Posts tagged 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
Forgery Cases Give Supreme Court Opportunity to Hold Unions Accountable for Shady Tactics
January 11, 2023 // Taken collectively, the forgery cases clearly suggest a coordinated strategy on the part of unions panicked into breaking the law at the prospect of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in dues money when members they’ve spent decades preying on discover that the power to decide about workplace representation has always been in their own hands. The Supreme Court made its intentions in Janus crystal clear. Public employees have an iron-clad First Amendment right to keep their jobs even if they choose to have nothing to do with a union.
THREE LAWSUITS, ALL INVOLVING UNION FORGERY, APPEALED TO SUPREME COURT
December 22, 2022 // In all three cases, dues continued to be deducted from the plaintiffs’ paychecks long after they requested to opt out because the union claimed they had signed a membership form stipulating they could only leave during a two-week annual window. In fact, none of the workers had signed any such authorization and, when the unions were forced to provide documentation, each turned out to be a crude forgery. Zielinski v. SEIU 503, Wright v. SEIU 503, Cindy Ochoa,
9th Circuit forgery decisions allow unions to rule by deceit and undermine workers’ rights
October 18, 2022 // This September, the 9th Circuit decided two cases brought by the Freedom Foundation alleging government unions forged public employees’ signatures on membership agreements to continue deducting dues from their pay. Walking a legal tightrope, the three-judge panel managed to acknowledge the membership cards in question were forged while simultaneously concluding a union can’t be held responsible for dues illegally taken from a public employee’s paycheck because a union isn’t a government agency; rather, it is merely a private organization. And conversely, the state is also blameless, the court concluded, because the state is free to delegate to the union all responsibility for deciding who does and doesn’t pay dues. In other words, the 9th Circuit claimed the state has no duty to protect its employees’ First Amendment rights. Got all that? The union forged a worker’s name on a membership form, and the state blindly accepted it as genuine. But neither is at fault, and the worker is simply out of luck, according to the 9th Circuit.
OREGON STATE GOVERNMENT, SEIU ENGAGING IN STATE-SANCTIONED FRAUD
September 28, 2022 // “In Ms. Wright’s case, SEIU 503 forged the employees’ signature electronically,” continued Millard. “Despite the fact the court accepted that the forgery took place, the decision means neither the State of Oregon nor the Union have any constitutional duty to obtain consent from the employee.” The decision is an unadorned get-around of Janus, in which the Supreme Court ruled that states cannot force public employees to pay money to the union unless the employee provides affirmative consent in the form of a waiver of their First Amendment rights. Zielinski v. SEIU 503, Jason Dudash,
UNION SPONSORED AB 5 HITS INDEPENDENT TRUCKERS
August 24, 2022 // For a while, AB 5, passed in the fall of 2019, didn’t affect truckers. It affected plenty of other people in plenty of other lines of work, prompting belated carve outs by the legislature to expand the list of exempted professions. Passage of AB 5 even provoked the ride share industry, led by Uber and Lyft, to raise over $200 million to qualify and run an initiative campaign, Proposition 22, to repeal the portions of AB 5 that affected their businesses. After Prop. 22 was approved by voters in November, four “gig drivers,” backed up by the SEIU, successfully challenged Prop. 22 in court. That ruling is now being appealed by Uber before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. "business to business” exemption, Borello test, California Globe
Trucker strike in the Port of Oakland threatens supply chain disruptions
July 22, 2022 // R Street Institute’s western region director, Steven Greenhut, who lives in California, is not convinced that his state’s current government will be up to fixing the problem. “California lawmakers exempted more than 100 professions from their misguided ban on independent contracting, Assembly Bill 5,” he told the Washington Examiner. “But they never bothered to address the impact of their law on trucking, which is one of the most important functions in our economy.” Greenhut said it was “astounding” that lawmakers didn’t act on this “given the ongoing supply chain disruptions and the backlog at the LA area ports.” Danny Wan, diesel emission rules
U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear freelancers’ challenge to California employment law
June 29, 2022 // In 2020, California voters approved a ballot referendum exempting app-based transportation services such as Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft Inc from the scope of AB5. A state judge last year struck down the measure, saying it violated the state's workers' compensation law. An industry group's appeal is pending. The ASJA in its 2019 lawsuit claimed AB5 unreasonably blocks many freelance writers from being treated as independent contractors based on the content of their speech, while exempting similar work performed for marketing or artistic purposes. Samuel Siegel, California Department of Justice
Opinion: States should protect caregivers’ Medicaid funds from union skims
June 27, 2022 // Yet, while a number of states including Michigan have taken action to prohibit the dues skim, a May rule by the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reversed a Trump administration effort to stop the skim nationally. A separate 9th Circuit decision last week also continues to allow unions to trap home care providers into paying them. Robert and Patricia Haynes, cerebral palsy, Gov. Rick Snyder, Harris v. Quinn, Cindy Ochoa, most pro-union president ever,
Union Forgeries Reveal Systemic Corruption Requiring Court Review
February 17, 2022 // Last week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in three cases dealing with public employee labor unions accused of forging employee signatures on dues-authorization cards so they can take their money without permission and spend it on politics.
9th Circuit sides with union in fight with Las Vegas casino
November 30, 2021 // A federal appeals court has upheld a U.S. judge’s ruling in Nevada requiring Station Casinos’ Red Rock Casino to bargain with the culinary and bartenders unions.