Unions

AFL-CIO - AFSCME - Budget - Business - Delaware - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

$26.1 Billion Union Bailout Bill Passes

August 10, 2010 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Pay close attention, Delaware. Your Congressman, Mike Castle, just voted for the $26.1 billion union bailout. Castle was one of only two Republicans to vote yes on this bloated union pay off (the other was Louisiana’s Cao).

On a 247 to 161 vote, the House passed the $26.1 billion Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act. Democrats claimed that it would “save” the jobs of teachers, police and firemen across the country. In truth this is just a union payoff.

AFL-CIO union chief Richard Trumka was thrilled with Tuesday afternoon’s vote. “Today’s vote means that hundreds of thousands of teachers, firefighters and public safety officers will keep their jobs,” Trumka claimed. “It will prevent layoffs and provide aid to struggling state and local governments so that critical services aren’t cut … With today’s vote, House Republicans showed they value Wall Street and tax cuts for the rich over teachers, police and firefighters. This is yet another example in the laundry list of anti-jobs votes they’ve taken.”

Why the states needed this new money is hard to understand. They still have $30 billion in the last teachers bailout that has yet to be allocated. Well, maybe it isn’t so hard to understand when you realize that unions will be the biggest recipient of this money and we are just ahead of an election. Now Democrats can tout their payoff to said unions to pander for votes.

In fact, it is obvious that this was a union payoff in another way. The House was already on recess for the Summer when the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) pushed Speaker Pelosi to reconvene the House in order to push this massive payoff.

In return, the unions promised to kick their campaigning for Democrats into high gear in the coming months.

No, this wasn’t much of a back-room, sweetheart deal between pliant Democrats and grasping unions, was it?

So come on, Delaware, vote ChristineO’Donnell in November. Let’s get rid of the corrupt bargains for which Mike Castle is famous.

Rep. Michelle Bachman had a few words about this raw deal today, too…


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$26.1 Billion Union Bailout Bill Passes”

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

Outrageous Pensions Turning Ill. Teachers into Millionaires

August 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over at Champion News Bill Zettler has been doing a fantastic job of following and chronicling the completely out of control pensions of Illinois public employees and this week he asks why Governor Quinn wants to raise taxes just to make millionaires of retiring teachers.

Zettler found two teachers that will be making in excess of a million dollars in pension payouts.

Check out this obscene total:
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Outrageous Pensions Turning Ill. Teachers into Millionaires”

Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Jobs - Labor Law - Law - Liberals - Morals/Sex - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Wisconsin

As Fellows Lose Jobs Union Fights For Stiffer Drug Benefits: Free Viagra

August 7, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Unions have for years been figuring out new ways to screw employers and in Madison, Wisconsin a teacher’s union is looking for yet another way to slam it to the taxpayers by insisting that they get a free Viagra drug benefit.

In this bad economy, with states going bankrupt right and left, with teachers being laid off all across the country are Wisconsin’s teachers getting serious about negotiations and thankful they have a job at all? Apparently not, because in this dismal employment environment these teachers are trying to get free sex enhancement drugs.

The amorous union has demanded that a judge order the administration to reinstate the Viagra drug benefit that was sliced from the budget in 2005 to save money. And this demand comes at the same time that 482 teachers in Milwaukee have received layoff notices.
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As Fellows Lose Jobs Union Fights For Stiffer Drug Benefits: Free Viagra”

Fox News - Media - Pensions - Warner Todd Huston

Looks Like I’ll Be on Fox Business Channel at 3PM Central Today

August 5, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As of right now I’ll be live on FoxNews Business Channel’s “Money Rocks” today at 3pm CT. We’re talking the Illinois pension mess.

Of course, you know how TV is. I may get down there and get all ready and they may bump my segment. So, we can only cross our fingers and hope it all goes according to plan.

**UPDATE**

Well, I just got back from the studio and the Show went well. Live video to New York for about three minutes duration.

I have to say that TV always makes me laugh.

Here is how it goes: I get contacted anywhere from 9AM to 11AM. I call back. They tell me what the show is and the topic and maybe ask for a few facts to be emailed back to them. They send a limo. I get in for the 1 hour trip to Chicago. I get makeup and wait for my spot. I get on the air for two to five minutes. I get back in the limo for another hour or so trip back home.

Yep, all that for about two to five minutes of live video. All that expense for two to five minutes.

What a racket, eh?

But I always enjoy it, anyway.

AFL-CIO - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Senate - Socialism - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

AFL-CIO Chief Pleading for Union Support of Dems in Nov.

August 5, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The AFL-CIO plans to spend another $50 million coming to the aid of Democrats during this campaign season for the 2010 midterms. But all is not well in uniondom as many unions are very, very unhappy with various and sundry Democrat candidates across the country.

Still, AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka has issued a call to arms for the Democrats anyway. “We know you’re angry,” Trumka said to his membership. “We know you’re frustrated. We know we haven’t achieved everything that we worked for. But we’ve made progress, and we have to keep it going.”

Unions are a smaller political constituency than ever before, however, with only about 12% of America’s workforce being unionized. Despite the hundreds of millions that unions gave Democrats in the 2008 election cycle, their diminished numbers may have made some small dent in the once Pavlovian response that Democrat politicians had to the union beck-and-call. Despite the money, the votes are not there like they once were.
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AFL-CIO Chief Pleading for Union Support of Dems in Nov.”

Budget - Chicago - Chicago Tribune - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Even The Left Getting Tired of Teachers Unions?

August 4, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

An interesting article appeared in the Chicago Tribune lamenting the fact that teachers unions are standing in the way of good education for our kids by constantly and in knee-jerk fashion opposing school reform efforts all across the country.

Penned by the Tribune’s Leonard Pitts, no arch righty he, the piece scolds teachers unions and postulates that we may be at the edge of a new day in education where the whining of backwards and uncaring teachers unions may be properly ignored as school districts, backed by parents and voters, launch into a new wave of reforms that will finally have a positive affect on America’s schools that have been failing for decades.
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Even The Left Getting Tired of Teachers Unions?”

Children - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Liberals - NEA - Socialism - Warner Todd Huston

National Education Association Orders Members to Read Communist Guide Book

August 3, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The National Education Association (NEA) is the premier teachers union group in the country. As such it is instructive to learn the sort of reading material that the biggest of all teachers unions tells its own members to study so that they can more adequately represent teachers in America today.

A look at the NEA website reveals a shocking recommendation to its members. The union that represents the teachers that we send our children to every school day suggests that its members read the communist-like manifesto of famed left-wing agitator Saul Alinsky.

That’s right, the NEA wants its members, America’s teachers, to become programmed by the ideas and policy prescriptions in a communist manifesto.
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National Education Association Orders Members to Read Communist Guide Book”

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

Schwarzenegger Again Orders Furloughs for State Workers

July 31, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

California has been ground zero in the war between over paid state employees unions and government budgetary concerns and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has leveled yet another salvo in that battle by again ordering more furloughs for state workers.

After ending the previous program to furlough 200,000 state workers the Governor has introduced a scaled back plan after the state controller reported that state accounts would be in the red by October.

Unlike the last time, Schwarzenegger’s newest attempt is open ended and will end “when lawmakers pass a 2010-11 budget.” There are other differences in this scaled back plan including thousands of new employee exemptions.
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Schwarzenegger Again Orders Furloughs for State Workers”

Crime - New York - Public Employees Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

NY Carpenters Union Boss Pleads Guilty to Racketeering

July 31, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Remember the good old days? Remember the days when union thugs were just normal, everyday, criminals, creeps, and crooks? Well, they still are, at least in some corners of uniondom.

After years of fighting criminal charges, the former head of the union that represents carpenters in New York City pleaded guilty on Wednesday to taking part in a racketeering scheme stretching back over a decade, the authorities said.

The former leader, Michael J. Forde, was accused along with nine other union officials and contractors of stealing millions of dollars from the union and its benefit funds.

The men were named last year in a 29-count indictment that charged that in exchange for bribes, Mr. Forde and the others allowed contractors to pay union members cash wages below union scale with no benefits, to hire illegal and nonunion workers, and to skip benefit contributions.

Unfortunately the quaint days of mere criminality are in the past. Now unions are in charge of government and increasingly getting the benefit of the help their brethren in politics can give them. As Mark Hemingway of the Washington Examiner reminds us:
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NY Carpenters Union Boss Pleads Guilty to Racketeering”

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

SEIU Attacking Fellow Union for Concessions

July 30, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Engineers and Architects Association, a 48,000 member public employees union in L.A., has come under attack from the politically active Service Employees International Union (SEIU) for having the civic sense to realize that the high times of ever rising pay at the taxpayer’s expense is coming to an end.

In a deal about to be voted on, the Engineers and Architects Association agreed to present to its members a new contract that would require them to pay a whopping extra $10 per visit to the doctor (that will put it up to $20 per visit). Also gone would be the $15 a month to “enhance their life insurance and disability insurance” paid by the city. Finally, union members would have to pay five percent of their monthly healthcare premiums.
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SEIU Attacking Fellow Union for Concessions”

Budget - Capitalism - Card Check - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Nancy Pelosi - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Speaker of House Recommits to Card Check

July 30, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, recently appeared before the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and reaffirmed that she wants to push the woefully misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), or card check, through the upcoming lame duck session of Congress.

This legislation would end the ability of employees to hold a secret ballot leaving them open to union intimidation and would also force federal arbitration on every union vote.

Of course, Pelosi is trying desperately to give big paybacks to unions that donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Democrats in the 2008 election and card check was their dream law.

The bill, however, has met with little enthusiasm in the halls of Congress and has not come to a vote due to a lack of support from all but the most left-wing, committed union supporters.

But in this lame duck session, it is expected that the Democrats will try one last, hard push for all their most unpopular policies in expectation that it’ll be even harder to get them through once the next Congressional session is begun. These Democrats know that they have no support from the voters, but they really don’t care.
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Speaker of House Recommits to Card Check”

ACORN - Anita MonCrief - Anti-Americanism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Senate - Warner Todd Huston

ACORN Whistleblower Anita MonCreif’s New Venture: EmergingCorruption.com

July 29, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief, the brave young woman whose conscience wouldn’t allow her to cover for ACORN’s criminal activity while she was in its employ, has started a new venture. A website dedicated to rooting out government corruption called www.EmergingCorruption.com was launched last weekend headed by Anita and a cadre of writers and researchers (myself being one of them).

Emerging Corruption is a political news website that provides to the public information and investigations into ACORN and other center-left enterprises. The news website will investigate and expose historically corrupt special interest organizations and will feature information and investigations into organizational tactics, programs, campaigns, staff & initiatives including fund raising and finances.
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ACORN Whistleblower Anita MonCreif’s New Venture: EmergingCorruption.com”

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

Bought and Paid For Gov. Finds Doing Right Thing Hard

July 28, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The unions in New York have the idea that they own state government. It’s not too easy to deny their claim seeing as how unions (all of them) have been paying the bills and filling the pockets of ruling Democrats for decades now.

But Accidental Governor of New York David Paterson is finding himself in a quandary, one that more and more politicians are finding themselves in these days. These pols are finding that doing the right thing is hard when all your financial backers don’t want you to do the right thing at all.

Like most deep blue states, New York is about bankrupt without having to say it out loud. Its financial responsibilities far out pace its treasury. From state pensions, welfare, Medicaid and healthcare, to the simple day-to-day operations of operating a government, New York State is unable to pay its way.
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Bought and Paid For Gov. Finds Doing Right Thing Hard”

Arizona - Democrats/Leftists - Immigration/Immigrants - Labor Law - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

L.A. Union Member’s Dues Used for Pro-Illegal Alien Bus Tour

July 28, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few days ago Michelle Malkin received an email from an outraged Service Employees International Union (SEIU) member in Los Angeles who was mad that his dues money was going to pay for a pro-illegal alien bus tour planned by union leaders.

The tour was supposed to start in L.A. and end up in Phoenix, Arizona and was meant to highlight the supposed evils of Arizona’s SB1070, the anti-illegal immigrant law that has been so much in the news. The union member that contacted Malkin was apparently “furious” over the union’s plans.
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L.A. Union Member’s Dues Used for Pro-Illegal Alien Bus Tour”

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”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Founders - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Revolutionary War - Security/Safety - Social Security - Socialism - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Are We Headed Toward Another Revolution?

July 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We see this sort of thing off and on as political eras wax and wane. The question of whether or not we are only just behind a new revolution starting up in the United States has been repeatedly asked almost since the instant the first one (or even the second one — the Civil War) came to a close.

But are we? Are we about to be plunged into a second revolution of some sort or another? And who will be on what side of this revolution? Angelo Codevilla, professor emeritus of international relations at Boston University, asks this question in the recent issue of the American Spectator and I must say he presents compelling reasons why we might be headed for another revolution.

It’s all about “America’s Ruling Class,” says Codevilla. These elites have lost touch with America and are now solely interested in whats good for the ruling class and not whats good for America and it people.
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Are We Headed Toward Another Revolution?”

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”

Banks - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Liberals - President - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Financial Reform? More Like Union Giveaways!

July 16, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Thursday the Senate passed the Democrat’s financial reform bill. But even as Obama claims that this bill will “solve” the financial crisis, a look at the thing seems to prove that things financial took a back seat to giveaways to Obama’s union pals and sops to many of the Democrat’s other special interest friends.

The main union payback is the provision to allow unions and environut groups the ability to take control of the boardrooms of corporations in which they own stock through the so-called “proxy access” provision. This provision has been widely panned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.

The Washington Times reports that there are other sops to Democrat special interests in this “financial reform” bill, too.
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Financial Reform? More Like Union Giveaways!”

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”

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”