Wisconsin Big Labor Fraud

On February 3, 2012, By NRTW Committee Staff

Union-label Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (left) is a bitter political foe of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s. Nevertheless, Mr. Barrett admits the governor’s Big Labor-detested Act 10 has helped his city get control over its budget. Credit: AP

Big Labor militants, who submitted 1 million names demanding a recall of Gov. Scott Walker, included the name of a person four times. The man, according to Media Trackers, says he never signed the petition.

Wisconsin watchdog Citizens for Responsible Government in Racine  reported that Racine native Jeff Demet’s name was found four times on the petition to recall Republican State Senator Van Wanggaard. Finding the same signature four times is bad enough, but when Demet was contacted about the four signatures, he claims he never signed the Wanggaard recall petition at all!

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Posted in: Economic Impact of Unionization, Economics, Government Grants to Unions, Intimidation Tactics, Legislation, Public Employees, Teacher Unions, Wisconsin
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TEACHERS UNION MANUAL INSTRUCTS HOW TO USE CHILDREN AS ‘PROPAGANDA’

On February 2, 2012, By NRTW Committee Staff

From The Blaze:

“For more than two years, the Michigan Education Association [MEA] has had a manual that urges its members to use students as propaganda in contract negotiations and also lays out how to organize strikes,” writes Tome Gantert of Michigan Capitol Confidential.

Considering the fact that teacher strikes are illegal in Michigan, some may find it odd that the MEA has been encouraging this sort of behavior. In fact, the MEA has done a lot more than just “encourage” potentially illegal activity. As Gantert reports, the organization produced an anonymously written 28-page manual titled, “Building Full Capacity Locals — Crisis Planning, It’s Never Too Early To Start!”

And of course, what union protest would be complete without the exploitation of children in the bargaining process?

“In terms of a bargaining message, the public responds most positively when we talk about children, quality in the classroom and the future,” the MEA manual states.

The manual even suggests one slogan that it claims has worked for other locals: “It’s not about dollars and cents; it’s about our children.”

Perhaps the most disturbing moment occurs when one section appears to quote almost verbatim Saul Alinsky’s “Rules For Radicals.”

Alinsky instructs his followers to “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Likewise, the MEA manual instructs teachers to “Pick a target—personalize—and polarize the opposition [pg. 17].” And those are just the verbatim quotes; the entire manual is a handbook for creating, managing, and profiting from crises.

 

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Posted in: Education, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Intimidation Tactics, Michigan, Public Employee Monopoly Bargaining, Strike, Teacher Unions
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NLRB’s Speed-Dial Forced-Unionism

On February 2, 2012, By NRTW Committee Staff

The unconstitutionally appointed National Labor Relations Board announced its upcoming agenda that includes forcing companies to release private information about their employees — including their phone numbers and email addresses — to union activists to assist their efforts to coerce workers into a union.

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Posted in: Government Grants to Unions, Intimidation Tactics, NLRB, Obama Administration, Organizing, Personnel Alert, Union Violence
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Reform on the Agenda in Arizona

On February 2, 2012, By NRTW Committee Staff

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who captivated the fighting to protect Arizona’s border, is taking on government labor union bosses in an effort to stabilize the state budget.  Her reforms would prevent “rubber room” situations where government employees cannot be fired for malfeasance thanks to union rules.  In addition, Brewer wants to end the cycle of corruption that exists between big labor due’s money funding politicians who then bargain with the same union over salary and benefits.

We will keep you up to date but on thing we do know, Gov. Brewer is not one to back down from a fight.

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Posted in: Arizona, Economics, Education, Government Grants to Unions, Legislation, Political Activity, Public Employees, Teacher Unions
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As a matter of by-any-means-necessary expediency, Big Labor has long embraced “the necessity for coercion”

On February 1, 2012, By NRTW Committee Staff

Jeff Jacoby, a columnist for The Boston Globe, blasts Big Labor’s “shameless pretext” for fighting without abandon against Right To Work Freedom:

SOON — PERHAPS AS EARLY AS TODAY — Gov. Mitch Daniels will sign legislation making Indiana the nation’s 23rd right-to-work state. Labor unions angrily oppose the change, but their opposition has no legitimate or principled basis.

State right-to-work laws, authorized by the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, are not anti-union. They are pro-choice: They protect workers from being forced to join or pay fees to a labor union as a condition of keeping a job. In non-right-to-work states, employees who work in a “union shop” are compelled to fork over part of each paycheck to a labor organization — even if they want nothing to do with unions, let alone to be represented by one. Laws like the one Indiana is poised to enact simply make union support voluntary. Hoosiers can’t be required to kick back part of their wages to the Republican Party or the Methodist Church or the Animal Liberation Front; the new measure will ensure that they don’t have to give a cut of everything they earn to labor unions, either.

Most Americans regard compulsory unionism as unconscionable. In a new Rasmussen survey, 74 percent of likely voters say non-union workers should not have to pay dues against their will. Once upon a time, labor movement giants like Samuel Gompers, a founder of the American Federation of Labor, agreed. “I want to urge devotion to the fundamentals of human liberty — the principles of voluntarism,” declared Gompers in his last speech to the AFL in 1924. “No lasting gain has ever come from compulsion.” Those words can be seen chiseled on Gompers’s memorial in Washington, DC.

So as a matter of by-any-means-necessary expediency, it is easy to understand why Big Labor long ago embraced what liberal scholar Robert Reich (who served as Bill Clinton’s secretary of labor) dubbed “the necessity for coercion.” In order “to maintain themselves,” Reich said in 1985, “unions have got to have some ability to strap their members to the mast.” Or, as Don Corleone might have put it, to make them an offer they can’t refuse.

But is there any ethical reason — any honorable basis — for the union shop? (more…)

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Posted in: Government Grants to Unions, Indiana, Intimidation Tactics, Monopoly Bargaining, Right to Work, Right To Work States, Section 14-B Taft-Hartley, State Right To Work, State RTW, Union Membership
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ERA would require employees to reaffirm unions every 3 years

On January 31, 2012, By NRTW Committee Staff

Most employees working under a union contract have never voted to be organized by a union.  Sen. Hatch and Rep. Scott want to fix that wit the Employee Rights Act.  From the Washington Times:

In an effort to loosen labor’s grip on workers, two GOP lawmakers want legislation that would require workers to re-affirm the existence of their unions with new votes every three years.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Rep. Tim Scott of South Carolina are pushing the Employee Rights Act that also would place limits on strikes, how fast a union can organize and how membership fees may be used to support political candidates. The bill has yet to receive a committee hearing in either chamber.

Few workers – less than 10 percent of union members – vote to organize. Instead, most workers join an existing union as a condition of employment.

This bill, however, would give workers a chance to voice their opinions. Union officials would be up for re-election every three years. At that time, employees could decide whether to keep or eliminate their union.

“My goal is to make sure that employees of a company make the decision on joining unions,” Mr. Scott said. “This just gives them an opportunity to say, ‘Yes, I want to be a part of the union.’” (more…)

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Posted in: Exclusive Representation, Government Grants to Unions, Legislation, Organizing, South Carolina, Utah
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Big Labor’s Wisconsin Vendetta

On January 24, 2012, By NRTW Committee Staff

WI Teacher Union Losing Its Teacher Healthcare Monopoly

Big Labor will spend millions trying to remove Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker from office but facts about the local economy and the finances of state government is making the argument for removal much more difficult.  As the Wall Street Journal notes, Walker’s reforms are working — saving taxpayers money and putting people back to work:

It’s not turning out that way: The Apocalypse has not arrived for services, and Mr. Walker was able to balance the state budget without new taxes or looming deficits.

They swore revenge for his offenses, and last week Wisconsin Democrats delivered what they say are a million signatures for the recall of Republican Governor Scott Walker… to campaign against reforms that have already saved taxpayers tens of millions of dollars and rescued the state from a budget crisis. Game on.

Since last summer,  Big Labor waged and lost a bitter fight over the election of a state Supreme Court Justice and spent millions trying to recall Republican state senators.

Last year state senator Spencer Coggs called Mr. Walker’s plan “legalized slavery” while others predicted disaster for school districts and public services.

In districts like Wauwatosa, Racine, LaCrosse and Eau Claire, the changes in health and pension contributions prevented layoffs that were expected to be widespread and in some cases allowed the boards not to fire a single teacher. (more…)

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Posted in: Economic Impact of Unionization, Economics, Education, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Intimidation Tactics, Legislation, Public Employees, Teacher Unions, Union Work Rules, Wisconsin
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The Greece Next Door to Wisconsin

On January 21, 2012, By NRTW Committee Staff

It is worth remembering that Illinois has become the belly of the beast when it comes to pleasing the union bosses at expense of the taxpayer.  Even after raising taxes at the demand of union activists, the state is still suffering through an economic crisis.  This is the point that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has been making — we can’t balance state budgets without reforming the power of the union bosses.  The Wall Street Journal notices the difference between Illinois and Wisconsin in a recent Op-Ed:

Run up spending and debt, raise taxes in the naming of balancing the budget, but then watch as deficits rise and your credit-rating falls anyway. That’s been the sad pattern in Europe, and now it’s hitting that mecca of tax-and-spend government known as Illinois.

Though too few noticed, this month Moody’s downgraded Illinois state debt to A2 from A1, the lowest among the 50 states. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Only a year ago, Governor Pat Quinn and his fellow Democrats raised individual income taxes by 67% and the corporate tax rate by 46%. They did it to raise $7 billion in revenue, as the Governor put it, to “get Illinois back on fiscal sound footing” and improve the state’s credit rating.

It’s worth contrasting this grim picture with that of Wisconsin north of the border. Last winter Madison was occupied by thousands of union protesters trying to bully legislators to defeat Republican Governor Scott Walker’s plan. The reforms passed anyway.

In contrast to the Illinois downgrade, Moody’s has praised Mr. Walker’s budget as “credit positive for Wisconsin,” adding that the money-saving reforms bring “the state’s finances closer to a structural budgetary balance.” As a result, Wisconsin jumped in Chief Executive magazine’s 2011 ranking of each state’s business climate—moving to 17th from 41st. Illinois dropped to 48th from 45th as ranked by the nation’s top CEOs. (more…)

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Posted in: Economic Impact of Unionization, Economics, Elections, Forced Dues, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Illinois, Intimidation Tactics, Legislation, Pension Funds, Political Activity, Public Employee Monopoly Bargaining, Public Employees, Teacher Unions, Wisconsin
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