18, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It isn’t just national issues that the Old Media misreports. As we focus on the “big” stories of the day, we often overlook the local scene and the left-wing excuse for “reporting,” therefrom. This is a perfect example of that.

Imagine you are a sophomore in high school and your sex ed teacher forces you to prance about your classroom singing and dancing to “The Vagina Dance” in a puerile attempt to teach the parts and functions of the female sex organ. Worse, imagine you are a male student in a classroom of such an unhinged teacher? Well, we don’t have to imagine it too hard because this exact situation has happened in a classroom in the Chicago, Illinois suburbs. But don’t worry. Chicago’s Old Media is all about reporting this incident honestly. Well, if honestly means to ignore relevant facts and shore up support for the out of control teacher and smooth things over for the school, that is.

Early this month, parent Robert King, whose son goes to Crystal Lake’s Prairie Ridge High School, complained to school authorities over the inappropriate teaching methods of health teacher Jacqulyn Levin. As a teaching tool Levin used “The Vagina Dance,” a song replete with dance steps and arm movements, and required her entire co-ed class to participate in it – all to the tune of The Hokey Pokey, no less. As it happens King’s son was uncomfortable being required to prance about the room, arms emulating fallopian tubes, and singing about vaginas, so the parents complained.
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Newspaper Ignores Facts in Teacher’s ‘Vagina Dance’ Song Controversy”

Barack Obama - Capitalism - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - NLRB - President - Rights - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Labor Dept: If You Let Girl Scouts Sell Cookies, You HAVE to Let Unions Come in Too

January 18, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Everyone loves Girl Scout cookies, right? What could be more American? It’s a right of passage for many young girls to set up a folding table in front of a local business and sell their little cookies and what American doesn’t get a warm feeling in their heart when they see those peppy little ones chirping out, “would you like to buy some cookies?” Who could be against that? Who would want to set up a situation where Girl Scouts would be turned away from their traditional cookie-selling outposts?

Apparently the Obama administration.

At least one sector of America isn’t so fond of the ability of Girl Scouts to sell their wares unhindered, it seems. When the Obama administration’s Department of Labor and his National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) look at Girl Scouts, they don’t see cute little children taking their first steps toward adulthood, they see opportunity for a union powergrab.
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Obama’s Labor Dept: If You Let Girl Scouts Sell Cookies, You HAVE to Let Unions Come in Too”

Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Larry Sand - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Teachers Unions - Unions

Education Reform – Teacher Union Style

January 18, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

Union leaders have nothing to offer in matters of education reform.

In an absurd editorial, two Los Angeles Unified School District teachers last Friday — both United Teachers Los Angeles chapter chairs — wrote what was supposed to be, in part, a nastygram to LA’s Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The op-ed, entitled Pipe Down, Mr. Mayor (the name in the print version), takes the LA mayor to task for criticizing the union for which he used to organize. Referring to ed reform, he had called the union’s leadership “the most powerful defenders of the status quo” at a conference in Sacramento last month.

The two angry unionistas attempt to convince Times’ readers that the union is behind some really terrific “progressive” education reforms.

They start off with the usual whine about cuts in education funding, but in the next breath they state that Gompers Middle School “has spent thousands of dollars on classroom libraries for students who have limited access to quality books.” Hasn’t this always been the purpose of school libraries? And by the way, where are the cuts?
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Education Reform – Teacher Union Style”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Jobs - Liberals - Michigan - Society/Culture - UAW - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Boss: Yeah We’ll Talk, But Go Our Way or You’re a ‘Human Rights Violator’

January 14, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As President Obama clucks his tongue at America for “pointing fingers” and “assigning blame” in our political debate, and as his friends on the far left ignore him and point their fingers and assign blame to the Republicans, Tea Partiers, and Sarah Palin, at least one union chief in Detroit is doing his part to add to the political vitriol by charging anyone that disagrees with him with being a “human rights violator.”

Oh, he’s all about sitting down at the table and talking, he claims. Yet, United Auto Workers President Bob King is ready to finger point and accuse people of a vile abuse of basic human rights if they don’t bend over and take it up the tailpipe courtesy of those greedy, profligate unions.

For Crain’s Detroit David Barkholz reports that the UAW chief is all prepared for negotiations with the Big Three auto makers this year, but his tone makes it pretty clear that his idea of negotiations is his way or the highway. His vitriol is already flowing before the first negotiation session begins.
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Union Boss: Yeah We’ll Talk, But Go Our Way or You’re a ‘Human Rights Violator’”

AFL-CIO - Arizona - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Boss With History of Violence Decries Vitriolic Rhetoric of Right

January 12, 2011 by 5 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, it’s the old “glass houses” story, isn’t it? AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka weighed in on the criminal shooting in Arizona and naturally he blamed the whole incident on “too much vitriolic, hate-filled rhetoric that we hear on radio and television.” This from a guy who has many times used worse rhetoric to incite violence in his unionizing past. Glass houses indeed.

On the AFL-CIO blog, Trumka wrote:

We must find ways to passionately debate and even disagree with each other without using words that can give unstable individuals an incitement to engage in violent acts.

…We do not know why the shooter targeted Rep. Giffords, or if he was influenced—directly or indirectly—by the outrageous rhetoric that’s become all-too-common in our politics.

But “too much vitriolic, hate-filled rhetoric that we hear on radio and television has demonized public servants and candidates as “enemies” and has made them sounds less than human. In the short run, it may inspire passions and votes. But in the long run, it’s toxic to the survival of rational discussion in our democracy. And it’s not worthy of our great nation.

As Pete List of LaborUnionReports.com reminds us, Trumka’s rhetoric helped inspire stabbings and other criminal actions in his days as a young union organizer. In fact, Trumka was involved in the murder of one Eddie York back in 1993.
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Union Boss With History of Violence Decries Vitriolic Rhetoric of Right”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Chicago - Children - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Elections - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Emanuel Pushing Anti-Teachers Union Line in Race for Chicago Mayor?

January 11, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Rahm Emanuel is not the union’s favorite man. He has had union detractors since his days pushing the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) during the Clinton administration. Since then there have been other clashes between Emanuel and unions even as he served President Obama as his Chief of Staff. Now, as he takes after the Chicago teachers union, he seems to be tweaking unions yet again as he runs for the top seat in City Hall here in Chicago.

At least he’s consistent!

On January 10, while campaigning for Mayor, Emanuel laid out a few of his positions on Chicago’s failing schools. What he said is sure to upset the unions — not just that of teachers, either.
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Emanuel Pushing Anti-Teachers Union Line in Race for Chicago Mayor?”

Children - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Jobs - Larry Sand - Liberals - Republicans - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

Bill Gates Stymies Randi Weingarten’s No-Show Offense in One-sided Debate

January 10, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

With a feeble offense (and virtually no defense), the union leader’s strategies help to keep American public education far from the goal line.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten has done it again. She agreed to compete on a level playing field – defending the teachers unions’ version of education reform – and the results were not pretty.

A joint interview printed in Newsweek between American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Microsoft’s founder-turned-ed-reformer Bill Gates ended with Weingarten on the losing end of the debate. This is not new, however, for the wrongheaded union leader. Last March, along with Rod Paige, former U.S. Secretary of Education, and Terry Moe, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of Hoover’s Koret Task Force on K-12 Education, I debated Ms. Weingarten and two of her hand-picked team members in New York City.
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Bill Gates Stymies Randi Weingarten’s No-Show Offense in One-sided Debate”

Dan Proft - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Teachers Unions

The Case Against ‘Experience’

January 10, 2011 by

-By Dan Proft

“Experience,” Oscar Wilde observed, “is simply the name we give our mistakes.” I was reminded of Wilde’s maxim while watching the recent Cathleen Black drama play out in New York City.

Black, the chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, tapped by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to be the city’s public schools chancellor, has no experience in education apart from serving on the board of a charter school. Thus, according to United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew, Black has “no qualifications to be the chancellor of the New York City school system.”

Education establishment figures such as Mulgrew are the same people who think University of Chicago economist Gary Becker shouldn’t be allowed to teach an Intro to Economics course in a public school without a teaching certificate. His Nobel Prize in the field just isn’t good enough.
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The Case Against ‘Experience’”

Budget - Business - Campaign Finance - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Free Trade - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - President - Public Employees Unions - Senate - Socialism - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

In 2011 Public Employees Unions Must Be Targeted for Elimination

January 5, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the biggest recurring themes in union reporting these days is music to the ears of any fiscally responsible American. It seems almost weekly that we are seeing stories that recount the ire being directed at public employee unions. Let us hope that this reporting is the first ripples of an anti-union tidal wave that will sweep public employee unions from our governments drowning in union-created red ink.

One of the latest is an editorial out of Wisconsin by the Lakeland Times’ Gregg Walker. Walker kicked off his piece with exactly the sort of sentiment that we should hope will lead to an end to public employee unions.
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In 2011 Public Employees Unions Must Be Targeted for Elimination”

Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Larry Sand - Liberals - NEA - Teachers Unions - Unions

National Ebenezer Association

January 4, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

Scrooge-like National Education Association shows no sign of remorse.

Once upon a time, school choice became a reality in our nation’s capital. The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which allowed some poor kids in D.C. to go to private schools with the help of a government stipend, was ushered in by a Republican controlled Congress in January 2004. Earlier this year, Jason Richwine at the Heritage Foundation wrote,

Congress put school vouchers to the test in 2004 when it authorized the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP), a federally funded voucher program serving low-income students in the nation’s capital. It has awarded $7,500 scholarships to more than 3,700 students over the past six years.”
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National Ebenezer Association”

AFL-CIO - Anti-Americanism - Free Trade - Jobs - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Anti-American Activist Attacks AFL-CIO’s ‘War Against Developing Countries’

January 3, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Once in a while it is fun to check in with the anti-American left, a political side that is usually blindly pro-union. Once in a while they go off on a fun tangent attacking their own, however, and when that happens it’s time to get out the popcorn to watch the fireworks.

This time an anti-American activist named Nick Egnatz wrote a review of a book titled AFL-CIO’s Secret War against Developing Country Workers (Lexington Books, 2010) and he’s both fired up against the AFL-CIO and troubled by his own alarm at a union. It’s funny stuff.
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Anti-American Activist Attacks AFL-CIO’s ‘War Against Developing Countries’”

Business - Capitalism - Economy/Finances - Entertainment - Free Trade - Jobs - Theater - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Stagehands Extort Hundreds of Thousands From Theater Goers

December 30, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If there never was a story that explains how unions are really little else but a criminal extortion racket, the story by James Ahearn in the New Jersey Began Record helps explain it for us. Ahearn’s piece headlined “For Backstage Labor, Rich Rewards,” informs us that some stagehands in New York theater make upwards to $422,000 a year in salary — and that doesn’t include benefits.

These positions are not as highly skilled as brain surgeons, to be sure, yet these guys make hundreds of thousands a year to move chairs, rearrange scenery, raise curtains, and what have you. Why the absurdly outsized pay scale? Threats of strikes shutting down Broadway and its multi-million dollar industry is why.

Ahearn reveals that one mere stagehand makes $422,599 a year, plus $107,445 in benefits and deferred compensation, another makes $290,000, and two carpenters and two electricians made about $400,000 a year with benefits to work the theaters of New York.
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Stagehands Extort Hundreds of Thousands From Theater Goers”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

90-Year-Old Post Office Workers Still Getting Workers Comp?

December 29, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Years after most Americans retire, in fact years after the federal retirement age of 68, more than 100 U.S. Postal Workers in their 90s are still getting 75 percent of their salaries (tax free, yet) of federal workers compensation payments instead of having been graduated to the cheaper retirement payments at 60 percent of their salaries.

This is classic government waste.

Jim McElhatton of the Washington Times gives us this tale of government foolishness and waste as Senator Susan Collins (R, Maine) scolds the Post Office for its failed administration of the issue.
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90-Year-Old Post Office Workers Still Getting Workers Comp?”

Budget - Capitalism - Chicago - Congress - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Disgusting: Chicago Firefighter ‘Priest’ Uses Fellow’s Funeral For Union Speech

December 29, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Father Thomas Mulcrone made an ass of himself at the funeral for fallen Chicago Firefighter Edward Stringer on Tuesday, Dec. 28 by delivering some union-like hectoring of the city from the pulpit during his dead comrade’s eulogy. Mulcrone’s union-centric address was as disgusting a display as I can imagine and at the most inappropriate time imaginable.

Sadly Stringer, a 12-year veteran Chicago Fireman, perished in a fire a few days before Christmas when a roof of an abandoned building collapsed on him and several other firemen. One other fireman, Corey Ankum, was also killed that terrible day.

At the funeral on Tuesday morning, Father Mulcrone, a Catholic Priest attached to the Chicago Fire Department for some 25 years, launched into some finger waving at all those people who claim that Firemen don’t deserve the money they make.
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Disgusting: Chicago Firefighter ‘Priest’ Uses Fellow’s Funeral For Union Speech”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - California - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - New York - Public Employees Unions - Sex Offenders/Rape - Taxes - Teamsters - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Child Molesting Teacher Can’t Be Fired Thanks to Union

December 28, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In 1997 a Brooklyn teacher was accused of attempting to molest a sixth-grade girl at PS 138. As it happened, he admitted the behavior, but no criminal charges were filed when all was said and done. Still one would think the fact that he inappropriately fondled a teen should be enough to get him fired from his teaching position. But then again, in New York you can’t even fire a child molester if he happens to be a teachers union member.

Thanks to the fact that it is nearly impossible to fire a teacher, this lowlife has been drawing his almost $100,000-a-year salary to do nothing. You heard that right, to do nothing.

You see, even as the union agrees that this pedophile isn’t fit for a classroom, the union still won’t agree to his being fired. So, teacher Roland Pierre sits in a “rubber room” five days a week and does nothing and he’s paid $97,101yearly to do so. And that doesn’t include benefits.
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Child Molesting Teacher Can’t Be Fired Thanks to Union”

Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Nanny State - NLRB - President - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Labor Dept. to Force Employers to tell Employees They Have a Right to Unionize

December 24, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s intrusive National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the government regulatory agency responsible for making rules to govern the relationship between employer and employee, has decided that as an employee you are stupid. Worse, the NLRB also decided that it has the power to force your employer to waste its resources holding your hand as an employee and notifying you of your rights to join a union under the National Labor Relations Act. Essentially, this government agency has summarily decided that employers must do the government agency’s job for it.

What American doesn’t understand that they have a basic right to unionize? And for those who don’t it is incumbent upon them to learn enough to become an informed citizen. It is the basic charge of being an American, after all. It is a duty of each of us to learn about our rights and learn how to exercise them. It isn;t our employer’s job to teach us how to be useful American citizens. Ah, but if you are Obama, you assume that everyone is too stupid to learn what their own rights are and nanny government must force your employer to read a list of your rights to you upon being hired.
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Obama’s Labor Dept. to Force Employers to tell Employees They Have a Right to Unionize”

Barack Obama - Capitalism - Crime - Health - Jobs - Journalism - Media - Media Bias - President - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions ‘Christmas Carol’ Harassment, Media Ignores Hateful Unionistas

December 24, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A bus load of 80 union thugs descended upon a sleepy — and private — suburb in Keokuk, Iowa disturbing the peace with loud singing, foul language and trespassing. And the media? Well, the Old Media thought this criminal behavior was just amusing “caroling.”

Locked out workers of Roquette America in Keokuk, Iowa (right across the river from Quincy, Ill.) invaded the property and homes of the company’s executives singing their foul songs and disrupting the peace in the quiet suburb.

Not only did the news media report this as but inoffensive “caroling” — which it decidedly was not — the media didn’t even report the illicit and immature behavior of these union thugs. The media whitewashed the whole incident.
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Unions ‘Christmas Carol’ Harassment, Media Ignores Hateful Unionistas”

AFL-CIO - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Campaign Finance - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Liberals - Lobbyists - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Tells Labor, I’m On Your Side

December 21, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

They gave him hundreds of millions of dollars for his campaign for president and for that Barack Obama has given Big Labor many, many payoffs, sweetheart deals, and regulatory favors. And this week he met in the White House with members of Big Labor and told them that he was sill on their side.

Even with all the paybacks and special favors that Obama has given to the unions in the fist half of his presidency, Big Labor is suspicious of his fealty and unhappy with his apparently insufficient level of kowtowing. And I have to say, the way labor representatives were treated in this particular White House visit does send a subtle message that Big Labor is not quite the hale fellow well met that it once was.

But don’t be fooled by the artifice.
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Obama Tells Labor, I’m On Your Side”

Chicago - Children - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

40% of Chicago Public School Teachers Send Own Kids to Private Schools

December 20, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Liberals love to claim that the public school system is the shining success story of the American political system. And even when the schools break down in effectiveness, liberals double down on their support for them and insist that we spend ever larger chunks of the taxpayer’s money to “fix” them.

Of course, even as liberal politicians constantly extol the virtues of the public schools they are quietly sending their own kids to private schools. These hypocrites don’t seem to mind sending the public’s kids to subpar, failing schools but they’ll be damned that they’ll do so with their own kids.
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40% of Chicago Public School Teachers Send Own Kids to Private Schools”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois - Liberals - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois to the Elderly: Retire Somewhere Else, Will Ya?

December 16, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Guess which state is the single worst state to try and retire in? Yup. Illinois.

TopRetirements.com, a site that tracks the best values for retirees, recently posted its top ten worst states to retire to and Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois tops the list of the worst. California comes up a close second worst.

Of Illinois the sites says, “Illinois’s fiscal health could be the worst of any state, which is what tipped the scales. It has even borrowed money to fund its pension obligations.”
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Illinois to the Elderly: Retire Somewhere Else, Will Ya?”

Budget - Capitalism - Card Check - Democrats/Leftists - EFCA - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - NLRB - President - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Using Regulatory Power to Force Card Check

December 14, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Congress has failed to pass Big Labor’s long sought after card check bill, the Orwellian named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The reason congress has not passed this destructive law is because the voters have repeatedly spoken by urging their representatives and senators to stand against it. The voice of the American people, though, does not interest President Barack Obama because he is gearing up to use his power to control America’s regulatory regime to force card check on the people anyway.

One of the chief provisions of the card check bill eliminates the secret ballot and would force workers voting on union representation to make their vote publicly by signing a card that everyone can easily see. This procedure certainly leaves workers open to intimidation as union bosses learn just who voted for them and who voted against them.

There are also other bad parts to the EFCA. One of them is that the government will force automatic arbitration on union and employer alike if no contract has been arrived at in the very short time that the government is forcing on them by law.
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Obama Using Regulatory Power to Force Card Check”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Government - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Tim Pawlenty: Government Unions vs. Taxpayers

December 14, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty penned a great op ed in the Wall Street Journal that takes public employee unions to task for their greed and their destructive nature. I’ve said many times that public employee unions are antithetical to good government and should be outlawed. Pawlenty agrees that they make good governing impossible.

Public employees have not always had the luxury of unions. The idea that government employees should be allowed to enter into collective bargaining didn’t exist prior to 1958. The fact is, we will never be able to fix our public pension problems until we go back to a pre-1958 stance on public employee unions. They should be eliminated completely.

Now I don’t usually post whole articles. But this one is too good to just excerpt. I hope WSJ can excuse me…
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Tim Pawlenty: Government Unions vs. Taxpayers”