Posts tagged ballot measure
A teacher’s disagreement with WEA shows why public workers need to know their rights
September 21, 2026 // Travis Reep, a fifth-grade teacher in Thurston County, agrees with that statement from Washington state Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal. But in a recent Yes on Initiative 001 video, Reep says Reykdal’s actions — and those of the Washington Education Association, his union — do not match those words. Reep is a father of four, an elected local union representative and a WEA member. He disagrees with WEA’s opposition to I-001, an initiative that, among other provisions, would restore parents’ access to school-held medical and mental-health counseling records, require prior notification when medical services are offered, except in emergencies, and require notification when schools arrange treatment involving follow-up care beyond normal school hours.
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.”
Special Feature: How Public Employee Unions Built California’s Most Powerful Political Machine
July 13, 2026 // In California, public employee unions are often among the most influential organizations helping determine who becomes governor, mayor, county supervisor or school board trustee. They endorse candidates. They contribute millions of dollars to campaigns and independent expenditures. They provide campaign volunteers, voter outreach, mail programs, and political infrastructure that many candidates could not easily replace. By the time contract negotiations begin, the relationship between labor and management has often existed for months or years. That does not mean elected officials simply surrender to union demands. Many negotiate in good faith and work hard to protect taxpayers while fairly compensating public employees. But in government, the officials responsible for approving compensation packages are frequently supported by the same organizations representing the employees who will benefit from those agreements.
Union Behind California Billionaire’s Tax Offers to Drop It in Favor of Smaller Tax
June 21, 2026 // Newsom batted down the offer via a spokeswoman, who said the governor “has been clear that he is strongly opposed to a California-only wealth tax.” “This poorly designed state-only measure will defund teachers, schools, clinics, and public safety,” Newsom’s spokeswoman said. “Changing the tax rate doesn’t change this measure’s fundamental flaws that harm working Californians.”
Voters reject effort to hike Oklahoma’s minimum wage
June 18, 2026 // Oklahoma's minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009. It is also the national minimum wage. "The State Chamber applauds Oklahoma voters for rejecting SQ 832," said Chad Warmington, president and CEO of the State Chamber. "Tonight, voters chose to protect Oklahoma's economic momentum and one of our greatest competitive advantages: affordability."
Opinion: Unions are on a comeback. Americans are paying the price.
April 2, 2026 // So far, the union comeback has mostly been confined to courthouses and state legislatures. Membership hardly budged last year, rising from 9.9 percent of U.S. workers in 2024 to 10 percent in 2025. Yet if more states continue to mandate collective bargaining for public-sector workers — or decide to repeal right-to-work statutes for the private sector — rates can be expected to rise in those jurisdictions. If workers at a unionized shop are forced to pay dues regardless of their membership status, more will opt in as the financial incentive to remain unorganized slips away.
What a possible $25 D.C. minimum wage could mean for the region’s restaurant industry
March 11, 2026 // In D.C., Clower believes a significantly higher minimum wage would have a “net negative impact on employment.” He pointed to factors like federal worker and contractor reductions, immigration actions and waning tourism already hitting the restaurant and hospitality industries hard. “All of these other things have been hitting particularly restaurants and some of the other hospitality sectors who on average pay minimum wage already, and this is just going to be something else that will drive some of them out of business,”
OREGON: A Union Asks Lawmakers to Repeal a Ballot Measure the Same Union Passed at Great Expense
February 16, 2026 // UFCW wasn’t finished. In 2024, the union spent another nearly $2.9 million to put on the ballot and pass Measure 119, which achieved what Holvey denied UFCW one year earlier—a law making it easier to unionize cannabis workers. As Selvaggio acknowledged Feb. 10, that victory proved short-lived. He told lawmakers that subsequent conflicting federal court decisions in California and Oregon convinced UFCW that a challenge to Measure 119, now law, could go to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has generally been unfriendly to organized labor under Trump appointees. Selvaggio said the issue “could be weaponized against working people,” and so he asked the House Rules Committee on Feb. 10 to support repealing Measure 119 via House Bill 4162.
The Union that May Have Broken California
January 13, 2026 // Billionaire exodus was not the stated goal of the wealth tax proponents: it was an unintended consequence of the ballot language drafting and revision process. SEIU-UHW is a veteran of ballot measure warfare but has a mixed record. It spent $37 million on three failed measures (2018 Proposition 8, 2020 Proposition 23, and 2022 Proposition 29) to regulate the state’s dialysis industry. But their current plan to fan class envy in hopes of securing $100 billion in new state revenue is a far more audacious effort. The original language of Billionaire Wealth Tax set an effective residency date of January 1, 2025, which would have made avoidance legally impossible for current residents. However, after intense legal scrutiny lead to fears that the measure would fail in court, proponents filed an amendment on November 26, 2025. This new version shifted the tax obligation date to January 1, 2026 opening a narrow escape hatch for the billionaires.
Commentary: Massachusetts Voters Support Unions for Uber Drivers
October 31, 2025 // The numbers needed to unionize the rideshare drivers are shockingly low. According to Axios, just 5% of all drivers need to sign on, and then 25% of so-called “active drivers” must support forming a bargaining unit, i.e., a group of employees who negotiate with management. After that threshold is met, the state recognizes a union that will represent all drivers—whether they supported it or not. In other words, if you’re an independent rideshare driver in Massachusetts, you don’t get a choice. The union chooses for you. Moreover, if 5% of workers want to form a union, every rideshare company must provide every driver’s contact information to union officials. Nationwide, the threshold for forming a bargaining unit is a majority vote. Massachusetts is now proposing to impose compulsory unionization with far less support—and with sectoral bargaining that extends far beyond one workplace and into the cars of rideshare drivers across the Bay State.