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Unions Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 19, 2010 3 Comments

Central Falls, a Rhode Island city which gained fame when it fired its entire High School teaching staff after unions refused concessions (the unions later agreed), now has filed for receivership, the state equivalent of bankruptcy: A Rhode Island city facing a severe financial crisis...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 15, 2010 11 Comments

The fiscal equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome:A term used to describe a paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein government officials express adulation and have positive feelings toward unsustainable union contracts that appear irrational in light of the danger or risk posed by such contracts to the government.Our politicians...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 22, 2010 2 Comments

Steve Malanga wrote an excellent article for City Journal about how public sector unions have controlled, and ruined, California, The Beholden State:How public employees became members of the elite class in a declining California offers a cautionary tale to the rest of the country, where...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 16, 2010 9 Comments

Underfunded state retirement systems are one of the greatest problems facing states. There does not seem to be a way out, as municipal and teachers' unions are loathe to negotiate substantial reforms and state governments simply do not have the money to meet unsustainable promises.An...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 11, 2010 3 Comments

Rhode Island is the poster child for how municipal employee and teachers unions have devastated state and local budgets through unsustainable contracts obtained through political contributions.Rhode Island is drowning in pension promises it cannot meet and benefits it cannot pay. Yet the municipal employee unions...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 18, 2010 11 Comments

Barack Obama backed the decision of the Central Falls School District in Rhode Island to fire all teachers at its underperforming high school, much to the anger of teachers' unions.Now a teacher at the school has hung Obama in effigy:Responding to a rumor that one...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 14, 2010 6 Comments

The Senate health care bill, which Martha Coakley supports, contains a massive tax on the middle class which will hit union members particularly hard. The tax on so-called "Cadillac" health plans is opposed by organized labor, and could be a big reason why union rank-and-file...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 11, 2010 11 Comments

Last Saturday I was at the Needham campaign headquarters of Scott Brown, and I filed two reports of what I found. My two reports are here and here. Today I spent an hour at the Wrentham (Brown's hometown) local campaign "office" not far from the Patriots...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 08, 2010 4 Comments

I posted earlier today about negative push polling in Massachusetts against Scott Brown, including questions purporting to link Brown to "hate groups."The group making the calls possibly (and I stress possibly) was McGuire Research (see my prior post for details) which still has not returned...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 06, 2010 4 Comments

Martha Coakley is the union candidate in the Massachusetts Senate special election against Scott Brown. During the primaries, SEIU spent $214,000 on advertising in support of Coakley, and is expected to throw more money into the race in the final two weeks. SEIU is organizing...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 12, 2009 7 Comments

A movement is growing in Britain to slash government spending rather than impose tax increases, according to the Sunday Times:Voters are overwhelmingly in favour of cutting public spending rather than tax rises to close the budget black hole, a Sunday Times/YouGov poll finds today.Sixty per...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 11, 2009 3 Comments

FreedomWorks, which had the temerity and meanness of spirit to encourage people to attend town hall meetings, was subjected to an organized attempt to jam its phone lines, much like happened to the Republican National Committee. FreedomWorks has published the audio files of some of...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 20, 2009 3 Comments

In some New York City public schools, parents can chip in together to hire teaching assistants to help out: For years, top Manhattan public schools have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from parents to independently hire assistants to help teachers with reading, writing, tying...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 10, 2009 23 Comments

Sarah Palin's announcement that she will resign as Governor of Alaska has kicked off a new round of attacks on Palin's intelligence and integrity from pundits on both sides of the political spectrum. For most of the commentators, the resignation signals an end to Palin's...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 12, 2009 2 Comments

His name is George McGovern. He was a war hero, who earned the Distinguished Flying Cross in World War II. He also ran for President once upon a time. And has been a liberal icon for decades due to his opposition to the Vietnam War.He's...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 28, 2009 3 Comments

Reports indicate that the deal the United Auto Workers has struck with Chrysler will include majority Union ownership of the company, and a seat on the Board. This is the single best news the American auto industry has heard in decades.I have been a harsh...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 01, 2009 1 Comment

Update 4-28-2009: Murphy declared the winner of the race by a couple hundred votes, as a result of doing better on absentee ballots than expected.----------------------------------------------------The Politico is characterizing the virtual tie between Jim Tedesco (R) and Scott Murphy (D) as a loss for Republicans....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 10, 2009 2 Comments

The Politico has an article detailing the Obama administration's targeting of Congressman Eric Cantor. According to the article, Obama's political advisers are coordinating a campaign in the media and through unions "to introduce him to voters before he can introduce himself."In other words, the President...

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