The majority of Americans want federal workers to stop participating in union activities while on the job, new polling shared with The Daily Wire from a union watchdog shows.
The Public Labor Union Accountability Committee released polling on Monday showing that 91% of Americans want to know how much it costs them for government workers to do union activities during their working hours. The same poll found that 88% of Americans want more transparency around government unions and how much they cost taxpayers. 
&#8220;We asked voters what they think about public sector unions — and the results were clear,&#8221; the committee said in a memo on its polling. &#8220;Americans are fed up with the unions’ highly partisan political activity and voiced strong support for more transparency and accountability in how they operate.&#8221;
The polling was a nationwide survey of 600 registered voters through an online panel. 
Government unions are notoriously partisan, heavily backing Democrat candidates. In the 2024 election, the four largest public unions — American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Education Association (NEA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) — gave $708 million to Democrat candidates. 
Those surveyed by the Public Labor Union Accountability Committee opposed the overwhelming slant of union spending toward Democrats. Sixty-five percent were opposed to the fact ​​that “last year, the nation’s largest union of federal employees gave over 95% of its political donations to one political party.&#8221;
Mary Katharine Ham, a new senior advisor for the watchdog, told The Daily Wire public unions were mainly a tool for Democrat politicians, not American workers. 
“These public sector unions pretend to stand up for workers, when they are really a money laundering outfit for the Democratic Party – ripping off the American taxpayer at every turn,” she said. “Big labor is the power center for Democrats – their organizing muscle and money. They stand in the way of common sense, of our federal government being more accountable and better run. And some of their demands are pure comedy.” 
Large majorities also demanded that “federal employees should not be allowed to influence a presidential election” (75%) and “public sector unions need to stay out of politics” (70%).
Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) has introduced new legislation called the “Protecting Taxpayers’ Wallet Act” which would mandate federal unions reimburse the government when employees use official working hours to do union work. 
“No surprise — new polling shows the American People want more transparency surrounding public sector unions,” Perry told The Daily Wire. “The bill is a commonsense fix against ever present waste, fraud, and abuse. We need more union watchdogs like PLUAC holding government unions accountable.”
President Donald Trump has already taken action to curb the activity of some government unions. Last month, he signed an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-signs-eo-ending-union-rights-at-federal-agencies-with-national-security-missions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a> that ends collective bargaining for hundreds of thousands of federal employees whose work is related to national security.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP-MUSK

‘Ripping Off The American Taxpayer’: Most Americans ‘Fed Up’ With Partisan Union Activity

Poll

teachers union

Unions

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that will end collective bargaining for hundreds of thousands of federal employees whose work is related to national security, the White House said. 
The EO applies to public sector unions representing workers in federal agencies “with national security missions,” including the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Science Foundation, and the Coast Guard. A <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-exempts-agencies-with-national-security-missions-from-federal-collective-bargaining-requirements/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">memo</a> from the White House said that Trump was given the authority to limit union activity for national security purposes based on the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.
“President Trump is taking action to ensure that agencies vital to national security can execute their missions without delay and protect the American people,” the memo said. “The President needs a responsive and accountable civil service to protect our national security.”
Other agencies that would be impacted include immigration agencies like U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Office of Refugee Resettlement. International-focused departments and agencies like the Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the International Trade Commission would also have collective bargaining rights ended.
The Energy Department, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, EPA,  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, Food and Drug Administration, and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the Treasury Department were also all named in the memo. 
The document added that Trump “supports constructive partnerships with unions who work with him; he will not tolerate mass obstruction that jeopardizes his ability to manage agencies with vital national security missions.”
The American Federation of Government Employees claimed that the announcement was an attack on free speech and would impact more than one million government workers. 
“President Trump&#8217;s latest executive order is a disgraceful and retaliatory attack on the rights of hundreds of thousands of patriotic American civil servants—nearly one-third of whom are veterans—simply because they are members of a union that stands up to his harmful policies,” the union said. &#8220;This administration’s bullying tactics represent a clear threat not just to federal employees and their unions, but to every American who values democracy and the freedoms of speech and association.&#8221;
A separate <a href="https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/latest-memos/guidance-on-executive-order-exclusions-from-federal-labor-management-programs.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">memo</a> from the Office of Personnel Management after the executive order was issued directed federal agencies to consult with legal counsel to begin implementing the directive.

President Trump Announces New Automobile Tariffs

Trump Signs EO Ending Union Rights At Federal Agencies With ‘National Security Missions’

Donald Trump

Executive

Executive Orders

Labor Unions

Politics

Trump Administration

White House

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected an effort to block the Trump administration from buying out the contracts of tens of thousands of federal workers, saying that the public sector unions that sued lacked standing. 
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.280398/gov.uscourts.mad.280398.66.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declined</a> to block the Office of Personnel Management’s “Fork in the Road” program, which gave two million federal workers the opportunity to quit and be paid through September. Due to his ruling, the window to accept the offer closed Wednesday at 7:20 p.m. ET after at least 75,000 workers took the deal. 
The American Federation of Government Employees and several other unions challenged the program, arguing that the offer violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). 
“The plaintiffs are unable to succeed on the merits of their two APA claims because they lack Article III standing and because this Court does not have subject matter jurisdiction over the claims asserted,” O’Toole said. 
The judge added that the unions did not have direct enough interest to challenge the program. 
“The plaintiffs here are not directly impacted by the directive. Instead, they allege that the directive subjects them to upstream effects including a diversion of resources to answer members’ questions about the directive, a potential loss of membership, and possible reputational harm,” he wrote. “The unions do not have the required direct stake in the Fork Directive, but are challenging a policy that affects others, specifically executive branch employees. This is not sufficient.&#8221;
McLaurine Pinover, a spokeswoman for the Office of Personnel Management, celebrated the ruling, saying that OPM was “pleased the court has rejected a desperate effort to strike down the Deferred Resignation Program.”
“There is no longer any doubt: the Deferred Resignation Program was both legal and a valuable option for federal employees,” she <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/02/12/us-news/federal-judge-allows-trump-to-push-forward-with-buyouts-for-government-workers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the New York Post. “This program was carefully designed, thoroughly vetted, and provides generous benefits so federal workers can plan for their futures.”
AFGE President Everett Kelley said the decision was “a setback in the fight for dignity and fairness for public servants.”
“We continue to maintain it is illegal to force American citizens who have dedicated their careers to public service to make a decision, in a few short days, without adequate information, about whether to uproot their families and leave their careers for what amounts to an unfunded IOU from Elon Musk,” Kelly added. 
The “fork” program was introduced on January 28, saying that significant cuts to the size of government were on the horizon and that OPM could not guarantee that everyone’s position would still be in place with incoming reforms. The offer paralleled a similar offer that Elon Musk, who is leading Trump&#8217;s &#8220;Department of Government Efficiency&#8221; (DOGE) project, offered to employees of Twitter, now X, when he took over the social media platform. 
Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1884601571347943773" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> government employees who took the offer from OPM would be able to do &#8220;whatever&#8221; they wanted for six months with full government pay and benefits.

Trump To Order Federal Job Cuts As Part Of Musk’s Downsizing

Judge Rejects Union Effort To Stop Trump’s Buyout Of Government Workers

Courts

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

Elon Musk

Federal Government

Office of Personnel Management

As part of his plans to improve the efficiency and reduce the size of the federal government, President Trump offered federal employees <a href="https://www.opm.gov/fork" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a generous buyout</a>, effectively equal to about eight months of pay and benefits worth $122,000 on average.
Federal employees, who originally had until February 6 to accept the buyout offer, were scheduled to stop working at the end of this week. Despite federal employee unions urging them not to take the buyout, an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 federal workers have accepted the offer.
But a federal judge just delayed implementation of that buyout until at least February 10.
With federal employee unions at the helm of the lawsuits, it must be that the buyouts would harm federal employees — right?
Wrong.
The buyout offers a win-win for federal employees. Those who want the buyout can take it and enjoy eight months of pay and benefits without having to work. Those who don’t want the buyout nevertheless benefit from it as the more people who take it, the smaller are their chances of being laid off.
No one has to take the buyout; it’s entirely optional. Taking it is far better than being laid off with no severance through reorganizations or a reduction in force — both of which, the Trump administration noted, are coming.
The <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/unions-sue-trump-administration-arbitrary-capricious-employee-buyout-offers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unions argue</a> that the buyout offer is arbitrary and capricious, and that the president lacks the authority to issue these payments. And they’ve instructed their members not to take the buyout.
But as head of the Executive Branch, the president has authority over the federal workforce, including significantly reducing its size. While Trump’s generous buyout offer is unprecedented, reducing the size of the federal workforce is not.
Within a month of taking office, President Clinton <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-12839-reduction-100000-federal-positions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issued an executive order</a> instructing agencies to reduce their workforces by 4% over the following three years. He didn’t offer any buyout, and federal employment declined by more than 10% over the following three years.
It’s clear that the president has the authority to reduce the size of the federal workforce, which means that all federal employee unions are fighting for is to prevent their members who want the buyout from receiving it.
While the judge who delayed the buyout did not comment on its legality, the administration will presumably make the case that the buyout maintains spending on the federal workforce at the levels appropriated by Congress; and the offer is one of managerial directive, including allowing agencies to redirect work according to their needs.
The fact that federal employee unions are suing to prevent something that unilaterally benefits their members highlights one of the reasons Big Labor continues to decline in membership; union leaders often put their own desires for power and money above the best interests of workers.
If federal employees’ unions want to help their members, they will end their quest to deny them generous buyouts, and instead help their members make informed decisions that align with their own personal interests instead of the interests of union leaders.
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Rachel Greszler is a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
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The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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USAID Protest

Federal Employee Unions Seek To Strip Buyout Offer From Federal Workers

Opinion

A federal judge in Washington D.C. is hearing arguments on whether to block Elon Musk’s newly formed Department of Government Efficiency from accessing sensitive Treasury records.
According to ABC News, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly is <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/judge-weigh-block-doge-accessing-treasury-department-records/story?id=118498817">weighing</a> whether to grant a temporary restraining order preventing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing or using taxpayer data, including names, Social Security numbers, and bank account details.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the Service Employees International Union, and the Alliance for Retired Americans filed a lawsuit calling the alleged intrusion “massive and unprecedented,” claiming DOGE obtained the information “without providing any legal justification.” 
Per the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/us/politics/elon-musk-treasury-payment-data.html">New York Times</a>, &#8220;The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union of federal employees, representing more than 800,000 workers, filed the suit alongside the Service Employees International Union and Alliance for Retired Americans, a group that represents the interests of retired union workers. All three groups are affiliated with the A.F.L.-C.I.O., an umbrella group of more than 50 unions representing more than 12.5 million workers.&#8221;
The unions requested the judge bar the Treasury Department from sharing further records and prohibit DOGE employees from using those already obtained, the filing says.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-05/treasury-musk-s-doge-targeted-by-union-request-to-block-data-access">said</a> that Musk, in his role leading DOGE, “has abided by all applicable federal laws,” per Bloomberg.
DOGE, formed to streamline federal agencies under President Donald Trump, now faces its first major court challenge, with the judge hearing arguments early Wednesday afternoon. 
In addition to claiming the department’s data collection violated privacy statutes, the lawsuit also asserts that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent consented to granting DOGE the ability to tap into the Treasury Department’s taxpayer records. 
According to the unions, DOGE has “full, continuous, and ongoing access” to millions of financial profiles, an arrangement they say could pose a serious threat to personal security nationwide.
The Treasury Department denies this, saying on a Tuesday regarding the privacy allegations that DOGE had been given “read-only” access to “coded data.”

Protesters Rally Against DOGE And Elon Musk Outside Department Of Labor

Unions File Lawsuit To Block DOGE Access To Treasury Data

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/011325zor_5425.pdf">declined</a> to hear a challenge to New York’s “Taylor Law,” which gives unions monopoly bargaining privileges in the public sector. At best, the Court missed an opportunity to protect the First Amendment; at worst, the Court endorsed Marxism.
We are Jewish academics who have been forced to accept the “exclusive representation” of unions that we consider anti-Semitic. One of us, a professor at the City University of New York, <a href="https://www.nrtw.org/goldstein/">brought the eponymous challenge</a>, Goldstein v. Professional Staff Congress/CUNY. The other, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, similarly <a href="https://www.nrtw.org/news/jewish-mit-students-eeoc-03212024/">filed federal charges</a> against the MIT Graduate Student Union. Both unions engage in the anti-Israel “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” movement (BDS), which we vehemently oppose.
At CUNY, the faculty union in 2021 <a href="https://2022.psc-cuny.org/sites/default/files/Final_Resolution_in_Support_of_the_Palestinian_People.pdf">condemned Israel</a> “dating back to its establishment as a settler colonial state in 1948.” At MIT, the graduate student union in 2024 <a href="https://mitgsu.org/resolutions/ceasefire">called for</a> “an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” without mentioning Hamas or the hostages they still hold. The resolutions compare Israel to apartheid South Africa — ironic, given that the unions treat objectors like us as second-class citizens without voting privileges.
One need not share our opposition to BDS to see that these unions cannot represent us at the bargaining table. Yet that is exactly what is happening. Had the Supreme Court taken up Goldstein, the Justices could have struck down the Taylor Law on the grounds that it violates employees’ freedom of speech and association. Instead, the Court let stand the Second Circuit&#8217;s <a href="https://www.fairnesscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Second-Circuit-Goldstein-v.-PSC-Decision.pdf">ruling</a> that “Designating PSC as Plaintiffs’ exclusive bargaining representative does not impermissibly burden Plaintiffs’ ability to speak with, associate with, or not associate with whom they please, including CUNY and PSC.” In other words, it is permissible to subordinate individual rights to collective interests — classic Marxism.
The Supreme Court knew this when it declined to take the case. An <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24/24-71/323009/20240821101037349_240806a%20AC%20Brief%20for%20efiling.pdf">amicus brief</a> supporting the petitioners, filed by the Upper Midwest Law Center and the Manhattan Institute, cites the MIT Graduate Student Union as an example of the problem: “Jewish students are being compelled to associate with and implicitly endorse these views despite their most sincere religious beliefs, so they filed discrimination charges with the EEOC.”
The outcome of those charges was that religious students at private universities could divert their union dues to charity, but they would still be subject to exclusive representation. Public employees, including CUNY professors, already have the right to opt out of union dues under Janus v. AFSCME, but they too remain subject to exclusive representation by a union they abhor. While the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-1466_2b3j.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recognized</a> in Janus that “Designating a union as the employees’ exclusive representative substantially restricts the rights of individual employees,” the validity of exclusive representation was not squarely before the Court — until Goldstein, which the Justices declined to hear.
The result has been predictable. Ten days after the Court denied the petition, the CUNY faculty union adopted a <a href="https://psc-cuny.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/PSC-and-NYCERS-Israeli-Investments-Divestment-Resolution-1-23-25.pdf">resolution</a> “expressing its support for complete disinvestment from Israel,” further resolving to “divest its own funds from any investment vehicle that includes in its portfolio stocks and bonds of Israeli companies and Israeli government bonds.” In response, a Jewish civil rights organization <a href="https://x.com/_SAFECAMPUS/status/1884323681675141318">filed a complaint</a> with the New York State Division of Human Rights, arguing that the union “has abandoned their sacrosanct Duty of Fair Representation.” Under Janus, “That duty is a necessary concomitant of the authority that a union seeks when it chooses to serve as the exclusive representative of all the employees in a unit.”
There is another way. New York and other states could amend their labor laws to give employees the right to opt out of union representation. Unions could thus continue to engage in BDS, but not on behalf of those who oppose it. Additionally, the states could adopt laws that give private employees the right to work without paying compulsory dues to unions that they oppose. Twenty-six states already have such a law, which Congress could extend to all fifty states by passing the National Right to Work Act.
The Soviet Union put up a physical wall to keep people in; New York’s labor law puts up a legal one. If unions are as good as they claim to be, they should not need to compel representation or financial support. To borrow a phrase: Governor Hochul, tear down this wall!
* * *
<a href="https://x.com/AvrahamGoldste3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Avraham Goldstein</a> is an assistant professor of mathematics at the City University of New York.
<a href="https://x.com/WillSussmanPhD/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Will Sussman</a> is a collegiate associate at the Manhattan Institute and a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

CUNY Students Hold Rally In Support Of Palestine

Did The Supreme Court Just Endorse Marxism?

Anti-Semitism

City University of New York (CUNY)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

New York

SCOTUS

Supreme Court

Teachers Unions

Before President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid, Vice President Kamala Harris demanded the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union “get on board,” which didn’t sit well with the union’s leadership.
Teamsters president Sean O’Brien says that just before Biden dropped out, Harris was meeting with local union leadership when she simply demanded the union endorse Biden.
“Around June or May, one of my vice presidents, a woman named Joan Corey out of my local, she sits on our general executive board, was at an event with Vice President Harris,” O’Brien said in the interview with Tucker Carlson. “And they’re going through the line to get the picture and Joan introduces herself to Vice President Harris, says, ‘I’m Joan Corey, I’m on the general executive board for the Teamsters.”
“[Harris] goes, ‘Teamsters? You better get on board. You better get on board. Better get on board soon,’” O’Brien said. “Says it to my vice president.”
Carlson asked if Harris said that to Corey’s face, and O’Brien said she did, and that Corey told him about the interaction the next day.
“So, she tells me this. So, I call up Marty Walsh – he wasn’t the secretary of labor – but he was pushing hard for us to make the endorsement. I’m like, ‘Let me ask you a question, Marty. Excuse my French. Who does this f***ing lady think she is?’” O’Brien said.
“Like, if I want support from any organization, I am not gonna point my finger in someone’s face and say, ‘You better get on board or else,’” O’Brien continued. “But that’s the attitude of this whole party.&#8221;
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After Harris became the nominee, O’Brien said, she finally agreed to a roundtable meeting with the Teamsters, but only answered four out of their 16 questions. O’Brien said other candidates, including President-elect Donald Trump, answered all of the union’s questions.
“On the fourth question, one of her operatives or one of her staff slips a note in front of me — ‘This will be the last question.’ And it was 20 minutes earlier than the time it was going to end,” O’Brien said during his interview with Carlson.
O’Brien said that when Harris left, she told the Teamsters: “I’m going to win with you or without you.”
Just weeks before the election, Harris became the first Democrat in decades not to be endorsed by the Teamster’s union, with a majority of members backing Trump instead, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kamala-first-democrat-in-decades-to-not-get-teamsters-endorsement-after-members-back-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> at the time.
“The union’s extensive member polling showed no majority support for Vice President Harris and no universal support among the membership for President Trump,” the Teamsters announced at the time.
Harris went on to lose the election, including losing every battleground state.

Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris Told Teamsters VP ‘To Get On Board,’ Souring Relationship

Kamala Harris Told Teamsters VP 'To Get On Board,' Souring Relationship

2024 Election

U.S.

For the <a href="https://californiaglobe.com/fr/voters-hand-gov-newsom-first-statewide-minimum-wage-ballot-failure-in-california-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first time</a> in California history, a ballot measure seeking a statewide minimum wage increase has failed.
The ballot measure results were finally called by the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/california-proposition-32-minimum-wage-ballot-68e5320b2716d2a5844dc51b97a6e235" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Associated Press</a> on Tuesday, two weeks after Election Day. California Proposition 32, which would have increased the minimum wage to $18 an hour by 2026, failed by approximately <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_32,_$18_Minimum_Wage_Initiative_(2024)" target="_blank" rel="noopener">240,000 votes</a>, a less-than-2% difference.
The proposition was strongly opposed by the California Chamber of Commerce, which argued that the measure would increase taxes and force businesses to cut jobs, according to the AP. Earlier this year, Democrat-led California <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ca-fast-food-joints-warn-of-price-hikes-ahead-of-new-minimum-wage-definitely-going-to-pass-this-on" target="_blank" rel="noopener">instituted</a> a $20-an-hour minimum wage for fast-food workers, a move that caused many restaurants to hike prices and cut back on staff.
&#8220;Californians are sending Gavin Newsom and the SEIU a clear message: They&#8217;re sick of being lab rats for their pet projects,&#8221; said Rebekah Paxton, research director at the Employment Policies Institute (EPI), a conservative think tank. &#8220;Voters saw the devastating economic fallout of the $20 fast food minimum wage law, and for the first time in state history, voted against a statewide minimum wage hike.&#8221;
An EPI <a href="https://epionline.org/app/uploads/2024/07/2024-06-California-Limited-Service-Restaurant-Operator-Survey-Final-Booklet.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> of 182 limited-service restaurant operators in California published in July found that 98% of fast-food restaurants in the Golden State increased prices after the minimum wage hike, 89% reduced employee hours, and 70% reduced the size of their staff.
In September, Newsom wrote an <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gavin-newsom-critics-said-californias-minimum-wage-increase-would-job-killer-opposite-happened" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opinion piece</a> published by Fox News arguing that the &#8220;modest&#8221; fast-food minimum wage increase resulted in more fast-food jobs in the state along with &#8220;better working conditions, reduced financial stress and greater opportunities for upward mobility.&#8221;
&#8220;Our commitment to raising the minimum wage is a testament to California&#8217;s values,&#8221; Newsom wrote. &#8220;We believe in fairness, equity and the idea that everyone deserves a chance to succeed. And these results dispel the cynics who say we must choose between protecting workers and growing the economy.&#8221;
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The broader minimum wage hike that went before voters earlier this month was pushed by unions such as the SEIU and UFCW 770. Kathy Finn, president of UFCW 770, which represents around 30,000 workers, said, &#8220;Proposition 32’s failure to pass is disappointing for all Californians who believe that everyone who works should earn enough to support their families.&#8221;
California&#8217;s minimum wage is already one of the <a href="https://pro.bloomberglaw.com/insights/labor-employment/these-states-have-the-highest-and-lowest-minimum-wages/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">highest</a> in the country at $16 an hour for most workers, and six cities and counties in the state already have an $18-an-hour minimum wage. West Hollywood has the highest minimum wage in the state at $ 19.08 an hour for non-hotel employees, set to increase to $19.65 on January 1.

California state flag

California Voters Reject Minimum Wage Hike

California

Economy

Gavin Newsom

Minimum Wage

Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

CUNY Gaza Solidarity Camp

‘A Hotbed Of Anti-Semitism’: Jewish Professors Take Their Case To The Supreme Court

'A Hotbed Of Anti-Semitism': Jewish Professors Take Their Case To The Supreme Court

Columbia University

Hamas

interview

Israel

Morning Wire

New York City

Pro-Hamas

One of the oldest cliches in Hollywood is that, if you want a story involving insane levels of corruption and over-the-top mob tactics, you should probably have a lot of dockworkers in your film. Some of the most famous movies ever made, like &#8220;On the Waterfront&#8221; starring Marlon Brando, made use of this conceit involving longshoremen. For generations, everyone&#8217;s understood that this industry functions a bit like a fiefdom, independent of the rest of the country. It promotes from within. It protects its own. And when it wants something, it&#8217;s not afraid to shut down the U.S. economy in order to get it.
Over the years, various presidents have had to tangle with the dockworkers and their unions. Some of these presidents, like FDR and Obama, have granted dockworkers massive concessions. Other presidents, like George W. Bush, went to <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2002/10/08/news/ports_longshoremen/">court</a> and used the Taft-Hartley Act to end strikes that were costing the U.S. economy billions of dollars a day. But no administration in the history of this country has adopted the approach that the Biden-Harris administration is now taking.
Right now, without any objection from the White House whatsoever, a 78-year-old union boss named Harold Daggett is proudly shaking down the entire country. He&#8217;s going on television wearing gold medallions and flaunting his $700,000 salary as his union, the 50,000-member International Longshoremen’s Association, shuts down 36 ports — including the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. These ports, taken together, handle more than 50% of the imports and exports to this country. The cost to the U.S. economy is more than $4 billion a day, and very soon, this shutdown could lead to shortages and mass layoffs.
And Harold Daggett has made it very clear that he doesn&#8217;t care about any of these effects. He doesn&#8217;t care what happens to millions of Americans as a result of this strike. Watch:
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Longshoremen pres. boasts about a strike hurting everyday Americans: “People never gave a shit about us until now, when they finally realize that the chain is being broke now. Cars won’t come in, food won’t come in, clothing won’t come in.” <a href="https://t.co/rHJf1e96YU">pic.twitter.com/rHJf1e96YU</a>
&mdash; Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1841138309801918954?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 1, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Notice that there&#8217;s no rational argument here. He&#8217;s not arguing that dockworkers deserve higher salaries because they can&#8217;t make ends meet, or because they&#8217;re doing such a great job, or because they&#8217;re efficient, or any of that. He&#8217;s saying they should receive higher salaries because they&#8217;re holding America hostage. They have the power, so we need to pay the ransom.
When you look at the specific demands this union is making, the absurdity becomes even more apparent. Daggett wants the ports to give dockworkers a 77% pay raise to $69.00 an hour, after turning down a 50% pay raise. That&#8217;s far more than dockworkers make on the West Coast. Daggett also wants more &#8220;container royalties,&#8221; which gives money to longshoremen even if they&#8217;re not working. And he wants a complete ban on any forms of automation at ports.
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Previously I&#8217;ve talked about the rise of automation, and how it&#8217;s a threat to many Americans&#8217; jobs. There are obviously a lot of important concerns as far as how automation is used, and how many jobs it&#8217;s allowed to replace. But in this context, this blanket demand — that no automation is used at all — is a dead giveaway. It&#8217;s evidence that these dockworkers don&#8217;t care about the economy at all, or remaining competitive with what other countries are doing.
Here&#8217;s a look at what they&#8217;re doing in ports in China, to give you some idea.
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Longshoremen in China:
The Chinese port in Guangzhou. 
Virtual Longshoremen unload ships remotely with 5G, and help supervise AI vehicles that automatically drive the containers to trucks and load them, all remotely. <a href="https://t.co/Tt5J0oP1yr">pic.twitter.com/Tt5J0oP1yr</a>
&mdash; Brian Roemmele (@BrianRoemmele) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrianRoemmele/status/1840913618982093229?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 1, 2024</a></blockquote>
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They still have people working there, as you can see. But they&#8217;re using cellular connections and computers to remotely unload and offload the cargo. In many cases, that&#8217;s safer, faster, and cheaper than having humans do it. We don&#8217;t have any of this, and it&#8217;s because of unions. These unions are a big part of why U.S. ports are so inefficient compared to ports all over the world. As recently as 2020, the World Bank found that there wasn&#8217;t a single U.S. port that ranked in the top 50 global ports in terms of &#8220;getting a ship in and out of port,&#8221; quickly and affordably. Not a single one. Overall, our ports are about half as efficient as global ports on average. And now, the unions representing the workers at these ports are demanding a massive raise — along with a ban on any form of technology that could make the ports more efficient.
If the Biden administration wanted to put an end to this, they could. They could do what Bush did, and take this union to court. They could apply public pressure. They could also threaten to repeal other laws on the books that already benefit the dockworkers&#8217; unions. There&#8217;s something called the Jones Act, for example. It requires that all goods transported between U.S. ports by water are carried on ships that are built in the U.S. and crewed by Americans. This leads to hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs, but unions <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/01/opinion/port-strike-shipping-union-inflation-prices.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">love</a> the law because it means more union jobs are created.
Of course, that law won&#8217;t change, and no one in the Biden administration wants it to change. They don&#8217;t want to upset Harold Daggett — someone the DOJ once accused of being an &#8220;associate&#8221; of a mafia family. He has quite a life story, by the way. 
The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/10/01/business/who-is-harold-daggett-the-port-union-boss-with-alleged-mafia-ties/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a>: 
<blockquote>Daggett took the witness stand that year after federal prosecutors charged him with racketeering. &#8230; During the course of the trial, one of Daggett’s co-defendants – Lawrence Ricci, an alleged major mob figure – disappeared. His body was found weeks later decomposing in the trunk of a car outside a New Jersey diner. Ricci’s death remained unsolved, though speculation circulated that he was killed after refusing to plead guilty to avoid news reports of the trial. &#8230; Daggett was acquitted.</blockquote>
So Harold Daggett beat that racketeering rap. And now he&#8217;s holding the U.S. economy hostage. Ships are having to re-route to the West Coast in order to prevent economic calamity, all because of him. It&#8217;s quite a recovery for Harold Daggett&#8217;s career. For the rest of us, it&#8217;s a crisis that has no real precedent in the past several decades.
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And this is just one of the several disasters that are unfolding in the final days of the Biden-Harris administration. Yesterday, Iran launched a volley of more than 180 ballistic missiles into Israel. This is the second direct attack by Iran against Israel in just the last few months. It&#8217;s put us much closer to World War III than we&#8217;ve been in recent history. And it comes just a year after the Biden administration&#8217;s national security adviser bragged that the Middle East was &#8220;quieter&#8221; than it&#8217;s been in two decades.  Watch:
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Biden National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (last week): &quot;The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades&quot; <a href="https://t.co/59MYUXhmHf">pic.twitter.com/59MYUXhmHf</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1710747691024879691?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2023</a></blockquote>
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A week after Jake Sullivan made that claim, Hamas terrorists backed by Iran committed a massacre in Israel. And now rockets are flying back and forth. And despite all of this, Jake Sullivan still has his job. He wasn&#8217;t fired. He wasn&#8217;t run out of Washington after making it abundantly clear that he has no idea what&#8217;s happening in the Middle East — which you&#8217;d think would be disqualifying for a national security adviser. They forced Mike Flynn out of the job of national security adviser after, what, three weeks? And then you have someone like Jake Sullivan, who&#8217;s obviously incompetent to the point of being dangerous, and he suffers no consequences whatsoever.
Again, nothing like this happened during the four years of the Trump administration. This level of international chaos, and complete ineptitude, simply was not present. Iran was not launching rockets directly into Israel, just like Russia wasn&#8217;t sending tanks directly into Ukraine. Are Iran and Russia taking advantage of the fact that the brain of the current U.S. president is basically applesauce at this point? That seems like a valid theory, especially since the Biden administration has no alternative hypothesis for what&#8217;s going on. If you ask them, everything&#8217;s fine — until suddenly it isn&#8217;t.
That&#8217;s the same story we&#8217;re seeing in North Carolina, as I discussed yesterday.
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Gut wrenching scenes from Western NC today. This is Chimney Rock — just downriver from Asheville. It’s one of the countless communities completely devastated by Helene that still need help. Give if you can, and please keep them all in your thoughts <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC11_WTVD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ABC11_WTVD</a> <a href="https://t.co/N7JDk0ygfz">pic.twitter.com/N7JDk0ygfz</a>
&mdash; Sean Coffey (@seancoffeytv) <a href="https://twitter.com/seancoffeytv/status/1841287895992201623?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2024</a></blockquote>
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After failing to evacuate residents from the western portion of the state, the federal government is now failing to help many of the survivors. Yesterday I shared an email that came from someone named Jason, who&#8217;s from the rural area of Ashe County. He reported that FEMA was nowhere in sight. Here&#8217;s an update he sent me last night: 
<blockquote>I just got home from volunteering with a search and rescue team in Lansing which is one of the flooded rural towns. &#8230; Funny thing is the FEMA people showed up today but they are worthless. We ran into a bunch while we were delivering water and generators and they were just walking around making sure that people were still in the house.</blockquote>
So the federal government is still failing to help people in the most devastated rural areas. And communications are still spotty, in part because the government didn&#8217;t want to spend any money on Elon Musk&#8217;s Starlink system because they have a vendetta against Elon Musk. As a result, private citizens are now installing Starlink systems in the area. Journalist Nick Sortor just <a href="https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1841240114032431292" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that &#8220;first responders still do not have reliable communications&#8221; in North Carolina after four days. He uploaded this footage of three North Carolina State Police units giving him a police escort so that he can deploy Starlink systems for others to use, and he added that the police are, &#8220;literally using MY Window Starlink to communicate with each other!&#8221; Watch:
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🚨 First responders *STILL* do not have reliable comms here in Western North Carolina
After FOUR DAYS.
The three NC State Police units giving us a police escort so that we can quickly deploy Starlinks across the region are literally using MY Window Starlink to communicate with… <a href="https://t.co/uLceenFYbL">pic.twitter.com/uLceenFYbL</a>
&mdash; Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) <a href="https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1841240114032431292?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 1, 2024</a></blockquote>
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The federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars to prepare for disasters like this, ostensibly so that vital communications equipment and supplies are available within hours. But they haven&#8217;t been doing that. For the past several days, random people — citizen journalists and volunteers — have been doing a better job than the government agency that supposedly specializes in disaster relief.
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So wherever you look — whether it&#8217;s the Middle East, or North Carolina, or the nation&#8217;s ports — you&#8217;ll find an ongoing, once-in-a-lifetime disaster that&#8217;s threatening to spiral even further out of control. This is what the country — and the world — look like at the end of the Biden-Harris term. There are multiple catastrophes happening all at once. It&#8217;s impossible for anyone to deny that the world is a measurably worse and more dangerous place today than it was when they took office. Everyone knows it. Even Kamala Harris knows it. It&#8217;s why she had to duck the first question of the presidential debate, when she was asked whether Americans are better off now than they were four years ago. 
This is the Biden-Harris &#8220;legacy.&#8221; It&#8217;ll either end in January, or inevitably, these people will lead us into a major catastrophe that we can&#8217;t come back from.

US Dockworker Strike Shutters Eastern And Gulf Coast Ports

How Dirty Union Greed Is Holding The American People Hostage

Biden Administration

Floods

Hurricane Helene

Matt Walsh

Shipping

strike

Vice President Kamala Harris sided Wednesday with dockworkers who launched a massive strike this week that threatens to cripple the economy.
“This strike is about fairness,&#8221; Harris <a href="https://x.com/KamalaHQ/status/1841518483638497456">said</a>. &#8220;Foreign-owned shipping companies have made record profits and executive compensation has grown. The Longshoremen, who play a vital role transporting essential goods across America, deserve a fair share of these record profits.&#8221;
Harris also threw in a barb at her opponent, accusing former President Donald Trump of making &#8220;empty promises&#8221; to workers and promising that she will &#8220;have workers’ backs&#8221; and fight for an &#8220;opportunity economy.&#8221;
“Donald Trump, on the other hand, wants to pull us back to a time before workers had the freedom to organize,&#8221; Harris said. &#8220;Donald Trump makes empty promise after empty promise to American workers, but never delivers. He thinks our economy should only work for those who own the big skyscrapers, not those who actually build them.&#8221;
The dockworkers union has donated<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/international-longshoremens-assn/C00158576/summary/2020"> more than</a> $1.6 million to Democrats under union president Harold Daggett, who threatened to &#8220;cripple&#8221; the economy if dockworkers did not get the contract they wanted.
Daggett endorsed President Joe Biden, but began lashing out at the White House as the strike drew near. But relations appear to be warming between the union and the administration on several fronts. Also on Wednesday, Daggett thanked Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su for speaking out in support of the striking dock workers.
Su put out a statement slamming port owners for refusing &#8220;to put an offer on the table that reflects workers’ sacrifice and contributions to their employer’s profits&#8221; as &#8220;their CEOs bring in millions of dollars in compensation per year.&#8221;
Daggett made $728,000 last year as union president, plus another $173,000 as president emeritus of the New Jersey local, POLITICO <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/25/dockworkers-strike-disrupt-economy-election-00181005">reported</a>.
The strike snarls supply chains and is likely to cause delays or even shortages of products like coffee, bananas, cars, clothing, and Christmas decorations. The union rejected a last-minute deal from port ownership which offered the union a nearly 50% wage raise. The union had demanded higher wages and zero port automation.
President Joe Biden could pause the strike for 80 days under the Taft-Hartley Act, but he has indicated he has no intention of doing so. Some have speculated that the president is unwilling to go out of his way to help Harris after Democrats ousted him from the presidential ticket, while others have wondered if the administration is simply courting the union vote.
Harris has struggled to lock in the union vote, usually an easy voting bloc for Democrats to sway. She is the first Democratic presidential candidate to not get the Teamsters’ endorsement in nearly 30 years. Nearly 60% of the union’s 1.3 million members support Trump, internal polling found.
As the strike continues, Harris is caught between trying to appease thousands of union members and averting economic disaster. So far, she has faced an uphill battle to win over voters with her economic message, and polls show that the majority of voters favor Trump on the economy.

Sen. Kamala Harris Speaks At Her Alma Mater Howard University

Kamala Endorses Dockworkers Strike That Union Boss Boasted Would ‘Cripple’ The Economy

Kamala Sides With Striking Dock Workers Upending The Economy

Harris 2024

The union boss who launched a massive dockworkers strike on Wednesday thanked the Biden-Harris administration&#8217;s Labor Secretary for her &#8220;wisdom.&#8221;
Harold Daggett, president of the International Longshoremen&#8217;s Association, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ILAUnion">responded</a> to a statement from Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su expressing support for the union&#8217;s demands. Daggett said the union&#8217;s 85,000 members are &#8220;grateful for the wisdom, courage and leadership of our Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su.&#8221;
“Our ILA rank and file members will continue to strike for fair wages and their share of the Foreign Ocean Carriers record billion-dollar profits and we are grateful to have the support of the U.S. Labor Department,” Daggett <a href="https://ilaunion.org/acting-u-s-labor-secretary-julie-su-says-giant-shipping-magnates-should-share-their-economic-success-with-ila-longshore-workers/">said</a>.
Su<a href="https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/osec/osec20241001"> praised</a> dock workers for putting &#8220;their health and safety on the line to keep working through the pandemic,&#8221; and slammed port owners for refusing &#8220;to put an offer on the table that reflects workers’ sacrifice and contributions to their employer’s profits&#8221; as &#8220;their CEOs bring in millions of dollars in compensation per year.&#8221;
Su&#8217;s words of support could signal a return to normal relations between the White House and the union, which has donated<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/international-longshoremens-assn/C00158576/summary/2020"> more than</a> $1.6 million to Democrats on Daggett’s watch. Daggett endorsed President Joe Biden, but began lashing out at the White House as the strike drew near. About 45,000 dock workers walked off the job and hit the picket lines on Tuesday in a massive strike that has shut down billions of dollars in trade.
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“The American economy has defied all expectations thanks to the Biden-Harris administration’s leadership,&#8221; Su said. &#8220;There is room for both companies and their workers to prosper. The parties need to get back to the negotiating table, and that must begin with these giant shipping magnates acknowledging that if they can make record profits, their workers should share in that economic success.”
The strike snarls supply chains and chokes off nearly 50% of U.S. imports, including products like coffee, bananas, cars, clothing, and Christmas decorations. A total of 14 ports along the East and Gulf Coast are affected, including the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The union rejected a last-minute deal from port ownership, represented by the United States Maritime Alliance, which offered the union a nearly 50% wage raise. The union had demanded higher wages and zero port automation.
Su <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-taps-california-official-who-oversaw-billions-in-covid-unemployment-fraud-to-serve-as-labor-secretary">oversaw</a> billions of dollars in COVID unemployment fraud as Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. Su, who never secured Senate confirmation, recently came under fire for a proposed rule that would require companies involved in the Labor Department&#8217;s apprenticeship program to implement diversity, equity, and inclusion measures, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rep-banks-grills-bidens-labor-sec-on-claim-that-apprentice-programs-are-racist-sexist">reported</a>.

US-LOGISTICS-TRADE-STRIKE-PORT

Biden Labor Secretary Signals Support For Striking Workers After Union Boss Boasts They’ll ‘Cripple’ U.S.

Biden Labor Secretary, Dockworker Union Boss Exchange Pleasantries Amid Strike

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