Labor Shorts: Obamacare to cost Caterpillar $100 million year one & other union news...

Labor Shorts: Exposing Union Bosses One Skid Mark at a Time...

The latest (and largest) pile of labor news from around the country, given to you in short form from LaborUnionReport.com:

• Cat may become Obamacare road kill... Heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar said Thursday that the health care legislation being considered by Congress would increase its health care costs by more than $100 million in the first year alone. [The sucking sound that will be heard will be more UAW jobs.]
• Moonbeam Brown urges unions to "attack"... In California's gubernatorial race, former governor and current Attorney General, as well as gubernatorial candidate Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown urged union honchos to "attack" for him during his campaign for the governor's mansion.
• Union Intransigence May Doom Amnesty Immigration Reform...Unions don't want a guest worker program. Businesses do. Compromise may be impossible despite the administration's efforts to do a deal by November.
• SEIU boss Andy Stern sends Glenn Beck a purple package...It's doubtful that Fox superstar Glenn Beck and his on-air nemesis SEIU's Andy Stern will become bosom buddies following Stern's attempts at détente.
• Firefighters' Union 'Sticks it' to City of Portland...The City of Portland and the Firefighters union are 'going to war' over the union's desire to have the city continue paying a con artist's disability payments.
• Communications Workers are cranky at Christie's Cuts...Public workers marched all across New Jersey yesterday at newly-elected governor Chris Christie's attempt to address a huge-budget gap left to him by his predecessor, Democrat John Corzine.
• $18 billion for jobs bill not enough, says lefty laborites...Trying to figure out how to add more to the already overwhelming federal debt, lefty bloggers at In These Times note that the $18 billion jobs bill that the House sent to President Obama isn't enough to "create or save" the 11 million jobs needed to return to pre-recession unemployment levels.
• Hungry unionists protesting for jobs... Approximately 600 Seattle/King County Building and Construction Trades Council members protested for jobs on Wednesday while 35 unemployed steelworkers protested being unemployed for more that a year in Northern Ohio.
• Shameful...Why are family members who are taking care of their own children being forced to be in a union? [Read more at our blog here.]
• Those Unfriendly Skies:
• The Teamsters to add to worldwide turbulence by vowing to mobilize support for a possible strike of British Airways flight attendants, while Germany's Ver.di pledged its support as well.
• Air France flight attendants may also be disembarking for a four-day strike on March 28th.
• Back in the U.S. of A...
• United Airlines' pilots were joined by pilots of five other airlines on the picket line to protest an outsourcing deal between UAL and Ireland's Aer Lingus.
• American Airlines' flight attendants are the second union at the Texas-based carrier to ask the National Mediation Board for a release in order to begin the countdown to strike.
• Blanche Lincoln Bites Back at Unions. Following the abandonment of Arkansas Democrat Senator Blanche Lincoln by her former union friends, the outgoing Senator put out a surpisingly in-your-union-face ad.
• Teamsters and Tea Party Activists: Kindred Spirits? Both groups don't like taxes that costs jobs but somehow we think the similarities may end there even though the Teamster fight against Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter's proposed soda tax sounds surprisingly like something one would hear at a Tea Party rally.
• Vale Inco CEO strikes back at striking steelworkers' union...After enduring an eight-month strike by the United Steelworkers, Vale Inco CEO Tito Martins posted a letter on the company's website accusing the USW of engaging in a "a global campaign of misinformation, racism, intolerance and xenophobia" while being content to "keep its members on strike so long as it supports the USW strike in Ontario."
• Labor's Back Door... A business owner explains how media hype over the 'failure' of labor's agenda is more hyperbole than reality as union bosses are still getting their sweetheart deals in mutated form.
• UPS: The Tonya Harding of Cargo Shipping...? By trying to "level the playing field" by hitting its competitor in the proverbial knees with a Teamster-made baseball bat, UPS is disingeniously still trying to saddle rival FedEx with the Teamsters by fighting in Congress to put RLA-covered FedEx under the National Labor Relations Act. [For more on the Brown Bailout, go here and video here.]
• Speaking of Bailouts...Are unions the primary beneficiary of President Obama's "Green Jobs" economy?  It certainly appears so, but you can read this and decide for yourself.
• Eee Gads! A Soccer Strike Looms... Soccer fans the world over (not really) may be put in limbo if negotiations fail this weekend between Major League Soccer players and team owners and the players strike next week.  Here's an update. [Zzzz!]

That's a wrap for LaborUnionReport.com's Labor Shorts and End of Week Report.

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"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes." Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

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Cross-posted.