Union Watch Highlights

By Jack Dean
12/30/2010
Organized Labor Battlefront Building In Illinois By Rich Miller, December 27, 2010, Southwest Suburban News Herald Organized labor is engaged in a furious multi-front legislative war in Illinois, and more skirmishes may be on the horizon. Trade and industrial unions are hoping to mitigate major damage from proposed workers compensation reforms. Teachers unions are trying...

Public Education Unions vs. Volunteers

By Editor
12/29/2010
For many years I’ve participated as a volunteer at annual beautification days at a public high school near my house. Gradually our efforts have resulted in a campus that is graced with a lovely canopy of trees. What I didn’t realize is these volunteer efforts are endangered by union work rules. A few years ago...

Illinois Democrats Confront Unions

By Editor
12/28/2010
A report posted online on December 27th, 2010 in the Chicago-based Southwest News Herald entitled “Organized Labor Battlefront Building In Illinois” offers a glimpse into what Democratic politicians in functionally bankrupt blue states are willing to consider. As author Rich Miller puts it, “The same unions that pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into Senate...

Alabama Governor Confronts Unions

By Editor
12/28/2010
In a process that is repeating itself nearly everywhere in the United States, public sector unions are being confronted by incoming Governors and state legislators who have correctly identified them as the principal cause of inefficiency, corruption, and looming insolvency. Alabama’s current Republican Governor Bob Riley has just signed game-changing anti-corruption legislation that will, among...

Unions & Pension Funds

By Editor
12/22/2010
U.S. House Resolution 6484, the “Public Employee Pension Transparency Act,” will finally require public employee pension funds to adhere to the same regulations that govern private pension funds. The reason for this is clear enough – by not reporting sufficient information about the financial status of these massive funds, there is greater potential for them...

TAGS: pension fund insolvency

Solutions to Unionized Government

By Mike Shedlock
12/20/2010
Please watch this CBS 60 Minutes interview on the crisis that states face. I have been talking about this for several years while most bloggers and nearly all of mainstream media have ignored the story. It is no longer possible to ignore the story. State Budgets: Day of Reckoning – CBS 60 Minutes Unlike the...

Union Watch Highlights

By Jack Dean
12/20/2010
Brown, prison union walking hand-in-hand By Dan Morain, December 19, 2010, The Sacramento Bee Jerry Brown is preparing to dance with the ones who brung him, specifically 31,000 members of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. Jilted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the union cozied up to Brown by spending $1.4 million to help elect him....

National Ebenezer Association

By Larry Sand
12/20/2010
Scrooge-like National Education Association shows no sign of remorse. Once upon a time, school choice became a reality in our nation’s capital. The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which allowed some poor kids in D.C. to go to private schools with the help of a government stipend, was ushered in by a Republican controlled Congress in...

TAGS: D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program

Calculating Public Employee Total Compensation

By Edward Ring
12/19/2010
December 19, 2010 A study released late last year, sponsored by U.C. Berkeley’s “Institute for Research on Labor and Employment” entitled “The Truth about Public Employees in California: They are Neither Overpaid nor Overcompensated,” contains its conclusion in its title, but whether or not this study is presenting the “truth” or not is worthy of...

Misclassification of Workers: Common Ground or Hotbed of Greed?

By Dave Bego
12/19/2010
“Misclassification of workers” refers to the practice by some businesses of classifying and utilizing workers as independent contractors instead of employees in order to avoid payroll taxes and insurance, and in an effort to increase margins and/or reduce costs. In some industries, this is done for the purpose of obtaining new contracts by being the...

TAGS: Forced Unionism