Unions

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

Unions Retreat on Criticism of Dems That Didn’t Support Obamacare

September 22, 2010 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Earlier in this election cycle unions were pumped up with an assumed sense of supreme power, they had spent millions to elect their guy to the White House and they were ready to flex their muscles. Unions began to direct that assumed power against Democrats that were reticent to support Obama’s takeover of our healthcare system. In some early primaries unions spoke out against these so-called Blue-dog Democrats and said they would not support them but at the other end of this primary season unions are singing a different tune.

With the obvious downturn in support that Democrats have seen in these primaries and in the polls of American voters unions have gotten the hint (like a club over the head) that the arrogance they evinced of daring to attack Democrats for not having a pure enough devotion to union ideals was maybe not such a great idea.
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Unions Retreat on Criticism of Dems That Didn’t Support Obamacare”

AFL-CIO - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Labor Law - Liberals - Pensions - President - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Struggling to Get Members to Rally Behind Dems

September 18, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

When voters are not enthused even unions find it harder to get their supporters to rally to an election and this is one of the worst years for Democrats on record. Unions are finding their efforts hard slogging just like the rest of the Democrat Party is. It’s so bad even The New York Times is reporting the Union’s woes.

As we’ve repeatedly talked about here, The Times reports that Big Labor is pumping millions into the Democrat’s pockets in hopes of fighting off the conservative Tea Party enthusiasm out there this election year. Apparently, though, unions are finding that, like other Democrat constituencies, their members are not “feeling particularly enthusiastic about the party.”

Unions have been bitterly disappointed by Obama. When they voted for him only 2 years ago they thought that they had won the battle for all the freebies and payoffs that they’d ever want. But they’ve been frustrated by key losses — such as an inability to get cap and trade, green initiatives, and their most desired legislation the Employee Free Trade Act (EFCA).
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Unions Struggling to Get Members to Rally Behind Dems”

AFSCME - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Michigan - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Taxes - UAW - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Michigan Home Healthcare Workers Sue State Over Forced Unionization

September 16, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

So imagine that you are working out of your home or the home of a friend. Say you are helping care for your own developmentally disabled relative or that of another. You are working for a family, not a company, and you are not employed by the state. Then one day you get a letter in the mail that says you have been forced by the state to join a union and henceforth you will be paying dues by having some of your salary removed by the state and given to the union. Does this sound like you are living and working in America? It is if you are a home healthcare worker in the State of Michigan.

Because of a special deal made behind the scenes between Mich. Gov. Jennifer Granholm and two unions, the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Michigan’s 40,000 in-home healthcare workers were unionized by a shady “vote” of less than 20% of these workers in 2006 via a mail-in ballot that most workers had no idea even existed.

The forced unionization has been in and out of courts since 2006 and now it is about to go back in again as a group of in-home healthcare workers is suing the state for driving them into a union against their will.
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Michigan Home Healthcare Workers Sue State Over Forced Unionization”

Business - California - Economy/Finances - Elections - Liberals - SEIU - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU and NUHW Goes Head-To-Head in Big Labor Death Match

September 15, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For more than a year I’ve written off an on about the vicious fight between the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and offshoot union the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). The NUHW left the SEIU in a huff several years ago when the SEIU implemented a hostile takeover of the California-based NUHW that it had been affiliated with.

This month that fight has fallen upon the workers of Kaiser Permanente in the Los Angeles Medical Center where a vote is soon to be taken by KP employees to decide which of the rival unions will represent them.

Starting this week the 43,000 KP workers will be making their choice known and the vying for votes by the two unions has been “hostile,” as NUHW member Edvin Hakopian said.
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SEIU and NUHW Goes Head-To-Head in Big Labor Death Match”

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

SEIUs Anna Burger to Retire

September 12, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The New York Times gave a glowing review of Ana Burger’s career as a most divisive member of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). But how could one be less arrogant and pushy than would seem natural for a union that set out to fashion itself an “international” union?

Burger, 59, was supposed to be the heir apparent to former President Andy Stern, himself a petulant and arrogant figure. But it was not to be. When Stern stepped down from heading the SEIU, Burger was passed over for another by the membership.

And now she is retiring from her 14-year-long position as secretary-treasurer of the SEIU after 38 years in Big Labor.

Apparently, though, Burger retires “frustrated,” as the Times has it. She leaves as the power of Big Labor seems to be on the wane. Fewer unions, fewer members, and fewer political supporters seem to be the immediate future of Big Labor.
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SEIUs Anna Burger to Retire”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Card Check - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Socialism - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Favors to Unions

September 11, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Washington Examiner asks a few substantive questions about unions this Labor Day weekend. Why do they seem to have such an outsized power when their dues paying members are fewer than ever, when they work in fewer industries than ever, and when they have such money troubles?

Ah, but the answer is what we all know. They have a president in Washington that’s bought and paid for.

Here are just some of the favors that Obama has given to his patrons in Big Labor as the Examiner notes:
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Obama’s Favors to Unions”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Jobs - John Kennedy - Labor Law - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Majority of Union Members Now Work for Government

September 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It is the most important hill that folks interested in good government have yet to conquer and that is the elimination of government employee unions. The Heritage Foundation reports the sad and disgusting news that the majority of union members now work for government, an intolerable situation to say the least.

The BLS’s annual report on union membership shows the labor movement’s decline in membership continued in 2009. While a full 23.0 percent of Americans belonged to labor unions in 1980, by 2008 only 12.4 percent did. In 2009, that figure dropped slightly to 12.3 percent.[2] There are now 15.3 million union members in the United States, 770,000 fewer than in 2008.

…What is newsworthy, however, is another figure reported by the BLS: 52 percent of all union members work for the federal or state and local governments, a sharp increase from the 49 percent in 2008. A majority of American union members are now employed by the government; three times more union members now work in the Post Office than in the auto industry.

This is a travesty. Unions are one of the main causes of budgets going into the red in states all across the country. The incestuous relationship between politicians greedy for union political contributions and unions donating to them in order to get ever grater pay and benefits (all conveniently cutting out the will of the voters and destroying good, fiscally responsible government) has about ruined this country.
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Majority of Union Members Now Work for Government”

Andy Stern - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

A Reminder of What Union Leaders Feel About Our Political System

September 8, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Back in 2007 Andy Stern, the now former President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), attended a forum sponsored by the NDN Globalization Initiative and during the question and answer period after his remarks he said that he was “totally involved in distorting the political system.” Here the president of one of America’s most powerful unions just said that he feels his job is to purposefully subvert America’s political system.

Sadly, this union thug doesn’t care much about the integrity of our political system, eh?

It should also be remembered that since Democrats are the handmaiden of Big Labor this, by extension, is the same way that Democrats feel about our American political system. They have no interest in its integrity and will “distort” it whenever they feel like it..

See the full, hour-long video here.
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A Reminder of What Union Leaders Feel About Our Political System”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Labor Law - Law - Liberals - President - Regulation - SEIU - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU’s Illegal Fund-Raising Scheme

September 7, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, has an interesting expose in the Washington Examiner revealing how the U.S. government has decided to allow an obviously illegal fund-raising scheme that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) invented to fuel its spending on political causes and campaigns.

The SEIU has decided to fine any of its locals that does not meet a $25,000 Political Action Committee (PAC) contribution limit. The fine imposed is $37,500. This means that union headquarters is telling the locals that they MUST donate a “voluntary” $27,000 or face this exorbitant fine.
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SEIU’s Illegal Fund-Raising Scheme”

AFL-CIO - Business - Capitalism - Free Trade - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - The Heritage Foundation - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Hypocrisy Is Big Labor’s Big Problem

September 7, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Deroy Murdock over at the National Review has a great column detailing a dozen or so instances of rank hypocrisy perpetrated by unions. Deroy says that for all of Bog Labor’s yammering about worker’s right: “Such class-warfare sloganeering would be easier to stomach if Big Labor were internally consistent.”

Murdock gives all sorts of examples of unions violating their own supposedly closely held tenets. From unions firing employees for trying to organize the union’s own office workers, to unions using non-union labor to build their own offices, unions prove to be filled with liars and hypocrites.

Check out Deroy Murdock’s piece, “Hypocrisy Is Big Labor’s Big Problem .”
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Hypocrisy Is Big Labor’s Big Problem”

Barack Obama - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - President - Public Employees Unions - Unemployment - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Panders to Union Thugs on Labor Day And Whines A Bit, Too

September 6, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

President Obama dutifully went to Wisconsin today under orders from his union patrons to make a big show of his support for union thugs on Labor Day.

The bought and paid for president gave his remarks (text of prepared remarks) as expected but there was a little wrinkle this time. Apparently the poor widdle president is upset at his critics. He whined to his union patrons that his critics “talk about me like a dog.” President Obama, I, for one, would never insult dogs like that.

Obama: They talk about me like a dog

(CNN) – Those following President Obama’s prepared remarks during a speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Monday were thrown a bit of a curveball when it came to a description of his critics:

“Some powerful interests who had been dominating the agenda in Washington for a very long time and they’re not always happy with me. They talk about me like a dog. That’s not in my prepared remarks, but it’s true,” he told a crowd largely consisting of union members.

The line was a rare departure from a president who normally sticks close to the text of his speech and may forecast a more aggressive tone on the part of Obama as the midterms approach.

The address is the first of two speeches this week in which Obama will try and frame his administration’s response to the recession, less than two months ahead of midterm elections where Democratic majorities in the House and Senate are on the ropes.

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Obama Panders to Union Thugs on Labor Day And Whines A Bit, Too”

Bill Brady - Budget - Elections - GOP - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Republicans - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Labor Day Message from Bill Brady‏

September 6, 2010 by

From the Brady for Illinois Governor campaign…

As we head into Labor Day, I wanted to send my personal thanks to every one for coming out and supporting our campaign as I traveled across Illinois outlining my plan for creating real jobs, and for putting Illinois back to work.

In Illinois and across America, Labor Day celebrates not only the traditional end of summer, but also the historic legacy of labor, and of the generations of working men and women who built our great nation.

But this Labor Day, as we celebrate with family and friends at hometown parades and back yard barbecues, we also remember that too many of our fellow citizens are struggling, and out of work.
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Labor Day Message from Bill Brady‏”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Government - Liberals - Taxes - Thomas Brewton - Unions

Obama Backs Violent Labor Leader

September 6, 2010 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Obama, the self-styled man of peace, the reconciler, and the hope of mankind, is cozy with violence, from Islam to labor unions.

Labor Day should be a reminder that labor unions are quintessentially socialist organizations, taking their origin and character from the Marxian doctrine of class struggle. Employers are the enemy, to be hammered into submission without regard for the destructive effect on everyone else, on the theory that business profits are theft of money that really belongs to the workers.

Violence is inherent in labor unionism (see IWW – Organized Crime in the Labor Market and Labor Unions: Socialism’s Shock Troops).
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Obama Backs Violent Labor Leader”

California - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Prevent Kids from Learning in L.A.

September 4, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The L.A. Times has been publishing a great series about how the city’s schools have been dropping the ball on education. Specifically, the Times points out that the L.A. schools district has had at its disposal stats that could have helped it to engineer a better education policy for its students but has ignored these stats. Why have they ignored these stats? Fear of unions.

The Times has a database of the effectiveness of nearly 6,000 L.A. area teachers. These findings, the Times informs us, were based on a method called “value-added analysis. It is a method that is beginning to be used to rank teachers and help administrators design a more effective education for kids all across the country.

The Times also says that the L.A. school administrators had this info all along and never used it. Why would that be? (my bold below)
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Unions Prevent Kids from Learning in L.A.”

AFL-CIO - Business - Capitalism - Crime - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Journalism - Labor Law - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Violence Soaked AFL-CIO Prez Calls Palin a McCarthyite?

September 3, 2010 by 12 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

For his Labor Day weekend trick, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka leveled the charge of McCarthyism at former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. This is a bit rich from a guy with blood on his hands — and I don’t say that figuratively, either.

At a September 2 meeting sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, Trumka claimed that “Palinism” was the “new McCarthyism” and warned that if she kept up her rhetoric she would be guilty of inciting her followers. “She can’t use loose language that foments… that anger to hatred, or that action to violence,” Trumka said.

The comments were “totally consistent,” Trumka said. “She has taken on a position of leadership, and whether it is rightfully given to her or not, she is there. And so she can’t use loose language that foments … changing that anger to hatred or that action to violence.” He continued, “If she doesn’t change her ways, then Palinism will be equated with other forms of McCarthyism that fomented division among the populace and acts of hatred among the populace.”

This is a bit rich from a guy that has the death of a non-union worker in New York on his head. Michelle Malkin does the good work of reminding us all of the violence that Trumka has supported in the past.

Meet Eddie York. He was a workingman whose story will never scroll across Obama’s teleprompter. A nonunion contractor who operated heavy equipment, York was shot to death during a strike called by the United Mine Workers 17 years ago. Workmates who tried to come to his rescue were beaten in an ensuing melee. The head of the UMW spearheading the wave of strikes at that time? Richard Trumka. Responding to concerns about violence, he shrugged to the Virginian-Pilot in September 1993: “I’m saying if you strike a match and you put your finger in it, you’re likely to get burned.” Incendiary rhetoric, anyone?

And Malkin also chronicles the time when Trumka incited violence in Illinois.
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Violence Soaked AFL-CIO Prez Calls Palin a McCarthyite?”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Oregon - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Members of Oregon’s State Employee Unions Get 5% Pay Raises… as Taxpayers Lose Jobs!

September 3, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Unbelievable. In Oregon the reg’lar folks are losing their jobs right and left. And the bad luck for those actually paying the bills, the taxpayers, gets even worse because Oregon’s politicians have made sure that the state’s public employees unions get an automatic 5% pay raise starting this Wednesday!

5 percent pay increase for state union employees begins Wednesday

SALEM (AP) — A step pay increase of nearly 5 percent for Oregon state workers represented by unions goes into effect Wednesday.
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Members of Oregon’s State Employee Unions Get 5% Pay Raises… as Taxpayers Lose Jobs!”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - DOL - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Policy - President - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unemployment - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Tell Obama and Congress to Halt The Assault on Small Business

September 3, 2010 by

From the folks at the Free Enterprise Alliance, a group of free market advocates backed by the construction industry.

Appearing on televisions in places near and far, ABC’s Free Enterprise Alliance this week will launch a new ad asking travelers to look around, find a representative, and tell them to Halt The Assault on free enterprise, small business, and jobs.

The FEA says they’ve booked time at on CNN’s Airport network, so this ad will appear right where our Congressmen are going to be as they make their way home for the holiday!

From the group’s About Us page:

At the heart of the Free Enterprise Alliance’s mission is the belief that while we need government for common sense regulations, the scales have tipped too far in favor of government intrusion and its advocates. The Free Enterprise Alliance believes small business and entrepreneurs grow jobs and our economy, not union bosses and federal bureaucrats.

California - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Liberals - Lobbyists - Public Employees Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Calif. Unions Already Spent $14 Million In Elections

September 2, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The L.A. Times recently reported that in California unions have already spent $14 million to defeat Republicans in California’s coming elections. This is what any Republican has to face anywhere in the country, though not always at such a high spending rate.

The fact is that when Republicans run for office they face not only the campaign coffers of their Democrat opponent, but they also face the millions of dollars that public employee unions and other far left-wing advocacy groups will spend against them. Rarely do Republicans find much support from high-spending outside forces in anywhere near the same numbers that Democrats command.

While many of Californian’s Democrats have yet to put much of their campaign cash into the race, unions have more than made up for that lack of spending.
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Calif. Unions Already Spent $14 Million In Elections”

AFL-CIO - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Liberals - President - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama, Sec. of Labor to Appear by AFL-CIO Prez at Labor Day Rally

September 1, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s been announced that President Obama will be attending the AFL-CIO’s Labor Day rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin next month. Along for the ride will be Sec. of Labor Hilda Solis.

This is one more effort of the Obama administration to shore up Big Labor’s support coming into the midterm election campaign season.

Naturally Obama is still sounding his horn for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) as well as pushing his healthcare ideas.
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Obama, Sec. of Labor to Appear by AFL-CIO Prez at Labor Day Rally”

Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The Arrogance of The Public Employee Union Member

August 31, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a recent story detailing the efforts of 3,000 postal employee union members marching against USPS management in Detroit, one quote by a union member stuck me as wholly emblematic of the arrogance of government employee union members and it shows the disconnect between the real world and the cushy world of government workers.

As the 3,000 postal workers marched against proposed cuts in the U.S. Post office, tucked at the bottom of the Detroit Free Press piece was a quote by post office employee Kim Sauceda, of Tallevast, Florida.

“People have gone from being very confident and sure that this is a lifetime career to now not being so sure.”

Notice how this government employee imagined that her position with the USPS is supposed to be a never ending, permanent job? This shocking sense of entitlement does not exist outside of public employees unions.
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The Arrogance of The Public Employee Union Member”

Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Liberals - Mississippi - Public Employees Unions - Religion - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Miss. School: Only White Students can be Class Prez, Only Blacks Vice Prez

August 30, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In Mississippi, Nettleton Middle School is finally doing away with its policy of portioning school class officer positions by race. As the policy stood before this month, the student officer positions were set up so that if you wanted to run for eighth grade class president you had to be white while if you wanted to be vice-president, why you had to be black.

Before you get the wrong idea, here, this is a 30-year holdover policy meant to assure that both blacks and whites were represented on the school student council in Nettleton. It isn’t a new policy by any means.

This year when the memo went home to parents about the racial requirements to run for class officer positions, though, the school district was questioned on the efficacy of the practice. So, after 30 years the board finally decided to get rid of the old policy. Superintendent Russell Taylor released a statement explaining the decision made at an “emergency session” of the school board.
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Miss. School: Only White Students can be Class Prez, Only Blacks Vice Prez”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Illinois - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

State Pensions are Unsustainable, Taxpayers Left with Huge Bill

August 30, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Once again Bill Zettler has a great piece on the mess that is public employee pensions in Illinois. He makes an extremely relevant point asking the question of why the taxpayers are stuck paying off government worker’s pensions to the tune of billions while the employees themselves only have to pay a measly 8% contribution to their own funds?

In the private sector, Zettler points out, pension contributions by the workers rarely dip below 11% but these government workers are asked to contribute a scant 8% for theirs leaving the taxpayers on the hook for most of the rest of the payouts.

Why is that? Well it’s because pliant politicians that have pockets full of public employee union members donations have fixed the contributions at the low 8% level.

This needs to change.
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State Pensions are Unsustainable, Taxpayers Left with Huge Bill”

AFL-CIO - Capitalism - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Public Employees Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

AFL-CIO Joins Communists, La Raza, ACLU, Other Unions in Voter Registration Drive

August 27, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

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.

This new move by the AFL-CIO finds hearty support from the People’s World newspaper, a publication dedicated to communism and the “direct descendent” of the communist Daily Worker newspaper.

The AFL-CIO joins the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), The Center for American Progress, Green For All, USAction, and many others. The effort is being headed by United for Peace and Justice.
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AFL-CIO Joins Communists, La Raza, ACLU, Other Unions in Voter Registration Drive”

AFL-CIO - Alaska - Government - Liberals - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

AFL-CIO Leader Attacks Palin

August 26, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka spoke before the union’s Biennial Convention in Anchorage, Alaska today. In that speech Trumka called Governor Palin a new Joe McCarthy and says she has come “close to calling for violence.” He also objected to Palin’s use of the phrase “union thugs” in her comments and Internet postings.

Transcript of Trumka’s Palin comments

Sarah Palin?

She used to have a job, your governor…. You knew her…. Or thought you did…. I know I thought I did. She seemed like a decent person, an outdoorswoman. Her husband’s a steelworker. She seemed to take some OK stands for working families.

And then things got weird. After she tied herself to John McCain and they lost, she blew off Alaska. I guess she figured she’d trade up…shoot for a national stage. Alaska was too far from the FOX TV spotlight.

I bet most of you, on a clear day, can see her hypocrisy from your house.

I think Sarah Palin quit so she wouldn’t have to be accountable… so she wouldn’t have a record that could be scrutinized…

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AFL-CIO Leader Attacks Palin”

Business - Capitalism - Economy/Finances - Environment - Jobs - Liberals - Spain - Taxes - UAW - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

UAW Joins Push For ‘Green Jobs’

August 26, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The United Auto Workers has announced that it will join a coalition of unions called the BlueGreen Alliance in an effort to push “green jobs.”

I was amused by what BlueGreen Alliance founder Leo Gerard said of this addition to the group.

“The American auto industry is poised to lead the world in the production of cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars and advanced vehicle technologies,” said Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers, a founder of the BlueGreen Alliance. “The members of UAW, working people who make America’s vehicles, are a welcome addition to our effort to create millions of good jobs while protecting the environment for future generations.”

Notice how he lumps his union pals in with those creating those new “advanced vehicle technologies.” The unions don’t have as much to do with creating that new technology as it does in merely building them after they’ve been designed. He takes a bit more credit than he deserves.

Still, the main problem with this alliance isn’t that they are taking too much credit for other people’s work, it’s that the idea of “green jobs” is a farce in the first place.
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UAW Joins Push For ‘Green Jobs’”

Budget - Business - California - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Politicians - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Ebay, Adobe, EA Games, Many Others Leaving California For Utah Over Confiscatory Tax Rate

August 25, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Computer software giant Adobe, computer game monster EA Games, and Internet auction king ebay are abandoning California to set up shop in Utah. Why? California’s horrid business climate and high taxes.

Adobe Systems, maker of a suite of graphics programs such as Adobe PDF, Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, have announced that they are building a $100 million facility in either Salt Lake City or in nearby Utah County, Utah. The facility will bring thousands of jobs to Utah over the next few decades.

In May the Internet auction company ebay also announced a major new facility to be built in Salt Lake City. The $287 million data center will also bring hundreds of new jobs to the Bee Hive State.

Not to be forgotten, games maker Electronic Arts opened its new facility in July in Salt Lake City where around 100 employees are already at work.
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Ebay, Adobe, EA Games, Many Others Leaving California For Utah Over Confiscatory Tax Rate”

Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Destroy Calif. Pension Reform Bill

August 21, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Like most bills, the legislation meant to reform California’s failing public pension system started out stronger than it ended up. But unlike most bills the final bill has been so gutted, so defanged, that it leaves the pension system in a worse mess than it was when the bill was introduced. Not surprisingly unions are the culprits.

One of the things that the bill was supposed to stop was the practice of “pension spiking.” This is the practice of government workers getting a sudden raise in position, salary and benefits just as they are about to retire. This sudden raise, often instituted only weeks or months before retirement, allows the employee to retire at a higher pension rate than they would have with their last, normal salary.
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Unions Destroy Calif. Pension Reform Bill”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Liberals - Pensions - President - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Now Democrats Want Another $34 Billion to Bailout Teamsters Pension

August 21, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

When will Obama’s gifts to unions (at the expense of the taxpayers) ever end? On the heels of a $26.1 billion teacher union bailout, now Democrats are attempting to get Congress to give $34 billion of the taxpayer’s money to the Teamsters because that union has mishandled its pension funds.

Senators Robert Casey (D., Pa.) and Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D., N.D.) are now pushing the bill that will bailout the Teamsters pension fund by altering the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. which currently charges insurance rates to the funds it helps to solvency. Under new rules the help the PBGC offers troubled pension funds will now just end up coming out of federal funds.

As Kevin D. Williamson of National Review informs us, as the PBGC law stands now the obligations that PBGC takes on to help “orphan pensions” are not obligations of the U.S. government. “Casey-Pomeroy would reverse that,” Williamson tells us, “mandating that “‘obligations of the corporation that are financed by the [fifth fund] shall be obligations of the United States.'” Yep, another gigantic bailout.
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Now Democrats Want Another $34 Billion to Bailout Teamsters Pension”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Children - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Elections - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Nancy Pelosi - Pensions - Politicians - Public Employees Unions - Stimulus - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Union Bailout: A Good Crisis Going to Waste

August 20, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Even the New York Times can’t ignore the fact that Obama’s latest union bailout cash isn’t going to help anyone keep their jobs, and The New York Times is really good at ignoring things that make Democrats look bad.

A few weeks ago Nancy Pelosi called the House of Representatives back into a special session because there was a crisis in education, don’t you know. It was a crisis that she didn’t want to go to waste, naturally. As Speaker of the House she had the power — one likely to evaporate with the 2010 elections — to help Barack Obama give his union pals another $26.1 billion of the taxpayer’s money and she couldn’t resist the urge to fill pockets with other’s people’s money at least one more time.

Early in August, Pelosi triumphantly announced on her Twitter feed, “I will be calling the House back into session early next week to save teachers’ jobs and help seniors & children.”

We’re helping old people, it’s for the children, we are saving teacher’s jobs. It’s a crisis that we can’t ignore, darn it! Yes, Rahm, it’s also a crisis that we can’t let go to waste.
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Obama’s Union Bailout: A Good Crisis Going to Waste”