Thursday, February 21, 2008

Change to Win Endorses Obama, Calls for Clinton Exit

THIS JUST IN:

Less than a day after the Change-to Win (C2W) federation member the International Brotherhood of Teamsters endorsed Barak Obama, and a week after C2W unions the SEIU and the UFCW did the same, the Change to Win federation officials officially endorsed the senator from Illinois today.

In a conference call this morning announcing the federation's endorsement, C2W Chairwoman Anna Burger stated, "we do think it is time to bring this nomination process to a close," indicating unions are increasingly tired of the battle for the Democratic nomination and getting behind Obama to the peril of former first-lady Hillary Clinton.

For more union-related news, go to EmployerReport.com .

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Barak Obama Considers the Majority of American Businesses "UnPatriotic"

With choices all too limited, it seems the GOP has decided that John McCain (gag!) will be the Grand OLD Party's nominee. On the far left, however, the Democrats are fighting which anti-business, anti-free enterprise candidate to choose from.

Since it would appear that Barak Obama is now likely to be this nation's next president, we thought we should share with you the fact that Barak Obama views the majority of today's American businesses as 'unpatriotic' because they're union-free.

Unfortunately, this only came to our attention this week, but last year, Obama and his Democrat cronies Dick Durbin and Sherrod Brown introduced the Patriot Employer Act of 2007 (S.1945), which gives their definition of what a 'patriotic' corporation is--this definition includes being a company that agrees to union neutrality and card check.

In other words, if an employer doesn't wish to be unionized, that employer is UNPATRIOTIC.

In essence, folks, that's like saying "If you don't want to be sodomized, you're selfish!"

And the incentive for your company to be sodomized, under Obama's bill: A 1% tax break!

Since unionization often increases employers' costs between 10% and 25% (absent labor costs), and since the vast majority of American businesses are union-free and prefer to stay that way, it seems this extortionate labeling of American business as being "unpatriotic" is, in itself, UNAMERICAN.

Welcome to the so-called Change that Mr. Obama promises to bring to America.

By the way, that's not all that Mr. Obama promises to do your companies. Here's more straight from his website:

Labor
Obama will strengthen the ability of workers to organize unions. He will fight for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Obama will ensure that his labor appointees support workers' rights and will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers. Obama will also increase the minimum wage and index it to inflation to ensure it rises every year.

Ensure Freedom to Unionize: Obama believes that workers should have the freedom to choose whether to join a union without harassment or intimidation from their employers. Obama cosponsored and is strong advocate for the Employee Free Choice Act, a bipartisan effort to assure that workers can exercise their right to organize. He will continue to fight for EFCA's passage and sign it into law.

Fight Attacks on Workers' Right to Organize: Obama has fought the Bush National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) efforts to strip workers of their right to organize. He is a cosponsor of legislation to overturn the NLRB's "Kentucky River" decisions classifying hundreds of thousands of nurses, construction, and professional workers as "supervisors" who are not protected by federal labor laws.

Protect Striking Workers: Obama supports the right of workers to bargain collectively and strike if necessary. He will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers, so workers can stand up for themselves without worrying about losing their livelihoods.

Raise the Minimum Wage: Barack Obama will raise the minimum wage, index it to inflation and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit to make sure that full-time workers earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs.

Work/Family Balance

Obama will double funding for after-school programs, expand the Family Medical Leave Act, provide low-income families with a refundable tax credit to help with their child-care expenses, and encourage flexible work schedules.

Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act: The FMLA covers only certain employees of employers with 50 or more employees. Obama will expand it to cover businesses with 25 or more employees. He will expand the FMLA to cover more purposes as well, including allowing workers to take leave for elder care needs; allowing parents up to 24 hours of leave each year to participate in their children's academic activities; and expanding FMLA to cover leave for employees to address domestic violence.

Encourage States to Adopt Paid Leave: As president, Obama will initiate a strategy to encourage all 50 states to adopt paid-leave systems. Obama will provide a $1.5 billion fund to assist states with start-up costs and to help states offset the costs for employees and employers.

Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities: Obama will double funding for the main federal support for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to serve a million more children. Obama will include measures to maximize performance and effectiveness across grantees nationwide.

Expand Flexible Work Arrangements: Obama will create a program to inform businesses about the benefits of flexible work schedules; help businesses create flexible work opportunities; and increase federal incentives for telecommuting. Obama will also make the federal government a model employer in terms of adopting flexible work schedules and permitting employees to request flexible arrangements.
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On behalf of EmployerReport.com have a great week's end!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

KC Dealers Reject UAW Gamble


In a HUGE setback for the UAW (aka United Against Workers), dealers at Kansas City's Argosy Casino Hotel & Spa rejected representation by the ailing auto workers' union by nearly two to one on Saturday night.

The overwhelming 113-68 defeat marks the third time the UAW has been beaten back in its attempt to replace the dues lost in the auto industry with money earned by casino dealers.

Argosy Casino general manager Tom Burke said he was very happy about the results, stated Kansas City.com.

“They lost significantly,” he said. “We’re very, very pleased with the results tonight. Most of all, we are very grateful to our dealers for seeing through the UAW’s negative and divisive tactics in an effort to force its way onto our property, attempting to drive a wedge between us and our dealers.

The UAW's previous election losses in the Casino Industry include Trump Marina in Atlantic City, as well as the Atlantic City Hilton.

In 2007, in an effort to turn around its dramatic membership losses in the auto industry, the UAW began targeting the nation's casino dealers. Despite winning several NLRB elections nearly a year ago, the union has failed to negotiate its own contract for any of the dealers represents.

The one contract in the casino industry the UAW currently has is in Detroit, as the UAW is part of a coalition of several unions that negotiated representation of casino workers as a political deal in that city.

Clearly, the Argosy dealers apparently saw through the UAW's campaign and refused to let this union of unemployed auto workers gamble with their livelihoods.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Employer Alert: President approves FMLA changes

The following is an Employer Alert from Joseph P. Hofmann, a labor and employment attorney with the law firm of Stevens & Lee:

You may have heard about pending changes to FMLA adding special leave rights for military family members. There was some delay while Congress and the President negotiated their positions on the Defense Authorization Act, which was the law which includes the FMLA changes.

The President signed the Defense Authorization Act on Monday, January 28th and according to the Department of Labor (DOL), the amendments became effective immediately. These amendments provide the following new leave rights:
  1. 12 weeks of "exigent" leave is available to employees whose spouse, son, daughter, or son is on or called for active duty. "Exigent" leave counts against the annual twelve week leave entitlement.
  2. 26 weeks of leave available to care for injured service member who is the employee's spouse, son, daughter, or "next of kin" (nearest blood relative). Leave to care for an injured service member does not count against the 12-week annual leave entitlement.
DOL plans to "fast-track" regulations interpreting the new FMLA provisions, which will (hopefully) explain what is meant by "exigent."

For more information on this change, you can visit the website of Stevens & Lee, or e-mail Mr. Hofmann directly.

Will the World End on Super Tuesday?

Depending on your point of view, tomorrow's Super Tuesday results may spell the End of the World as We Know It (and I feel fine), or it may signify the Second Coming of...Something (JFK?)...

In the Land of Obama, for example, there are rumors afloat that Barak Obama may be the reincarnation of (depending on the source) either Bobby Kennedy or John F. Kennedy. Which, if you really think about how it turned out for those two, may not be a good thing for the Left to taint Mr. Obama's karma with.

Of course, re-incarnation rumors are nothing new to the Left, as
Hillary Clinton allegedly once reached out to the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt during Hillary's first (and hopefully her last) years in the White House.

Today, of course, the Drudge Report is reporting that Hillary Health Plan Part Deux, may include garnishing workers' wages to pay for health insurance.

Can someone please click their heels three times and say: "Socialist." to send this lady back to arKansas....and tell her to take her dog Bill too.
Speaking of the Left. Ronn Gettlefinger, the union boss at the UAW, can't figure out which Left-wing candidate to support, so he's holding his cookies until after a nominations are done, so he can throw all of his members' confiscated money to the Democrats. According to the UAW boss, the most any GOP candidate got in the union's internal polling was two percent.

[Boy, we'd like to know how that poll was conducted!]
Speaking of liberals, what is up with John McCain possibly becoming the GOP nomination?!?... and calling himself a 'conservative' to boot!

Did you see the GOP debate last week? It wasn't a debate....It was a contest to see who could invoke Ronald Reagan's name the most. Can it be true that the GOP has nothing left of it but a bunch of goofballs trying to revive a dead guy's record from 30 years ago???

Seriously, is John McCain the best the Grand Old Party can do???

Repeating more times than a sane man should that he "was a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution", this moron of a Manchurian Candidate had the cojones on Sunday to tell the world: "I assume that I will get the nomination."

As they say in the land of the (Super Bowl-winning) New York Giants: "Are you freakin' kiddin me?...Fughedaboudit!"

Ann Coulter is right in saying, "I'd rather deal with President Hillary than President McCain." (Regardles of your opinion of Ms. Coulter, she has a good point, but you'll have to read her article to understand her rationale)

Maybe it is time to put the GOP into the morgue of the political past. Does anyone really think Mitt Romney or that other dude (Huckabug) has a chance against the angry mob that is the Democrat Party and their lunatic-fringe friends on the Left?

[Too bad Ron Paul doesn't have a shot in hell of doing anything other than looking goofy during his rants in the debates.]

We've heard that some libertarian-minded individuals are talking about high-tailing it up to Canada if any of the establishment candidates win...Problem is, Canada is as socialistic as the agenda being pushed here by the Left in the States. So, what good does moving up there do?

Oh. By the way. Why is it that disgruntled Americans always want to run to Canada, anyway? Keep it up, and Canada's going to put up a big wall to keep all of us illegal Americans out!
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For union-related news, go to EmployerReport.com