Posts tagged AFT
Commentary: Nilesh Umapathy: SB 1296 is about accountability — not anti-unionism
April 9, 2026 // The PERC ruling shows what happens when someone pushes back — the union is forced to open its books and cover the member’s legal costs after it tried to silence them. Critics of SB 1296 will no doubt raise concerns, but most will miss the point. This is not an anti-union coalition. LaBedz herself is not anti-union. She is a member who was punished for exercising her rights. This is a coalition demanding accountability.
Windham Community Memorial Hospital Employees Vote Overwhelmingly to Remove AFT Union ‘Representation’
April 8, 2026 // Employees at Windham Community Memorial Hospital are officially free from the unwanted “representation” of American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 5099 union officials. Following an initial delay, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certified the result, after an overwhelming majority of the Hospital’s workers voted to “decertify” the union in a February secret ballot vote. The decertification effort was spearheaded by Windham Hospital employee Sara Doner, who received free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys during the decertification process.
University of Michigan Graduate Student Researchers Vote to Join Union
April 2, 2026 // Over 2,200 graduate student research assistants join the Graduate Employees Organization Local 3550 of the American Federation of Teachers.
Florida Leads Again on Public Unions
March 25, 2026 // That’s hardly a vote of confidence from Ms. Weingarten of the value her union provides to its members. Under the proposed regime, a union could be recertified by winning a simple majority of half of the voting union members, or a bit over 25% of the bargaining unit. Do labor leaders really think they can’t rustle up a quarter of their members to ensure the union preserves its role in representing workers? The latest bill follows 2023 legislation that triggered a decertification vote when less than 60% of the employees eligible for representation in a bargaining unit are paying membership dues. That legislation also ended the state’s power to deduct dues from public-employee paychecks.
Opinion Aaron Withe: Why unions love the ‘Billionaire Tax’
March 12, 2026 // It has attracted a coalition of supporters — chief among them government employee unions. That might seem like an odd pairing, but the logic becomes clear once you trace where the money is supposed to go. Sanders’ legislation would redirect the projected revenue — $4.4 trillion over a decade — into an array of new federal spending programs, including direct cash payments, a federal salary floor for public school teachers and expanded Medicare benefits. Not coincidentally, pouring money into such programs means more federal employees, more union-eligible positions and more dues flowing into union bank accounts.
Whitman College Will Not Voluntarily Recognize WCWU
March 8, 2026 // Because of this, eligible employees will be expected to vote through the NLRB’s secret ballot process before WCWU can initiate formal negotiations on campus. According to the announcement, the college has decided not to recognize the voluntary signatures which WCWU collected prior to the rally last month as a legitimate election process. Instead, administrators believe that an organized election through the NLRB will allow employees to vote in “a fair, inclusive and confidential process in which all eligible staff members have the opportunity to participate.”
ARIZONA: City High, Paulo Freire teachers say union vote stalled by board
February 26, 2026 // Tuesday’s lesson took place during a rally of about three dozen parents, teachers, staff and students aiming to generate support for a unionizing effort. Teachers at the CITY Center for Collaborative Learning, a nonprofit that includes City High and two middle schools: Paulo Freire Freedom School, University and Downtown campuses voted with a supermajority in December to form a union.
Taxpayer-backed teacher unions receive $390M in dues
February 19, 2026 // Since 2022, the NEA and the American Federation of Teachers have together contributed $43.5 million to political organizations, including The Trevor Project, according to a report by the nonprofit Defending Education.
Opinion: Teachers Unions Get Desperate
February 17, 2026 // Antichoice plaintiffs “usually file lawsuits right before families sign up for the program just to be particularly cruel. They know they’ll lose nearly every case, but delaying or enjoining the programs in any way is the last-ditch effort to slow maximum uptake for families,” says Tommy Schultz, CEO of the American Federation for Children. Many suits are striking out. Idaho’s high court just ruled 5-0 in favor of the state choice program. Top courts in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and West Virginia have upheld choice programs. The U.S. Supreme Court has continued to issue beneficial rulings. Yet the legal threat is real, and unions, often accompanied by local school districts, continue to throw millions at litigation and disruption, forcing states to spend huge amounts to defend against them. Then the unions and the districts claim schools are underfunded.
MEGHAN PORTFOLIO And FRANK RICCI: Teachers Union Uses ‘Crises’ To Reshape School Governance
February 12, 2026 // We wrote an MOU in a day, which in our district is definitely a record.” Under normal circumstances, agreements of this magnitude take weeks or months to negotiate and approve. That MOU now locks the district into a new operating framework. Unlike formal contracts, MOUs typically require only a single management signature and a single union signature. State labor laws and collective bargaining agreements often reduce school board authority to one individual, allowing grievance settlements or stipulated agreements to be implemented without the board’s deliberation, vote, or public input.