Posts tagged ballot initiative
Austin Ballot Initiative Mandating City Audits Faces Union Opposition
October 1, 2026 // In February, Austin’s city council approved a labor consultation agreement with the local AFSCME chapter, making it the first city in Texas to do so. Earlier this month, a political action committee named “Don’t DOGE Our Austin” filed a campaign treasurer appointment with the city clerk listing AFSCME Local 1624 business manager Carol Guthrie as the treasurer.
Ballot Question 2 asks: Should public defenders have the right to unionize?
September 29, 2026 // Question 2 would allow employees of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, or CPCS, to participate in collective bargaining. If they negotiate a contract, CPCS would then be required to request the funding needed for that agreement from the governor within 30 days. The Yes On 2 campaign was organized to help grant public defenders the right to join a union. The campaign’s central argument states: CPCS employees should have the same opportunity to organize and negotiate collectively that many others have.
New Jersey Revives the Fight To Reclassify Gig Workers as Employees
August 18, 2026 // All of these laws are designed to apply employee-style rules to gig workers, even if broad reclassification had failed to take off legislatively across the country. Yet recent rule making from the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development shows that stringent ABC tests are unfortunately far from dead.
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 voters to decide on measure curtailing taxpayer support for teachers’ unions
June 16, 2026 // HCR 2040 would prohibit union members from using school email systems and equipment to recruit members or distribute union materials, end automatic payroll deductions for union dues and bar union meetings from being held on school property while students are present. Employees would also have the right to bargain on their own behalf if they are unsatisfied with a union-negotiated contract. “Teachers’ unions have long counted on government resources to do their organizing for them,” said Aaron Withe, CEO of the Freedom Foundation. “Arizona voters will now have the chance to weigh in on whether taxpayer resources should be funding union politics in public schools.”
California Teachers Association president denies organization ordered coordinated strikes | California Politics 360
March 17, 2026 // "CTA doesn't line up contracts," said CTA President David Goldberg, stating local unions coordinated the effort that was then supported by the statewide group, not mandated. "It's the result of the conditions in which educators are working under decades of disinvestment." Goldberg noted that teachers statewide are asking for better pay and more resources for students. He said school districts in the Sacramento area, such as Twin Rivers and Natomas, are "hoarding millions." But school districts are not cash cows or revenue generators. Several school districts impacted are struggling financially, and they rely on state tax dollars. California has been grappling with back-to-back-to-back state budget deficits that are expected to persist over the next several years.
Meet the Radicals Running to Lead the Los Angeles Teachers’ Union
February 24, 2026 // UdB was founded in 1981 as an organization for “Chicano Movement activists” to fight against “capitalism and colonialism.” The group built out those commitments in 1992, when it created the “community patrols program,” a Black Panther Party–inspired initiative to monitor federal immigration enforcement.
2028 Olympics could bring big wins for Los Angeles labor unions
January 25, 2026 // “We are going to have a force ... of working people to do whatever it takes, including striking if we have to during the Olympics in 2028,” Petersen said. “The Olympics can’t happen without the workers.” A coalition of labor groups, community organizations and religious institutions are pushing for the Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee — known as LA28 — and the city to pay for building 50,000 housing units, pass a moratorium on short-term rentals like Airbnb, and protect immigrant workers.
Opinion: A Union Sandbags Newsom With a Wealth Tax
October 27, 2025 // The SEIU-UHW collected $136 million in worker dues and agency fees in 2024, according to the union’s most recent U.S. Labor Department filing. Much of this has financed ballot campaigns and political lobbying to promote its own interests and the progressive agenda more broadly. The wealth-tax initiative is a case in point.