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Fast Food Falsehoods

By Sean P. Redmond  5/23/13

As part of a campaign of harassment against fast food restaurants, a so-called “worker center” with ties to the Service Employees International Union recently released a pamphlet that makes some particularly inflammatory accusations about employers in that industry.  The pamphlet, published by Fast Food Forward, is meant to support the group’s demands that employers increase wages for fast food workers to $15 an hour, or approximately $30,000 a year — not too far off from the starting salary of a New York City firefighter...

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Minnesota Legislature Passes Home Care Union Bill

 

By Sean P. Redmond 5/20/13

On May 20, the Minnesota legislature passed legislation to permit the unionization of home child care and personal care attendants.  Following a 17 hour debate last week, the state Senate had passed the measure, known as Senate File 778, on a slim, party-line vote of 35-32 . Over the weekend, the state House of Representatives debated a companion bill, narrowly passing it today by a vote of 68-66...  

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Yet Another Court Rules President Obama’s NLRB Recess Appointments Unconstitutional

Yesterday, the Third Circuit invalidated yet another one of President Obama’s recess appointments to the NLRB.  As you may remember, the D.C. Circuit, in its Noel Canning v. NLRB decision, sided with the U.S. Chamber’s lawyers and held that the President’s appointments of Sharon Block, Terence F. Flynn, and Richard Griffin to the NLRB were unconstitutional.  Yesterday’s decision invalidated the recess appointment of Craig Becker, whose recess appointment was made in March 2010.  Becker's term expired in early 2012, and he has since left the board. Both the Third Circuit and the D.C. Circuit have said that these appointments were unconstitutional because the appointments were made while the Senate was in session and not in a recess as required by the U.S. Constitution...

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Unions Forgetful on Filibusters

 

By Glenn Spencer  5/14/2013

The Hill newspaper recently reported on a meeting between union officials and 25 Democratic Senators at which the so-called “nuclear option” was discussed.  The nuclear option refers to using a simple majority of 51 senators to change Senate rules to prevent filibusters. According to the article, use of the nuclear option with regard to nominations is under serious consideration...

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Union Management: Don’t Trespass Against Us

Last year, the Workforce Freedom Initiative published “Sabotage, Stalking & Stealth Exemptions: Special State Laws for Labor Unions,” which described various state laws that seemed to defy common sense, such as — as the title implies — union exemptions from sabotage and stalking laws.  Among the numerous statutes highlighted in the report were also union exemptions from trespassing laws, including one that actually provided immunity for invading the home of an academic researcher...

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