IBD: Choices Ahead For Today's Unions

INVESTORS.COM, 9/3/2010 - Politics: Less than two years ago, everything seemed to be breaking unions' way. Now they're on the defensive. Something went very wrong on the road to the liberals' idea of paradise. ∴ This Labor Day weekend is the official kickoff point for what AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka calls a "massive mobilization" to elect Democrats in November. To hear him tell it, voters face a choice between "a fundamentally different economy that values hard work and a strong middle class" or a return "toward one that puts corporate interests before people." ∴ But the labor movement faces a choice, too. It can keep going down the road to political disaster, or it can wise up and realize that a "fundamentally different economy" is not really what people want. ∴ They want prosperity and jobs, not a government-led war against capitalists [Emphasis added]. And they have a bone or two to pick with the unions themselves. Read more at IBD... Read More......

Big Labor's Legacy of Violence

TOWNHALL, Michelle Malkin - To mark Labor Day 2010, President Obama will join hands with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in Milwaukee and pose as champions of the working class. Bad move. Trumka's organizing record is a shameful reminder of the union movement's violent and corrupt foundations. ∴ The new Obama/AFL-CIO power alliance -- underwritten with $40 million in hard-earned worker dues -- is a midterm shotgun marriage of Beltway brass knuckles and Big Labor brawn. Trumka warmed up his rhetorical muscles this past week with full-frontal attacks on former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. He indignantly accused her of "getting close to calling for violence" and suggested that her criticism of Tea Party-bashing labor bosses amounted to "terrorizing" workers. Read more at Townhall.com... Read More......

THE HILL: Obama names 15 recess appointments, including union lawyer

THE HILL, 3/27/2010 by Tony Romm - President Barack Obama on Saturday wielded his recess appointment powers for the first time, clearing 15 nominees to assume posts that have remained vacant for months due to insurmountable congressional roadblocks. ∴ Among the 15 named just days before the Senate departs for Easter recess are Craig Becker and Mark Pearce, the White House's two, hotly contested nominees for the National Labor Relations Board. ∴ Republicans have staunchly opposed both nominees, Becker especially, for their pro-labor positions. Business associations were also opposed to the appoinment[sic] of Becker, an associate general counsel to both the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and AFL-CIO who was nominated by Obama to the NLRB but failed this February to secure 60 votes in the Senate for confirmation. Read more at The Hill... Read More......

Special Session: Employer gag bill update

OregonWatchdog.com - The [Oregon] House Business Committee will introduce yet another re-write of the “employer gag bill,” again at the behest of the AFL-CIO. This is the second re-write in addition to the passage of the original SB 519 last year. The new bill will expand the political content that employers are prohibited from discussing with employees to include ballot measures. However, the new bill will specify that employers are allowed to hold mandatory meetings on such things as workplace safety and other topics directly related to the job. AOI’s legal counsel has assured AOI that the new bill will not sidetrack our pending federal lawsuit challenging the validity of SB 519.

AOI’s lawsuit against SB 519 (2009) is progressing toward a hearing for Summary Judgment in early April in federal court in Portland. AOI, in conjunction with the US Chamber of Commerce, is challenging SB 519 as an illegal intrusion on federal labor law as well as an unconstitutional abridgement of an employer’s First Amendment free speech rights.

See reports on three additional business related bills at OregonBusinessReport.com. Read More......

Labor leaders irate over proposed health care 'Cadillac' tax

FOXNews.com, 1/11/2010 by Major Garrett - Irate Labor Leaders Press Obama on Proposed Health Care 'Cadillac' Tax - WASHINGTON: "President Obama told labor leaders in a tense two-hour closed door tussle over whether to tax health care benefits that he backed the tax, which labor leaders vehemently oppose, but also supports efforts "to protect working men and women." ∴ Their problem? Labor leaders say you can't have it both ways. Some now openly accuse Obama of doing that and violating one of his most important early promises in the health care debate: that if you like the coverage you have, you will be able to keep it." Read more at FOX... Read More......

AFL-CIO leader issues warning to legislators

AFL-CIO’s Incoming President Warns Lawmakers Will Pay Price for Abandoning Public Option
CNSNEWS.com, 8/31/2009 by Sam Hananel - Washington (AP): The man expected to become the AFL-CIO's next president said Monday that lawmakers would pay a political price if they abandon a government-run option in any health care overhaul. ∴ "We need to be a labor movement that stands by our friends, punishes its enemies and challenges those who, well, can't seem to decide which side they're on," said Richard Trumka, currently the AFL-CIO's secretary-treasurer. Read more at CNSNews... Read More......