Labor pledges a lot-o-bucks for the 2010 elections.

Washington Post political columnist Chris Cilizza, tags labor as a "big time" loser in the recent primary elections for its "all in" approach to defeating Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D. Arkansas). Reportedly labor spent $10 million to defeat Lincoln. Lincoln defeated Lt. Gov. Bill Halter 52%-48%.

There is a compelling case that the National Labor Relations Act's stated purpose, to reduce economic disruption by imposing collective bargaining, has wildly succeeded over the last 75 years. Succeeded so much that unions are considered increasingly irrelevant to many workers. This post calls for a return to active use of labor's economic weapons, the strike, in particular, as well as other acts like secondary boycotts which are expressly circumscribed by the NLRA. The poster suggests unions should engage in establishing new legal identities to shield them from liability, not unlike many businesses do. Interesting and provocative analysis.

We have previously posted here and here about the silly attempt to make car manufacturers proxies in the Union/Anti union wars and in the red blue game. Bob Herbert's NYT opinion piece provides fuel and a black hat portrait of Toyota and its decision to close NUMMI and the impact of job losses in California.

Citizens United v. FEC, the new Supreme Court ruling on campaign financing has some serious support from labor. Here's why.