Unions

Chicago - Cook County - Cook County Board - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Illinois - Liberals - SEIU - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Dem. Cook County Board Prez Candidate’s Big Union Haul

July 24, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Sun-Times reports that the next Cook County Board President might be yet another bought and paid for union stooge.

Democrat Party candidate Toni Preckwinkle raised $1.3 million for her campaign for county board president thus far and $220,000 of that came from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

So, what we are seeing is yet another Democrat candidate owned lock, stock and barrel by a public employees union. Gee, I wonder if she’ll be amenable to union demands once in office?

Her opponent, GOP candidate Roger Keats, has raised only $19,000 so far. Not that there IS a Republican Party in the county of Crook.

If you would like to help out the Keats campaign, here is his website: http://keatsforcook.org/. You can donate directly here: Keats For Cook, PayPal.
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Dem. Cook County Board Prez Candidate’s Big Union Haul”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Liberals - President - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Teachers Unions Spent $100 Per Teacher on Politics

July 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Education Next undertook for the first time an effort to find out how much of their members dues money that teachers unions spent on political action. The results are very interesting. The analysis discovered that, “national teachers unions and their state affiliates spent more than $100 per teacher in five states, with Oregon at the top of the list at $360 per teacher during the 2007-08 election cycle.”

Much of this money was spent to attempt to control the political debate above and beyond mere issues of education. Teachers unions spent millions trying to affect the political debate on taxes, housing, healthcare, gay marriage, congressional redistricting, and a whole raft of issues that as teachers they have precisely nothing to do with.
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Teachers Unions Spent $100 Per Teacher on Politics”

American Enterprise Institute - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Card Check - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Labor Law - Liberals - President - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unemployment - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

AEI: More Unions Means Fewer Jobs

July 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In April Lee Ohanian of the American Enterprise Institute published a paper on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) that is a must read. But this month he published a shorter piece that is just as interesting. In it, Ohanian claims that if we increased unionism as the Obamaites want to do, we’d actually lose jobs; 4.5 million of them to be precise.

Obama has spent his entire year in office (hard to believe this much destruction only took a year) looking for ways to pay unions big dividends and despite that Congress has been dragging its feet on unions’ most cherished legislative agenda, the EFCA, Obama has been bending over backwards for them (as we discussed here).
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AEI: More Unions Means Fewer Jobs”

Business - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Jobs - Liberals - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Lazy Union Hires Scabs to Protest For Them

July 21, 2010 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Disrupting a business and trying to extort them for undeserved riches is a tough job. It really makes a union thug tired, you know? So, what to do, what to do? Well, because protesting an employer is such tiring work, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters Union came up with the perfect solution: hire non-union scabs to man the picket lines in D.C.

The Wall Street Journal has the sordid tale:

the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters is seeking paid demonstrators to march and chant in its current picket line outside the McPherson Building, an office complex here where the council says work is being done with nonunion labor.

“For a lot of our members, it’s really difficult to have them come out, either because of parking or something else,” explains Vincente Garcia, a union representative who is supervising the picketing.

So, while these carpenters make $24 an hour and up — not including benefits — the union is paying their non-union stand-in protesters a whopping $8.25 an hour… oh, and no benefits.

In the real world this is called hypocrisy.
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Lazy Union Hires Scabs to Protest For Them”

California - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Calif: Union Goons Start Pushing and Hitting Videographers

July 20, 2010 by

This is how “nurses” act? The kind, gentle folks of the California Nurses Association are seen in this video intimidating, pushing and knocking around some videographers at the union’s recent pro-Democrat rally in California.

Mike Griffing is the bearded fellow acting the thug at the end of the video. But he isn’t just some run-of-the-mill union tough. He’s the CNA’s Director of Collective Bargaining! That’s right, he’s an official of high status one that makes almost $164K a year, as Moe Lane found out.

If this is how officials of unions act… well, what does that say about their legitimacy?

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Jobs - Lake County - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

For All Teachers’ Whining, Almost Half of Chicago Area Teachers Make $100K a Year

July 19, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

As the Obama economy tumbles farther and farther down into depression, as states begin to face the reality of a budget crunch that can only be solved by layoffs of public employees, and as teachers find they are open to those layoffs, we commonly hear teachers claim that they are perennially underpaid and don’t deserve layoffs. Yet the Chicago Tribune has found that nearly half the teachers in many of Chicago’s ritziest suburbs are making over $100,000 a year in salary.

The Tribune reviewed the salary information of 132,000 Illinois teachers and in Highland Park, Deerfield, Park Ridge, Hinsdale, and other Chicago area suburbs it found that in some cases half the teachers — and in other cases over 40% — make $100K yearly (not including benefits) even as the educational system in Illinois crying poor and cutting staff.
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For All Teachers’ Whining, Almost Half of Chicago Area Teachers Make $100K a Year”

Afghanistan - Air Force - Anti-Americanism - Anti-War - Army - Barack Obama - Budget - Coast Guard - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Foreign Countries - Government - Iraq - Liberals - Marines - Military - National Guard - Navy - Republicans - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Holding Up Cash for the Troops

July 18, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week the Washington Times had a story that should enrage every true American. The Democrat Congress is allowing Big Labor’s needs to come before the needs of our troops. The supplemental budget that Congress is considering is supposed to be about funding the troops and their efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Democrats are more interested in how many payoffs for Big Labor they can stuff into the thing then in funding the troops.

Like most supplementals, this bill began with a singular purpose: paying war expenses. It since has been larded with billions in wasteful projects and programs designed to attract the vote of the left-of-center members with no fondness for the military. Among the House-approved giveaways are a $10 billion bailout for big-spending local governments, loan guarantees worth $9 billion for purported renewable energy, $3 billion for black farmers and American Indians who sued the government and $1 billion for summertime “youth activities.”

Even worse is the language to nationalize our first responders, policemen, and firemen. (As we talked about HERE)
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Unions Holding Up Cash for the Troops”

Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Labor Law - Liberals - New York - Public Employees Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

No Problems With Union Nap Time

July 15, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Do you get paid to sleep on the job? The union employees of New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority apparently do. And if caught sleeping on the job, the punishment seems to be just a slap on the wrist, a wink and a nod, and business as usual afterward. All at $33 dollars an hour of the taxpayer’s money.

Must be nice “work” if you can get it?

Arnold Ahlert tells us of parking lots filled with MTA employee’s cars many of which contain pillows and blankets, supervisors locking themselves in offices for a soothing nap, and unions fighting to prevent any attempt to stop the outrageous practice of union members sleeping on the job.

Ahlert is yet another voice echoing our contention that unions are antithetical to good government.
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No Problems With Union Nap Time”

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

Illinois Pension Problems and What to Do About Them, By Bill Zetter

July 15, 2010 by

The folks at ChampionNews.net have a series of articles about the mess that Illinois public employees pensions is in that is must reading. The articles are penned by expert Bill Zetter.

Of course, the pension mess is the single biggest trouble that Illinois (and most other states) face today. It is a ticking time bomb…. heck its a bomb exploding already, albeit in slow motion.

Here is what they’ve posted thus far:

Back To the Pension Future: What Did We Actually Guarantee?

Illinois Pensions: Rob the Poor and Give It to the Rich
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Illinois Pension Problems and What to Do About Them, By Bill Zetter”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Economy/Finances - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - SEIU - Taxes - Unemployment - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Worries that Failure to Pass Unemployment Extension Means Lost ‘Stimulus’ $

July 14, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If this isn’t the most perverse example of “reasoning” you’ve ever seen, then you haven’t seen any, yet. It seems the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is worried that the failure to pass an extension for unemployment insurance will deprive Illinois of “stimulus” money.

So, here is the perverse part… unemployment is for the unemployed, right? “Stimulus” is for economic growth (or at the very least economic water treading), right? So if we throw “stimulus” into the coffers of unemployment insurance, aren’t we “stimulating” unemployment and NOT stimulating economic activity?

Does this even make sense?
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Union Worries that Failure to Pass Unemployment Extension Means Lost ‘Stimulus’ $”

Barack Obama - Business - Campaign Finance - Capitalism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - DOL - Government - Labor Law - Liberals - Lobbyists - President - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Violating Disclosure Rules

July 10, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

When Barack Obama took office, one of the early things he did was install Hilda Solis, a long-time union operative, as head of the Department of Labor. And one of the first things she did was to ease the reporting requirements on unions, softening the violation of disclosure rules.

In August of 2009 Labor Sec. Solis immediately let it be known that her department would no longer initiate “enforcement actions against union officers and union employees based solely on the failure to file” the LM2 disclosure forms. Since that time two major unions have been caught filing inaccurate lobbying reports and disclosure statements.

Politico reports that the Center for Public Integrity has found that the “National Association of Letter Carriers have failed to detail the group’s specific lobbying activities, as required by law.” In May the group also found that the Maritime Officers union had also violated disclosure rules and had been doing so for a decade.
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Unions Violating Disclosure Rules”

Barack Obama - Business - Campaign Finance - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Elections - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Another Sign of Unions Losing Allies

July 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Again the New York Times reports on the confusion, anger, and loss of influence being experienced by shocked unions, this time teachers unions. Like the psychotic that lashes out at everyone around them when things are going wrong, at a New Orleans teachers union convention there is a lot of harsh words for former friends in the Obama administration the Times reports.

Listen to this falderal from Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, as he spoke to the assembled, “This is not the change I hoped for… Today our members face the most anti-educator, anti-union, anti-student environment I have ever experienced.”
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Another Sign of Unions Losing Allies”

AFSCME - Budget - Campaign Finance - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Government, Ill. County - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pat Quinn - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Gov. Says Ill. is Broke, but His Staffers/State Workers Get Big Raises

July 8, 2010 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Many businesses across Illinois are trying to stave off closing their doors by cutting salaries and hours for employees. Some aren’t so luck and are laying off thousands of workers. Add to that dismal outlook that the state’s budget is billions in the red and politicians are so at loggerheads on how to solve the crisis that no budget can be agreed upon.

Cue accidental Governor Pat Quinn whose job, as he sees it, has been to warn Illinois that we are broke, that we can’t afford the many programs we have, that the poorest of us are at risk and that taxes will have to be raised to “fix” it all.

It’s a very bleak picture, indeed. Bleak, that is, unless you are one of Quinn’s staffers. In that case you are living high off the hog and getting an up to 20 percent raise in salary thanks to the Governor’s generosity… oh, and at the taxpayers expense, of course.
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Gov. Says Ill. is Broke, but His Staffers/State Workers Get Big Raises”

Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Freedom - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - President - Republicans - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

This Month’s YouCut: Stop Obama’s Mandated Union Fees That Drive Up Construction Costs

July 8, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In case you aren’t aware of the House GOP’s YouCut program, it is a website where the GOP offers ideas that can help cut the budget and we (the voters) get to vote on our favorite ones. This voting, in turn, helps the GOP leadership focus on just what cuts the American voters want to prioritize.

Our favorite one this week is the removal of Obama’s mandated PLAs.
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This Month’s YouCut: Stop Obama’s Mandated Union Fees That Drive Up Construction Costs”

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

Even the NYT Noticing that Unions Losing Friends and Allies

July 6, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

You know its bad for unions when even the New York Times publishes a story reporting that Big Labor is losing friends and allies in formerly well controlled political spheres. But such is the times in which we live where fiscal disaster is highlighting the illicitness that is unions in general, but public employees unions in particular. (You know our mantra here: Unions are antithetical to good government)

For the Times Steven Greenhouse writes that Big Labor is finding new critics among “old allies in elected office.”

Greenhouse reports the words of former union member turned New Jersey State Senator Stephen M. Sweeney who has turned against his former compatriots in Big Labor and its unnecessarily high compensation packages. “At some point, you reach the limit of your ability to pay,” he told the Times.

One State Senator in Jersey isn’t the only apostate against unions.
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Even the NYT Noticing that Unions Losing Friends and Allies”

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

Illinois Has Stopped Paying Its Bills

July 5, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Illinois is broke. So broke it can’t pay its bills. Yet on it goes stiffing its creditors and it’s making me wonder why I bother to pay my bills at all. If the state can get away with thumbing its nose at its bill collectors, why can’t I? Oh, yeah. I’m not a Democrat. Unlike them, I’m expected to pay my bills. I forgot for a moment there. Oh, and I’m not a union member, either.

According to the Times story Illinois owes its schools, rehab centers, and childcare obligations $5.01 billion. And there’s no payment in sight.

Then there is the state employees pension plan that is underfunded by 50 percent.

Also, as the state legislature left the Capitol last month for its summer break there was no budget settled upon.
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Illinois Has Stopped Paying Its Bills”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Democrats Continue to Use Tax $ to Pay Union Members to do Union Business

July 2, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Once again Democrats decided that it was a good idea to pay workers of federal employee unions 100% of their salary to do union business during work hours instead of doing the job they were hired for. That’s right, instead of paying these federal employees to do the job we the people hired them to do, Democrats are paying these workers to do union business during the workday. It’s on YOUR dime, folks.

The bill was HR 3251, The Federal Employee Accountability Act of 2009, and it would have stopped this practice of paying off union thugs to do nothing on our dime. Gingrey claimed that it would have saved the federal government $1.2 billion in wasted wages that are now given as a gift to union members. This bill was introduced by the Congressional Republicans to get rid of the union sop, but Democrats with their majority pushed this illicit union payoff through to a win for continued graft on a federal level.

The GOP leadership featured this bill on its YouCut.com website. A video featuring Georgia Congressman Phil Gingrey explained what it was all about.
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Democrats Continue to Use Tax $ to Pay Union Members to do Union Business”

Budget - Business - Chicago - Economy/Finances - Illinois - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Chicago Roadworkers Vote to Go On Strike

June 30, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The International Union of Operating Engineers and the Laborers’ District Council of Chicago have voted to walk off the job Wednesday night leaving roadwork on the Eisenhower expressway stalled and travelers inconvenienced.

The union is demanding a 5 percent raise each of three years to come. Employers counter offered 1 percent. Currently workers make $35.20 an hour for the laborers and up to $45.10 for the operating engineers (machine operators).

As it happens, while the construction trades are seeing up to 40 percent unemployment, these roadworkers are demanding a 5 percent a year increase for a three year contract. Interesting that the union doesn’t see the economic situation all around them and don’t find themselves grateful they are working at all.

Also remember, these people are extorting you and me for their 5 percent a year luxury. After all, they are working to rebuild state roads and are being paid by our tax dollars.

Apparently, grateful thy name is not union!
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Chicago Roadworkers Vote to Go On Strike”

Barack Obama - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Rod Blagojevich - SEIU - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Used Union Middle Man For Blago Bribery

June 30, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that union leader Thomas Balanoff of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) was contacted by President Obama to act as a go-between to help Obama friend Valerie Jarrett secure his vacated Illinois Senate Seat when now former Governor Rod Blagojevich was trying to sell the seat to the highest bidder.

Balanoff appeared as a witness at the Blago corruption trial today. He said that Obama called him the day before he was elected president.

“Tom, I want to talk to you with regard to the Senate seat,” Obama told him.

Balanoff said Obama said he had two criteria: someone who was good for the citizens of Illinois and could be elected in 2010.

Obama said he wasn’t publicly coming out in support of anyone but he believed Valerie Jarrett would fit the bill.

“I would much prefer she (remain in the White House) but she does want to be Senator and she does meet those two criteria,” Balanoff said Obama told him. “I said: ‘thank you, I’m going to reach out to Gov. Blagojevich.”

Balanoff testified that Blago broadly hinted that he’d love to be offered the top spot at Health and Human Services, but Balanoff also said he couldn’t deliver that.

Obama appointed Jarret to a position at the White House after the election.
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Obama Used Union Middle Man For Blago Bribery”

Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - President - SEIU - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Most Ethical White House EVAH, Forgets to Mention $40K Payout

June 30, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Back in the hoary days of the Obama transition Obamaniacs and other sycophants were rushing to the microphones to tell us all that we voters had just hired the most ethical White House ever. Why, White House transition team co-chair John Podesta even claimed that Obama was instituting the “strictest ethics rules ever applied” as Obama prepared to take office. But since Obama’s whirlwind campaign we’ve seen all those sternly announced ethics rules constantly waived for Obama’s friends and favorite hires. And just this week we see yet another example of those “strict” ethics rules ignored as the president’s own political director somehow forgot to mention that he got a $40,000 payout from a union while he worked for the White House.

Patrick Gaspard was hired away from the Service Employees International Union by team Obama and as he prepared to leave the SEIU for Washington he brokered a $37,071 severance package that Gaspard just somehow forgot to disclose to the White House as he prepared to join Team Obama.

In fact, Gaspard didn’t merely forget to disclose the nearly $40,000 package. He went out of his way to check a box on his disclosure form that said he had nothing to declare. Yes, he lied.

So, what’s to be done? White House spokesman Bill Burton assured us that it’s all taken care of.
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Most Ethical White House EVAH, Forgets to Mention $40K Payout”

Barack Obama - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Free Trade - Government - Oil - President - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Drilling Moratorium a Sop to Unions?

June 26, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The president of the Seafarers International Union’s Gulf Coast District, Dean Corgey, recently penned an op ed in which he noted an interesting fact: deepwater oil drilling rigs are “100 percent non-union.” With this in mind one of union bought president Barack Obama’s major decisions — in fact, one of his few actual decisions — in the BP Oil mess was to shut down the very oil rigs that unions have been trying to organize for decades with a six-month moratorium.

Naturally, as is evident by Corgey’s op ed, unions are claiming the whole BP incident is a result of non-union workers and with Obama trying to shut down these platforms he lends credence to the union claims. Unions are sure to try and use the moratorium as a reason to convince skeptics against organizing workers of deepwater rigs.

But unions or no, Obama’s moratorium will potentially cause 120,000 jobs to be lost in the Gulf area just when the economy of the Gulf states is at its worst.
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Obama’s Drilling Moratorium a Sop to Unions?”

1st Amendment - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Campaign Finance - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Speech - Freedom - Government - House of Representatives - Law - Liberals - Nancy Pelosi - Public Employees Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Disclosure Act: Another Example of Unconstitutional Obamaism

June 25, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On June 24 the House of Representatives passed by a bare minimum number of votes the DISCLOSE Act, a law that is supposed to be a new effort to get around the recent US Supreme Court decision that struck down parts of Congress’ campaign finance law. Bare minimum or no there is no doubt that this new law is an unconstitutional mess that unfairly limits the free political speech of some Americans while giving an unfair advantage to unions and certain lobbyists — lobbyists including the National Rifle Association and Big Labor groups such as the AFL-CIO and the SEIU.

The DISCLOSE Act (full name, Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act) was passed through the House by a 219 to 206 vote with only two Republicans voting in favor and 36 Democrats voting against. The two Republicans that voted in favor were Mike Castle of Delaware and Joseph Cao of Louisiana.

So what is this law supposed to do? For one thing the law would require “special interest group officials to physically appear at the end of campaign ads they sponsor, acknowledging their campaign contributions.” It would also require that advocacy groups detail on their public websites every campaign they’ve donated to.
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Disclosure Act: Another Example of Unconstitutional Obamaism”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Card Check - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - EFCA - Elections - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Sen. Harkin Promises Return to Card Check

June 25, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Hill is reporting that Iowa’s leading Democrat, Senator Tom Harkin, is promising that the lame-duck Senate will again take up Big Labor’s favored Employee Free Choice Act, (EFCA), the famous card check act that is neither good for employees nor one that facilitates “free choice” of any kind.

Apparently, what’s bad for the nation is easier to push when Democrats already feel that the 2010 election will erase their giant majorities in Congress so they want to launch a last ditch effort to sneak this through before the people can speak at the ballot box.

And isn’t that just the thing, here? The people did speak in 2006 and 2008, after all. They spoke in favor of Democrats. Yet, even with all that support Harkin and his far left cronies couldn’t lead their overwhelming majority to pass the jobs killing bill. Even their fellow Democrats were against it because they knew the voters stood against it.
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Sen. Harkin Promises Return to Card Check”

ACORN - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Federal Funds Paid for ACORN Youth Groups

June 24, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you haven’t checked out CNSNews.com, it is a great place to find stories not widely discussed in the Old Media. Often CNS hits stories before anyone else and the Old Media has to play catch-up to report what CNSNews already reported. Recently CNS had an investigative story detailing millions in federal funds that went to pay for ACORN sponsored youth indoctrination groups.

According to CNS the U.S. Justice Dept. gave $135,130 in 2005 to a group called The New York Agency for Community Affairs. It turns out that this group was just an adjunct of ACORN and served as a recruitment arm among young people for the parent organization.

The Government Accountability Office also reports that nearly $40 million in federal funds went to ACORN and groups like it between 2005 and 2009.
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Federal Funds Paid for ACORN Youth Groups”

Budget - Chris Christie - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Government - New Jersey - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Gov. Christie Issues ‘Judgment Day’ To Destructive Unions

June 17, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

New Jersey Governor Christ Christie is still holding the path in his battle against the budget killing unions in the state of New Jersey.

“We have to hold each other accountable… You don’t get something for nothing in this world, ever… yet, government has been trying to sell you over the course of time this idea that… we are gonna give you something and someone else is gonna pay for it. Those chickens have come home to roost.”

This guy is the stuff, man!

Naturally, the putrid unions are so incensed that they have announced that they are going to raise union dues fees so that they have more money to attack Governor Chris Christie in the upcoming elections.

They just don’t get it, do they. THEY are the problem, not the solution. Unions are the single most destructive force in American politics today.
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Gov. Christie Issues ‘Judgment Day’ To Destructive Unions”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Health - Labor Law - Law - Liberals - Pensions - President - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Healthcare Give Away to Union Special Interests

June 16, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of Obamacare’s new rules states that if your employer finds it necessary to change healthcare providers to a more cost effective plan they will lose their federal health plan exemptions. This will cause employers to drop employees from health plans forcing workers onto government sponsored plans. So much for Obama’s hoary idea that you can “keep your doctor if you like him.”

Of course, this harmful new rule only applies to 80 percent of America’s workforce because the other 20 percent, those that are union members, are getting a special deal from their pal Barack Obama.

At issue is the definition of the “grandfathered” health plan which is different for those plans initiated by collective bargaining and those simply instituted by an employer. The requirements for unions have been made far less stringent than those of non-union employers.
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Obama’s Healthcare Give Away to Union Special Interests”

Children - Economy/Finances - Education - Jobs - New York - Public Employees Unions - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

New York Teachers Union Has Branch in Florida?

June 15, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The outrage of union activities never ceases to amaze. From the Education Week blog we find that the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the teachers union of New York, spends almost $200,000 a year of its member’s dues money on an office in Boca Raton, Florida! As EdWeek drolly says, “That’s not peanuts for a union fretting about its financially strapped members.”

Turns out that the reason the office exists is because of a union perk to retired teachers: permanent summer jobs at nearly $50 and hour.

According to Ed Week it’s called “retention rights.” The deal is that teachers with long tenure can come back each summer from their cushy retirement homes in Florida and take summer teaching jobs that would otherwise go to current, working teachers. These retired teachers essentially have first dibs on those summer jobs above the claims of the current workforce of New York educators. Retired teachers have a huge vested interest in keeping tabs on their old union, vote heavily to retain this perk, and they make huge cash taking advantage of the perk. So, the Boca office is there to serve them.

Ed Week details how lucrative this perk is for retired teachers.
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New York Teachers Union Has Branch in Florida?”

Budget - Economy/Finances - Education - Jobs - Labor Law - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Newspapers - Regulation - UAW - Warner Todd Huston

Just a Quick Example on How Bad Writing is in the Old Media These Days

June 14, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here’s how bad writing is in the media. In a Reuters story about unions making concessions is this amusing line:

“Under Gettelfinger, the UAW agreed to allow new workers to be hired at about $14 per hour — about half of the $28 base rate for existing autoworkers.”

Uh, per my math, 14 IS half of 28. It isn’t “about half.” Nice writing there al Reuters!

Now, a better way to say it would have been:

“Under Gettelfinger, the UAW agreed to allow new workers to be hired at about half the $28 base rate for existing autoworkers.”

More precise, less wordy and makes sense. It was pretty poor work by Reuters. I know I make my share of mistakes, but then again, I’m just blogging here. I don’t have editors!