Today, the National Right to Work Foundation announced it will file a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission on behalf of two Alabama educators and itself against the National Education Association teacher union and two NEA affiliates for an illegal political fundraising scheme by the union hierarchy:

Washington, DC (January 13, 2009) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation announced today it will file a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) asking it to investigate charges made by two Alabama educators who discovered a union scheme to divert their money into the National Education Association’s (NEA) political action committee (PAC).

Claire Waites, the chair of the science department, and Dr. Jeanne Fox, an assistant principal, both work at Daphne Middle School in Bay Minette, Alabama. Waites and Fox are both members of the Baldwin County Education Association (BCEA), Alabama Education Association (AEA), and NEA teacher unions.

In July 2008, Waites and Fox attended the NEA’s annual convention in Washington, DC, as delegates of the BCEA. By telephone, BCEA union president Saadia Hunter informed Waites and Fox that contributions to a “children’s fund” in their names were made from money included in their expense reimbursements for their trip to the convention.

Read the rest of the Foundation's press release here. A PDF copy of the complaint is available here.

Today’s ruling highlights the need for Right to Work laws, which end forced unionism

Washington, DC (January 21, 2009) -- Today, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Maine state employees can be compelled under penalty of losing their jobs to pay into an international union’s litigation slush fund – even where all the litigation expenditures are made outside of their own bargaining
unit.

In doing so, the High Court affirmed a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirming a loose standard of protection under the U.S. Constitution for employees forced to pay dues as a condition of employment.

“America’s workers were not well served by this ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court missed an obvious opportunity to apply explicitly the same ‘strict scrutiny’ standard that applies under the First Amendment to other content-based government restrictions on free speech,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation, which provided free legal aid to the employees asserting their rights.

Read the rest of the Foundation's press release here.

The National Right to Work Foundation has launched an online petition to President Barack Obama advising him that his election did not give him a “mandate” to impose draconian policies that will dramatically increase the power and money of the Big Labor Bosses.

We need your participation -- Click here.

After spending record sums to put Obama in the White House, the union bosses are expecting the President to return the favor. And as Obama wrote in his memoir, The Audacity of Hope,

"I owe those unions... When their leaders call, I do my best to call them
back right away. I don't mind feeling obligated."

The potential payback could start with the woefully misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (a.k.a. the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill). Sign the petition to urge the President NOT to advanced such a policy which would, among other things:

DENY workers the right to a secret ballot when voting on whether or not they want to be part of a union (this is at the top of the agenda for Big Labor, because it would enable union organizers to forcibly unionize millions more workers into dues-paying union ranks)

Please sign the petition NOW, by clicking here.

This week, President Obama named Wilma Liebman chair of the National Labor Relations Board, the quasi-judicial body which administers the National Labor Relations Act. A former union lawyer, Liebman has used her seat on the Board to do Big Labor's bidding and trample upon employee freedom.

In a statement, Liebman said

I am honored by President Obama's designation to serve as Chairman, and I look forward to continuing my service on the Board with my colleague, Peter Schaumber, and ultimately with a full complement of Board Members.

I wish to thank Member Schaumber for his own outstanding service as Chairman. His leadership and collegiality, coupled with the efforts of dedicated agency staff, have enabled the Board to operate productively this past year.

The Board's work matters, just as it did when the National Labor Relations Act was passed in 1935. Democracy in the workplace is still basic to a democratic society, and collective bargaining is still basic to a fair economy. The statute we administer is the foundation of America's commitment to human rights recognized around the world.

Emphsis mine.

As for "the statute [the Board members] administer," Liebman appears to have forfeited her objectivity by urging Congress to amend that law by passing the woefully misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (a.ka. the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill). As we asked earlier this month, how can an employee trust Liebman to impartially administer the NLRA when she is also working to amend it to effectively eliminate the secret ballot in workplace unionization drives?

Moreover, Liebman's so-called "committment to human rights" does not appear to include any conception of individual freedom. In fact, she has shown an ugly disdain for individual rights, writing in one "academic" journal:

[A]n exclusive orientation toward an individual-rights regime could
have troubling political and social consequences.Workers may view the
employment relationship in purely individual terms and may fail to
grasp common economic interests and the potential of collective action
at work, as well as in the public sphere. Collective action at work
encourages engagement in the community and in politics. Without a
functioning collective bargaining system, fundamental economic issues
are placed off the table: distribution of wealth, control, and
direction of economic enterprises. What institution will be as
effective in efforts to minimize the randomness of fortune of
democratic capitalism? And without a strong independent trade union
movement, what institution will stand effectively as a counterweight in
our democracy to the growing political influence of corporations? What
institution will speak for working people—indeed for the middle
class—as effectively?

The truth is that Wilma Liebman thinks she knows more about what is in a worker's best interest than the individual worker does.  That's why she feels is it good public policy to force as many workers into union collectives as possible.  As far as she is concerned, individual free choice is irrelevant.

Foundation attorneys look forward to getting her Board's rulings slammed down by the federal appellate courts.

The confirmation of radical unionist Hilda Solis, Democrat congresswoman from Los Angeles, to be Obama's new Secretary of Labor has hit a snag.

While the Senate has approved other Cabinet nominees left and right -- including a Treasury Secretary who has admitted to failing to pay income taxes -- Solis has yet to make it out of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The Pasadena Star-News has more:

At least one unidentified Republican senator is using a parliamentary procedure to holdup Solis' confirmation, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, alleged from the Senate floor Thursday.

The anonymous hold -- as the informal delay tactic is known -- essentially prevents the full Senate from voting on Solis' confirmation by threatening a filibuster. It could be lifted at any time.

The hold was placed on the nomination because of Solis' support for legislation aimed at facilitating union organization and regarding pay-discrimination, and for non-responsive answers during her confirmation hearing, the Washington, DC-based Congress Daily reported Friday.

President Obama is asking the Senate -- and the American people -- to approve as Labor Secretary a Congresswoman who chose not to -- or can't -- answer questions about worker freedom, secret ballots, or prevailing wage laws. As we recently wrote, Solis told the HELP Committee that she is "not qualified" to discuss Right to Work.

Solis has made a political career of carrying Big Labor's water -- first in the California legislature and more recently in the U.S. House of Representatives.  She sports a 100 percent lifetime AFL-CIO rating.  In fact, the union bosses hand-picked Solis in 2000 to challenge then-incumbent Congressman Marty Martinez (D-CA) because Martinez "only" voted with Big Labor 80 percent of the time.

Here is what she said at the recent U.S. Senate confirmation hearing in which Solis dodges questions on basic issues any Labor Secretary nominee should be able to address -- issues like card check and Right to Work.  Check out the video below:

Blacklisting Rule: Obama Makes First Major Payback to Big Labor

Labor Secretary handed sweeping new power to blacklist union targets, while workers remain in the dark about right to refrain from union membership

Washington, DC (January 30, 2009) – President Barack Obama issued two decrees today intended to corral millions more American workers into forced unionism while blacklisting non-union employees from working on taxpayer funded projects.

“After spending more than a billion dollars in forced union dues to get Obama elected, the union bosses have received their first major payoff – two executive orders intended to grease the rails for coercive union organizing, give the Secretary of Labor the power to blacklist union-targeted employers and employees, and keep workers in the dark about their rights to refrain from union membership,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. “Obama’s two executive orders serve one basic goal: to seize more forced dues revenue to fund Big Labor’s political agenda.”

Obama repealed Executive Order 13201 signed by President George W. Bush which had helped ensure that employees of federal contractors were informed of their rights under the U.S. Supreme Court case Communication Workers v. Beck (1988). Won by attorneys at the National Right to Work Foundation, Beck held that private-sector employees may be compelled to pay certain union dues, but may not be compelled to pay any dues or fees earmarked for union politics, lobbying, and other non-bargaining activities.

President Obama included the revocation of Beck rights notices in an executive order advertising, and essentially endorsing, the formation of unions under a theory (long discredited by academic research) that forcing employees into union collectives will somehow prevent “substantial obstructions to the free flow of commerce.”

The executive order also purports to give the Secretary of Labor the authority to determine what will be required by the notice, the authority to investigate violations, to hold hearings, and the power to punish violators of all federal labor laws mentioned in the notice. In effect, the Secretary of Labor would become an additional judge, jury, and executioner of federal labor laws with respect to federal contractors. Most importantly, the Secretary would determine whether a contractor would be fired by the federal government (apparently where the contractor has not even been found to have violated any laws by the law enforcement body of jurisdiction). Even President Bill Clinton stopped short of attempting to give the Secretary of Labor a "blacklisting" power, which is almost certainly unlawful.

Another new order effectively bars federal contractors from communicating truthful information about unionization to their employees.

“It’s disgusting to see this blatant payoff to Big Labor only two weeks into Obama’s term,” continued Mix. “Today, President Obama has sent an ominous message to the 93 percent of private sector workers in America who, for whatever reasons, have chosen not to unionize: You’re not welcome here.”

--

The executive orders can be read here and here. 

Labor Secretary handed sweeping new enforcement powers, while workers remain in the dark about right to refrain from union membership

Washington, DC (January 30, 2009) – President Barack Obama issued two decrees today intended to corral millions more American workers into forced unionism.

“After spending more than a billion dollars in forced union dues to get Obama elected, the union bosses have received their first major payoff – two executive orders intended to grease the rails for coercive union organizing, set up the Secretary of Labor as federal labor law czar, and keep workers in the dark about their rights to refrain from union membership,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. “Obama’s two executive orders serve one basic goal: to seize more forced dues revenue to fund Big Labor’s political agenda.”

Obama repealed Executive Order 13201 signed by President George W. Bush which had helped ensure that employees of federal contractors were informed of their rights under the U.S. Supreme Court case Communication Workers v. Beck (1988). Won by attorneys at the National Right to Work Foundation, Beck held that private-sector employees may be compelled to pay certain union dues, but may not be compelled to pay any dues or fees earmarked for union politics, lobbying, and other non-bargaining activities.

Click here to read the rest of the Foundation's press release.

Today, President Barack Obama issued two deeply disturbing executive orders as his first big payback to Big Labor.

Flanked by union bosses at a White House ceremony, Obama said “Welcome back to the White House” and announced sweeping measures which give his Secretary of Labor the power to blackball non-union contractors targeted by union organizers.

With federal outlays rising dramatically as part of attempts to “stimulate” the economy, the number of firms with federal contracts are expected to increase dramatically in the coming months. Nearly 93 percent of America's private-sector workforce has not chosen to unionize, so union officials hope to leverage these federal funds in a full court press to corral millions more workers into forced-dues-paying union ranks.

One of the Obama executive orders hands his Secretary of Labor virtually unchecked power to blacklist those firms which union officials complain are supposedly violating federal labor laws. The Secretary of Labor is expected to leverage DOL's new powers against companies not agreeing to grease the rails for coercive union organizing drives or companies not ceding to uneconomic or abusive union-boss demands.

This new blacklisting power has enormous implications for the expenditure of taxpayer dollars, to say nothing of individual employee rights.

The other federal executive order effectively bars contractors from sharing truthful, non-coercive information with their employees about the downsides of unionization.

Taken together, the two executive orders go well beyond actions by President Clinton to force employees of federal contractors into union collectives, and they could turn the U.S. Department of Labor into a giant, taxpayer-funded extension of the union organizing wing at AFL-CIO headquarters.

Meanwhile, Labor Secretary-designate Hilda Solis continues to stonewall important questions about freedom in the workplace.

For more about today's executive orders, read the National Right to Work Foundation's press release.