May 16, 2011 NILRR News Clips
Forgetting Cesar Chavez
Democrats revive ‘card check’ in California.
Wall Street Journal Online, 5/14/2011
Once upon a time, in a California far, far away, Cesar
Chavez of the United Farm Workers and Governor Jerry Brown marched for secret
ballots for union organizing elections. Now the union and Democrats in
California are pushing a “card check” law that would effectively abolish those
elections for farm workers. The labor movement’s moral authority marches on.
Union cash paid for Democratic legislative boycott
Courier Press Online, 5/14/2011
An analysis of campaign finance records shows that Indiana
Democrats got 905 small-dollar donations from individuals, a majority of whom
live out of state, during and in the week after the legislative boycott.
That was a significant increase from previous years, but it
was $155,000 the party got from unions that did the most to foot the Democrats’
bill for five weeks at the Comfort Suites hotel in Urbana, Ill.
Governor Christie must now show how much he loves
collective bargaining
State worker unions file unfair labor charges against Christie
Nothjersey.com, 5/13/2011
TRENTON — The state’s employee unions have filed unfair
labor charges against Gov. Chris Christie for his refusal to sit down and
negotiate medical benefits, a union leader confirmed.
“We continue to just try to do everything we possibly can
to persuade ‘Governor I-Love-Collective-Bargaining’ to just do so,†Rosenstein
said
Union whistleblowers: We were beaten and harassed after they accused bosses of
looting
NY Daily News Online, 5/15/2011
Unionized phone company employees say they were beaten or
threatened after they accused their labor bosses of looting their coffers
through various scams.
Autoworkers’ union takes aim at “transplant†carmakers
Post and Courier Online, 5/14/2011
President Bob King of the once powerful UAW is warning the
transplants not to interfere with anticipated union recruitment efforts.
“Transplants†include Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda and BMW.
The union will launch global demonstrations and publicity
aimed at punishing offending carmakers, including convincing sympathizers in the
civil rights, church and environmental communities to not buy vehicles.â€
Further, King said, “The UAW will respond aggressively to any transplant
automaker that interferes with union organizing at their U.S. assembly plants
and engine plants in the coming months.â€
Republicans Take on NLRB
Wall Street Journal Online, 5/13/2011
House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), along
with several Republicans on the committee, wrote to NLRB Acting General Counsel
Lafe Solomon to demand documents linked to the Boeing complaint and union
election laws in Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah.
The union fight is just beginning
boston.com, 5/16/2011
However much the public supports unionization in principle,
it will not support what it views as the results of heavy-handed union politics:
retirement at age 45, protection for bad teachers, or workers who don’t
contribute to their own health care costs. In New Hampshire, the House
leadership just might swing enough votes to turn a 225-140 margin into a veto
override. Either way, however, the popular sentiment behind this movement will
be with us for a long time.
Connecticut Governor, Unions in Deal
Wall Street Journal Online, 5/14/2011
Mr. Malloy’s threats apparently paid off. Labor leaders,
who supported Mr. Malloy during the election last year, conceded to givebacks of
$1.6 billion in wages and pension and health-care benefits. The governor
declined to go into specifics “out of respect to unions,” which wanted to first
discuss detailed terms with their members, but options on the table included
raising the retirement age, sweetening pension deals to encourage early
retirement and wage freezes
The Coming Postal Bailout
Wall Street Journal Online, 5/14/2011
The odds of a multibillion-dollar rescue package went way
up this week when Postal Service management reported a $2.2 billion loss for the
first quarter, more than 25% higher than last year despite the economic
recovery. It now appears that the $15 billion line of credit the feds have
offered USPS will be used up by the end of this year, with low odds on ever
being paid back.
Muscle: SEIU’s million-dollar ad push for more taxes
San Francisco Examiner Online, 5/12/2011
WHAT: California’s largest public- employee union, Service
Employees International Union, launched a seven-figure television advertising
blitz pressuring GOP legislators to back Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax extensions.
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