The Union News - Week in Review

Here's a selection of recent story excerpts from The Union News. For the full story, click through the link to the source. For all the day's stories, click on the date.

July 8.

Disgusted citizens picket v. oppressive gov't-union strikers ... The tables were turned on striking city workers Monday when angry residents carrying protest signs picketed their union hall in the 1500 block of Parent Avenue. The neighbours, incensed at the growing mounds of garbage along the sidewalk outside union HQ, vowed to be back again today, despite copies of a no-trespassing order waved in their faces by CUPE Local 543 president Jean Fox. "It's a public sidewalk," said one of the pickets, a nearby resident who would only give her first name Lisa. "We supported the strike for 12 weeks, but enough is enough -- the stench and rats and flies, it's ridiculous," she said. (canada.com)

July 7.

Nightmare on Main Street ... Union campaigns are exhausting, deeply distracting events, and even though EFCA, as it has come to be known, promises to do away with campaigns, I'm willing to bet that the likely compromise will keep some sort of campaign in place, while making it easier for unions to organize. We've been through two campaigns, and know all about their ability to disrupt. About 13 years ago our company's employees voted to get rid of the union they'd had for nearly 30 years. But the six weeks before the vote were horrible. Union organizers, including one flown in from headquarters, descended on our company, pigeonholing employees on the plant floor. Production crashed, and our scrap rate tripled. Determined to stay neutral, we finally had to speak up once rumors began to spread that we'd close the plant if the union won. (newsweek.com)

July 6.

Widespread unsustainability exposed ... After years of extravagant increases in pensions for public employees in state, county, local and special districts, at least some government leaders have come to understand such generosity with taxpayer money is unsustainable. For too long state, county and local government officials have acceded to union demands for ever higher retirement and other benefits, far in excess of anything offered by the vast majority of private firms. At one time, generous pensions were offered to public employees to compensate for more modest salaries that used to be less than those in the private sector. That situation is outdated. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of December 2008, the average yearly pay for state and local government employees was $53,800. That's $13,500 more than the average private-sector employee. There also is a huge gap between public and private employees in benefit packages. (dailydemocrat.com)

July 5.

Conservatives lag behind leftwing goons ... Five million minions identifying with MoveOn.org, and who knows how many lone assassins, who believe in their manifestos. Goonish tactics like anonymous emails, foul language and fantastic conspiracy theories, the arsenal for fighting their cause. It can be overwhelming for the unprepared. Conservatives do not compete in this arena, although there are scattered lone assassins claiming Conservative values as well. In recent years any respectability think tanks, advocacy groups and good government gangs like Common Cause, may have commanded has evaporated. These groups are funded by internet goons, wealthy liberals and a host of well meaning do-gooders. President Obama does not seem to grasp the danger in allying with these amoral forces. With no sense of right and wrong, the ally can spontaneously combust into the adversary. This is what is happening on health care, the peril of a pact with the devil. (examiner.com)

July 4.

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July 3.

U.S. grows weary of tired, old Obama rhetoric ... While I realize my efforts to decode Barack Obama may turn into a never-ending task, I want to focus on another of his rhetorical habits: his ceaseless attempts to portray himself as America's philosopher-king, the person standing not only above country but above politics itself. Obama is, he would have us believe, uniquely able to transcend old, tired, and rutted debates, to think anew, and to bring a fresh, creative approach to the problems of our time. He alone inhabits the upper world. (commentarymagazine.com)(washingtonexaminer.com)

July 2.

Obama revealed by Lioness of White House press corps ... Following a testy exchange during today’s briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control the press the way President Obama is trying to control the press. “Nixon didn’t try to do that,” Thomas said. “They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try. “What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.” Thomas said she was especially concerned about the arrangement between the Obama Administration and a writer from the liberal Huffington Post Web site. The writer was invited by the White House to President Obama’s press conference last week on the understanding that he would ask Obama a question about Iran from among questions that had been sent to him by people in Iran. “When you call the reporter the night before you know damn well what they are going to ask to control you,” Thomas said. “I’m not saying there has never been managed news before, but this is carried to fare-thee-well--for the town halls, for the press conferences,” she said. “It’s blatant. They don’t give a damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their heads in shame.” (cnsnews.com)

July 1.

Anti-business Labor Secretary hearts union bigs ... After a lifetime in politics, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has honed the fine art of dodging controversial questions, but here's one issue where she doesn't pull her punches: the 9.4 percent unemployment rate. The June figures will be released tomorrow, and she's braced for more bad news. "I know that there will probably be a continued increase," Solis said in an interview. "This is a 26-year high. ... It's unprecedented." Solis, 51, a former member of Congress, is the first Latina to head a major federal agency. She grew up in California, the third of seven children born to immigrants with deep union ties. (concordmonitor.com)

June 30.

Sotomayor compares unfavorably to rejected SCOTUS nominee ... Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has been overturned again. President Barrack Obama’s choice to fill the Supreme Court vacancy being created by the retirement of Associate Justice David Souter had another of her rulings overturned today when five of the high court justices upheld an appeal by 20 firefighters from New Haven, Connecticut, who had passed their test for promotion only to have all promotions cancelled because none of the African-American candidates passed the test. Sotomayor was part of a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York that unanimously dismissed the appeal. The full circuit court later declined to hear the case. The ruling in Ricci et al. v DeStefano et al. (pdf) would appear to add to the statistical challenge the nominee will likely face at her confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sotomayor has been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court on 60 percent of her appealed rulings. Those with long memories may recall that Nixon nominee G. Harold Carswell, rejected by the Senate in 1970, was considered “mediocre” by many of the senators because he had been overturned on 58 percent of the appeals of his decisions. (thenewamerican.com)

June 29.

Global Leftists gang up against term limits ... Hugo Chávez's coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation's constitution. It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking. But Honduras is not out of the Venezuelan woods yet. Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself. The Organization of American States, having ignored Mr. Zelaya's abuses, also wants him back in power. It will be a miracle if Honduran patriots can hold their ground. That Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court's order. (online.wsj.com)

June 28.

Send in the union thug clowns ... I believe the biggest change in Washington with Democrats in power has to be the way that unions are systematically being enriched at the taxpayer's expense. It has now gone beyond rewarding organized labor for their massive, unprecedented help electing Obama and the Democratic majority as much of the stim bill sought to do. Now it is simply a matter of filling union coffers with taxpayer cash. Soon, it will be changing the law to make it much easier for unions to organize non-union shops. Then, the New Left's dream of a Government-Union coalition to run the American economy will be complete. Long ago, leftists recognized the potential of this symbiosis and it appears that after decades of patient effort, they are about to succeed. (americanthinker.com)

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