Militant French Ferry Workers Light Tires to Block Channel Tunnel Terminal (VIDEO)

At the Independent UK, "Calais strikes: French ferry workers block access to Channel Tunnel terminal."

And watch, at Reuters, "Striking ferry workers set fires to block Chunnel."

Critics Say L.A.'s Minimum-Wage Victory is Tainted by Organized Labor's Push for Exemptions for Union Workplaces

You think?

At the Los Angeles Times, "Labor leaders' credibility slips in minimum-wage debate":

L.A.'s decision to boost the minimum wage should have been the sweetest of victories for organized labor.

Mayor Eric Garcetti helped union leaders and their allies achieve a long-sought goal Saturday, signing an ordinance that moves the city's hourly minimum to $15 by 2020.

But for some partisans on each side of the debate, that historic moment has been tainted by labor leaders' last-minute push for an exemption for unionized workplaces. The request for a union waiver — proposed and then abruptly shelved — drew national attention, much of it negative, to the county Federation of Labor and its recently installed top executive, Rusty Hicks.

When Hicks and his allies advocated for the increase, "they basically said everybody who works in Los Angeles is entitled to $15 an hour — that that's the minimum people should be paid so they can pay rent and support their families," said lobbyist Steve Afriat, who bucked other business officials by endorsing a $15 minimum wage last fall. "And then … they hardly take a break before they say, 'We want our members exempt from it.'"

That request hurt the credibility of union leaders, Afriat said, particularly among L.A. leaders who are not their "knee-jerk" supporters. Other assessments were similarly harsh.

Political analyst Harold Meyerson, an expert on organized labor, called Hicks' handling of the proposal a "self-inflicted disaster" in an op-ed in The Times. The gossip site Gawker outright mocked backers of the idea.

And USA Today's editorial page said the opt-out clause showed labor was looking to use the minimum wage increase as "a weapon to pressure companies to unionize," since unionized companies would then have the ability to negotiate a subminimum wage.

Hicks said he broached the idea of an exemption to the citywide minimum wage last month, in phone calls to staffers with City Council President Herb Wesson and Councilman Curren Price. Those calls took place after the council had backed a plan for raising the wage but before its vote on the specific language. Once the information got out, spurring a backlash, Hicks held a news conference to explain that city leaders would take additional time to study the idea.

Wesson is now planning a discussion of the issue this fall. But others say labor leaders might have done better to let the idea die a swift and public death...

Continue reading.

Where the British Left Went So Horribly Wrong

From Milo Yiannopoulos, at Breitbart UK, "ED’S DEAD: WHERE THE BRITISH LEFT WENT SO HORRIBLY WRONG":

For a party established to defend working-class interests, Labour has remarkable difficulty relating to ordinary people. Of course, the primary reason is that the idea of a Labour Party is a strange anachronism in modern Britain.

There is really no place today for a party funded and effectively dictated to by the trades unions. But in seeking to reinvent itself and recapture relevance, the Left concocted a bizarre mixture of old-fashioned socialism and bleeding-edge American social justice, fomented in tired old Tory hatred and the politics of envy and grievance.

In other words, because Labour doesn’t have an interest group to protect any longer, it has reimagined itself as a party with a higher moral purpose. Yet the morality it aspires to appeals to few outside of the media and universities and its economic principles have not been deployed since Soviet Russia...

Yeah, well.

The Soviet Union's been dead for almost 25 years. About time some of these leftists got into the 21st century. Sheesh.

More.

Teachers Sue to Join Union Without Paying for Political Activities

That sounds pretty awesome to me. Frankly, I wouldn't quit my union as it stands. The tenure guarantees and legal resources protect me against the crazed leftists who do not tolerate dissenting views. They hate me on campus, a fact that I relish every chance I get. I love to spout my conservatives views in their faces at every opportunity. Leftists can't stand fact-based analysis and genuine reality based thinking. Just smiling at these people while passing in the hallways, as they avoid my gaze, makes my day.

Leftist wear their ideological hatred on their sleeves. I wear my glee with a smile like a happy warrior in their faces.

In any case, we'll see where this goes, at LAT:

An advocacy group has filed a lawsuit seeking to stop teachers unions in California from using member dues for political purposes unless individual instructors provide their permission.

The effort, if successful, could weaken the influence of these unions by limiting their spending.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court by StudentsFirst, a Sacramento-based organization that has opposed candidates and measures backed by teachers unions nationwide, while also working to pass laws that curtail union power.

In the suit, four teachers, including two from the Los Angeles Unified School District, assert that union rules and state laws violate their 1st Amendment rights to free speech because they cannot belong to the union unless they allow a portion of their dues to be spent on political activity. The teachers claim they should be able to join without subsidizing viewpoints they may oppose.

“As part of protecting the right to free speech,” the 1st Amendment does not permit forcing an individual “to subsidize speech by a third party that he or she does not wish to support,” the suit states.

The defendants are the two largest teachers unions in the country as well as the two largest in California. Also being sued are two union locals where three of the teachers work, including United Teachers Los Angeles. The suit also names the superintendents of L.A. Unified, West Contra Costa Unified and Arcadia Unified school districts.

Union leaders characterized the legal action as an attempt to limit what labor can accomplish against well-funded business interests and other opponents by cutting off funding.

“This lawsuit is attempting to use the 1st Amendment to stifle speech, not enhance it,” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement...

Screw Randi Weingarten, the freakin' scuzzy bitch. What a joke of a "leader."

Far-Left Randi Weingarten's Charter School Closes After Years of Failure

At WSJ, "A Union Charter Flunks Out":

‘Our schools will show real, quantifiable student achievement and with those results finally dispel the misguided and simplistic notion that the union contract is an impediment to success.” So declared teachers union chief Randi Weingarten in 2005 upon launching the United Federation of Teachers charter school in Brooklyn, New York.

The UFT quietly let slip last week that this showcase K-8 charter school is closing after a legacy of failure. Ms. Weingarten’s experiment in education of the union, by the union and for the union is a case study in the problems with the status quo of union dominance over American public education.

In 2005 the UFT Charter School opened with a $1 million gift from the Broad Foundation and plans to reduce class sizes, increase collaboration among teachers with monthly “townhall meetings” and daily “community gatherings,” and replace principals with less adversarial “school leaders.” Instructional coaches were supposed to support teachers but not evaluate their performance.

All of this implemented the long-time union agenda for school reform and was meant to show that there was no great secret to such New York charter successes as KIPP Academy and Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy. You almost had to admire the union nerve because it showed their leaders believed their own advertising.

The school’s board of trustees consisted of union leaders, school staff and “community representatives” such as Acorn CEO Bertha Lewis. The union provided funds to cover deficits in addition to the Broad Foundation grant, which Ms. Weingarten promised would ensure that union dues wouldn’t pay for operating costs. Notably, the school shared space at no cost with a district public school. Recall that last year New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to ban such co-locations and charge rent to non-union charters that have private donors.

From the start the UFT charter suffered from high staff turnover, operational chaos and budget deficits. Student test scores lagged neighboring district and other charter schools. The school repeatedly failed to meet the performance benchmarks established by its charter authorizer, the State University of New York (SUNY).

In 2013 SUNY reported mixed results at the elementary school and that the middle school met only one of 15 Accountability Plan measures in math and none in English. Student test scores appeared to decline the longer students were enrolled. Half of fifth graders opted not to continue. Declining enrollment in the middle school exacerbated the school’s fiscal duress, which SUNY attributed to poor bookkeeping. The union bailed out the school with interest-free bridge loans.

SUNY also highlighted “chronic shortages of textbooks and unrepaired equipment,” missing standardized test booklets that were not returned to the publisher for scoring, violations of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and “limited instructional coaching.” SUNY reviewers saw students listening to music and chatting with friends. In one geography lesson, “rather than making use of technological resources to present the critical economic and political importance of the Nile, the teacher had students color in blank maps of the river.”

SUNY nonetheless granted the union a two-year conditional renewal with orders to shape up. The school then placed students on a heavy testing regimen—despite the union’s opposition to “high-stakes” testing everywhere else—yet teachers weren’t graded on student performance. The union even rejected President Obama ’s Race to the Top funds because it required that teacher evaluations be linked to student performance.

The school’s results speak for themselves: In 2014, 11% of students were rated proficient in English and 18% in math compared to 28% and 36% in schools with similar demographics, and 59% and 92% at the Harlem Success Academy, which enrolls more kids with disabilities. The union charter performed worse than 96% of its peers on subjective standards like “instructional core” and “systems for improvement” measured from parents, teacher and student surveys. On almost all counts the district middle school next door did better.

Threatened with non-renewal this year, the union decided to close the school...

More.

It's obvious to everyone but the Democrat Party faithful: Leftist regressivism destroys anything and everything it gets its hands on.

Militant Longshoreman's Union Boasts Clout in Era of Globalization

From yesterday's front page, at the Los Angeles Times, "On docks, workers still have power."

And I guess this is a theme at the cheerleading L.A. Times, because the newspaper ran a virtually identical piece a couple of weeks ago, "Small but powerful union is at center of port dispute":

The dispute that has snarled West Coast shipping revolves around a rarity in American business — a small but mighty union.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union represents 20,000 dockworkers, a fraction of the organized ranks of teachers, truck drivers or healthcare workers. But the port workers — who still queue up at hiring halls daily for work and spend years earning full membership — stand guard over a crucial chokepoint in the global economy.

For decades these "lords of the docks" have been paid like blue-collar royalty. Their current contract pays $26 to $41 an hour, with free healthcare for members. Some earn six figures with overtime. Even as a growing chorus of business groups clamor for a resolution to their months-long contract talks with the Pacific Maritime Assn., which represents shipping companies, the union sees little need to back down.

"They have unique skills that aren't easily replaced," said Goetz Wolff, who teaches about labor and economics at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. "They're not going to roll over and play dead."

Leftists love militant unions, as they represent the spearhead of the revolutionary struggle against capital. And that's why the Times is pumping up these goons as if they were going out of business tomorrow.

President Obama Pushes Pre-K and 'Free' College Because He's Got Jack for K-12

Heh.

From Amy Otto, at the Federalist:

The escalation of nationalized education standards, the push for preschool teachers to have more degrees, and the Obama administration’s overall push for more school before and after K-12 is a way to avoid solving the real problem. When their party’s largest donors are the Service Employees International Union, National Education Association, and the American Federation of Teachers, Democrats have millions of reasons to avoid addressing the challenges of our K-12 education system...

Word.

Stunned Unions Cry Foul After Court Strikes Down Tenure Rules

I'm not reading too much into this decision, out of Los Angeles Superior Court, striking down teacher tenure in California.

The case could be appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, given that unions are regulated under national laws like the NLRA. So there's a long way to go before we'll have a true sense on the future of tenure. And I'll tell you, if it wasn't for tenure I could very well have been canned by now. Honestly, leftist ghouls have contacted my college probably a dozen times. No matter that it's mostly been lies, my college administration is oozing with literally demonic leftist ideologues who care nothing about student learning and all about raw power. And allegations of racism and sexism, like the left's boatload of lies I've dealt with, are the raw fuel that powers contemporary college administrators across the country. If you're a conservative professor, academic tenure probably isn't the first on your list of education reforms.

In any case, at Hot Air, "Wow: California judge strikes down tenure for public-school teachers as violating students’ right to quality education."

And at LAT, "Unions cry foul after California teacher tenure rules struck down":

Teacher unions are criticizing a judge's decision to overturn a California law that has long protected the state's public educators -- even ineffective ones -- through tenure and seniority.

In his ruling Tuesday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu said the laws governing job security were unconstitutional because they harmed predominantly low-income, minority students by allowing incompetent instructors to remain in the classroom.

The protections "impose a real and appreciable impact on students' fundamental right to equality of education," he wrote. "The evidence is compelling. Indeed, it shocks the conscience."

State and local teachers’ unions reacted swiftly, saying the ruling was misguided and that poor management was to blame for districts that fail to root out incompetent instructors.

"This is a sad day for public education," said Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers. No student should endure an ineffective teacher, she said, "but in focusing on these teachers who make up a fraction of the workforce, [Treu] strips the hundreds of thousands of teachers who are doing a good job of any right to a voice."

Students would benefit more, for example, if advocates focused on smaller classes and increasing the number of counselors, said Alex Caputo-Pearl, president-elect of United Teachers Los Angeles.

The verdict represents a major loss for teacher unions and an undiluted victory for the attorneys and families that brought the landmark case on behalf of a well-funded Silicon Valley group.

More.

I think the decision represents a larger attack on the unions, and that's a good think. Tenure protections don't have to be tied to union membership. It'll be a good thing if this case moves the needle toward weakening entrenched union power, especially in California where unions are the largest, most powerful organized interest in the state.

Subaru of Wichita Dubstep!

My youngest son loves this stuff, "‘Awesomeness’: Subaru dealer takes on union bullies with ‘dance party’ that will make you smile [video]."

Shame on Subaru of Wichita...for Having Unbeatable Prices! pic.twitter.com/Ea3O4yQTw1

— Subaru of Wichita (@ridehomehappy) March 14, 2014

Hey @TwitchyTeam: The Shame On Saga continues. They move their banner, we have a dance party: https://t.co/AjrsLUUlLi

— Subaru of Wichita (@ridehomehappy) April 11, 2014

Leftists, Unions Prepare Attacks Against Bruce Rauner in Illinois

I heard about Bruce Rauner the other day, at Director Blue, "RUMBLE: Is Illinois Finally Ready to Embrace Fiscal Sanity by Electing its Own Scott Walker?"

A gubernatorial candidate in the Scott Walker mold? Oh boy, that'll bring out the knives on the regressive left.

At the New York Times, "Union Leaders Gird for Battle Against Republican Running for Governor of Illinois":

CHICAGO — With the selection of a multimillionaire businessman to be the Republican candidate for governor in Illinois, union leaders have begun bracing for one of their starkest campaign battles of the year over the fate of public sector labor unions, pensions and pay.

The first-time candidate, Bruce Rauner, has been denounced by union leaders, some of whom say they fear he will try to be the next Mitch Daniels, the former Republican governor of Indiana who ended collective bargaining for state workers by executive order, or a knockoff of Gov. Scott Walker, the Wisconsin Republican who led efforts to cut collective bargaining rights for most public employees in his state.

“He’s clearly a man obsessed with destroying unions,” Roberta Lynch, deputy director of the local council of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said on Wednesday, a day after Mr. Rauner won a closer-than-expected race against three veterans of Illinois politics. “He’s trying to stir up resentment of public employees — teachers, police officers, firefighters.”

What a great guy!

More here.

Yep, the regressive idiots are losing it over this guy, at Daily Kos, "As one-percenter Bruce Rauner narrowly wins GOP nomination, Democrats attack on minimum wage."

Scott Walker's Right-to-Work Legislation Has Had 'Devastating Effect' on Wisconsin's Public-Sector Unions

This is why the left seethes with burning hatred for Governor Walker.

At the New York Times, "Wisconsin’s Legacy for Unions":

Three years ago, a labor leader named Marty Beil was one of the loudest opponents of Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget repair bill,” a proposal that brought tens of thousands of protesters out to the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison in frigid February weather. A gruff-voiced grizzly of a man, Mr. Beil warned that the bill was rigged with booby traps that would cripple the state’s public-sector unions.

He gets no satisfaction from being right. Since the law was passed, membership in his union, which represents state employees, has fallen 60 percent; its annual budget has plunged to $2 million from $6 million.

Mr. Walker’s landmark law — called Act 10 — severely restricted the power of public-employee unions to bargain collectively, and that provision, among others, has given social workers, prison guards, nurses and other public employees little reason to pay dues to a union that can no longer do much for them. Members of Mr. Beil’s group, the Wisconsin State Employees’ Union, complain that their take-home pay has fallen more than 10 percent in recent years, a sign of the union’s greatly diminished power.

“It’s had a devastating effect on our union,” Mr. Beil, its executive director, said of Act 10. He was sitting in his Madison office, inside the headquarters that his union, hard up for cash, may be forced to sell. The building is underused anyway, as staff reductions have left many offices empty.

Wisconsin was the first state to grant public-sector unions the right to negotiate contracts. Before Gov. Gaylord Nelson signed that law in 1959, only unionized workers in private companies had a government-protected right to bargain collectively. But the Wisconsin idea soon spread around the country. Act 10 is an about-face, and Mr. Walker and his Republican supporters see it as a tough-minded strategy that other states can follow. History repeating itself, if in reverse.

Many labor leaders and union members are still fuming about the law. It bars public-sector unions from bargaining over pensions, health coverage, safety, hours, sick leave or vacations. All they can negotiate is base pay, and even that is limited: any raises they win cannot exceed inflation.

“I speak to union officials in other states, and I tell them, ‘Don’t be misled,’ ” Mr. Beil said. “We thought this could never happen here. But it did. You have to stay vigilant.”

Mr. Walker, who is widely viewed as a Republican presidential contender in 2016, has already emboldened other Republican-controlled states to enact measures that weaken unions and cut benefits. Tennessee and Idaho passed laws that cut back bargaining rights for public schoolteachers, while Ohio curbed collective bargaining for all state employees — though that law was repealed in a 2011 referendum. Even longtime union strongholds like Michigan and Indiana have enacted right-to-work laws that undercut private-sector unions by banning any requirements that workers pay union dues or fees. (A state judge’s decision that declared the Indiana law unconstitutional is being appealed to the state’s Supreme Court.)

Mr. Walker’s tough stance toward public-employee unions has steeled governors and mayors grappling with large unfunded pension obligations. And his criticisms of pensions have been reinforced by the turmoil in Detroit, where the often-generous and sometimes scandal-ridden pension system played a substantial role in the city’s bankruptcy.

“You’re seeing more politicians willing to stand up to public-sector unions,” said Gary Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University. “Fairly or unfairly, public-sector unions are increasingly being seen as part of the problem.”

Photo Credit: Althouse (on Flickr).

Former Teacher Andrea Michelle Cardosa Arrested: Faces Sex Crimes Charges After YouTube Video Allegations

Well, we're seeing an increasing number of stories like this, as reported numerous times of late at the Other McCain.

Now, from the Los Angeles Times, "Former teacher charged with 16 felonies in YouTube sex abuse case":

Riverside County prosecutors filed felony charges Monday against a former teacher accused of sexually assaulting two students, one of whom made her accusations public in a video posted on YouTube.

A $5-million warrant has been issued for the arrest of 40-year-old Andrea Michelle Cardosa, the Riverside County district attorney's office said. Cardosa has been charged with 16 counts related to aggravated sexual assault and lewd acts on a child under the age of 14, officials said.

Prosecutors said the charges relate to two female victims: One who was allegedly assaulted between 1997 and 2001 while she attended middle and high school in Riverside, and one who allegedly was abused in 2009 or 2010 as a high school student in Perris.

[Updated, 6:58 p.m. PST, Monday, Feb 3, 2014: Prosecutors said Cardosa was arrested about 5:45 p.m. Monday by Riverside County deputies in Perris. She is expected to be arraigned Thursday.]

The case against Cardosa "came to light" after the first victim learned she was a vice principal at Alhambra High School, prosecutors said. The woman called Cardosa, secretly recorded the conversation, and posted it Jan. 17 on YouTube.

The video was viewed more than 1 million times within a week. It appears to have since been taken down.

The video allegations are here, "A Call to My Childhood Rapist Teacher." (Very intense. Viewer caution advised.)

Also at KTLA, "After YouTube Video Alleges Sex Abuse, Teacher Charged With 16 Felonies."

UPDATE! Robert Stacy McCain was working on a report simultaneously, "Lesbian Teacher Could Face Life Sentence for Molesting Two Girls in California."

Lawsuit Challenges Union Power, Rules on Tenure, Seniority and 'Last Hired, First Fired...'

The problem with this is that administrators are corrupt and they'll abuse their power to fire teachers they don't like.

Having said that, it's obscene that union hacks charged with sexually abusing students can't be fired. And for that reason, I'm for overturning union power.

At LAT, "Lawsuit takes on California teachers' job protections":

Local school districts, state legislators and even a California governor have tried to limit teachers' job protections, among the most generous in the country. Efforts have all failed to rid public schools of ineffective teachers by making it easier to fire them and tougher for them to gain tenure and by stripping them of seniority rights.

Now proponents are taking their fight to another venue: the courtroom.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge will hear arguments this week over the constitutionality of laws that govern California's teacher tenure rules, seniority policies and the dismissal process — an overhaul of which could upend controversial job security for instructors.

The lawsuit, filed by the nonprofit, advocacy group Students Matter, contends that these education laws are a violation of the Constitution's equal protection guarantee because they do not ensure that all students have access to an adequate education.

Vergara versus California, filed on behalf of nine students and their families, seeks to revamp a dismissal process that the plaintiffs say is too costly and time consuming, lengthen the time it takes for instructors to gain tenure and dismantle the "last hired, first fired" policies that fail to consider teacher effectiveness.

The lawsuit aims to protect the rights of students, teachers and school districts against a "gross disparity" in educational opportunity, lawyers for the plaintiffs said.

The debate over teacher effectiveness has become increasingly contentious in recent years as school systems, including the Los Angeles Unified School District, try to link students' standardized test scores to instructors' evaluations, rather than keep using reviews in which no test data are included and nearly all teachers are rated as satisfactory. The dismissal process also has come under fire in recent years for the difficulty it causes school districts that seek to fire teachers accused of misconduct against students.

Teachers unions have vigorously defended tenure, seniority and dismissal rules, calling them crucial safeguards and essential to recruiting and retaining quality instructors. The lawsuit, they contend, is misguided and ignores the true causes of problems in education, such as drops in state funding.

"If you give teachers resources and appropriate class sizes, principals and superintendents that support them — they will be successful in increasing student achievement," said Jim Finberg, an attorney representing the California Teachers Assn.

Finberg said wealthy benefactors and special interests are attempting to use their money to force their policy views on the state.
"California teachers care deeply about students and welcome a policy debate on how best to improve California schools," he said. "But that debate should be in the Legislature, not in a courtroom."

The plaintiffs, meanwhile, will try to prove that the laws themselves prevent administrators from removing ineffective teachers, thus lowering the quality of the teacher pool and contributing to an inadequate education for some students.
And the courthouse is just the place to do that, their attorneys said.

"The job of the court is to make sure the laws don't hurt kids," said Marcellus McRae, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

Warehousing Students at New York's PS 106

Here's Twitchy, "‘Beyond tragic’: NY Post report on NYC’s ‘worst school’ will make you sick."

But go straight to the report, which is mindboggling, "No books, no clue at city’s worst school."

Sure glad this school isn't being run by a charter non-profit or an evil corporation. @BrianFaughnan http://t.co/2a7onFTIuY

— David Freddoso (@freddoso) January 13, 2014

Boeing Vote Deals Blow to Southland Hopes for 777x Project

I was thinking about this earlier, "Boeing Machinists Accept 777x Contract."

See LAT, "Boeing union's vote is a blow to Southern California":

The 777X & its composite wing will be built in Puget Sound area as a result of tonight’s vote. Boeing statement: http://t.co/vOM0EclS6w

— Boeing Airplanes (@BoeingAirplanes) January 4, 2014

The labor dispute drew attention of Southern California lawmakers still reeling from Boeing's decision in September that it would close the C-17 Globemaster III cargo jet plant in Long Beach in 2015. The plant was talked about being a potential home for the 777X program.

"Obviously, California would have loved to bring the 777X program home," said Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance), chairman of the Assembly's Select Committee on Aerospace. "But we'll continue to reach out to Boeing to try and bring manufacturing jobs to Long Beach."

Boeing Machinists Accept 777x Contract

I think folks got smart up there. Close vote though.

At the Seattle Times, "Machinists say yes, secure 777X for Everett."

Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Union 'Card-Check Neutrality Agreements'

It's supposed to be one of the most important labor cases before the Supreme Court in decades, at the New York Times, "Supreme Court to Take Up Challenges to Union Practices":

Labor leaders and businesses are closely watching a Supreme Court case to be argued this Wednesday that involves a popular strategy used by unions to successfully organize hundreds of thousands of workers.

That strategy — widely deployed by the Service Employees International Union and the Unite Here hotel workers union — involves pressuring an employer into signing a so-called neutrality agreement in which the employer promises not to oppose a unionization drive. By some estimates, more than half of the recent successful unionization campaigns involve such agreements, which sometimes allow union organizers onto company property to talk with workers.

Benjamin Sachs, a professor of labor law at Harvard Law School, said the case before the Supreme Court was potentially “the most significant labor case in a generation.”

Professor Sachs said that if the court ruled against labor, it could significantly hobble efforts by private sector unions to organize workers. He added that the other big labor case the Supreme Court has agreed to hear this session could have a significant impact on public sector unions. In that case, a home-care worker has asked the court to rule that the state of Illinois violated her First Amendment rights by requiring her to pay “fair share” fees, much like dues, to a union she did not support.

In the case being argued on Wednesday, Unite Here Local 355 vs. Mulhall, an employee of Mardi Gras Gaming in Florida sued Unite Here, asserting that its neutrality agreement with the company was illegal. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled in his favor, finding that the agreement was a “thing of value” that federal labor law bars employers from giving to any union or union official.

More at that top link.

And at Labor Pains, "SCOTUS to Ask, “What about the Employees?”":

Mardi Gras Gaming agreed to recognize a card-check procedure, not to speak out on the issue of unionization, and to hand over a list of unionizable employees to the union. In return, the union agreed not to strike and to help pass a ballot measure allowing slot machine gambling. Employees who oppose unionization like Martin Mulhall, who filed suit to block the agreement, had no seat at the table.

The Cato Institute legal team argues that these perks absolutely are “things of value,” noting:

We argue that, not only are Mardi Gras’s concessions clearly “things of value,” they are the types of exchanges that the Taft-Hartley Act was specifically passed to prohibit. The union exchanged a promise of “peace” from strikes and boycotts for concessions from the casino that compromised Mr. Mulhall’s right to dissent from unionization. The “exchange” was little better than extortion.

It's extortion alright. The union goons are breathing down their necks.

LAUSD Segregates Hispanic Students by English Proficiency

Parents are mad about this, with good reason.

And you know Spanish-speaking kids will be warehoused away, deprived of better learning opportunities.

At the Los Angeles Times, "L.A. Unified's English learner action upsets parents, teachers":

Luis Gaytan, the 5-year-old son of Mexican immigrants who speak Spanish at home, was so terrified by kindergarten that he would barely talk — prompting classmates to tease that he didn't have a tongue.

In the last two months, at Granada Elementary Community Charter, Luis has gained a growing command of the language in a class of students with a mixed range of English ability. His father, Jorge, is convinced that his son is learning English more quickly because he hears it every day from more-advanced classmates.

But Luis — and thousands of other Los Angeles Unified students — is being moved into new classes with those at a similar language level under an order that has sparked a storm of protest. In recent weeks, a group of southeast L.A. principals have mounted a rare challenge to district policy, teachers have flooded their union office with complaints, and parents have launched protest rallies and petition drives urging L.A. Unified to postpone the class reorganizations until next year.

"Kids with little or no English are going to be segregated and told they're not good enough for the mainstream," said Cindy Aranda-Lechuga, a Granada mother of a kindergartner who gathered 162 parent signatures seeking a postponement and spoke against the policy at an L.A. Board of Education meeting last week. "Kids learn from their peers, and they're not going to be able to do that anymore."

Marking the latest chapter in California's fierce language wars, the furor over class placements for those learning English raises the controversial question of which is more effective: separating students by fluency level or including them in diverse classes. Critics are also upset that the change is coming two months into the school year, after students have bonded with classmates and teachers have developed classroom lessons and routines. Opponents blame the district and local schools for the disruption.

Continue reading.

LAUSD just sucks.

You're looking at modern day Jim Crow for Hispanic families. And the district is run by big Democrat-backed union thugs. But hey, "hope and change," don'tcha know?!!

L.A.'s Department of Water and Power Funneled $40 Million to Union-Controlled Non-Profit Groups

Totally corrupt, but that's what you get these days with morally-bankrupt big-city Democrat machine politics.

At LAT, "DWP says it can't track millions in ratepayer money":

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has directed an estimated $40 million in ratepayer money to two nonprofit groups charged with improving relations with the utility's largest employee union, but the agency claims to have scant information on how the public funds have been spent.

The Joint Training Institute and the Joint Safety Institute, controlled by DWP managers and union leaders, have received up to $4 million per year since their creation more than a decade ago after a contentious round of job cutbacks at one of the nation's largest municipal utilities.

Nearly all of the nonprofits' money comes from DWP ratepayers, records show. About $1 million per year has been used to pay the salaries of a handful of administrators, according to the limited records the utility has provided to The Times under the California Public Records Act. Separate federal tax records offer only summaries of the organizations' outlays, including more than $360,000 spent on travel from 2009 to 2011.

Officials at the nonprofits, the DWP and the employees' union, Local 18 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, declined to be interviewed about the institutes' activities and spending.

Nonprofits' financial records

After inquiries from The Times, a spokesman for Mayor Eric Garcetti said the mayor plans to meet with DWP managers in coming days to discuss the issue. "This is ratepayer money and they need to account for it," Jeff Millman said.

The broad purpose of the organizations, city records show, has been to "identify" safety and training as core values at the department, and to promote "communication, mutual trust and respect" between DWP managers and the electrical workers' union.

Ordinances establishing the nonprofits in 2000 and 2002 don't specify how the ratepayer money should be spent.

References to the organizations' work in public records reviewed by The Times give a spotty picture of the groups' activities. A recent report by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education notes that one, the Joint Training Institute, developed an online self-study course, including instruction in basic math and reading comprehension, for prospective DWP employees preparing for Civil Service exams.

Another report posted online in 2004 by a former Joint Safety Institute administrator discussed the need for "ergonomic training" and a "defensive-driving fair" for agency employees. "Probably the most dangerous thing we do every day is drive to and from work," the administrator wrote.

Three representatives of the DWP, including General Manager Ron Nichols, serve on the boards overseeing the nonprofits. Three additional board members come from the union local, led by Business Manager Brian D'Arcy. Board members are not paid for their service.

DWP managers and union leaders have struggled to agree on uses for the money, apparently contributing to an accumulation of cash in the nonprofits' accounts, records and interviews show. The two groups had $13.8 million on hand at the end of fiscal 2011-12, the most recent year for which the tax-exempt organizations' IRS filings are available. The filings do not detail outlays. For example, they don't indicate who traveled or where they went.

Jeez, DWP's a freakin' cash cow slush fund for the unions!

Still more at the link.

Public Union Corruption in America

Amazingly concise and lucid discussion, via Prager U: