Tag: Union

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Politics

Bernie Sanders Gets National Nurses Union Endorsement… Not Hillary

In this photo taken May 20, 2015, Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., poses for a portrait before an interview with The Associated Press in Washington. For Democrats who had hoped to lure Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren into a presidential campaign, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders might be the next best thing. Sanders, who is opening his official presidential campaign Tuesday in Burlington, Vermont, aims to ignite a grassroots fire among left-leaning Democrats wary of Hillary Rodham Clinton. He is laying out an agenda in step with the party's progressive wing and compatible with Warren's platform _ reining in Wall Street banks, tackling college debt and creating a government-financed infrastructure jobs program. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
 Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.,  (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Well chalk another one up for Bernie Sanders. The Washington Post is reporting that Bernie has scored a major endorsement from the National Nurses Union, which essentially means that Hillary Clinton did not get their endorsement… essentially!

National Nurses United, which represents 185,000 nurses across the country, announced its pick at an event in Oakland attend by Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who has emerged as Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chief rival for the Democratic nomination.

“He can talk about our issues as well as we can talk about our issues,” RoseAnn DeMoro, the union’s executive director, said in an interview, adding that “Bernie’s issues align with nurses from top to bottom.”

The endorsement was the first for Sanders from a national labor group. Last month, the American Federation of Teachers announced its support for Clinton, calling her “the champion working families need in the White House.”

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Featured United States

Teaparty Congressman Collects Disability From His Union Job

U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack, R Minn. concedes the race to Rick Nolan at his headquarters in Hinckley, Minn., Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Andy King)

Rep. Chip Cravaack won the midterm election for Minnesota in 2010, thanks in part to his extreme Teaparty platform. The newly elected congressman even voted for the Paul Ryan Teaparty backed budget, that will end medicare and replace it with a voucher program which seniors would be expected to use to satisfy their health needs.

But a little overlooked fact about Chip Cravaack is that he worked as a pilot for the Northwest Airlines as recently as 2007 and being a pilot means that you are a member of a Union, thus receiving the benefits of union negotiated salaries, vacations and ultimately, disability payments.

Recent financial records released by Cravaack showed that he received  $92,273 in 2010 from disability payments he received from Northwest. At this very same time Cravaack was receiving his checks, he was campaigning in Minnesota promising to end “big government,” and often using the usual Republican talking points of bashing unions.

Oh, and by the way, Chip Cravaack is also a veteran, which means that in addition to his government provided health care in Congress, he also gets benefits from the VA, allowing him to go to any government-owned Veteran’s Administration facility in the nation and receive what he and Teaparty calls, “socialized medicine.”

Only in America. You just gotta love this!

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Democratic Illinois Indiana Politics Republican Wisconsin

Democrats Win One. Controversial Union Language in Bill Dropped

No, I’m not talking about the language against unions in Wisconsin, I’m talking about the language against unions in Indiana. After the Republican majority in Indiana tried to pass the same anti-union bill being debated in Wisconsin, Indiana Democrats fled the state to avoid the vote. Well, it will appear that their antics worked, because according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal, House Republicans in Indiana have decided to dropped the language in the bill that would have reduced the amount of union members in the state. The Wall Street Jorunal Reports;

The speaker of Indiana’s House of Representatives said he and Republican colleagues are dropping a controversial labor bill that caused Democratic representatives to flee to Illinois, but the Democrats said they’re not returning to Indiana for now. Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma said the so-called right-to-work legislation is dead and will not be reintroduced during this session of the Indiana House. Democrats felt so strongly about that bill that they went to Urbana, Ill., Tuesday so that Republicans couldn’t achieve a quorum to vote on the bill.

But then again.  This could very well be a ploy by House Republicans to get the Democratic congress back in an effort to trick them into voting for the bill. Read the Wall Street Report Here

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