For PA municipalities, it’s about seeking change, not dollars

By   /  May 8, 2013  /  Labor relations, News, Pennsylvania, Pensions, State Government, unions  /  No Comments

DISTRESS SIGNALS: More than 40 percent of Pennsylvanians reside in distressed municipalities.

By Melissa Daniels | PA Independent
HARRISBURG — Across Pennsylvania, times are tough for local governments. About 41 percent of the state’s population live in a municipality facing some kind fiscal distress.
Yet Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed budget holds municipal assistance relatively flat. That includes funding assistance for cities in Act 47, the official classification for the [...]

Read More →

MO’s Sinquefield resigns investment firm post after teacher union attacks

By   /  May 7, 2013  /  Missouri, News, unions  /  No Comments

Rex Sinquefield

By Johnny Kampis | Missouri Watchdog
ST. LOUIS – A teacher union attack on a Missouri think tank sparked collateral damage when Rex Sinquefield resigned from the board of the investment company he helped create.
Sinquefield, who founded the St. Louis-based Show-Me Institute, recently quit his post on the board of directors of Dimensional Fund Advisors, the [...]

Read More →

Kansas hospital with poor staff retention posts $1 million overtime increase

By   /  April 19, 2013  /  Featured, Issues, Kansas, public sector, State Budgets, unions  /  No Comments

Larned campus

By Travis Perry │ Kansas Watchdog

OSAWATOMIE — Larned State Hospital set a new high-water mark for overtime spending last year, posting an increase of more than $1 million.

Overtime spending at LSH jumped 82 percent, from $1.3 million in 2011 to $2.4 million in 2012, according to state spending data on KansasOpenGov.org.

Read More →

TN VW workers face tough UAW choice

By   /  April 5, 2013  /  Featured, News, Tennessee, unions  /  3 Comments

AP photo

By Chris Butler | Tennessee Watchdog

CHATTANOOGA — If you’re an hourly employee at Chattanooga’s five-year-old Volkswagen plant brace yourself for a vote on whether to join the United Auto Workers union.

Since Tennessee is a right-to-work state no one can fire you for not joining the UAW and paying union dues, but you may give up some employment control if you don’t participate.

Read More →

Ex-Hostess workers land sweet deal, taxpayers foot bill

By   /  March 15, 2013  /  Economy, Featured, Federal Government, Free Market, Kansas, Labor relations, National, News, unions  /  54 Comments

FLUFF FILLING: The U.S. Department of Labor has been short on specifics regarding its claim that Hostess went out of business because of foreign trade.

 
By Travis Perry │ Kansas Watchdog
OSAWATOMIE — It’s been four months since the iconic Twinkie began disappearing from store shelves nationwide. While some have speculated the golden sponge cake could survive the apocalypse itself, its undoing was something else entirely: unreasonable demands from an uncompromising labor union.
Apparently the federal government didn’t get the memo.
Officials at [...]

Read More →