EOW: End-of-the-Week Union Wrap Up

Dear Readers:

Here's the EmployerReport.com End of the Week (EOW) Wrap-Up for your digestion.
[Following your digestion of this wrap-up, please feel free to regurgitate the news by forwarding this along...]

• In a new poll showing how much Big Labor bosses and their political puppets are out of touch with Americans, American Solutions has released a new poll indicating that 79% of Americans support workers' right to decide on unionization through a federally-supervised, secret-ballot election. One surprising aspect of the poll's findings is that 82% of Democrats (5% more than Republicans) support workers' right to decide on unionization through a secret-ballot election. To view the poll results, click here.
• Despite the aforementioned poll (and as we've been saying for many months to clients and colleagues), Labor Union Bosses will be spending about $1 BILLION to buy the 2008 election in order to advance their agenda.
• This weekend, if you watch the weekend talk shows, you'll be hearing a lot about the Department of Labor's release of the March unemployment rate, which climbed to 5.1%. Given the political climate, we're sure that pandering politicians are going to be all over this, offering much blame with very little by way of meaningful solutions. One note that we've found interesting is that, for years, it was considered common knowledge that a 5% unemployment rate is considered "full employment," which makes one wonder: How much of this campaign-season driven angst is mere hyperbole?
• In Virginia, the UAW and Volvo Trucks recently concluded a rather lengthy strike. Now that the strike is over, there is a video out from those good people at the National Right-to-Work Foundation that discusses the brutal intimidation workers suffered at the hands of strikers for choosing to cross the picket line.
• In California, SEIU's internal battle for control of the West Coast is heating up as hundreds of SEIU members rallied to oppose a SEIU-imposed take over of United Health-Care Workers-West (their union local).
• In Kansas City, proving once again that unions are more interested in dues than workers, unions have succeeded in killing hundreds of potential jobs. Yesterday, after intense union lobbying, the Unified Government Board of Commissioners "once and for all" rejected the latest Sands casino proposal for Kansas City, KS. The problem for the unions is the Sands alleged "anti-union" attitude. The problem for Kansas City residents is that Sands has vowed to take their casino project (and its jobs) to another county.
• In New York, teachers at 10 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of New York have decided to strike over allegations of "unfair labor practices".

On our blog (below), we explore Barak Obama's flirting during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania with the unionized workers at garment-manufacturer Tama Manufacturing Company. While the candidate's flirtatious behavior seemed to catch the attention of Huffington Post bloggers, to us, the real story is how these workers' union (UNITE-HERE) took them out on a 15-week strike last year, costing them more money than if they had accepted management's pre-strike offer.

Additionally, we share with the blogosphere Why Unions Are No Longer Necessary...Or Good for America by drawing attention to James Sherk's superb article on how Labor Unions add to costs and discourage productivity. This article is great brain-food to feast on.

For these and many, many more labor-related news stories, be sure to go to EmployerReport.com.

Please have a great week's end.