Archive for the ‘Breaking News’ Category

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ – Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) today voiced its strong support for the Government Neutrality in Contracting Act (H.R. 735), a measure introduced by Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.) that will “promote and ensure open competition on federal and federally funded construction projects.”

“It’s a matter of fairness,” said 2011 ABC National Chairman Michael J. Uremovich, president of Great Lakes Energy Consultants, LLC, Manhattan, Ill. “This legislation will guarantee that all qualified contractors and skilled workers, regardless of labor affiliation, have an equal opportunity to bid on and construct federal and federally assisted construction projects. In the end, this bill will help taxpayers get the best possible construction project at the best possible price by increasing competition, reducing waste and eliminating favoritism in federal contracting.”

Please read the entire article at 

SOURCE Associated Builders and Contractors

Many Merit shop are dealing with this everyday. We were thinking President obama was telling Americans to cut down on their salt intake… Maybe the Unions need to pay attention to what their leader is saying !

“ ’Salting’ is the deliberate act of getting a job at a specific workplace with the intent to organize a union. Most union campaigns start with a lone individual or small group of individuals with no union experience deciding to organize a union from scratch. Sometimes, a union campaign can be strengthened if you know of a friend with union organizing experience. By applying for open positions at your workplace, your friend can secretly help you organize your workplace. There are other circumstances where salting is used“ ’Salting’ is the deliberate act of getting a job at a specific workplace with the intent to organize a union.

If you want to get a union’s perspective on the tactics and strategy behind salting employers, head over to this site managed by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 363 and study up!

Pay attention Small business owners Salts maybe heading to your company or maybe they are already there !

 Americans are starting to understand the Truth about big Unions. We also realize the taxpayers money that is wasted on supporting the Union !

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) just released an annual report indicating that from 2009 to 2010, union membership fell from 14.5 percent to 13.1 percent of the U.S. private construction work force, with construction unions losing 157,000 members. Last year, 801,000 workers in the private construction industry belonged to a union, the lowest recorded number of construction union members since BLS started tracking this information in 1973

The sharp decline in union membership can be attributed to a mix of factors.

 Data suggest that construction workers have turned in their union cards to seek steady employment with open shop contractors

But the biggest factor contributing to the decline of construction union membership is the economy. The latest government data peg construction unemployment at 20.7 percent – more than double the unemployment rate across all industries.

Read the rest of the article by : Robert Heise at

Finance & Commerce

Less than 24 hours after delivering the State of the Union, which largely focused on jobs and the economy, President Barack Obama already broke his word to workers and small businesses by re-nominating labor radical Craig Becker, a former attorney for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). 

In his address to the nation, the President stated his administration will ‘fix’ any ‘unnecessary burden[s] on businesses,’ yet one of his first acts following those words is to nominate an individual who is committed to job-killing policies. 

In re-nominating Becker, President Obama has sent the message to employers across the country that his rhetoric is just that, and the nation’s chief executive is more concerned with paying back union bosses than turning the economy around.  WFI will work with small business owners to ensure the Senate once again rejects the Becker nomination in a bipartisan manner.

It’s important that workers and job creators remain vigilant.  Big Labor has one goal: empower government bureaucrats like Craig Becker, whose goal is to force unionization on employees and employers alike.  Their number one legislative priority, the Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act has been defeated, and now Big Labor is focused on getting bureaucrats like Becker to do their bidding.

Please check  this out  :

WFI launched a Workplace Fairness Hotline where you can tell us about your experience with excessive regulations and workplace unfairness, and how they are harming your small business.

Together, we can shine a spotlight on unaccountable agencies like the NLRB and advocate against these destructive policies. 
Sincerely,

Katie Gage
Executive Director
Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI)

This is a wonderful site they are helping small business in our fight to keep our work choice FREE & FAIR !

Urgent Action Call: Outrageous NLRB Posting Requirements and how ALL Private Sector Employers Should Immediately Respond.

Please pay attention this will effect ALL businesses.

Last week the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) dropped a bombshell. Beginning early in 2011 your firm must notify every one of your employees about how to organize a union in your workplace (by posting, email and website). The NLRB is suggesting severe penalties for employers who fail to comply with the posting requirement.

This posting is required of all employers, whether unionized or not, and of course chooses only to notify employees of some of their rights (you guessed it… the ones that benefit unions)

Labor Relations Institute will help your business with what you need to be ready for this rule when it goes into effect.

•    Exactly what the NLRB wants you to post (you’ll receive a copy of the proposed posting language as part of the call packet);
•    The new proposed penalties and how they could impact your company;
•    Specific actions you can take today (including suggested language you can “cut and paste”) to influence – and hopefully stop – the proposed rule from going into effect;
•    How to tell whether you have to email the notice or post it on your website;
•    Should you produce a posting that “fills in the blanks” for employees and educates them about their right to oppose unions, their Beck rights, or their right to decertify or deauthorize a union? If so, what should it say?
•    Other proactive steps you should begin taking TODAY so that your company is ready when the rule goes into effect in sixty days.

Please read the post above : What is the NLRB up to now ? Follow the link to the Labor Relations Institute for help and information on this.

We as Americans and business owner need to be aware of  how the NLRB is favoring the Union Companies and not being fair to Non-Union companies.

We better keep out eyes open , the NLRB is looking at passing new rules for all businesses.

The NLRB just announced a proposed rule requiring businesses to post notices in break rooms to inform employees of their rights to to bargain collectively, distribute union literature or engage in other union activities without reprisal. The NLRB issued a statement saying: “The intended effects of this action are to increase knowledge of the NLRA among employees, to better enable the exercise of rights under the statute, and to promote statutory compliance by employers and unions.” The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will be published in the Federal Register tomorrow, and members of the public can submit comments on the proposal for 60 days, until February 22, 2011.

Labor Relations Institute will keep us all up to date on what is going on with this new rule.

Link To Story.

  We found another article on how the GOP is looking at right-to-work laws . Some states are looking at rewriting laws so workers would no longer be required to pay union dues to hold a job.

Governor-elect Scott Walker, a Republican who has supported this so-called right-to-work legislation in the past, neither embraced nor rejected the proposal Wednesday. But comments from Walker’s camp and other Republicans showed the challenges that could lie ahead for unions as Walker and the incoming GOP-led Legislature seek to give more flexibility to public and private employers looking to cut their labor costs.

Please read this article

By Jason Stein and Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel

We recently came across this article talking about how the Obama Administration and the GSA are working to support the PLA’s. The Daily Caller had this to say.

This week, nineteen GOP members of Congress, including the incoming House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), sent a letter to GSA officials, asking why the agency is giving special treatment to Big Labor on federal construction projects exceeding $25 million in total cost.

According to the enclosed April 30, 2010, memo from the GSA’s Public Building Service (Instructional Bulletin 10-4), the GSA has changed its procurement policy to encourage the use of PLAs on all GSA construction projects exceeding $25 million. It appears this change gives contractors who agree to execute PLAs an unfair advantage when competing against qualified contractors unwilling to use PLAs.  We are concerned that this violates the longstanding competitive bidding principles governing federal procurement.

  The GSA’s PLA preference is problematic.  As members of Congress we have heard numerous complaints from the construction community that PLAs discourage competition from qualified contractors and their skilled employees, including small and minority and women-owned businesses.  PLAs serve as a barrier to new jobs for more than 85 percent of the U.S. construction workforce—those who have decided not to join a labor union—and several studies found that PLAs increase the cost of construction by as much as 18 percent.e GSA’s PLA preference is problematic.  As members of Congress we have heard numerous complaints from the construction community that PLAs discourage competition from qualified contractors and their skilled employees, including small and minority and women-owned businesses.  PLAs serve as a barrier to new jobs for more than 85 percent of the U.S. construction workforce—those who have decided not to join a labor union—and several studies found that PLAs increase the cost of construction by as much as 18 percent.                                     Please read the entire article

 Here we go again….With more Americans waking up to the fact that unions are not really necessary in todays world the union has asked bureaucrats to give them MORE help to stay alive in our struggling country and with this poor economy. Please read what Christopher Prandoni  has written about who is behind pushing for more power for the Big Unions.

After Consistently Losing Elections, Unions Ask Feds for Help              

by Christopher Prandoni  

Recently the AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler explained to telephone press conference listeners,

I strongly believe the young worker outreach is the key to labor’s potential and we have to be creative and deliberate. With the economy being what it is, young workers feel disenfranchised and it’s up to us to take on this work and move it forward.

 This announcement was the groundwork for plans to announced it plans to step up the AFL-CIO efforts to reach young people, so that they “know the value of collective action and be connected with unions.”

Teaming up with the American Federation of Teachers, the AFL-CIO aims at interjecting more union propaganda in America’s school systems. The result of a youth summit held this past summer lead to the establishment of 10 initiatives designed to coax more young workers into the AFL-CIO/Big Labor fold.

What are your children being taught at school?