Expect Big Labor Democrats in Washington, DC to be in full attack mode on Thursday during U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa’s House Oversight Committee hearing, “State And Municipal Debt: Tough Choices Ahead.” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is coming to Washington…
For decades, the government union bosses in the Golden State have run amok with taxpayer dollars and now the bill is coming due. From the Los Angeles Times: Scores of California government agencies continued to sweeten employee pension plans…
First, the brigade of Big Labor’s Bullhorn Bullies failed to keep the Wisconsin legislature from operating when it used intimidation in an attempt to bypass the November 2010 democratic election, and all-the-while chanting the anarchist chant: “This Is What…
NewsMax.com reports that Big Labor Bosses were mailing talking points to Wisconsin legislators while they went into hiding to Illinois: The Wisconsin state senators who fled the state during February’s budget impasse were on the same page with organized labor…
Barbara Comstock takes note that in Virginia, it was Democrat Gov. Doug Wilder who signed HB1872 and SB 962 into law, prohibiting government unions from pressuring politicians to expand benefits and salaries: This was an outright ban, one of…
It’s the question that the union bosses don’t want you to ask: Are Workers Choosing Unions, or Are Unions Choosing Them? Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) is asking the question: What if we lived in a country where private employees…
Tucked into the ObamaCare bill was a provision to allow the federal government to pay nearly $2 billion to unions and state public employee systems to subsidize health coverage costs for early retirees.
(Source: March 2011 NRTWC Newsletter) Committee Calls on U.S. House Leaders to Block Union Power Grab On February 4, President Barack Obama's handpicked head of the Transportation Security Administration publicly announced he would help government union bosses grab monopoly-bargaining control over more than 40,000 airport screeners and other TSA employees. John Pistole, who was sworn in as TSA chief in July 2010, made the move shortly after Republican John Boehner (Ohio) replaced Big Labor Democrat Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) as speaker of the U.S. House. The changing of the guard at the House made it impossible, in all probability, for union lobbyists to ram through Congress legislation mandating union monopoly bargaining at the TSA. Therefore, in order for the Obama Administration to hand federal union officials what they wanted, Mr. Pistole had to act administratively. Agency Would Likely Become 'Less Efficient and Flexible' As a consequence of the Pistole edict, the honchos of one of two large government unions, either the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) or the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), could grab so-called "exclusive" representation power at the TSA within the next few weeks. If this happens, the already much-reviled federal agency will likely become even "less efficient and flexible," as National Review Associate Editor Robert Verbruggen pointed out in a February 11 commentary.
(Source: March 2011 NRTWC Newsletter) Time For Politicians in Both Parties to Own Up to Their Mistakes In late February, many concerned Americans in other states were paying close attention to the fierce, and still unresolved, battle over public-sector union monopoly bargaining in Wisconsin. Many observing the Madison showdown from their homes inwere undoubtedly amazed by what they saw. These five states, like roughly a dozen others, have no statutes on the books empowering government union officials to act as state and local public employees' monopoly-bargaining agents. When elected officials in such states make a judgment that a reform in public-employee compensation packages and work rules is necessary and can be prudently implemented to give taxpayers a better return on their money, they have the power to proceed. It is then up to the voting public to judge whether the reform was a good idea or not. In Wisconsin, however, like in other states which statutorily mandate union monopoly bargaining over public employee pay, benefits, and working conditions, elected officials from the governor on down have far less control over the roughly 50% of public expenditures that go into employee compensation. In the Badger State, half of state and local government employees are unionized. Elected officials and their appointees cannot make any significant changes in the way these employees are compensated or in how they are instructed to do their jobs without government union bosses' approval. Today, millions of Americans whose state and local governments operate free from Big Labor constraints appreciate, after watching the bitter struggle in Wisconsin unfold, better than ever before the importance of keeping union monopolists out of the government workplace. Only Intense Right to Work Lobbying Blocked Monopoly-Bargaining Bill What most freedom-loving Virginians, North Carolinians and Texans probably don't realize is that, just last year, the U.S. Congress came within a hair of taking away their prerogative to decide how their state and local government workplaces are run. At the outset of the 2009-2010 Congress, the votes were there to pass the so-called "Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act" in both the House and the Senate. Furthermore, President Obama was publicly vowing to sign this legislation as soon as it reached his desk. This measure, more accurately labeled the "Police/Fire Monopoly-Bargaining Bill," would have foisted Wisconsin-style labor relations on state and local public-safety departments in all 50 states.