Posts tagged Arizona
Labor Day: Americans Flee Forced-Unionism States and Move to Right-to-Work States
September 6, 2026 // Among the top ten growth states in the U-Haul index, nine have a Right-to-Work law that protects workers from being forced to pay dues to union bosses as a condition of employment. -Among the bottom ten states in the U-Haul index, NONE has a Right-to-Work law. All are forced unionism states. -Of the 25 top ranked cities in the U-Haul Growth Index, 24 are located in Right-to-Work states.
Teachers unions lose another fight against school choice
August 26, 2026 // Why are teachers unions so hostile to school choice? Because it threatens the system from which they derive their power, in which all but the wealthiest parents are trapped, and prey to an unresponsive monopoly, while union leaders collect dues regardless of educational outcomes. School choice gives families a way out and, more importantly, introduces competition into a system unions have spent decades trying to control. Parents and children need elected officials willing to resist unions, and they need institutions such as the Goldwater Institute willing to fight when unions turn to courts and ballot campaigns to take choice away. Arizona’s victory should be a model.
Union Attack on School Choice Fails Miserably
August 20, 2026 // In a major victory for school choice, the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that Proposition 212, the anti-school choice measure funded by out-of-state special interests, failed to turn in enough valid signatures to appear on this November’s ballot. “Despite spending an unprecedented amount of money in an effort to deceive voters into restricting school choice, the unions could not convince even a small fraction of Arizonans to sign their petition,” said Victor Riches, President and CEO of the Goldwater Institute. “Instead, they had to resort to unlawfully collecting thousands of signatures to try to game the system and dupe their way onto the ballot.”
Commentary: When driverless vehicles are attacked, look for the union label
August 10, 2026 // The news website TechCrunch has reported that CARS is registered to an employee of Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno LLC, a labor-side lobbying and government affairs outfit with offices in New York and DC. The firm’s clients include the Amalgamated Transit Union, the Transport Workers Union, the Transportation Communication Union, and the Garage Employees Union, among other labor groups. The unions likely oppose driverless vehicles because you cannot unionize machines. (Not yet, anyway. Perhaps we shouldn’t be giving them ideas.) They may also be trying to protect traditional cab drivers and city bus drivers, who are often unionized, from competition from the new technology. Never mind that driverless vehicles will provide new options for DC residents, who can’t always get cabs or buses when they need them.
Ride-Booking Unions Raise Specter of Same for Other Gig Workers
August 6, 2026 // Wilson called the effort in Massachusetts “a windfall for the union.” The union holds an exclusive franchise over every ride-booking driver in the state, and the law orders companies to deduct dues and hand them over, he said. “Dues are technically voluntary. But we know how ‘voluntary’ runs in right-to-work states, where unions still lean on the holdouts anyway: public free-rider lists, name-and-shame, peer pressure, the works. Expect the same here.”
Teachers union uses felons to attack school choice in Arizona
July 28, 2026 // The Goldwater Institute’s complaint meticulously challenges the validity of more than half of the union-backed initiative’s signatures. If their challenges succeed, the union could be left with fewer than 200,000 signatures — considerably below the ballot threshold. According to Goldwater, most of the Protect Education Campaign’s signatures are invalid because they suffer from a variety of legal defects. Many signatures were not from registered voters. Others are invalid because the signature gatherer failed to fill out the initiative paperwork properly, such as listing a false address, failing to provide an ID, or failing to notarize the document. Tens of thousands are duplicates.
Billionaire tax backers burn big money on retreats, out-of-state political efforts and breathing ‘coach’
July 22, 2026 // The Post’s review of federal records found that officials for Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West burned millions on an out-of-state political effort as well as dues on travel, conferences and beachfront retreats — all while paying nearly $235,000 to a “clarity coach” who appeared in a series of low-budget mindfulness videos on Instagram.
Arizona Supreme Court Backs Goldwater in Phoenix Police Union Records Case
July 22, 2026 // The case began in 2022, when the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association refused to comply with Phoenix’s city code requiring it to submit draft contract proposals for public comment before beginning negotiations with the city. That proposal and subsequent records exchanged during the closed-door negotiation process concern the expenditure of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars as well as the terms and conditions of employment for first responders. City residents and taxpayers deserve to know what the union was demanding and what city leaders were offering during that process. But all of that was kept hidden from the public. That’s why the Goldwater Institute requested the negotiation records from the city.
Teachers’ Unions Are Losing One of Their Government Perks
July 22, 2026 // The question is not whether teachers unions should exist, but whether taxpayers should subsidize organizations that subsequently seek more taxpayer subsidy, often for actions the taxpayer wouldn’t otherwise support. Removing public subsidies forces unions to rely on voluntary member support, increases accountability, and keeps government resources focused on their proper purpose: educating children. The reforms in Idaho, Florida, and Arizona mark the beginning of a necessary correction.
National park workers in the Mountain West are unionizing. More may follow
July 14, 2026 // Park rangers, scientists, and administrative staff are among the non-supervisory staff represented. Last year, workers at Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon national parks in California joined another union, the National Federation of Federal Employees.