Last week several groups, including the United Steelworkers, petitioned the federal government to whack the latest trade mole – illegally traded auto parts from China.

With President Obama announcing creation of a new trade enforcement unit in his State of the Union Address, the feds probably will investigate. But even if they whack down the auto parts mole, experience has shown a new mole will pop up.

Despite fierce opposition from major transit unions, the Senate yesterday gave final approval to the FAA Authorization bill, a five-year extension that removes uncertainty from the FAA, approves a next-generation air traffic monitoring system and, in Harry Reid’s telling, creates hundreds of thousands of jobs. But unions were unhappy about changes to labor law insisted upon by House Republicans, and they expressed betrayal at the hands of Senate Democrats.

The Senate will vote as early as today on whether to punish transportation unions in a bid to get Federal Aviation Administration authorization through 2015. The House already passed its version of a “bipartisan compromise.” and unions can’t seem to get the Senate to stop it.

On Dec. 18, a dozen retirees, men and women in their 60s, 70s, even 80s, began occupying a median strip along Route 33 in front of the closed Century Aluminum smelter in Ravenswood, W.Va. In tents and under tarps, a small group stays overnight, despite hypertension, arthritis and other old age ailments. They’re protesting Century Aluminum evicting them from the health insurance coverage they earned as workers.

Arizona Republicans are proposing a bill to strip public unions of collective bargaining rights and impose limits even more egregious than those adopted in Wisconsin. Even though it’s been strongly opposed elsewhere, it’s a strategy to defang unions and undermine political funding for the Democratic Party.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act fixed a problem created by the Supreme Court, which had made it difficult for victims of pay discrimination to sue. But the Act could have been combined with other measures to strengthen enforcement of fair pay rules. It wasn’t; the stronger measures were blocked, and the practical effect of the Fair Pay Act has been minimal.

collection of 18 transportation unions have demanded that Congress reject a compromise measure on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Authorization bill which they say will hurt unions. Unions like the United Auto Workers, United Steelworkers, Teamsters, the International Association of Machinists, the Association of Flight Attendants (CWA) and more object to several hidden provisions in the authorization bill apparently agreed to by Dem leaders.

We’re not seeing in the numbers a return to the union valhalla of the 1950s and 1960s. But if unions could increase their membership despite a series of assaults, imagine what could happen with friends of labor in policymaking positions and with new rules designed to help collective bargaining rather than harm it.

Indiana Democrats in the State House walked out again to deny a quorum, as Republicans attempted to pass their right-to-work bill and clear the last hurdle before moving the bill to Mitch Daniels for his signature. The problem now is they’re now subject to GOP adopted $1,000/day fines for not showing up.

Democratic House lawmakers in Indiana walked out again to protest a right-to-work bill, after there were signs of a deal on a vote this week. Republicans in the House approved $1,000-a-day fines for the lawmakers. Understand that in Indiana, legislators only make about $23,000 a year.