Unions

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Michigan - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Mich. House Moves to Ban Union Dues Deducted from Teachers’ Paychecks

September 15, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new measure has been introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives that would ban school districts from automatically deducting union dues from teachers’ paychecks and handing that money over to unions.

The practice of having state governments deducting dues automatically from state employees is quite common in northern and western states that are in thrall to the unions. It is a major payoff to unions to have governments automatically deduct dues from the paychecks of government employees, too.

It does seem odd that government is handling union dues, of course, but the reason it is done is because if government didn’t automatically deduct the dues and hand the cash over to the unions, those unions would have a harder time getting timely dues payments from members. If employees were responsible for paying their own union dues — as they should be required to do — then unions would find payment a bit less reliable than when government does the job.
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Mich. House Moves to Ban Union Dues Deducted from Teachers’ Paychecks”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Liberals - North Dakota - Race - Regulation - Right To Work - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Thugs Hurl Racial Taunts in North Dakota

September 14, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Union-lovers and Democrats point to Tea Party enthusiasts routinely calling them “racists” and “violent.” Yet, since the Tea Party movement began, no racial epithets nor violence has been reported or proven. On the other hand, month in and month out we have seen one example of union members engaging in both racism and violence. This week in North Dakota we have yet one more example of unions acting like racists.

Police say union supporters have directed racial slurs and racist symbols at replacement workers and security personnel outside an American Crystal Sugar plant in North Dakota.

Last week we saw union members engaging in terrorist behavior when members of the Longshoremen’s union attacked the public docks in Longview, Washington. There union members destroyed property and took hostages in a dispute with management.

Unions are antithetical to rule of law. We’ve seen it over and over for decades.

Finally, as always, remember this: These are the people that Obama supports and that support Obama.
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Union Thugs Hurl Racial Taunts in North Dakota”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Free Trade - Freedom - Government - Liberals - President - Regulation - Right To Work - Socialism - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Now Trying to Intimidate Consultants and PR Firms of Businesses

September 13, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

True to form, even as he says he wants to cut regulations, Obama’s regulatory army is marching hard against business and this week the president’s Labor Dept. has unleashed yet another salvo in order to hurt the business sector. Before I start this explanation of yet another Obama powergrab through his powers to regulate, may I remember you all that this president has made a big, fake show out of claiming that he wants to cut unnecessary regulations? While he says it a lot, he’s made few attempt to live up to the claim.

Now, in two weeks — Sept. 24 to be exact — the public comment period on Obama’s newest powergrab will be over and the Dept. of Labor will undertake to implement a new scheme to make it uncomfortable for PR firms. law firms, polling firms, and communications companies of all sorts to do business with companies that have employees, workers that might in the future be unionized or currently are unionized.

The new regulation by Obama’s Labor Dept. would force all “persuaders” to register with the government and disclose all their financial info to the DOL.
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Obama Now Trying to Intimidate Consultants and PR Firms of Businesses”

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

Union Members Take Hostages, Destroy Property: But Remember, Tea Party is ‘Dangerous’

September 12, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

After months of accusations that it is the Tea Party movement that is somehow “dangerous” to America, much of such rhetoric coming from union members and their supporters, we get union members of the Longshoremen storming the Port of Longview, Washington taking hostages, destroying property, and generally acting like lawless thugs.

Imagine what the news would have been if it were people identifying themselves as Tea Partiers that attacked a place, took hostages, and went on a protracted campaign of property destruction. There would have been congressional resolutions denouncing the Tea Party, there would be wall-to-wall coverage and ultimately multiple investigations from every corner.

Yet, since it was union members involved, we get a few passing reports in the media and we all move on to the debut of the new NFL season.
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Union Members Take Hostages, Destroy Property: But Remember, Tea Party is ‘Dangerous’”

9/11 - AFL-CIO - al Qaeda - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Islam - Islamofascism - Jobs - Liberals - Osama bin Ladden - Public Employees Unions - Richard Trumka - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Terrorism - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

AFL-CIO Prez: Hey, Remember 9/11? Was a Great Union Moment, Right?

September 10, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In one of the most disgusting examples of the self-absorption of the union mind set, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka decided that his 9/11 memorial would not be much about 9/11, but would instead be just another excuse to say how great unions are and how evil conservatives are. This isn’t just gauche, but insulting, infuriating, and just plain ignorant. Not only that, but it is most certainly disrespectful of the fallen and just plain un-American.

But, then again, that describes unions in just about every instance, doesn’t it?

Disgustingly, the AFL-CIO’s Trumka turned a “memorial” to 9/11 into a union snake-oil sales pitch. Worse he began with an almost dismissive attitude to the memory of the attacks on our homeland.
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AFL-CIO Prez: Hey, Remember 9/11? Was a Great Union Moment, Right?”

California - Children - Education - Larry Sand - Los Angeles - Public Employees Unions - Teachers Unions - Unions

Former Union Boss to Become Charter School Operator

September 10, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

Once a rabid anti-reformer, termed out United Teachers of Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy has become a union apostate…maybe.

On September 1st, Los Angeles Times writer Howard Blume wrote what at first glance appeared to be satire. He reported that A.J. Duffy is starting his own charter school. For those of you who live a peaceful life outside the realm of the education wars, Duffy is the crusty and cantankerous, raspy and rabid former president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles – a man who never met a charter school or any education reform that he liked. And when he didn’t like something, he made sure you knew about it.

But it’s a new day and Duffy indeed will be soon become the executive director of Apple Academy Charter Public Schools, a new organization that hopes to open one or more schools by the fall of 2012.

To show how bizarre all this is, let’s take a step back a couple of years. In 2009, when the Los Angeles Unified School District wanted to expand the number of charter schools in the district, Duffy, then UTLA President said,

“All the data says charter schools do not do better than public schools. This is bureaucracy putting in a top-down plan which hasn’t worked before.”

Now he says he has a vision, and while his schools will be unionized, it will not be at the expense of sacrificing his new ideas about how a school should operate.
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Former Union Boss to Become Charter School Operator”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Detroit - Ethics - Government - James Hoffa - Liberals - President - Stimulus - Taxes - Teamsters - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Rockford Tea Party Calls for Resignation of Teamsters President

September 6, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

After Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa incited violence against Republicans as he introduced President Obama at Monday’s rally in Detroit, at least one organization called for Hoffa to resign over his intemperate and violent rhetoric. The Rockford Tea Party of northern Illinois made the call for Hoffa to resign.

Here is what Hoffa’s ignorant rhetoric sounded:

Rockford TEA PARTY calls for Labor Leader Jimmy Hoffa to Resign
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Rockford Tea Party Calls for Resignation of Teamsters President”

Anti-Americanism - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Government - James Hoffa - Liberals - President - Race - RightPundits.com - Teamsters - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Union Thug Buddy Urges Follows to ‘Take These (GOP) Sons Of Bitches Out’

September 5, 2011 by

-By Warner todd Huston

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s the Democrat’s vaunted new tone rearing its ugly head once again. That moderate tone, that gentle tone, that serious and more grown up tone that Democrats claim only they are able to muster. Yes it’s the Democrat Party, the one that would never use violent rhetoric the ones… oops.

On the heels of nearly every black Democrat politician who went a pandering to their hateful constituents telling anyone that would listen that all Republicans and Tea Party patriots want to murder black people by hanging them from the nearest tree, we get the kinder, gentler union thug saying that Democrats should “take out” those “sons of bitches” Republicans.

Not too violent there, eh?…

Read the rest at RightPundits.com

Budget - California - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Larry Sand - Liberals - NEA - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

Teachers Unions Happy to Say Goodbye to August

September 3, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

The Dog Days of summer are making teachers unions sweat as they get caught being, well, teachers unions

August has been a bad month for teachers unions. And looking at things objectively, it would appear that every one of their hot flashes has been well deserved. In no particular order:

The SOS March was a dud. It was supposed to be a teacher-led event, but the unions were really behind it. The small turnout had its share of angry, mostly leftist teachers whining and shouting about this and that. No one paid much attention. The speakers were just what you’d expect. Jonathan Kozol, forty years later, is still railing about poverty causing ignorance. (No, actually ignorance causes poverty.) Then the marchers were treated to former reformer and current union mouthpiece Diane Ravitch who chirped about how wonderful they all were. And then the big gun, Matt Damon, who if nothing else showed what a great actor he is. The guy who played a convincing genius in Good Will Hunting demonstrates that without a good script he’s about as sharp as a marble.

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Teachers Unions Happy to Say Goodbye to August”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - President - Public Employees Unions - Socialism - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Ranks Bottom of States With Worst Government Unions Accountability

August 31, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new study finds that Illinois ranks at the bottom of states with the worst climate of government union accountability in the nation. The Land of Lincoln ranks 47th in the nation of out of control, unaccountable government unions says the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s new “Big Labor vs. Taxpayers Index.”

The index ranks every state on “23 individual aspects to determine the degree to which states favor organized labor and which favor taxpayers.”

The Index provides a national narrative on labor policy. Analyzing 1,150 labor laws and regulations throughout the country, it allows state-level policy makers to learn from the successes and mistakes of their neighbors, and therefore adopt labor policies that are in the best interest of their citizens.

CEI ranks the top most taxpayer friendly states as Tennessee, Utah, Idaho, Texas and Florida. The worst states, areas where unions control the debate and constantly push legislators for ever more favorable laws and rules favoring government unions at the expense of taxpayers and good government are Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York.

The study looks at such things as the strength of collective bargaining, the lack of or strength of secret ballot protection laws, the adherence to open meetings laws, project labor agreement laws and the like to determine how the states measure up against each other.
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Illinois Ranks Bottom of States With Worst Government Unions Accountability”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - NEA - Public Employees Unions - Scott Walker - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Wisconsin

Children Better Behaved Than Union Thugs in Wisconsin

August 30, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The MacIver Institute of Wisconsin has been doing stellar work on the situation between the unions and the rest of Wisconsin since Governor Scott Walker first entered the Governor’s mansion. The Institute has really shown the thuggery that is the unions again and again, revealing them for what they are.

Well, MacIver has done it again… or rather the unions have done it again.

Governor Walker had planned a visit to the Messmer Preparatory School in Milwaukee, a school that exemplifies what good education is. After all, 85% of the students that graduate from Messmer end up graduating from college.
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Children Better Behaved Than Union Thugs in Wisconsin”

Budget - California - Economy/Finances - Education - Larry Sand - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

A Blueprint for Maintaining the Status Quo

August 30, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

Tom Torlakson’s panel comes up with edubabble and little else in an attempt to turn around a troubled California public school system.

Just when we thought we were safe from yet another “master plan for educational improvement,” A Blueprint for State Schools is bestowed on us. This 31 page monstrosity was unleashed by State Superintendent for Public Instruction Tom Torlakson’s Transition Advisory Team. While the Teacher Quality Roadmap I wrote about in June had specific ideas about fixing Los Angeles schools, the “blueprint” is supposed to identify and address areas that are “vexing to the state’s K-12 system.”

The LA roadmap includes interviews with teachers and principals and can be summarized:

“Among other things, the report, which included interviews with over 1,500 teachers and principals, recommended changes to the current union contract and to state laws regulating staffing, evaluations, tenure, compensation and work schedules. Some of the prescriptions include using criteria other than seniority if layoffs are necessary and utilizing standardized test scores as part of a teacher’s evaluation and when making staffing decisions. Additionally, it was suggested that teachers be denied permanent status until they have been in the classroom for four years instead of the current two.”

In my June post, I commented that while the roadmap was full of good common sense prescriptions from teachers and principals, they were really nothing new and, in any event, would be blocked by the teachers unions because they are happy with the status quo, ugly warts and all.
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A Blueprint for Maintaining the Status Quo”

Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - NLRB - President - Regulation - RightPundits.com - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

A Way to Temporarily Stop Obama’s Union-Helping Regulations

August 29, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The folks at LaborUnionReport.com have an interesting proposal on a way to stop the destructive power of Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). This is the regulatory agency best known for attacking Boeing for trying to open a manufacturing line in North Carolina, the agency trying to stop it so that Big Labor can get a win in Washington State.

The idea is to convince one of the remaining board members of the NLRB to resign so that the board won’t have enough members to conduct business. This would make the NLRB’s destructive powers lie fallow at least until next year.

Any abeyance of Obama’s ability to pay off his patrons in Big Labor and his desire to destroy the U.S. business sector is a good thing…

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Labor Law - Liberals - NLRB - President - Regulation - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Newest Way To Let Unions Avoid Disclosure Rules

August 24, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Obama and his union-sold Department of Labor has spent the last three years trying every legal trick, and some merely arrogant ones, to help unions get away with criminal behavior. Obama has especially been working to get his union patrons out of having to declare their financial information to the government like businesses have to. This month, Obama’s DOL is implementing yet another transparency dodge for his union backers.

In an effort to further protect Big Labor, Obama’s Labor Sec., Hilda Solis — herself a life-long union activist — is about to announce a change in the definition of what an employer is so that it excludes unions that employ workers for their own offices and the like.

The original Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) has a pretty sensible definition of what an “employer” is. In essence, pretty much anyone that has employees is sensibly enough an employer.

But John Lund, Obama’s head of the Office of Labor Management (OLM), wants to change that definition to exclude all unions and labor consultants that themselves have employees. Why? Because if an employer is deemed not to be an employer then they don’t have to disclose information in new financial reports being demanded by changes in regulations implemented by the Obama regime.
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Obama’s Newest Way To Let Unions Avoid Disclosure Rules”

1st Amendment - AFL-CIO - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Conservatives - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Nanny State - Newspapers - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - SEIU - Senate - Socialism - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Astroturf Pretends Like Tea Partiers to Attack GOP

August 21, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Hill has an interesting, if not a bit slanted, report about the faux grassroots efforts of unions and left-wing advocates to pretend they are somehow just like the Tea Party by attacking the town hall meetings of various GOP congressman across the country this Summer.

The Hill dutifully reports without complaint the union’s claims that they are organizing just like the Tea Partiers and forcing GOP congressmen to face “angry protests at home” this month in a “replication” of the Tea Party backlash that “bit” Democrats in 2009.

“Liberal groups have been planning these protests for months,” trumpets The Hill, “One organizer told The Hill in February that the campaign would ‘build to a crescendo’ in August.”

These protests have been organized by Obama’s supporters in government unions like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the AFL-CIO as well as far left NGOs such as MoveOn.org, Campaign for America’s Future and others.
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Union Astroturf Pretends Like Tea Partiers to Attack GOP”

Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Illinois - Jobs - Liberals - Teamsters - Unemployment - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Thugs Deface Funereal Homes Over Union Fight

August 18, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently unions don’t even respect the dead. In Chicago, union thugs are defacing funereal homes over a contract dispute. Yeah. Property damage. That sure is a legitimate way to go about business, isn’t it? Good thing some of the people in those businesses are already dead or they’d have something to fear from the union thugs, too.

Naturally, the perpetrators are the Teamsters, Local 727. No surprise that it’s the Teamsters, either. These thugs have a long, long history of violence.

The contract for 16 embalmers, drivers, and funeral directors ran out with the Alderwoods funeral home chain on June 30. Unsurprisingly, the businesses were defaced by the unionists.
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Union Thugs Deface Funereal Homes Over Union Fight”

Americans For Prosperity - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - NLRB - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

AFP: Another Union Power Grab‏

August 18, 2011 by

From Americans for Prosperity…

Obama’s union boss buddies poured hundreds of millions into getting him and his Democratic allies elected in 2008, but they were unable to pass their signature legislation stripping workers of private ballot rights. And in last year’s midterm election, they were wiped out.

But Obama’s union buddies at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) won’t take no for an answer.

The board is packed with radical union lawyers that Obama installed by the back door – so-called recess appointments to sidestep the Senate. Consider the words of Craig Becker, the former SEIU lawyer Obama put on the NLRB without Senate approval:
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AFP: Another Union Power Grab‏”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Government - Liberals - Socialism - Teamsters - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Ohio Businessman Suffers Union Harassment, Property Damage, Violence, Finally a Shooting

August 17, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Once again we see the un-American criminality of violence-prone union thugs, this time with the disgusting tale of the IBEW carrying on a years long intimidation campaign against a Toledo area, non-union electrical contractor which has progressed from mere harassment to now a shooting.

On August 10, the owner of King Electrical Services, John King, was shot in the arm with a small caliber pistol outside his home an act that has been the culmination of a years long union intimidation campaign by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).

King has suffered multiple attacks on his business since 2006 when the IBEW decided that he must unionize his workforce. His property has been damaged, tires flattened, his workers harassed, his home attacked, and harassing phone calls have followed him everywhere.
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Ohio Businessman Suffers Union Harassment, Property Damage, Violence, Finally a Shooting”

Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Larry Sand - Liberals - NEA - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

Typical Teachers Union Tactics Kill Parent Trigger in Connecticut

August 16, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

Time for being shocked, shocked about teacher union methods and objectives is over.

Last week, writer Rishawn Biddle broke a story about the American Federation of Teachers’ recent successful actions to neuter a Parent Trigger bill in Connecticut. The first Parent Trigger law, officially the Parent Empowerment Act, was passed in California early last year. It allows parents, via a petition, to force change in the governance of a failing school should the petitioners get a majority of parents to sign on.

The educational establishment – school boards, teachers unions and other special interest groups, dubbed the “Government Education Complex” by Bruno Behrend, director of the Center for School Reform at The Heartland Institute, don’t like the law since it allows a group of parents to trump their power.

Most writers and bloggers who have written about the incident have focused on a pdf, originally a PowerPoint, posted on the AFT website, which very honestly and cynically describes the process by which the union did its dirty work. Realizing that this display of raw union power was not in keeping with its persona as a reform-minded partner, always willing to collaborate with parents, communities and other stakeholders, AFT pulled the pdf from its website shortly after the Biddle piece was posted and started to play defense…sort of.
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Typical Teachers Union Tactics Kill Parent Trigger in Connecticut”

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

Union Thuggery: More Criminality in Verizon Strike

August 13, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In Pennsylvania union thuggery, violations of the law, and criminality is abundant in the strike by the Communications Workers of America against Verizon. It’s expected that unionistas don’t respect businesses, of course, but not to respect the safety of children? That’s beyond the pale.

Sadly, theft, property destruction, and otherwise breaking the law is no hurdle union thugs won’t jump. In fact, it is threats of and use of violence and thuggery that unions have always relied on to extort money from the business community. The situation in Pennsylvania is no exception to the illicit rule of unionism.

Yes, law breaking prevails. These Penn. union members, for instance, are breaking the law by preventing other workers from entering their place of work. It is illegal to do this according to the National Labor Relations Act.
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Union Thuggery: More Criminality in Verizon Strike”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Jobs - Labor Law - Liberals - New Jersey - Pennsylvania - RightPundits.com - Teamsters - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Thug Puts Own Teen Daughter In Front of Moving Truck as Protest

August 12, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

With the current strike against Verizon we once again find that union thugs see no reason to obey the law. But it gets even worse. One union thug has even placed his unionism above fatherhood by placing his own teenaged daughter in front of a moving truck in order to protest Verizon.

This Verizon strike has been going on for a little while and has already resulted in lawbreaking, intimidation, and now endangering a minor. Check out this video of a foul-mouthed union thug putting his own teenaged daughter in danger just so he can pay fealty to his unionism…

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.

Budget - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Scott Walker - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Wisconsin

Failure: Over $14 Mil Spent on Wisc. Recall By Liberal Groups, Unions

August 12, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As a recap on the past recall effort that just occurred in Wisconsin, a final accounting shows that liberal groups spent over $14 million to beat the six Republicans that were up for recall. They failed in four of the six attempts and in the two they won, well, it was a pyrrhic victory to say the least. It all goes to show that money is not always the final arbiter of an election victory.

The MacIver Institute of Wisconsin has created a great graphic to diagram the spending the left indulged to recall these six Wisconsin Republicans. It was mostly union money, of course.

Click Image to embiggen…

Of the totals, MacIver says:
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Failure: Over $14 Mil Spent on Wisc. Recall By Liberal Groups, Unions”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Children - Conservatives - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Elections - GOP - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Scott Walker - SEIU - Senate - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Wisconsin

Unions Lose BIG In Wisconsin Recall Efforts

August 10, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Oh, the union thugs in Wisconsin will certainly try to act as if winning a mere two of the six recall elections of the Republican State Senators in the Cheese State was a big win… but it wasn’t. In fact, this recall nonsense shows that the union issues were a huge failure. After all, they even shied from using the union issues to push the recall efforts after they got going because they were looking like a losing issue.

In fact, the two Republicans that lost their effort to beat the recall were the two that were a bit odd as it is, so beating them doesn’t seem to be such a great triumph. And even at that the margins of defeat were not great. David Fredosso of the Washington Examiner puts it well:

In the end, the union-backed Democrats picked up only two state Senate seats in Wisconsin last night, at a staggering cost in time, effort, and of course money. One of the seats was solidly Democratic, held by a Republican due to an apparent fluke of nature. The other was held by an alleged adulterer who had moved outside his district to live with his young mistress, and whose wife was supporting his recall.

A Pyrrhic victory, there, for sure.

Unions and left-wing Democrat operative told us that the people of Wisconsin were furious at Governor Scott Walker and his GOP partners. We were told that “the people” would swarm to the recall election polls and throw the rascals out. But aside from the two problem children above, none of the elections were even close.
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Unions Lose BIG In Wisconsin Recall Efforts”

Budget - California - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Government - Larry Sand - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

Bad Signs at the SOS March

August 6, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

“Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” – William Butler Yeats
“You can’t light a fire in an empty bucket” – Larry Sand

The Save Our Schools March, Rally and Pity Party went off as planned in D.C. this past weekend, although on a smaller scale than the organizers had anticipated. They thought they could attract 5-10,000 people, but according to Education Week, only 3,000 showed up. Of those 3,000, it is unknown how many were teachers.

Many of the protesters carried signs which pretty much captured their reason for supporting the event. Essentially, the messages can be broken down into two basic areas. The first were in the political-economical realm:
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Bad Signs at the SOS March”

AFL-CIO - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - President - Public Employees Unions - Richard Trumka - SEIU - Senate - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions: On the Outside Looking In At Political Power?

August 5, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Since Obama began his run for the White House he has been Big Labor’s best friend. And they loved him for it, too. As Obama ran and as soon as he got into office the unions had stars in their eyes. They thought that with a bought and paid for president in their hip pocket, every long dreamed of union wish was about to be fulfilled.

You can’t really blame them, of course. Obama did nothing but work to let them believe he’d do everything they wanted once safely in the White House. They gave him millions of dollars and he gave them rosy promises. But they are starting to feel duped.

To be sure Obama has done more for Big Labor than any other president in American history. He’s stocked his entire regulatory edifice with union hacks, he’s issued executive orders to force federal contractors to pay union dues, wages, pensions and to work under union rules even when said companies aren’t unionized, and he’s used his powers to regulate to attack companies that dare to cross swords with Big Labor.
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Unions: On the Outside Looking In At Political Power?”

Business - Capitalism - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Free Speech - Illinois - Jobs - Labor Law - Liberals - Regulation - Rights - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Member Fined $300K Just for Finding Work!

August 1, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The lesson: if you are a union member, better to sit on your rear-end and do nothing than find gainful employment.

A poor Chicago-area carpenter who was sick and tired of waiting for his useless union to find him work struck out on his own and got a job with a non-union shop. Big mistake. Once the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters found out they tried to fine him $300,900 for having the gall to find work on his own.

Carpenter Nathaniel Musser is not sitting around and taking this outrageous treatment handed him by the feckless union, either. He’s filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the union with the National Labor Relations Board which will come up in mid-August.

If were Mr. Musser, though, I would not hold my breath that Obama’s union-sold NLRB will side with the poor, put upon worker here. This is the same regulatory board that extra-constitutionally decided that it had to power to prevent Boeing from opening up a new plant in any U.S. state it wanted to merely because the NLRB thought a few union jobs in Washington State might be at risk.
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Union Member Fined $300K Just for Finding Work!”

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

Illinois Policy Institute: The Truth is Out

July 31, 2011 by

From the Illinois Policy Institute…

For years, government unions have perpetuated the myth of the grossly underpaid civil servant. In our recent report, “Out of Sync,” we bust that myth wide open and got the word out to the media, the public and grassroots activists.

Out of Sync outlines a fact that many in Springfield don’t want you – the taxpayer – to know:

The average Illinois government employee takes home 23 percent more in compensation than the average private sector employee.

Who pays for these generous salaries and benefits?
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Illinois Policy Institute: The Truth is Out”

California - Larry Sand - Public Employees Unions - Teachers Unions - Unions

SOS Fest: Teachers Unions and Radical Left are in Charge

July 29, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

Teachers should think twice before marching in lockstep with this revolting crowd.

Americans have always had a warm spot for teachers. We all have memories of those who have taught us, who were there every day for us and felt like part of our family. But over the past 40 years or so, teachers unions have begun to chip away at the public’s perception of teachers. And this changing perception has accelerated during the recent fiscal downturn.

Education policy expert Jay Greene addresses this phenomenon in The Army of Angry Teachers which was posted on Education Matters, his own blog, and elsewhere last week. The crux of his piece is that typically people tend to look at teachers as an extension of their family. But now during stressful times for teachers, the teachers unions have whipped the rank and file into a state of deep anger. Greene writes “But when the public face of the teacher unions is the Army of Angry Teachers, they no longer seem like Mary Poppins and begin to look a lot more like longshoremen beating their opponents with metal pipes.”

Greene has hit on a major point. Not surprisingly, the post was met with negative responses by, well, angry teachers.
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SOS Fest: Teachers Unions and Radical Left are in Charge”

Business - Capitalism - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Government - Jobs - Liberals - PLA - Republicans - States - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

States Taking Pro-Jobs Rules Into Their Own Hands

July 27, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the first things that President Obama did when he walked into the White House was to authorize an Executive Order as a payback to his buddies in Big Labor by implementing project labor agreements (PLAs) for all federal construction projects. That this was his very first action upon taking office shows that he is definitely the president that unions bought and paid for.

A PLA is a set of rules that forces every contractor that works for the federal government to pay union wages, pay union dues, pay into union pensions and operate under union rules even if the company is not a unionized company. PLAs end competitive bidding and cost the government more on every project. These rules are nothing but a freebie, a sop to Obama’s Big Labor pals at the expense of taxpayers and lost jobs.

As the Wall Street Journal says, “PLAs are a form of political bid-rigging that robs taxpayers even in good economic times. Amid today’s limited fiscal resources, PLAs steal money from the likes of education and law enforcement to reward politically connected companies and their unions. They deserve to be outlawed.”
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States Taking Pro-Jobs Rules Into Their Own Hands”

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

One Solution to Stop Some of Obama’s Union Pandering Labor Board Rulings

July 25, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We’ve been talking for the better part of the year about how the Obama administration is using its powers to regulate labor and business relations to attack Boeing aircraft manufacturer for attempting to open a new manufacturing plant in North Carolina. Fortunately, there is one proposed law floating around in congress that would stop some of the abuse of power that Obama is indulging at the behest of big labor unions. It is called the Secret Ballot Protection Act. We need to urge congress to pass it.

To briefly recap, Obama has been trying to punish Boeing — and by extension sending a warning to all American businesses — for having the gall to want to build a new manufacturing plant in North Carolina. Even though Boeing would be bringing thousands of jobs to North Carolina, Obama wants Boeing to be prevented from doing so and he wants to punish the southern states, as well.

This may sound incongruous, an American president trying to destroy jobs and business alike, but when the reason is discovered it reveals many things, this most especially: Obama has gotten his marching orders from unions and he is misusing his powers to regulate to fulfill the desires of Big Labor.
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One Solution to Stop Some of Obama’s Union Pandering Labor Board Rulings”