U.S. District Judge Michael Simon said the slowdown staged by longshore workers has caused economic harm to the region and the suffering will only get worse without a quick resolution... The slowdown involves a dispute between members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers over which union workers should plug-in and unplug refrigerated shipping containers known as reefers. Go To Site

"You know, we've had a lot of bad news this week. On my way over, I was reading another story about a distant place where thugs had put 400,000 children out in the streets," he said. "And then I realized that was a story of the Chicago teachers strike." Go To Site

Ready to fly out of Los Angeles today to get to your family before Thanksgiving? Not so fast. Los Angeles’ labor unions have decided to protest on Thanksgiving Eve – one of the busiest travel days of the year – to snarl traffic around Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). President Obama’s favorite union, the Service Employees International Union, is spearheading the obnoxious effort; it’s supposed to last from 11 a.m to 4 p.m., virtually the entire day. Go To Site

Union, Character, Healthcare

FREEHOLD — A Republican state senator has called for the firing of 17 Monmouth County transportation workers who called out sick Friday, forcing the county to cancel bus rides for 174 developmentally disabled clients and pay for a bus service to get critically ill patients to dialysis treatments.

People who spend any time in New York City are quick to inure themselves to the vicissitudes of everyday life. But even the hard-of-heart have found it difficult to ignore the personal accounts of the thousands of families that have been dislocated by the decision of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union to initiate a school bus strike this past Wednesday. Some 8,800 drivers and matrons, whose incomes average about $35,000 per year, went on strike, shutting down about 70 percent of the City’s 7,700 school bus routes... In their ranks are 54,000 children who suffer from a variety of disabilities. Many of them are in wheelchairs. Others suffer from disabilities like severe autism that make it impossible for them to travel to school alone in safety. Their attendance at school was down sharply in the wake of the strike. -Richard Epstein, "Unions vs. Our Kids" Go To Site

Hypocrisy, Union, Protest, Healthcare

FREEHOLD — Monmouth County transportation employees staged a sickout Friday that left 174 developmentally disabled clients waiting for a bus that never came and county officials scrambling to get critically ill patients to their dialysis appointments.
"This is a despicable thing to do to this special population and seniors," Skudera, a retired school secretary, said. "You don't do this to that population."

Crime, Union, Violence, Vandalism, Convict

The maintenance worker who set the hotel fire that killed 97 people here on New Year's Eve was sentenced to 99 years in prison today by a Federal judge who said Puerto Rico was ''fed up'' with violence.
The three men were members of Local 901 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which was involved in a labor dispute with the hotel magement at the time of the fire.