National Right to Work Committee Legislative Director Greg Mourad sits down with Breitbart TV to discuss Craig Becker, Obama's radical nominee to the National Labor Relations Board. Click here to listen or use the embeddable player below:
A longer video of the show can be found here. You can also listen to the Foundation's podcast via iTunes or manually subscribe to the feed.
The National Institute for Labor Relations Research (NILRR) has just published an eye-opening fact sheet revealing the dangers of Big Labor's latest push to use the U.S. Congress to impose union monopoly bargaining and forced dues on public safety workers in cash-strapped states and localities.
Never satisfied with the special privileges already granted to them by their bought-and-paid-for lackeys at all levels of government, union bosses are pushing alarming new federal legislative proposals that increase their stranglehold on otherwise independent-minded workers, such as the draconian Police and Firefighters Monopoly Bargaining bill (H.R. 413). States have rejected similar legislation dozens of time in recent year. (In fact, Big Labor-backed Democrat Governor Bill Ritter in Colorado vetoed such a bill at the request of cash-strapped mayors).
The Police and Firefighters Monopoly Bargaining bill would allow public safety union bosses to seize monopoly bargaining privileges over public safety employees who otherwise have chosen to refrain from being represented by or financially supporting a union. Union officials would gain new powers in 28 states to become "exclusive bargaining agents" of all public safety employees at a unionized workplace, thereby depriving the employees of the right to make their own individual employment contracts.
According to NILRR:
The only policies acceptable under this measure are those that empower union bosses to bargain on behalf of police and firefighters who have refused to join the union and want nothing to do with it, as well as those who have voluntarily joined.
...H.R. 413 would rewrite the public-sector labor laws of the vast majority of the 50 states to make them more pro-forced unionism.
In states that don’t currently authorize public-safety monopoly bargaining, H.R. 413 would impose it, denying localities the option to refuse to grant a single union the power to speak for all front-line employees, including those who don’t want to join. And in most states that already authorize union monopoly bargaining, H.R. 413 would widen its scope.
In our latest Right to Work video report, Foundation President Mark Mix discusses how the Foundation is pressing the Obama Administration to disclose its entanglements with Big Labor's top political operatives using the Freedom of Information Act. Click on the video below to watch the whole thing:
Download the National Right to Work Foundation's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request here.
Big Labor's leverage over American businesses and their employees is reaching new levels.
The powerful Service Employees International Union is flexing its political muscles, demanding the Obama Administration remove the CEO of Bank of America as part of a campaign to impose unionization on its unsuspecting bank tellers. Check out the full video report from CNN's Lou Dobbs, which includes a segment with National Right to Work President Mark Mix:
In the latest Foundation podcast, Legal Information Director Patrick Semmens sits down with Greg Mourad, Director of Legislation for the National Right to Work Committee, to discuss the recently reintroduced card check bill's legislative prospects as well as its implications for employee freedom. Click here to listen or use the embeddable player below the fold:
Regular Freedom@Work readers already know that AFL-CIO bosses just spent a week at a luxurious beachfront resort in Miami with VP Biden and Secretary of Labor Solis. Now they want the Department of Labor to rescind simple disclosure guidelines that would help rank-and-file workers learn when they're funding extravagant union getaways. Check out the National Right to Work video with Committee and Foundation President Mark Mix for more information:
The Foundation's press release urging the Department to retain union disclosure regulations can be found here.
The National Right to Work Foundation provides free legal aid to employees so they can fight back against union coercion and abuse.
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Right to Work Foundation Urges Department of Labor Not to Trash Union Disclosure Rules
Obama Administration seems primed to make it easier for union bosses to hide lucrative perks from rank-and-file workers
Washington, DC (March 9, 2009) – Prompted by a Rahm Emanuel directive on Inauguration Day, the U.S. Department of Labor seems ready to discard new union disclosure rules developed over two years by the previous administration.
In response, the National Right to Work Foundation has submitted comments urging the Department to maintain or strengthen rules aimed at curbing union boss corruption.
In late January, the Department of Labor announced that it was considering changes to recently revised LM-2 disclosure guidelines, which require unions to list the specific compensation – financial or otherwise – of individual union officers and to name all parties involved in any union-related transactions. Unions routinely spend millions of dollars on staff compensation, purchases unrelated to collective bargaining, and lavish perks for top union officials. The disclosure requirements are intended to ensure that dues-paying workers have some idea what they’re paying for . . .
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Click here to read the entire release. The Foundation submitted comments opposing any rescission of existing disclosure regulations, which are available here (.pdf).
For those of you who missed it, the National Right to Work Foundation recently released a video featuring Foundation President Mark Mix urging all Right to Work supporters to get involved in our efforts to stop the Obama Administration from rolling back basic union disclosure regulations. Now Mix's message is available in podcast form. Click here to listen:
Foundation VP Stefan Gleason appeared on CNN Wednesday with Lou Dobbs as part of a piece on the Obama Administration's new Project Labor Agreement Executive Order, which discriminates against the vast majority of construction workers who have not chosen to unionize. The executive order is likely to result in hundreds of millions of dollars in new forced union dues, while jacking up the costs shouldered by taxpayers. Check it out:
Dobbs sums it up nicely at the end when he observes that "this is a massive windfall for organized labor."