From CBC News:

Workers at a Wal-Mart in Gatineau, Que., are officially decertified from their union after just more than a year with their first collective agreement.

Quebec’s Labour Relations Commission removed the more than 150 workers, who are employed at a store on du Plateau Boulevard in the city’s Hull sector, from their union.

(more…)

A powerful United Food & Commercial Workers local union (348s) in New York was closed for business on Thursday as police arrested three family members who run the union local.

Police arrested the president, former president, and treasurer of Local 348 United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) on Thursday. Anthony Fazio Sr., John Fazio Jr., and Anthony Fazio Jr. were charged with racketeering, extortion, money laundering, and witness tampering.

The Fazios used their positions in the union to extort money from employers unionized by the UFCW. They stole more than $2.4 million from union members and employers over the course of 16 years, according to the indictment.

According to Courthouse News Service:

The indictment accuses the Fazios of “extorting, soliciting and obtaining cash payments, in violation of federal and state labor law, from business owners who employees were represented by Local 348,” to enrich themselves and others. (more…)

Today, when UFCW union member Chris Mosquera and his attorney from the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation file his lawsuit in U.S. District Court challenging the Obama-SEIU-AFL-CIO-UFCW Empire, Mr. Mosquera officially stands up to the Obama Administration. Mr. Mosquera challenges the Administration’s attacks on individual workers such as it usurpation of power from individuals through Administration’s new Big Labor Boss-friendly reg that helps conceal forced union dues shenanigans.

You may remember that within hours of arriving in the Oval Office, President Obama dispatched orders to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). These orders were not to immediately begin turning around the economy or start finding ways to encourage employers to hire more people. No. Obama’s orders were much less bold and more typical of Tammany Hall payback to Big Labor Bosses who threw a billion dollars’ worth of forced-dues assets (Time, Talent, and Treasure) behind Obama and Democrat political campaigns.

Before the Big Labor insiders at DOL made time to “help” employees and the unemployed, they set about rescinding the January 2009 union financial disclosure reform; they declared the agency would no longer enforce the 2008 union officer conflict-of-interest reports; they stopped state teacher unions’ financial disclosures; and they rescinded the requirement that unions disclose non-union enterprises that they control.

Mr. Mosquera’s actions are both courageous and necessary, not only for workers who live in forced-unionism states such as Maryland and Indiana, but for any employee who is or may be covered by a collective bargaining contract with an LMRDA-covered labor union.

Mr. Mosquera stands as a shining torch to light way for others across the U.S. to challenge the Obama Administration in court whenever the Empire exceeds its authority.

(more…)

Though it is often hidden, covered up, or excused, every now and then, union bosses give the public a glimpse of what they really think about unions when it comes to their own workers being unionized. In fact, it’s really not that uncommon for union bosses to engage in the same so-called “union-busting” activities they like to accuse companies (and Republicans) of doing.

Last year, for example, there was the incident of the longtime employee who tried to unionize the United Federation of Teachers, only to be fired. There was also the incident just a couple of month ago when the staff reps at UFCW Local 400 petitioned to unionize, only to be called ”completely clueless, unappreciative, and incompetent” by a member of the UFCW’s management. Of course, there was incident of the UAW imposing cuts on its own union staff last year, as well as the Teamsters’ Jim Hoffa getting tough when the union staff at the Teamsters headquarters threatened to walk off the job in 2009.

Despite all of these examples (and more), it is somewhat unusual, though, for union bosses to get caught so blatantly seeming to act in concert to bust a union within their union as the Amalgamated Transit Union bosses have been accused of doing: (more…)

How far will unions go to enusre that citizens of California never enter a Wal-Mart? Citizens there are about to find out.

When unions in San Diego failed to convince the San Diego City Council and San Diego residents that a ban on big box retail was necessary to “protect” that municipality from the horrors of low-priced consumer goods and hundred of jobs, union leaders decided to take their crusade statewide in an effort to ban Wal-Mart completely from the West Coast.

Less than 24 hours after the San Diego City Council rescinded a law requiring costly economic impact reports from developers of big-box superstores, a South Bay lawmaker says he wants some restrictions in a bill he plans to introduce at the state level.

Sen. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, said his bill, like the local measure, will target proposed stores 90,000 square feet and larger that dedicate 10 percent of floor space to groceries.

Vargas couches his opposition in the traditional rhetoric that banning Wal-Mart is a boon to the surrounding community, preventing harm to a local economy and small businesses. It’s clear from surrounding evidence, though, that the effort to ban Wal-Mart from San Diego, and subsequently the the state of California, is a smokescreen for isolationist – and arrogant – union policies meant to preserve and protect union jobs at all costs to the communities they claim to serve.

In the case of San Diego, the ban on big box retail was against the wishes of the community itself, and against the recommendations of the City Attorney, the city’s planning commission, San Diego’s Developmental Services Department, the code monitoring team and an independent budget analyst who warned the “overly restrictive” ban would lead to dramatic economic consequences. The city council originally adopted the ordinance only to have the mayor veto the measure. Faced with the death of the bill, union leaders waged an eleventh-hour effort with the city council to over-ride the mayor’s veto just before new city council members – who supported the mayor – were sworn in.

(more…)

Last May, a frightened teenager was trapped inside his home when a mob of SEIU astro-turfing thugs (estimated at 500 strong) trespassed on his front lawn to protest to intimidate his father, the deputy general counsel of the Bank of America. While the protesters caught the family by surprise (allegedly aided and abetted by the police), unbeknownst to them, Fortune’s Nina Easton was a neighbor to the victim and exposed the injustice for what it was.

Now, though, another gang of astro-turfing thugs has targeted (yes, targeted) the private home of a real estate developer for the audacity of building a WalMart that will employ up to 1200 DC-area residents.

With unemployment in Washington, DC at 10.2%, it is hard to imagine anyone not wanting to see jobs added. That is, unless that someone is a union that doesn’t like the fact that WalMart operates its U.S. stores union-free.

(more…)

By now, most Americans know how hard union bosses pushed, tugged, bullied and threatened, using tens of millions of their members’ money on advertising and lobbying, all to get health care reform passed.

Most Americans also remember (though many did not believe) the promises that health care reform would make health care “affordable for all.” And no one can forget how the legislation was sold to Americans:

The Chairmen of the three Committees with jurisdiction over health policy in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced comprehensive health care reform legislation today that will reduce out-of-control costs, encourage competition among insurance plans to improve choices for patients, and expand access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

Well, on March 23rd (not quite six months ago), the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law. That same day, a jubilant Andy Stern even recorded this video for his SEIU members, congratulating them on ow the SEIU “changed America forever.” That was then… The Chickens Start to Come Home (aka the Law of Unintended Consequences) Almost immediately after the passage of what is now called “ObamaCare,” like a pebble thrown into calm waters, waves began to develop. Karma. The first sign of trouble began when a number of companies began taking hundreds of millions of dollars ($1 billion in AT&T’s case) in write downs due to the projected cost of ObamaCare, making Congress and the Administration furious. In fact, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) was so furious that he ordered a show-trial hearing to be held and then he abruptly cancelled it.  It soon became clear why, as noted by the Daily Caller [emphasis added]:

Publicly, Waxman said the investigation showed the companies’ disclosures were properly filed. But a new report from committee Republicans reveals the documents Waxman obtained included embarrassing evidence that the health-care law could drive up insurance premiums and force employers to dump employees from their health plans. “Turns out Obamacare means if you like your health plan you can lose it. The president didn’t have to actually strong-arm companies into dumping their employee health insurance because his bill carried financial incentives to virtually guarantee that result,” Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Rep. Joe Barton, Texas Republican, said. Most significantly, documents unearthed by the investigation highlight companies that are considering dumping employees from their current health-care plans in the face of new costs from the health-care law. President Obama repeatedly promised his health-care law would let Americans keep their current insurance if they’re happy with it.

The dumping begins… Over the past couple of weeks, months after Henry Waxman’s initial embarrassment, a big problem has begun to emerge for the Democrats who worked so hard to pass ObamaCare.  News has begun to break that companies are, in fact, beginning to dump their employees (or retirees) health care benefits.

(more…)

When Nancy Reagan launched her “Just Say No to Drugs” campaign in the early 1980s, Bill Clinton may (or may not) have still been inhaling, while Barack Obama almost certainly was.  Nevertheless, politicians in the 1980s might not have known that they were embarking on a campaign that has cost nearly $50 billion per year, caused millions of arrests and hundreds of thousands to be jailed and, after all of that, has arguably failed.

It’s too bad the political leaders who were responsible for launching and financing the war on drugs so many years ago didn’t spend some more time reflecting on other, more simple solutions—like unionizing the industry.

As Californians head to the polls on November 2nd, among the other decisions voters will be deciding on (like choosing whether or not to recycle ex-governor Jerry “California Über Alles” Brown), they will be voting on whether or not  pass Proposition 19—that is whether or not to legalize pot in California.  More specifically, whether or not to legalize “various marijuana-related activities, allow local governments to regulate these activities, permit local governments (but not the state government) to impose and collect marijuana-related fees and taxes, and authorize various criminal and civil penalties.”

Like any budding new industry, Prop. 19 has not escaped unnoticed by union bosses.  In fact, over the past few months, unions have taken a keener-than-usual interest in the pot industry and its workers.

First, the United Food & Commercial Workers unionized some medical marijuana workers in May as part of an effort to bring “legitimacy to a once-hidden sector of the state’s economy” and boost the marijuana-legalization initiative.

Shortly afterward, the UFCW endorsed Proposition 19, stating:

(more…)

With their pension plans about ready to implode (no wonder they’re clamoring for a union pension bailout), a union boss who was just dumped by his top running mate, and with hundreds of members out on strike, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters can now add one more thing to their pot of bad luck:  The union just won the 2010 Most Decertified Union Award.

Every year for the past five years, Union Free America (one of a handful of websites that is committed to helping employees maintain their independence) gives out its Most Decertified Union Award and this year’s award winner (or loser, as the case may be) is the International Brotherhood of Teamsters:

Teamsters Union Wins 2010 Most Decertified Union Award

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is the winner of Union Free America’s 5th Annual “Most Decertified Union Award.”  This honor is awarded to the labor union that lost the most decertification elections during the preceding 12 months.

The judging was based on an analysis of the reports of election results on the National Labor Relations Board’s web site for the period August 2009 through July 2010.  During that time the NLRB conducted 251 decertification elections.  Employees seeking to rid themselves of a union won 157 or 63 percent of them.

The Teamsters union won the “Most Decertified Union Award” by being decertified 48 times during that period.  The Teamsters were involved in a total of 64 decertification elections of which they lost 75 percent.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) came in a distant second by being decertified in 9 out of 15 elections, or 60 percent.

The International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) won honorable mention by being decertified 8 times. This may seem paltry compared to the Teamsters, but IUOE deserves recognition for being decertified in 8 out of 8 elections.

(more…)

No. You really can’t make this up.

In their quest to find new members, unions are searching high and low—but especially high.

A couple of months ago, some pot (as in marijuana) workers in California unionized with the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW).  As Big Government blogger, Bret Jacobson noted then, it sort of makes sense:

Now you can Super Size it and smoke a spliff without ever crossing a picket line.

But, just to show that unions are down with the times, the UFCW is taking the next step:

The 200,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers, Western States Council, on Wednesday announced its support for Proposition 19, the initiative to legalize marijuana in California.

(more…)

Actor Jimmy Smits, Obama’s Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, and co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America union and Democratic Socialists of America member Dolores Huerta have recorded Public Service Announcements (PSAs) for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) directed at workers “documented or not.”

In the video, the three DOL spokespersons announce the Department’s selective enforcement of U.S. laws as they explain that DOL intends to use its resources for both “documented” and “not” documented workers.  But, the real plan is to force all workers to pay union fees as a condition of employment.

U.S. Labor Sec. Hilda Solis’ 30-second script:

I’m U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, and it is a serious problem when workers in this country are not being paid every cent they earned.

Remember every worker in America has the right to be paid fairly whether documented or not.

(more…)

This video is quickly making the rounds across the Internet. It show’s Coakley staffers or volunteers throwing some reporters out of a Coakley office. Aside from the humor of a bunch of leftists and progressives suddenly discovering and asserting private property rights, the video has a classic display of the left’s quick resort to the N-Bomb, as in Nazis.

The video is just about a minute long and they can still work in a comparison to Nazis? Sheesh.

(more…)

BigGovernment.com continues to wake-up America to Obama Administration relationships with ACORN and Big Labor.  BigGov’s  latest story highlights Presidential Advisor Valerie Jarrett’s crew member Buffy Wicks who is the former political director of forced union dues financed WakeupWalmart.com (Wakeup). In the conference call, Wicks highlighted the important role United We Serve (Serve.gov) has in President Obama’s Organizing America strategy. See Dana Loesch’s article about Serve.gov directing volunteers to ACORN.

The Obama campaign boastfully promoted Wick’s moniker, “Buffy the Wal-Mart Slayer” that highlights her community organizing experience with Wakeup’s efforts to increase costs for Wal-Mart and the prices for its customers.  However, the Obama White House press release tones down Wicks past position:

Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.  Wicks has a long history in grassroots organizing and civic engagement. Most recently she was the Director of the Renew America Together effort, the call to service issued by then President-elect Obama. She also served on the Obama for America campaign in a variety of roles, including California Field Director and Missouri State Director, and helped develop the national grassroots field strategy. She has also worked in the labor movement, fighting for better health care and wages for disenfranchised workers. She is originally from California and graduated with a double major in Political Science and History from the University of Washington.

(more…)