Unions

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Liberals - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Teamsters Chief Says ‘Public Option’ Not Vital to Healthcare Reform

September 7, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

James P. Hoffa is now saying that if Obama pulls the “public option” out of his healthcare bill, it is not a deal killer as far as union support is concerned.

Hoffa said that he was only interested in what was “doable” and that they need to “get something done… and declare a victory.”

Now let’s take a look at these quotes from Mr. Hoffa, shall we? What does it mean if we aren’t seeing obliged union support without integrity for Obama’s healthcare coming from Hoffa’s Teamsters? Hoffa is saying that he doesn’t care at all what healthcare “reform” will look like as long as they can get it done with and “declare a victory.”

This is unprincipled support of Obama’s healthcare purely for political reasons. What would Hoffa and the unions get from such unprincipled support of Obama’s socialist take over of one sixth of our nation’s economy? Why is Hoffa so disinterested in the actual outcome of the healthcare debate as long as they win it? What will Hoffa get out of this?

It’s all a gambit leading to what the unions really want: the Employee Free Choice Act.
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Teamsters Chief Says ‘Public Option’ Not Vital to Healthcare Reform”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - California - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Security/Safety - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Governator Vetoes Union Bill Again

September 4, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The United Farm Workers union wants to enshrine in law a new way for potential members to vote in representation. For years now, the UFW has tried to push Sacramento to OK a plan to allow potential union members to cast their vote away from their workplace.

The union claims that if union representatives can visit possible members at their homes to gather their vote it will prevent farm owners from “intimidating” their workers out of casting a yes vote.

But, the truth is that this will give the union representatives full reign to themselves be the intimidators. Not only that, but if union reps can go to voter’s homes to gather votes there won’t be anyone to guarantee whether those union reps were intimidating the voters or not. It’ll just be the worker and the union rep who will know for sure. Not only that but this bill will effectually eliminate the worker’s secret ballot and voter privacy.

Fortunately for the integrity of workers Governor Schwarzenegger has vetoed this abomination… again.

Good for the Governator.
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Governator Vetoes Union Bill Again”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Expense Forces 92-Year-Old Restaurant to Close

September 1, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Café des Artistes has been doing a steady restaurant business in New York City since 1917, but is now forced to close its doors. One of the main reasons for this happens to be the fact that the Café is unfortunate enough to be a union restaurant and the exorbitant costs of supporting a union workforce has contributed to killing the business.

A blog called the 212DressingRoom, a website about New York fashion, culture, art and other rather Bohemian subjects, has detailed the sad end of the long time café written by the owner of the place, Jennifer Lang.

The decision to close the Café is exceedingly painful to make, but inevitable. We are one of the very, very few independent restaurants in New York City that operates with a union; many of those have closed in the last few years, and hundreds have closed in the last few decades. In that respect, we are a dinosaur because the huge added expense of having a union restaurant can be crippling, especially when the economy takes a nosedive.

Since 99% of the independent restaurants in New York City do not have a union, we are not playing on a level playing field with the rest of our competition. One example: We pay approximately $250,000 more each year for health insurance and pension coverage for our employees than we would if we were paying for non-union coverage.

This is a stark reminder that unions kill profitability and cost jobs. A minute can be spent here to realize what the Obama administration’s “cure” for this sort of situation is, too.
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Union Expense Forces 92-Year-Old Restaurant to Close”

Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Administration Announces Not Enforcing Union Reporting Laws

August 29, 2009 by 9 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Are you a union member trying to find out information of the criminal actions and shady financial dealings of your union? Well don’t expect Obama and his toady in the Labor Secretary’s office, Hilda Solis, to help you uncover any illegalities perpetrated by your union bosses.

Solis’ department has just announced that it is suspending the stringent reporting requirements that labor unions must by law satisfy to assure that their financial dealings are legal and above-board. That’s right, unions have just been given a free pass for criminal actions by this president.

This is proof that political donations are the key to get away with crime. So, yes Virginia, crime does pay… at least in Obama’s Washington.
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Obama Administration Announces Not Enforcing Union Reporting Laws”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Free Speech - Free Trade - Freedom - Liberals - Republicans - Senate - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Senate Dems Are Against Secret Ballot for Unions… But Not Themselves

August 20, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It has to be the ultimate hypocrisy, but the Democrat Party has been touting its support for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a bill that would eliminate the secret ballot for potential union members, but recently decided that a secret ballot for Senators on whether or not to vote in committee chairmen is quite important. The hypocrisy is stark. I say again, even as Senate Democrats have found no reason to protect the democratic right of the secret ballot for union workers they’ve decided that it is a must for themselves when voting in or out Senate committee chairmen.

The Hill newspaper reported recently that Senate Democrats were recently mulling over a new way to appoint committee chairmen.

In an apparent warning to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), some liberal Democrats have suggested a secret-ballot vote every two years on whether or not to strip committee chairmen of their gavels.

This brouhaha over the status of Democratic chairmen has been going on for a while, but that fight is not our focus here.
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Senate Dems Are Against Secret Ballot for Unions… But Not Themselves”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Health - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Security/Safety - SEIU - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Shock Troops: In God… Uh, I Mean Unions… We Trust

August 18, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Washington Times has a great piece that coincides with several we’ve had here on the blog that shows that unions have become Obama’s healthcare shock troops. From the SEIU announcing its drive for Obamacare and sending one of its own to beat up citizens at townhalls, to the mountains of cash that unions have given to Obama and his efforts, to the AFL-CIO’s drive for Obamacare, unions have suddenly become the president’s shock troops filling audiences at townhalls and beating the streets for his policies.

Members of the nation’s labor unions have made up a hefty segment of the audiences that flocked to town halls Mr. Obama held in the past week, and they have played an even larger role in a nationwide campaign for an insurance overhaul. Financially, and with boots on the ground, unions have become the backbone of the president’s effort.

Of course, this hadn’t happened until that last week. In previous weeks, Obamacare opponents had held sway over the news cycle by protesting Obama’s healthcare ideas at townhalls across the country. But now the unions have kicked into gear.
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Obama’s Shock Troops: In God… Uh, I Mean Unions… We Trust”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Liberals - Socialism - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Pensions Getting BIG Payoff From Obamacare

August 14, 2009 by 5 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

It isn’t just out of the goodness of their hearts that Big Labor is gearing up to spend millions to help President Obama to jam Obamacare down the throats of the American people. The unions stand to get a big payoff of $10 billion to supplement their failing pension plans.

The President of the AFL-CIO recently announced that the union would jump into the healthcare fight to help out “working people.” John Sweeney also said that the healthcare fight is “the next big step in our march to turn around America.”

But unions already have their own healthcare plans and Obama promised — for whatever an Obama promise is worth — that union plans would be untouched by Obamacare. So, what are the unions in the fight for if it doesn’t really touch them?
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Union Pensions Getting BIG Payoff From Obamacare”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Freedom - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Bosses Trying to Bust Strike of OWN Staffer’s Union

August 13, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Remember how unions are for “the little guy”? Remember how unions can’t wait to take to the street with obnoxious signs and thug behavior to strong-arm some business or another to their will? It’s all about the workers, dontcha know? Well, unless those workers that want to strike happen to be a union’s headquarters staff, that is. In that case union bosses frown on any striking going on.

As LaborReport.com notes, this hilariously hypocritical situation has, indeed, happened inside Teamsters headquarters (known as the “marble palace” for its opulence) in Washington D.C.

The HQ staffer’s union has announced that they might strike to get better wages and benefits, but Teamsters chieftains are furious that the staffer union would dare strike against their employer which happens to be the Teamsters union itself.

Hilariously, Teamster bigwigs are castigating the staffer’s union for refusing to “acknowledge the current economic conditions,” and for working against “belt-tightening.”

… Well, physician heal thyself!!
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Union Bosses Trying to Bust Strike of OWN Staffer’s Union”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The Union’s Bleeding Pensions

August 11, 2009 by 5 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

We’ve mentioned it here and there in the past, but one of the under reported stories about unions today is that few of them have fully funded pension plans and worse, many are in dire trouble. The Wall Street Journal reminds us all of the mess that union pensions are in with a July 27 piece headlined, “Union Pensions in the Red .”

The WSJ reports on the unusual actions of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of the most powerful unions in America, as it tries to fix its pension funds.

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The Union’s Bleeding Pensions”

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Conservatives - Constitution - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

CYA: ACORN, ACLU Attempt to Throw Out Penn. Voter Law

August 11, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

So, what do you do if you are the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and you are accused of violating state election laws? What else but hire the ACLU to try and get those laws thrown out as unconstitutional?

In Pennsylvania, six members of ACORN have been indicted for violating a state election law prohibiting groups from setting quotas for voter registration drives. The ACLU claims that this rule violates the constitutional right of ACORN to utilize “commonplace management tools” and techniques to manage its paid workers.

But the statute is clearly meant to maintain the integrity of the voter rolls, something that ACORN just as clearly violated with its illicit practices to inflate voter rolls with fake Democrat voters.

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CYA: ACORN, ACLU Attempt to Throw Out Penn. Voter Law”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Liberals - Rights - Security/Safety - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Thugs Force Members to Attack FedEx

August 10, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

UPS employees and Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are claiming that their union leaders forced them to participate in a letter writing campaign and politically motivated envelope stuffing sessions to attack their chief business rival FedEx, the Washington Post reported on August 7.

It seems that union members that work for UPS felt pressured and intimidated by union thug leaders to take their personal time to participate in envelope stuffing sessions where mailings attacking FedEx were gathered and set up for the post office.

Naturally, the union operatives claim that that all the union members that felt forced to participate in the envelope stuffing sessions were happy volunteers. However…
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Union Thugs Force Members to Attack FedEx”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Freedom - Health - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - SEIU - Socialism - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

As Left Decries Righty Protests, Union Announces Own Upcoming Protests — Hypocrisy Anyone?

August 7, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The lefty spin machine is in high gear trying to paint the healthcare protests happening across the country as illegitimate because they are “organized.” Amazingly and hypocritically the left is attempting to make community organizing a bad thing. Yes, all of a sudden after the last four years of their candidate and now president basing his entire campaign for president on his history as a “community organizer,” now organizing in your community makes you a brown-shirted, hatemonger paid off by shadowy GOP bigwigs.

And as this leftist meme is swirling around the country what do we see of one of the left’s largest, most powerful organizations? Why the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is announcing its plans to organize protests during this Congressional recess, of course.

Nothing like condemning your enemies for doing precisely the same thing you are doing, eh SEIU? Do liberals have any shame or conscience at all?
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As Left Decries Righty Protests, Union Announces Own Upcoming Protests — Hypocrisy Anyone?”

Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

AFL-CIO Misleads that Industry Supports EFCA

August 3, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The AFL-CIO recently posted a story on its blog that tired to paint a “contractor’s group” that is supporting the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) as if it were an industry group unconnected to unions and coming over to its side on the EFCA. Of course, the AFL-CIO blog sort of failed to mention that the “contractors” in question are solidly unionized. The truth is, it is not just a normal industry group but one solidly on the side of unions in the first place.

The AFL-CIO blog points to the announcement of the Association of Union Masonry Contractors and its endorsement of the EFCA.
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AFL-CIO Misleads that Industry Supports EFCA”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Security/Safety - SEIU - Society/Culture - Taxes - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Welfare

SEIUs Healthcare Pact With Wal-Mart Annoys AFL-CIO

July 28, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Wal-Mart is making unions mad… again. But this time it is for joining forces with one as opposed to merely opposing them. Wal-Mart has recently joined forces with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to help them push through the disastrous Obamacare policies that the SEIU is championing.

While the SEIU is one of the largest, most powerful unions in the country, not all unions are happy with the labor group’s teaming up with the retail giant.

“We’re not too happy with Wal-Mart. We don’t think they should be an example of how to fix the health-care problems in America,” AFL-CIO President James Hoffa, Jr. told reporters.

As it happens, I agree with Hoffa that Wal-Mart’s agreement with the SEIU makes it an imperfect example by which to push healthcare “reform.” You see, Wal-Mart is not pursuing what would be a good policy for the country. It is pursuing what would be a good policy for Wal-Mart and a bad one for Wal-Mart’s competition.

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SEIUs Healthcare Pact With Wal-Mart Annoys AFL-CIO”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Admin Requiring Economy Wrecking, Budget Bloating Project Labor Agreements

July 27, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

What is a project labor agreement (PLA) and why is it bad for our economy? And why is President Obama so intent on implementing these budget busting regulations right in the middle of a depressed economy?

First of all a PLA is a requirement forced on building contractors by the federal government and some state governments. In order for a building contractor to be awarded a government building contract a PLA demands that it must adopt union pay scales and collective bargaining whether the builder is a union shop or not.

Secondly, it should seem pretty obvious why a PLA is a bad thing. Not only does a PLA force the costs of federal construction to rise to satisfy undeserved demands by Big Labor, but to force the 80% of America’s contracting companies to observe costly union contract requirements in order to get a federal contract results in a situation where only union contractors can get federal business. This excludes the largest number of America’s builders from government building jobs in order to favor the 20% of those contractors that are unionized.

PLAs also negatively affect construction workers, as well. In some states, for instance, a PLA forces non-unionized workers to pay union dues — sometimes at reduced rates, but paying nonetheless — while working on a government construction job. So even if an employee cannot in good conscience join a union, the government will force that employee to pay union dues anyway. If that doesn’t violate freedom of association, what does?

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Obama Admin Requiring Economy Wrecking, Budget Bloating Project Labor Agreements”

Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Media Bias - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Was Card Check a Trojan Horse?

July 23, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yesterday a warning from TheTruthAboutTheEFCA.com was published that, despite the news reports, card check was not a dead issue. Dead, weakened, whatever, at least it looked as if the widening disdain for the card check feature of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was a step in the right direction. But, some are beginning to wonder if card check was merely a tactic all along.

A recent National Review editorial thinks that the loss of card check would be meaningless if its removal from the EFCA meant that passage was easier. After all, the EFCA is far more egregious and economy killing than just the destruction that would be wrought by the card check feature. We’ve said as much here on the blog, as well.

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Was Card Check a Trojan Horse?”

Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Jobs - Liberals - SEIU - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Small Victory, Card Check Slashed from Bill

July 18, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We can at last mark one small victory against the Orwellian named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The card check feature of the bill has been successfully cut out of the bill in the Senate.

The card check feature would have allowed unions to eliminate the ages old democratic practice of allowing prospective union employees the benefit of a secret ballot to vote “yes” or “no” for organizing their work place.

Removal of this feature of the EFCA proves that our Senators can be moved by pressure from constituents. But, let’s not imagine that the war is now won. This one small victory still leaves a bill jammed full of anti-business, economy killing aspects and we need to keep the pressure on to kill this mess.

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Small Victory, Card Check Slashed from Bill”

Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - History - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Contributed to Failure of FDR’s New Deal

July 15, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new article on Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies has been published by the Milken Institute Review. The piece reveals how FDR’s strengthening of labor unions contributed to the continued economic downturn experienced during the Great Depression and how the country’s disastrous economic condition was exacerbated by the failure of the New Deal. As time passes more and more honest economists and historians – those not sold out to Roosevelt sycophancy – are coming to terms with the simple fact that FDR was a failure as president with everything except his prosecution of WWII. Here is yet another historical review in that vein. (See .pdf file of article)

The Article, titled “Where the New Deal Went Badly Wrong,” was written by Harold L. Cole and Lee Ohanian. Harold L. Cole, Ph.D. Economics, University of Rochester, 1986, is a professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Lee E. Ohanian, Ph.D. Economics University of Rochester, 1993, is a professor of economics at UCLA.

The pair have noted that the New Deal strengthened unions and gave to them powers for striking that brought industry to its knees just at a time when the country needed as many new jobs as it could get to tug itself out of depression. Unfortunately, the power given unions caused the depression to last far longer than it needed to last.

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Unions Contributed to Failure of FDR’s New Deal”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Rasmussen: Most Americans Oppose Union’s Card Check Ideas

July 15, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the main premises of the Orwellian-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is the card check feature. This feature eliminates the right of potential union employees to have the benefit of a secret ballot when they vote for or against organizing under a union.

Recently, Rasmussen did a poll on the basic concept to see what the prevailing feelings were and it looks like the union position comes out heavily on the losing end of the stats with this one. What’s more, most people agree with the Republican position that opposes the union’s.

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Rasmussen: Most Americans Oppose Union’s Card Check Ideas”

Children - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Jobs - Liberals - Society/Culture - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Teachers Union Seeks to Impair Charter Schools

July 14, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

During its late conference held during the Independence Day holiday weekend, the National Education Association took up a series of new resolutions that targeted charter schools. The union was looking for ways to reign in the success of charter schools to make their own woeful attempts at education in the public schools look better. The union was also looking for ways to cash in on charter school’s success as well as for a way to get more union oversight into them.

But, here is the thing: when they work, charter schools work because they have less union meddling involved in their operations.

In their adopted resolutions, the NEA paid lip service to the “potential” reforms and “creative teaching methods” that can more easily be adopted at charter schools. Yet the following resolutions seemed determined to undermine and eliminate the very freedom and flexibility it paid lip service to at the outset. One is struck by the logical disconnect. Why, exactly, do the unions imagine that the freedom realized at charter schools lends itself to that innovation in the first place? Conversely, why is innovation not seen in public schools?

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Teachers Union Seeks to Impair Charter Schools”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Liberals - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

State Workers Worried About Losing ‘Cadillac’ Medical Benefits

July 7, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you want to see the logical disconnect of unions and their lap dog lawmakers where it concerns costs to government, one need look no further than the over indulgent healthcare plan that New Hampshire’s state workers have been lavished with.

On July 4, the Boston Globe published a story that details the incredibly rich healthcare plan that state workers have succeeded in getting due to union negotiations with pliant Democrat lawmakers. It seems that they get just about any kind of care they want and all for “free.” It’s called a “Cadillac” healthcare plan and it is amazing for its coverage.

According to the Globe, surgery is free for New Hampshire state workers. So are MRIs, CT scans and X-Rays. It gets even more indulgent.

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State Workers Worried About Losing ‘Cadillac’ Medical Benefits”

Anti-Americanism - Business - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - SEIU - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU’s Way or the Highway

July 7, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I have a few questions for all you non-union employees out there (which is 80% of America). Can you lobby your employer for a raise any time you feel like it even when your company is nearly bankrupted? And, do you have employees that can get off work to do so when ever they want to? And do you have bosses that are also one of you and who can just bow to your every demand?

Sounds like a wonderful situation, doesn’t it? I mean, who wouldn’t want a situation where you can get whatever you want as an employee (including never getting fired) no matter if your company is bankrupt or not?

Well, that is the deal that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has with its employers. You see, they have folks that are so close with the employer that whenever they decide they want more benefits or a raise, they go demand it and it happens. It truly is the dream job.

The problem is, though, that WE are the employers. And WE are the ones paying the tab for that dream job because the SEIU represents government workers. And our politicians are the ones that give the SEIU anything it wants.

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SEIU’s Way or the Highway”

Budget - Business - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - SEIU - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Stand In Way of Calif. Budget Reform

July 6, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Governor Schwarzenegger said it exactly right. Unions and lap-dog, Democrat legislators in Sacramento are doing their best to make sure that everyone but they have to sacrifice to save California’s budget. The governor told reporters that unions and Democrats are telling Californians, “We want you to make the sacrifices but we in Sacramento don’t want to make any sacrifices or any changes.”

Unions are pointing fingers at everyone but themselves and refusing to budge on cuts in their overweening benefits, lush pay scale and perks but are insisting everyone else make the sacrifices to save union jobs. And, let’s face it, jobs is all the unions care about. They have no interest in what is good for the state or the taxpayers.

I’d suggest a little fix that might help. Instead of furloughing state workers, how about firing some of the most unnecessary jobs and getting rid of them altogether?

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Unions Stand In Way of Calif. Budget Reform”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - California - Campaign Finance - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union President Stern the Hand in Obama’s Puppet?

July 1, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The L.A. Times had a very interesting piece last week on the unusually close relationship between Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern and President Obama. The story revealed how Stern “enjoys unusual access to the White House,” and how often Stern is invited to attend meetings the administration holds on policy even as other union heads are left out of the loop.

The piece does cast some doubt on just how much clout Stern might have with Obama as several of the initiatives he has pushed hard for have yet to come to fruition — but it should also be remembered that this administration is only 6 months old. There is plenty of time, here.

Though it does not develop the theme, here is where the Times piece shows the danger that Andy Stern’s close connection with Obama presents to the country and its various governments, federal and state both.

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Union President Stern the Hand in Obama’s Puppet?”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Health - Liberals - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Oh, Now the SEIU is FOR ‘Anti-Union Tactics’?

June 27, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We have been reporting on the clash between the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and it’s California subsidiary the United Healthcare Workers (UHW). We have talked of the battle between the two, how the SEIU has strong-armed or dismissed the elected members of the UHW board, and how at last thousands of members of what was the UHW are attempting to leave to start a new union to rival the SEIU.

But, it appears that the SEIU is a tad unhappy that so many of its California members would quit to form a new union. And so, in order to stop the rival union’s birth, the SEIU is using what the L.A. Times is snickeringly referring to as “anti-union tactics” to stop the bleeding.

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Oh, Now the SEIU is FOR ‘Anti-Union Tactics’?”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

And Another Bad Part of the EFCA…

June 24, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Of course we’ve talked endlessly about the fact that the Democrat’s Orwellian named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) eliminates the employee’s free choice to vote for or against unionization using the ages-old democratic practice of a secret ballot. Who hasn’t, right? In fact, we’ve talked about it so much that even Democrats are turning against this aspect of the act and this is one of the reasons that the bill has not been able to muster enough votes to get passed. So, we can mark that as a tentative victory.

But there is more in this horrible legislation that needs to be highlighted. Here is something as egregious, but perhaps not as flashy as the elimination of a secret ballot. It is the forced arbitration clause. Let’s call it the Back Seat Driver’s clause because it is essentially a rule that says government takes away any say in unionization from BOTH the union, the workers, and the employer.

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And Another Bad Part of the EFCA…”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Are you a ‘Healthcare Worker’ By Taking Care of Your Own Son?

June 23, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I suppose, strictly speaking, if you are a mother that takes care of a developmentally disabled son, well, I guess you might be considered a “healthcare worker” of a kind. Also, I could easily see the state being such a buttinski that it forces such a mother to get “training” to take care of her own son in order to receive state aid. That seems just the sort of twisted logic that might be employed by the nanny state(s) under which we suffer. It might even behoove a mother of a developmentally disabled child to get some training of some type, too, if she so chose, even if the state didn’t require it.

So, that being said I present to you mother Lisa Brown of Fresno, California who is seen in a new Republican ad threatening a meeting of lawmakers. She is in attendance speaking as a member of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the public employees union that might see some budget cuts befall it due to California’s bankrupt treasury.

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Are you a ‘Healthcare Worker’ By Taking Care of Your Own Son?”

Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Environment - Liberals - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Put Selves Ahead of ‘Saving Planet’

June 22, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Now wait a minute. Aren’t unions on the side of good and light? I men, they sure pal around with leftists enough to make the claim, right? And the left certainly claims that unions are part-and-parcel to their whole package of policies for what is best for America, for sure. So, one would have to assume that unions are on the side of the fringe enviro movement pushing all these green initiatives, right?

Not so fast. It seems the only real green anything that unions are interested in have pictures of presidents on them; cash!

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Unions Put Selves Ahead of ‘Saving Planet’”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Liberals - Military - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Why do Democrats Hate Our Soldier’s Kids?

June 21, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last Friday the Wall Street Journal once again excoriated the president and his henchmen in that mis-educational system so larded with self-interested union thugs (and other Democrats) by pointing out how these ne’er-do-wells are attempting to kill the D.C. school voucher program that has done so much good for so many minority, inner city kids in the Nation’s capitol.

But the end of the editorial also pointed to the fact that Obama wants to perpetrate the same misdeeds against the educational opportunities of our soldier’s kids. It turns out that because the D.C. voucher program is such a success, military families are asking for a similar program. Democrats and Obama are desperate to head this idea off and kill it before it is fairly born — and Democrats have a lot of experience killing things before they are born, we all know.

As far as parents and kids that have had the benefit of the soon to end voucher program, the whole thing is one they don’t want to lose.

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Why do Democrats Hate Our Soldier’s Kids?”