Featured Posts

The Latest

United Way Chief: 'Please Support Your AFL-CIO'

United Way Chief: 'Please Support Your AFL-CIO'

Brian Gallagher Prods Charity Workers to Assist Union Lobbyists United Way Worldwide President Brian Gallagher thinks it's a good idea for United Way locals to divert charitable donors' money into Big Labor's lobbying campaign for another round of federal "stimulus" spending. Credit: United Way of America (Source:  November-December 2011 National Right to Work Committee Newsletter) For nearly four decades, the National Right to Work Committee has been warning charitable donors that the United Way of America (UWA) was diverting millions of their dollars to AFL-CIO union-boss slush funds. Now such abuses of charitable donations appear to be worse than ever at the United Way Worldwide (UWW), the successor group that came into being in 2009 when the UWA merged with the United Way International. Documents made publicly available by the UWW and AFL-CIO affiliates indicate that today local United Ways bloat their payrolls by employing more than 160 full-time union operatives, known as "AFL-CIO community service liaisons," across the country. And the UWW also openly acknowledges using donors' money to recruit, "train and help place members of organized labor on the decision-making bodies of health and human-service organizations." Moreover, the UWW and many of its affiliates have long operated and continue to operate under "memoranda of understanding" with the AFL-CIO in which they agree to discriminate against goods, services and suppliers that don't wear the union label. Many United Way Donors Have Resisted Discriminatory United Way Policies
United Way Chief: 'Please Support Your AFL-CIO'

United Way Chief: 'Please Support Your AFL-CIO'

Brian Gallagher Prods Charity Workers to Assist Union Lobbyists United Way Worldwide President Brian Gallagher thinks it's a good idea for United Way locals to divert charitable donors' money into Big Labor's lobbying campaign for another round of federal "stimulus" spending. Credit: United Way of America (Source:  November-December 2011 National Right to Work Committee Newsletter) For nearly four decades, the National Right to Work Committee has been warning charitable donors that the United Way of America (UWA) was diverting millions of their dollars to AFL-CIO union-boss slush funds. Now such abuses of charitable donations appear to be worse than ever at the United Way Worldwide (UWW), the successor group that came into being in 2009 when the UWA merged with the United Way International. Documents made publicly available by the UWW and AFL-CIO affiliates indicate that today local United Ways bloat their payrolls by employing more than 160 full-time union operatives, known as "AFL-CIO community service liaisons," across the country. And the UWW also openly acknowledges using donors' money to recruit, "train and help place members of organized labor on the decision-making bodies of health and human-service organizations." Moreover, the UWW and many of its affiliates have long operated and continue to operate under "memoranda of understanding" with the AFL-CIO in which they agree to discriminate against goods, services and suppliers that don't wear the union label. Many United Way Donors Have Resisted Discriminatory United Way Policies
Obama Bureaucrats Bolster Monopolistic Unionism

Obama Bureaucrats Bolster Monopolistic Unionism

Labor Board Chipping Away at 'Choice to Remain Unrepresented' Craig Becker has publicly lamented the fact that U.S. labor law does not "mandate" union monopoly bargaining. Credit: www.uncoverage.net (Source:  November-December 2011 National Right to Work Committee Newsletter) In his writings for academic and "labor studies" journals over the years, union lawyer Craig Becker has repeatedly bemoaned the fact that U.S. labor law "does not," as he once bluntly explained, "require employees in a plant to select a bargaining agent, if they do not want to." Employees' only choice, Mr. Becker has suggested time and again, should be over which set of union officials get "exclusive" (monopoly) bargaining power to negotiate their wages, benefits, and work rules. Thanks to President Barack Obama, Mr. Becker is in a position as 2011 winds down to begin implementing his extremist vision of what federal labor policy should be. In March 2010, Mr. Obama did the bidding of the union hierarchy by "recess" appointing Mr. Becker to the powerful National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Mr. Becker and Chairman Mark Pearce, another ex-union lawyer installed on the NLRB by Mr. Obama, now constitute a radical Big Labor majority on a rump, three-member NLRB. (Two of the board's five seats are currently vacant.) And late this November Mr. Pearce and Mr. Becker okayed changes to the current procedures for NLRB certification of unions that will, in practice, significantly undermine workers' right to choose against monopolistic union representation. The Obama NLRB originally planned to go even further to gut workers' "choice to remain unrepresented" -- a choice Mr. Becker has indicated he doesn't think should be legally protected at all. But intense public opposition, mobilized by the National Right to Work Committee and other allied groups, evidently influenced the NLRB to temper its haste somewhat. Employers May Soon Be Forced To Hand Employee Phone Numbers, E-Mail Addresses to Union Dons
Big Labor Choosing Profiteering over Teachers' Jobs

Big Labor Choosing Profiteering over Teachers' Jobs

In Las Vegas, the Clark County School Board is refusing to allow competitive bidding for health insurance for teachers forcing the school district to use a costly insurance program owned by the union itself.  This decision alone could lead to the firing of 1,000 school employees. As the Education Action Group notes: The CCEA is not the first teachers union to form its own insurance company and pressure local school boards into purchasing that company’s overpriced coverage. The Maine Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, established its own insurance entity, the Maine Education Association Benefits Trust, in 1993. The Benefits Trust “ facilitates” the purchase of employee health insurance for Maine’s public schools, essentially selling them coverage provided by the state’s largest carrier, Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Nearly every school district in the state has been lulled into joining this system over the years, according to officials in several Maine school districts. The Benefits Trust/Anthem scam, which discourages outside competition, has driven insurance prices through the roof for Maine schools. The Michigan Education Association owns its own insurance company, called the Michigan Education Special Services Association (MESSA). For years local union negotiators have pressedschool boards to purchase MESSA employee health insurance, despite its high cost.
Big Labor Choosing Profiteering over Teachers' Jobs

Big Labor Choosing Profiteering over Teachers' Jobs

In Las Vegas, the Clark County School Board is refusing to allow competitive bidding for health insurance for teachers forcing the school district to use a costly insurance program owned by the union itself.  This decision alone could lead to the firing of 1,000 school employees. As the Education Action Group notes: The CCEA is not the first teachers union to form its own insurance company and pressure local school boards into purchasing that company’s overpriced coverage. The Maine Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, established its own insurance entity, the Maine Education Association Benefits Trust, in 1993. The Benefits Trust “ facilitates” the purchase of employee health insurance for Maine’s public schools, essentially selling them coverage provided by the state’s largest carrier, Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Nearly every school district in the state has been lulled into joining this system over the years, according to officials in several Maine school districts. The Benefits Trust/Anthem scam, which discourages outside competition, has driven insurance prices through the roof for Maine schools. The Michigan Education Association owns its own insurance company, called the Michigan Education Special Services Association (MESSA). For years local union negotiators have pressedschool boards to purchase MESSA employee health insurance, despite its high cost.