Mich. Teachers Fight Union’s Attempt to Lock Them Into 10-Year Agreement Ahead of Right-To-Work Law

Right to work advances in Michigan …

Republican Gov. Rick Snyder in December 2012 accomplished the seemingly impossible task of turning Michigan, a longtime stronghold for unionized labor, into a right-to-work state.

However, in anticipation of the new law, which goes into effect on March 28, 2013, one union has approved of a deal that locks its members into paying dues well after they have a choice in the matter.

“Three Taylor Public School teachers … sued the union that represents them, the school board and the school administration over an agreement that forces them to pay dues or fees to the union for 10 years or be fired for not doing so,” Michigan Capitol Confidential reports.

Angela Steffke, Rebecca Metz, and Nancy Rhatigan allege that they were misled when the Taylor Federation of Teachers Local 1085 passed and the school district approved of a deal ahead of the right-to-work law that forces them to pay dues for another decade.

But with the help of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, the three are fighting get out of the 10-year “union security agreement” that expires in 2023.

“The decade-long extended payment requirement is outside the five-year contract the school board and union reached, which is a violation of the Michigan Public Employment Relations Act,” said Derk Wilcox, senior attorney for the Legal Foundation.

He notes that it’s illegal to have two separate contracts with separate expiration dates running at the same time.

Democrats will not be denied their union dues.

 

Guess Who Is Dumping Obamacare?

Listen up you low information voters. Labor Unions Trying To Skirt Obamacare… membership soldout by their union leadership. Labor Unions Finally Read Obamacare Fine Print, Realize Costs Set To Spike, “Turn Sour” On Obama

UNION LEADERS’ EPIPHANY LEAVES THEM SCRAMBLING:

WAIT, OBAMACARE IS GOING TO DRIVE UP OUR COSTS?

Huh, how does that happen??? How do we tell our members we sold them out?

From the WSJ:

Labor unions enthusiastically backed the Obama administration’s health-care overhaul when it was up for debate. Now that the law is rolling out, some are turning sour.

Union leaders say many of the law’s requirements will drive up the costs for their health-care plans and make unionized workers less competitive. Among other things, the law eliminates the caps on medical benefits and prescription drugs used as cost-containment measures in many health-care plans. It also allows children to stay on their parents’ plans until they turn 26.

To offset that, the nation’s largest labor groups want their lower-paid members to be able to get federal insurance subsidies while remaining on their plans. In the law, these subsidies were designed only for low-income workers without employer coverage as a way to help them buy private insurance.

In early talks, the Obama administration dismissed the idea of applying the subsidies to people in union-sponsored plans, according to officials from the trade group, the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans, that represents these insurance plans.

As financial reality sets in, and rather than figure out a way to pay for the bill they helped pass, unions are trying to see if Washington will bail them out.

What did you think was going to happen, when try and insure millions of new people??? Dummies …

Time to dump the inion ehhh??? We tried to warn the American people they were being scammed.

“Top officers at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the AFL-CIO and other large labor groups plan to keep pressing the Obama administration to expand the federal subsidies,” the WSJ notes, “warning that unionized employers may otherwise drop coverage.”

Federal subsidies, their answer? Who pays those costs, well you do.

Michigan Could Become 24th Right-to-Work State

Michigan legislators are now openly discussing the possibility that the Great Lake State could become the 24th right-to-work state in the nation.

“A right-to-work law makes Michigan home again,” said Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio. “It means Michigan will be home to more and better jobs for our state, it means Michigan’s children and grandchildren will be able to stay here and not only find jobs, but prosper.”

Union thug shield.

Extending right-to-work protections to employees in both the private and public sectors means that unions will no longer be able to get a person fired for refusing to financially support them.

“Right-to-work does not affect collective bargaining in any way except to take away unions’ ability to fire workers for not paying them,” Vernuccio added. “It makes unions accountable to their members. Unions will no longer be able to bolster their political power by taking money from people who don’t support their agenda.”

The move comes less than a year after Indiana became a right-to-work state. Since that time, the Hoosier state has added 43,300 jobs, while Michigan has lost 7,300. Indiana’s manufacturing sector added 13,900 new jobs, while Michigan’s lost 4,200. Nationally, the numbers are even more telling. Between 1980 and 2011, total employment in right-to-work states grew 71 percent, while employment in forced unionism states grew just 32 percent. Employment in Michigan grew just 14 percent during that same time.

Jobs vs the Unions…

“Michigan needs jobs with good, competitive benefits and a salary that can support a family,” Vernuccio said. “Over the last decade, inflation-adjusted compensation in right-to-work states grew nearly 12 percent, compared to just 3 percent in forced unionism states.”

There is a major difference in benefits, too.

Imagine that, labor is competitive, not static

“According to the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, between 1999 and 2009 the number of people covered by private employer health insurance increased nearly 1 percent in right-to-work states, but fell almost 7 percent in forced unionism states,” Vernuccio added.

The people have a right…

“Unions can and do still exist in a right-to-work state,” Vernuccio said. “But people also have a right to say ‘no thank you’ when a union demands money for providing an unwanted service.”

Police Remove Congressman-Elect Grayson From Local Walmart For Union Agitating

From Watchdogwire:

In spite of the embarrassing antics on full display during his first term in Congress, the voters in Florida’s CD09 saw fit to send Alan Grayson back to Washington, D.C.

Naturally, the extreme elements of the far left supported Grayson’s return to office, but so too did many of our friends and neighbors. Perhaps even family members. He was also a recipient of overwhelming support from the Hispanic community, particularly those of Puerto Rican descent. And labor unions.

There’s no doubt he also received a fair share of votes from the disaffected and disengaged for the sheer entertainment value such a buffoon presents.

Make No Mistake About It, The Union Killed Hostess

Whatever else happens between Hostess and the union beyond this point, let’s be clear that it was the union (and more specifically the absurd work rules and compensation packages the union foisted upon Hostess) that brought the company to this point.

As Thomas Sowell notes, the union killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.

Many people think of labor unions as organizations to benefit workers, and think of employers who are opposed to unions as just people who don’t want to pay their employees more money. But some employers have made it a point to pay their employees more than the union wages, just to keep them from joining a union.

Why would they do that, if it is just a question of not wanting to pay union wages? The Twinkies bankruptcy is a classic example of costs created by labor unions that are not confined to paychecks.

The work rules imposed in union contracts required the company that makes Twinkies, which also makes Wonder Bread, to deliver these two products to stores in separate trucks. Moreover, truck drivers were not allowed to load either of these products into their trucks. And the people who did load Twinkies into trucks were not allowed to load Wonder Bread, and vice versa.

All of this was obviously intended to create more jobs for the unions’ members. But the needless additional costs that these make-work rules created ended up driving the company into bankruptcy, which can cost 18,500 jobs. The union is killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

Unions are, and should be, a part of our labor markets. Workers have every right to form their associations and negotiate contracts through those associations for their labor. The problem is that, under American law, businesses are all but locked into a suicide pact with the unions. Whereas in every other sort of contractual transaction, if one part or the other is dissatisfied they can walk away at the end of the contract. But not so with labor. Under American law, employees can get rid of a union through a petition and vote process regulated by the National Labor Relations Board. But if an employer no longer wants to sign contracts with a union their only choice is to lock the union out indefinitely, something that is subject to the scrutiny of the NLRB and potentially the courts. And even if the lockout withstands that scrutiny, it never really ends.

The reason why companies like Hostess allow themselves to be entrapped in such absurd labor contracts is because often, in the short term, those contracts are less hassle than being rid of the union itself.

That needs to end. Employers must have the same right to walk away from a union as employees have.

Obamanomics: Almost 500,000 Federal Workers Make Over $100,000

Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind

We are paying for our own demise. Who gets pensions and salaries like this in the private sector.

When people find out what is going on, their will be hell to pay.

According to a brand new book already striking fear in the hearts of public sector union bosses, America’s government workers may be the only men and women in the country still blessing their lucky stars for President Obama. Mallory Factor’s Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind claims that government employees make more money, work less, retire earlier, have greater job security, and have more retirement security than their private sector counterparts. No wonder Washington D.C. is getting rich while the rest of America suffers.

Here’s the bottom line, according to Shadowbosses: government service is now more lucrative than the private sector. Federal government workers reportedly averaged more than twice the salary and benefits of an average private sector worker. Even more unbelievably, there are fully 459,016 federal workers who make over $100,000 in salary – one in five federal workers.

From the book jacket ….

SHADOWBOSSES tells a story of intrigue, drama, and corruption and reads like an organized crime novel. But it is actually a true story of how labor unions are infiltrating our government and corrupting our political process. This compelling and insightful book exposes how unions have organized federal, state, and local government employees without their consent, and how government employee unions are now a threat to our workers’ freedoms, our free and fair elections, and even our American way of life. And, Mallory Factor reveals what’s coming next: how unions are targeting millions of Americans–maybe even you–for forced unionization so that unions can collect billions more in forced dues and exert an even greater influence over American politics. A chilling expose, SHADOWBOSSES is also a call to citizen action against those who really hold power in America today.

Here’s the bottom line, according to Shadowbosses: government service is now more lucrative than the private sector. Federal government workers reportedly averaged more than twice the salary and benefits of an average private sector worker. Even more unbelievably, there are fully 459,016 federal workers who make over $100,000 in salary – one in five federal workers.

You got that yet????

They earn like that because many of them are members of public sector unions. And those unions work hand in glove with politicians – particularly Democratic politicians like Barack Obama – to ensure friendly people on the other side of the bargaining table. The corrupt cycle works like this: Democratic politicians negotiate rich wages and benefits for union members with taxpayer cash; the union members then pay union dues; the unions use that money to re-elect the Democratic politicians. Everybody wins, except the taxpayers …

When they find out …….

Political spending by unions far exceeds direct donations

Organized labor spends about four times as much on politics and lobbying as generally thought, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, a finding that shines a light on an aspect of labor’s political activity that has often been overlooked.

Previous estimates have focused on labor unions’ filings with federal election officials, which chronicle contributions made directly to federal candidates and union spending in support of candidates for Congress and the White House.

But unions spend far more money on a wider range of political activities, including supporting state and local candidates and deploying what has long been seen as the unions’ most potent political weapon: persuading members to vote as unions want them to.

The new figures come from a little-known set of annual reports to the Labor Department in which local unions, their national parents and labor federations have been required to detail their spending on politics and lobbying since 2005.

The hours spent by union employees working on political matters were equivalent in 2010 to a shadow army much larger than President Barack Obama’s current re-election staff, data analyzed by the Journal show.

Labor Unions Spent $4.4 Billion On Politics In Past 6 years

A Wall Street Journal analysis of political spending unveiled Tuesday found that organized labor groups dropped a combined $4.4 billion on political activities between 2006 and 2011, about four times more than previously estimated.

The Journal cast a wide net to determine what counted as “political spending,” including activities that range from traditional candidate donations to the cost of hot dogs for union demonstrators at political rallies.

To find the additional costs, the newspaper added spending reports filed with the Labor Department to Federal Election Commission spending data. From the report, which is partially behind a paywall at WSJ.com, but is available in full at FoxNews.com:

The usual measure of unions’ clout encompasses chiefly what they spend supporting federal candidates through their political-action committees, which are funded with voluntary contributions, and lobbying Washington, which is a cost borne by the unions’ own coffers.

These kinds of spending, which unions report to the Federal Election Commission and to Congress, totaled $1.1 billion from 2005 through 2011, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

The unions’ reports to the Labor Department capture an additional $3.3 billion that unions spent over the same period on political activity.

The costs reported to the Labor Department range from polling fees, to money spent persuading union members to vote a certain way, to bratwursts to feed Wisconsin workers protesting at the state capitol last year. Much of this kind of spending comes not from members’ contributions to a PAC but directly from unions’ dues-funded coffers. There is no requirement that unions report all of this kind of spending to the Federal Election Commission, or FEC.

Union spending goes overwhelmingly to Democratic candidates and liberal causes. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political spending, 92 percent of the $58.5 million in direct candidate donations from 1990 to 2012 went toward Democratic candidates.

Video: Post-election Union Protest In Milwaukee Turns Violent

You thought the unions were going quietly into the night did you?

What you been smoking in the “choom wagon”?

[[Milwaukee, Wisc...] Violence erupts in downtown Milwaukee as AFSCME sponsored occupy protest turns chaotic.

After a series of speeches at Pere Marquette Park, the protesters began their march. They ignored police directives to not block the entire street, and some threw objects at officers as well as constantly directing insults and profanity at them.

At least 3 people were arrested as a result of these clashes.

The protesters were, among other things, demanding the repeal of Act 10, the new public sector labor law signed into law by Governor Walker last year. The law, which greatly restricted the collective bargaining powers of the state’s public sector labor unions, was the impetus for yesterday’s recall. Tonight’s rally was planned in advance of the election and was sponsored by a variety of left wing organizations, including AFSCME Local 82.

Here is a copy of a promotional flyer for the event.

The manufacturing of chaos doesn’t end. It never ends.

Well Union Democrats Should Know A Lot Aboout Slavery

Citing the 13th Amendment and all. The Amendment that was passed right after the Civil War Ended slavery. But how you tie Unions to that, I clearly don’t under stand.

Lets try ..

A labor union has amended its lawsuit against the state of Indiana to include that along with being a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment (equal protection), the state’s recently passed “right-to-work” law also turns union workers into slaves.

“In a lawsuit against three Indiana government officials, a labor union alleged on Wednesday that its constitutional rights under the Thirteenth Amendment — which outlawed ‘slavery’ and ‘involuntary servitude’ — are violated whenever its members are forced to work alongside nonunion employees,” the Daily Caller’s David Martosko reports.

Does this sound a lot like the Democrats “Black Codes”?

Yes. The lawsuit argues that being forced to work alongside “scabs” (i.e. non-union employees) is pretty much the same thing as slavery.

Seems a stretch to me. But they are Democrats, and the next step might well be they reorganize their KKK and ride out after you, so tread lightly.

“The International Union of Operating Engineers, whose members work as heavy equipment operators, mechanics and construction surveyors, sued Indiana’s governor [Mitch Daniels], attorney general, and labor commissioner in February,” Martosko reports.

The February lawsuit claimed that Indiana’s “right-to-work” law was “unconstitutional” because it was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of “equal protection” under the law.

“But an amended complaint filed [last] Wednesday added a Thirteenth Amendment claim as well,” the Daily Caller reports.

“The new lawsuit suggests that when nonunion employees earn higher salaries and better benefits because of the union’s negotiation on behalf of its members, the union has been forced to work for those nonunion employees for free,” the report adds.

Again, just to make sure we’re clear on what’s being argued here: the union lawsuit claims Indiana’s “right-to-work” law violates the Thirteenth Amendment because union workers are “forced to work without compensation,” therefore making them slaves.