Charter School Teachers Attempt Ousting of Union

-By Warner Todd Huston

Implicit in the right to associate with a union is the right to disassociate from one and the later is the right that the teachers of KIPP Academy in New York are trying to employ by attempting to oust the United Federation of Teachers from their places of work.

Teachers at two KIPP charter schools in the Bronx and Manhattan, New York, took the action after the UFT tired to meddle in school affairs without contacting teachers and staff first.

Continue reading


Charter School Teachers Attempt Ousting of Union”


Consequences: Wisconsin Loses Jobs/Development Over Card Check

-By Warner Todd Huston

Wisconsin’s Eau Claire County lost 800 full-time jobs and a $50 million investment that was to be rolled out over the next five years because of the Democrat’s Card Check bill. And it wasn’t just a single county in Wisconsin that lost this multi-million dollar development. It was the whole U.S.A. that lost this project.

Thank you Barack Obama. Some help with economic “stimulus” and jobs you are.

Continue reading


Consequences: Wisconsin Loses Jobs/Development Over Card Check”


Unions Harass Employees in Albion, Ind.

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s the normal tale of union thugs acting like union thugs.

At an auto part plant in Indiana, one woman was threatened because she didn’t want the union. Why was she threatened? Because she and her fellow workers were involved in a card check effort and EVERYONE knew what her vote was. Once the union thugs found out she was against their unionization, they harassed her and threatened her to vote their way.

This sort of thuggery is what President Obama, Congressional Democrats, and union thugs everywhere want to visit upon EVERY U.S. worker.


Lies Used to Support Card Check

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Shop Floor is reporting once again on the lies that the SEIU is using to try and cajole people into thinking that the Wall Street Journal supports the Employee Free Choice Act, today. But now that story has taken a twist. It appears that the House Education and Labor Committee is using the same lie.

Originally the SEIU surgically removed a few words from the WSJ article to make it seem as if the Journal was somehow supporting the EFCA. On what the WSJ said, the SEIU wrote the following:

“The bill doesn’t remove the secret-ballot option from the National Labor Relations Act,” wrote the WSJ.

Only that isn’t really what the WSJ said at all. Here is the full sentence the Journal wrote in its headlined “Unionize or die” (my bold for emphasis):

“The bill doesn’t remove the secret-ballot option from the National Labor Relations Act but in practice makes it a dead letter.”

So, in essence the WSJ was saying that the EFCA eliminates the secret ballot in everything but words.

Continue reading


Lies Used to Support Card Check”


VP Biden’s Union Friend, Video Taped and Arrested for Pickpocketing

-By Warner Todd Huston

During the late presidential campaign, vp candidate Joe “gimme a f*ing break” Biden visited with his friends at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Iowa. Joe was in The Hawkeye State to participate in some union campaign boilerplate called Walk A Day In My Shoes. There he “walked” with an upstanding union fella named Marshall Clemons, custodian for an Iowa school system and SEIU member.

So, the vice president “walked” in Clemons’ shoes one day helping him replace air conditioning filters and sweeping floors. It was a feels good day all around, for sure. But Clemons now has a new walk to take, one generally known as a perp walk. You see Clemons was video taped by an alert lobbyist stealing people’s wallets out of unguarded purses and bags in the Iowa State House in Cedar Rapids. Police caught Biden’s buddy with several stolen wallets when they arrested him later in the men’s bathroom there.

Continue reading


VP Biden’s Union Friend, Video Taped and Arrested for Pickpocketing”


Why Does Obama Want Illegals Legalized Quick? So They can Join Unions!

-By Warner Todd Huston

According to reports, President Obama said it’s important to have a quick path to citizenship for illegal immigrants so that they can join unions to “get protection” from evil employers.

Speaking at a town hall meeting in Southern California, Obama broached his newest cause celebre, “comprehensive” immigration reform, in Costa Mesa.

“If they stay in the shadows in the underground economy, they are oftentimes pitted against American workers since they can’t join a union. They can’t complain about minimum wages.”

Obama also claimed that we need to make sure illegal immigrants don’t flood across the border uncontrolled saying that we need to secure our border with Mexico. Yet, even as he told Californians that he is an advocate of a tighter boarder, reports have emerged that his administration is going to take money away from immigration workplace enforcement programs allowing immigrants to more easily take jobs illegally in the U.S.

Continue reading


Why Does Obama Want Illegals Legalized Quick? So They can Join Unions!”


Ruling: Calif. City Can Void Union Contracts in Bankruptcy

-By Warner Todd Huston

Maybe the gravy train is finally beginning to grind to a halt at long last? Maybe the thievery by unions that is bankrupting governments all across the nation is starting to show signs of abating? If this court ruling in Vallejo, California is any indication, we just might be starting to see some common sense at last endangering the practice of heaping undeserved and unsustainable union benefits on government workers.

On March 13 U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael McManus held that union contracts “negotiated” by city worker’s unions can be voided by Vallejo if the city enters into bankruptcy proceedings. The judge said that city workers do not have the same protections that Congress bestowed upon union workers in private companies and that as public workers they cannot expect their full contracts to be forcibly upheld by courts during bankruptcy.

Continue reading


Ruling: Calif. City Can Void Union Contracts in Bankruptcy”


Teamster President Denies Secret Ballot is Basic Tenet of Democracy

-By Warner Todd Huston

James P. Hoffa tried his hand at some spin against opponents of the Orwellian named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) last week, denying that a secret ballot is a basic tenet of democracy.

“Since when is the secret ballot a basic tenet of democracy,” Hoffa is quoted as saying in a Teamsters press release.

How does he justify this idiotic claim? Because, you see, the Soviet Union had a secret ballot “but those weren’t democratic,” Hoffa reminds us. A facile comparison, for sure.

Continue reading


Teamster President Denies Secret Ballot is Basic Tenet of Democracy”


Union’s Card Check is the New Jim Crow Poll Tax

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the most odious aspects of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is the card check feature. This feature gives unions the “option” to supplant a secret ballot election held among workers for instituting a union with a publicly signed card that announces the voter’s intentions for all to see. In this way, unions clam, “elections” will be easier. Unions also point out that the language of the act still makes provision for the normal secret ballot election should all involved still so desire.

Because the act does not specifically say in plain language that the secret ballot will necessarily be eliminated in all cases, union activists and apologists claim that fears of the elimination of the ages old democratic practice of the secret ballot to assure a fair election isn’t being eliminated. They claim that opponents of this act are merely engaging in hyperbole and fearmongering by claiming the secret ballot will be a thing of the past if the EFCA is passed.

Continue reading


Union’s Card Check is the New Jim Crow Poll Tax”


Scandal on Scandal — Another One for Calif. Union

-By Warner Todd Huston

The L.A. Times has done it again; reported on another California Service Employees International Union (SEIU) corruption scandal. SEIU California has had so many corruption scandals that it boggles the mind and they all center around union bosses double dipping salaries and misusing purported charities to enrich themselves, as well as getting family members into the game with pseudo jobs at these false-front charities. This report is no exception to that mode of business-as-usual for the powerful state employees union.

This time SEIU chief James Bryant has been found making more salary from the supposed charity he heads out of his home than the city job he is supposed to be working at. The union also funnels money his way and he has given his son a “job” that the union backed charity is funding.

Continue reading


Scandal on Scandal — Another One for Calif. Union”


Former Union Leader Opposes Card Check Bill

-By Warner Todd Huston

The City Wire of Fort Smith, Arkansas, published a piece giving a former union leader space to announce that he opposes the elimination of the secret ballot that is the card check feature of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

His reasoning is spot on with why card check is a bad idea that will materially hurt American workers.

And then there is Neal Catlett, a former president of the union representing workers at Whirlpool’s Fort Smith plant who has more than 20 years of leadership experience in the local union.

Catlett, now retired from Whirlpool, opposes card check. He told The City Wire that he has seen plenty of “nonsense” among Whirlpool leaders and union leaders to know that anything other than a secret ballot will lead to intimidation, coercion and corruption on all sides.

Continue reading


Former Union Leader Opposes Card Check Bill”


Big Unions Angle to Eliminate Small Ones

-By Warner Todd Huston

We’ve talked about it several times here on the blog; the hostile takeover of smaller unions. It has been Andy Stern’s main modus operandi (President of the Service Employees International Union or SEIU). The idea is to roll into the territory of a local, smaller union, make back room deals with the employers to get their assistance, and then lead a forced take over of that smaller union eventually to vote it out of existence. Thereby the little unions that might stand in the way of the mega unions are eliminated and the mega unions now controlling everything from the top down get more even more massive.

It’s a perfectly legitimate strategy, of course… except for the fact that it makes the lie to every purported “principle” that unions claim to have. Local control becomes dashed and democracy summarily eliminate, yet local control and democratic process are the central themes of unionism. Without them they are little different than the supposedly evil corporate maters bent on domination that union claim their employers are. If a union member cannot feel that his local representatives are actually there for him then that impersonal attitude is no different than uncaring masters of industry.

Yet, this strong-arm takeovers of smaller unions is the current rage among big unions. And it is being noticed.

Continue reading


Big Unions Angle to Eliminate Small Ones”


Dems to Take up Card Check on Tuesday

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Senate has secret elections for its leaders. The House of Representatives also uses a closed ballot, one not open to public view, for its own members. We all, you and I, have a secret ballot when we vote for president or for our local officials at our local polling place. It’s one of the oldest aspects of the democratic system.

Yet, Democrats want to take that oldest part of the democratic process away from 105 million Americans.

For their support in the last election Democrats are poised to launch an effort to force a payback to Big Unions through Congress, perhaps as early as Tuesday. That payback will be in the form of the woefully misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act” — which is neither free nor any choice. In this legislation, unions can dispense with the ages old secret ballot for union members and force them to sign public cards revealing their personal vote to everyone. Naturally, when a voter’s choice is known to everyone, pressure will be greater to conform and the conscience of the union member can easily take a back seat to that of getting along with union bosses.

Continue reading


Dems to Take up Card Check on Tuesday”


Union Opposes Rail Safety Suggestion, Instead Offers to Enlarge Membership

-By Warner Todd Huston

The United Transportation Union is coming out against a rail safety measure suggestion because, the union claims, the idea violates the “privacy” of union employees. Instead of agreeing to the safety measure, however, the union used a recent accident that killed 25 train passengers as an excuse to try and force companies to double the number of train operators, thereby enlarging union membership.

Put succinctly, while the government and rail companies are looking for ways to improve safety and prevent future loss of lives, the union is trying to make more money and gain more members.

Continue reading


Union Opposes Rail Safety Suggestion, Instead Offers to Enlarge Membership”


Union Execs Meet at Swanky Resort Hotel

-By Warner Todd Huston

As union members lose their jobs all across the country, the AFL-CIO executive council met at a luxury hotel in Miami Beach, Florida this week.

The union bigwigs met at the Fontainebleau where the cheapest room rings up at $400 dollars a night.

Were I a union member, I might take exception to such extravagance for union bosses. Especially in an economy like this.

Continue reading


Union Execs Meet at Swanky Resort Hotel”


UPDATE on Unions a Hatin’ Unions

-By Warner Todd Huston

On February 25, we noted a story by Ben Smith of Politico about the newest troubles in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and its President Andy Stern. Stern is attempting yet another hostile take over of yet another union in his attempt to gain iron-fisted rule of all unions in the country — no less than that is his ultimate goal.

It looks like Politico has another note in that battle.

Continue reading


UPDATE on Unions a Hatin’ Unions”

Now You’re a Racist if you Don’t Support Unions?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Union shill Ron Gettelfinger wants you to know that if you don’t support unions you are a racist. That’s right. If you don’t want the undemocratic card check bill to pass Congress you are exactly like the negro hanging, civil rights denying, Jim Crow enforcers of the 1950s.

In one of the most disgusting examples of moral equivalence I’ve seen for a long time — at least one not appearing on such low-born sites such as the DailyKos or Huffington Post — Gettelfinger committed the anti-intellectual outrage of positing that hanging black men in the 1950’s is “just like” voting against a bill that would take away the right of prospective union members to be allowed to vote their conscience in secret as all votes in a democracy are traditionally cast.

Continue reading “Now You’re a Racist if you Don’t Support Unions?”

Unions are Inherently UnAmerican — Teachers Union Rips Off Members

-By Warner Todd Huston

Imagine a fast food place that makes you buy a cheeseburger when you want a chicken sandwich. Oh, they don’t mind if you buy the chicken sandwich, too, mind you, but you are forced to purchase a cheeseburger every time you walk through the doors whether you want it or not. Seems a bit like a rip off, not to mention unAmerican, to force you to buy something you don’t want, doesn’t it? Well, this is unionism. Only unions prevent you from even having a job in your chosen profession in the first place to have the cash to buy your chicken sandwich unless you follow their rules. That’s forced labor for other’s benefit.

We used to call that a form of enslavement… now it’s called union membership.

Case in point, teachers unions and teacher’s support for California’s Proposition 8 — the sanctity of marriage law now embroiling California in such turmoil.

Continue reading “Unions are Inherently UnAmerican — Teachers Union Rips Off Members”

Obama Order Allows Unions to Drive Up Cost of Gov’t Contracts

-By Warner Todd Huston

The newest in his series Executive Orders that are little else but sops to unions was uncorked in Washington on Friday, February 6. This one ordered the use of union labor for large-scale federal construction projects, eliminating 84 percent of the American contractors that are not unionized.

Not only would this bill force unions on government projects, but the resulting rise in the costs of those projects would be incredible. This executive order — a re-establishment of a Clinton era order — will force federal projects to accept labor agreements and the resulting higher wages, benefits and collective-bargaining that comes with that.

Naturally, the unions love this order. But the exorbitant costs that will be forced upon federal projects will be a bitter pill to taxpayers.

Continue reading “Obama Order Allows Unions to Drive Up Cost of Gov’t Contracts”

Unions’ Incestuous Relationship to Government Means BAD Government

-By Warner Todd Huston

Lisa Jones of the web news site The Examiner has a great piece that exemplifies what I have been saying for a long time: unions are antithetical to good government.

Jones details a story of the incestuous relationship between anti-democratic union thugs and the city government in Denver, Colorado. Her sad tale of inside dealing and graft concerns the story of a law firm that promulgates the interests of Big Labor and members of Denver government that tends to make a mockery of the people’s interests by using subterfuge and lies to further the goals of Big Labor over that of the people.

One part of her story is quite egregious. It reveals a Councilman that got away with violating the law while running for the city council because of his support from insiders connected with the law firm Isaacson Rosenbaum. Apparently while running for a council seat in the 3rd District, Paul Lopez was in violation of residency requirements.

Continue reading “Unions’ Incestuous Relationship to Government Means BAD Government”

Ethics of Obama’s New Labor Chief Questioned

-By Warner Todd Huston

Recently, we wondered aloud how anyone could expect a Secretary of Labor that has had a long history of being a member of various Big Labor groups can be expected to administer an agency that is supposed to deal equally and evenly with both labor and business? How could we not expect Obama’s choice for Sec. of Labor, Hilda Solis, to be a shill for Big Labor since she has been one her whole adult life? And not just a shill for Big Labor, but an actual employee of Big Labor.

At any rate, the business community must realize that their new Washington boss is their enemy. It simply can’t be any other way given her ideology and history.

But, if we are lucky we may just see the appointment of this hardcore union shill go down in flames. Apparently, Solis has been caught hiding on official filings with the House her complex and integral activities as a lobbyist at the same time she was in the House of Representatives, a violation of House ethics rules.

Continue reading “Ethics of Obama’s New Labor Chief Questioned”

Obama Gearing up for Union Payoffs

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week, president Obama signed several executive orders that he claimed would “level the playing field” for the unions. By that he means, of course, that he expects to take away more power from business and the individual as a payoff to big unions.

As the AP reported, Obama signed three orders that materially affects the business sector.

Require federal contractors to offer jobs to current workers when contracts change.

Reverse a Bush administration order requiring federal contractors to post notice that workers can limit financial support of unions serving as their exclusive bargaining representatives.

Prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenses meant to influence workers deciding whether to form a union and engage in collective bargaining.

Now, Obama claims this is going to “help” workers, right? So, how does removing information from workers “help” them? As the second order above indicates, Obama has helped union thugs hide the facts from workers so that workers are left in the dark about their rights.

Continue reading “Obama Gearing up for Union Payoffs”

Unions Gain Heavy Among Government Workers

-By Warner Todd Huston

As we reported a few days ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported its newest stats on union membership for 2008. These stats show that union membership has increased for the second straight year. But where it has increased is of key importance.

The report shows a gain of 428,000 members, the largest in the last 25 years and since such statistics have been gathered. Alarmingly, a rising number of union workers are employed by government.

The union membership rate for public sector workers (36.8 percent) was substantially higher than the rate for private industry workers (7.6 percent). Within the public sector, local government workers had the highest union membership rate, 42.2 percent. This group includes many workers in several heavily unionized occupations, such as teachers, police officers, and fire fighters. Private sector industries with high unionization rates include transportation and utilities (22.2 per-cent), telecommunications (19.3 percent), and construction (15.6 per-cent). In 2008, unionization rates were relatively low in financial activities (1.8 percent) and professional and business services (2.1 percent).

This was a rise from numbers seen in 2007 and previous, as well. State and local government worker unions are steadily on the rise and therein lies the danger to good government. The singular problem with unions and government is that unions do not make for good government.

Continue reading “Unions Gain Heavy Among Government Workers”

What do Obama and Unions Have in Common? Communists!

-By Warner Todd Huston

Michael Richardson of the on-line news group the Examiner wrote recently about some revealing quotes about the modern American Communist Party by a Richard Winger of Ballot Access News.

Speaking about how the Communist Party in the US has for the most part ceased trying to run candidates for office, Winger points out that the CPUSA fully endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2008 and has decided it best to focus on Democratic Party politics and union activities.

Communist Party members participate in politics and electoral life mostly by participation in unions, and inside the Democratic Party. The Communist Party’s weekly newspaper supports Democratic presidential nominees…

This says a lot, not about where the CPUSA has gone, but where Democrats and Unions have. If CPUSA members have gravitated toward unions and the Democratic Party, this means that those nominally American groups have drifted far enough to the extreme left for even communists to agree to join their efforts.

This is singularly bad news for America. This should also be kept very close in mind when considering if we should work with Obama and the Democrats or not.

Continue reading “What do Obama and Unions Have in Common? Communists!”

Obama Appoints Collectivist to Chair NLRB

-By Warner Todd Huston

The National Labor Relations Board (nlrb.gov) is a federal agency created to monitor and administer federal laws that govern the relationship between labor unions and business owners and corporations and to this board, Barack Obama has appointed as its chair a woman that does not seem to believe much in individual freedom but seems more interested in collectivism. To you and me that might be considered a communist ideal, but even if she doesn’t take it that far it is certainly an adversarial idea to individual freedom and the rights of business.

Last week, Obama named to the NLRB Wilma Liebman, a Philadelphian that has served on the legal staff of two labor unions: the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (1980-1989) and the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen (1990-1993).

Continue reading “Obama Appoints Collectivist to Chair NLRB”

Union Hires Off-Duty Cops as Street Thugs?

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has been in a struggle with its sister union, the United Healthcare Workers (UHW), for quite some time over the eventual disbanding of the UHW and its absorption into the larger SEIU based in Washington D.C. Needless to say, the local folks of the UHW in California are not pleased to lose their local control of their own union affairs to the far off Washington offices of the SEIU.

The clash has been growing increasingly heated with UHW officials speaking out in dismay at the combined unions yearly convention in Puerto Rico last year after which both sides began to file lawsuits against each other for various offenses real and imagined. It’s a real donnybrook and this week the situation took one more step toward vitriol and turmoil.

Now it seems as if the SEIU has hired off-duty policemen to hang around outside the UHW’s Oakland offices photographing members coming and going and engaging in harassing comments and behavior.

Continue reading “Union Hires Off-Duty Cops as Street Thugs?”

L.A. Goes Enviro-MENTAL With Insider Dealings, Waste In Solar Plan

-By Warner Todd Huston

Los Angeles, California has a new initiative underway called “Measure B” that would basically award a monopolistic, no-bids contract to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union (IBEW), the union that would be given the task to install the things in the city. Campaigners for the initiative have so far raised $267,000 with two-thirds of that coming from the very unions that would benefit from the unfair set asides that would exclude outside companies from being able to bid on the installation.

It’s a bit convenient that the group that would benefit most is almost fully funding the drive to get this measure passed, isn’t it? Especially given the fact that solar cell technology is still far too expensive to install and maintain to be cost effective. A recent study claimed that, for home use, it would take a homeowner 100 years to recoup the costs of installing solar cells. Now, pile on top of that basic fact the many millions that will be wasted by giving the installation job to a union, and pile on top of that the other corruption taxes that a big city adds to any project, and we can easily realize that this is nothing but a giant boondoggle to the tax payer and, of course, another undeserved but giant boon to the unions.

Continue reading “L.A. Goes Enviro-MENTAL With Insider Dealings, Waste In Solar Plan”

Georgia Legislator Wants ACORN’s Tax Exempt Status Revoked

-By Warner Todd Huston

NBC Augusta is reporting that State Senator Jeff Mullis (R- Chickamauga) is sponsoring legislation to revoke the tax exempt status of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) because of the wide spread voter fraud that the group has been perpetrating over the last few years.

“An organization that chooses to undermine the integrity of our nation’s election process should not be entitled to tax exemption benefits,” said Sen. Mullis. “The excessive amount of evidence against ACORN engaging in fraudulent activity demands that the organization to be held accountable for taking advantage of hardworking taxpayers, and I call on the IRS to ensure that justice is executed in this case.”

Well said. These criminals should not be favored by government with OUR tax dollars either in direct payments (which it woefully receives) nor in tax breaks (which it also gets).

Continue reading “Georgia Legislator Wants ACORN’s Tax Exempt Status Revoked”

Unions Decide THEY Should Say Who Gets Taxed

-By Warner Todd Huston

In the military it’s called “mission creep.” That is when you start out doing one thing and end up doing something that has nothing at all to do with what your main function is supposed to be. Unions in New Mexico have just shown mission creep, once again, because, for some reason, labor leaders in that state imagine it is their duty to tell government what sort of taxes should be invented for the citizens of Santa Fe.

These so-called labor leaders have decided to urge government to institute a “transfer tax” on houses that they deem “too big” to be allowed to be sold without confiscatory taxes imposed upon them.

Continue reading “Unions Decide THEY Should Say Who Gets Taxed”