Video: Don't Back Down

Will Collins — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:48:03 -0400

Workers from across the country have received free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation. Now they're speaking out to encourage others to stand up for their rights in this latest Right to Work video installment:

Wall Street Journal: Big Labor is Back (And Ready to Assault Workers’ Freedoms)!

Patrick Semmens — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:51:03 -0400

Today, the Wall Street Journal editorialized on the fact that Big Labor “has won the intellectual battle for control of the Democratic Party and is reasserting its agenda in a way not seen since the 1970’s.” The WSJ notes Big Labor’s political influence, especially within the Democratic Party, has been steadily increasing over the years.

At the top of Big Labor's agenda is, of course, more compulsory unionism privileges to force workers into dues-paying union ranks:

Big Labor Thugs Beat Dissenting Worker Unconscious... Yet Judge Notes an Improvement in Union Bosses' Behavior!

Patrick Semmens — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:16:10 -0400

Last week, the New York Times reported that Manhattan Federal District Court Judge Charles S. Haight Jr. ordered a one-year continuation of governmental oversight of the New York City carpenters’ union, citing recent bribery convictions of several local bosses, extensive off-the-books work, and an incident where union militants beat up a worker outside a Catholic school until he was unconscious (because he had the gall to challenge the insiders in a union election).

Quick Hits: SEIU Union Boss Corruption, Card Check Lies, and More

Will Collins — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:39:56 -0400

A few Right to Work-related updates from around the web:

1.) The Heritage Foundation's Foundry blog helpfully summarizes the corruption allegations surrounding Tyrone Freeman, head of California's SEIU chapter. What's worse, union mismanagement goes all the way to the top. According to the LA Times, SEIU national brass received word of Freeman's corrupt practices six years ago and still failed to act. (This is the same local union against which Foundation attorneys won a federal court settlement securing the return of almost $10 million in illegally seized forced union dues.)

Union Bosses Had Their Way With Single Mom... Then Kicked Her to the Curb

Patrick Semmens — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:23:54 -0400

The Las Vegas Sun recently published the story of Anishya Sanders, a hard-working single mother exploited by Big Labor to push for the Card Check Forced Unionism bill (aka the misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act”).

Union bosses flew her to Capitol Hill to testify in support of the union power grab and let her live the limosine lifestyle of a union boss for a precious few days. Anishya lived it up at suave hotels, private meetings with members of Congress, and celebratory wining and dining on surf-and-turf and merlot at tony DC hot spots.

Full July/August Issue of Foundation Action Newsletter Available for Download

Patrick Semmens — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:23:07 -0400

The July/August 2008 Foundation Action newsletter is now available for download!

In this issue:

Administration Lawyer Undercuts Another Foundation Case, Abruptly Resigns
Foundation Pushes to Close Union Disclosure Loopholes
Union Boss Monopoly Bargaining Rears Ugly Head
Foundation Victory Reveals Widespread Use of Card-Check
Foundation Attorneys Expose Shady Union Accounting Scheme
Planned Giving Strategies Pay Off Now and Later

Download the July/August 2008 Foundation Action in PDF form today. You can sign up for a free subscription to Foundation Action here.

Despite Massive Union Boss Opposition, DC School Reform Takes Flight

Will Collins — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:56:12 -0400

Via the Education Sector's blog, the Washington Post has an excellent article up on DC School Chancellor Michelle Rhee's proposal to create a two-tier pay system to allow administrators to reward teacher excellence in the capital's hidebound public schools.

Rhee's reforms would permit teachers to forgo tenure in favor of higher pay scales based on student achievement, or choose better job security at lower rates of compensation. Predictably, union bosses are fighting the reform tooth-and-nail because it weakens their education stranglehold:

UPS Drivers Sue Teamsters for Forcing Nonmembers to Subsidize Organizing Activities and Union Strike Fund

Nick Cote — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:02:14 -0400

Today, the Foundation issued a news release announcing parallel federal lawsuits concerning illegal forced dues:

With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation, three UPS employees in Kentucky and two UPS employees in Ohio filed federal lawsuits Friday and Monday, respectively, against national and local Teamsters officials for illegal extraction of forced union dues.

In the lawsuits, the nonmember employees claim that the national and local unions breached their duty of fair representation and violated the employees’ First and Fifth Amendment rights by charging and collecting fees used for organizing nonunion workers throughout the United States and financing a members-only “Strike and Defense Fund.”

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

Tarheel State Union Boss Publishes Lies (Surprise, Surprise)

Nick Cote — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:30:10 -0400

Erin McKee, top boss of the Charleston Labor Council, has written a mind-numbingly ignorant (or intentionally misleading) response to an op-ed which outlines the mass rewriting of federal labor law Big Labor is hoping for after the 2008 election. Several of Boss McKee's assertions are just downright factually incorrect.

Lie #1:

New Right to Work Video Report: Union Militants Display Nonmembers' Social Security Numbers

Nick Cote — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:02:28 -0400

Foundation attorneys have filed an unprecedented lawsuit in North Carolina state court on behalf of 16 AT&T employees against local union bosses who illegally released their confidential personal information (including their social security numbers) as retaliation for exercising their right to refrain from union membership. Two of the workers explain their battle in the latest Right to Work video report...