Posts tagged bargain collectively
Unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court blocks UW Health nurses’ unionization, backing Act 10
July 1, 2025 // The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that UW Health is not legally obligated to recognize its nurses' union or bargain collectively. Act 10, a 2011 law, effectively ended collective bargaining for most public employees in Wisconsin, including UW Health nurses. The ruling upholds previous decisions by lower courts and the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission. UW Health nurses argued the hospital operates like a private entity and should be subject to collective bargaining laws, but the court disagreed.
Plaintiffs’ letter adds wrinkle to $2.8 billion NCAA settlement
December 12, 2024 // Although the letter lauds the terms of the settlement, House, Prince and Harrison warned that without player representation in negotiations with their schools and conferences, athletes would "inevitably remain in a vulnerable position" and the industry would remain mired in "continued litigation." They asked for the court to "lend its imprimatur" to athletes' efforts to collectively negotiate in the future through a players' association.
Government Unions are Down — But Not Out
September 10, 2024 // For nearly a decade, the Commonwealth Foundation has tracked state-by-state changes in labor laws. Every two years, the Commonwealth Foundation releases its research on the ever-changing legal landscape for public sector unions, assessing each state’s efforts to promote public employees’ rights or cave to unions’ entrenched influence. This fourth edition examines government unions’ attempts, following Janus, to hold onto and expand special legal privileges under state laws. The research also highlights the states reining in government unions’ power and influence by empowering workers.
My job, my choice: The National Labor Relations Act does not require unionization
September 7, 2023 // “[A]mbiguities of language and the absence of enforcement powers [in the NIRA] have enabled a minority of employers to deviate from the clear intent of the law and to threaten our entire program with destruction,” Wagner said in a March 11, 1934, New York Times op-ed. He repeatedly stressed it had to be the individual worker’s decision to join a union, and bristled at the claim that the Recovery Act pushed workers into unions. “[T]his bill does not do anything of this kind except that it does make a worker a free man so he may decide whether he wants a union or not,” and, Wagner said during the Senate hearings on the legislation, “if he wants one, what particular union he wants to represent him, or whether he wants to remain unorganized.” The text of the NLRA does state that federal policy favors “encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining,” but those words are almost always taken out of context. They follow a long preamble about “eliminat[ing] the causes of certain substantial obstructions to the free flow of commerce.”
Popular Union-Busting Tactic Banned in New York in ‘Major Victory’
September 7, 2023 // New York has banned captive audience meetings, a popular union-busting tactic used by companies during organizing periods to disseminate anti-union information. Governor Kathy Hochul signed the bill on Wednesday morning, making the state the fifth in the U.S. to make such meetings illegal. “This legislation will help to ensure that all New Yorkers receive the benefits and protections that allow them to work with dignity,” Hochul said in a statement on Wednesday. “My administration is committed to making our state the most worker-friendly state in the nation, and I thank the bill sponsors for their partnership in our mission to establish the strongest and most robust protections right here in New York.”
Commentary: Dem Governors Buy Union Backing — Just Like Biden
August 30, 2023 // In the backrooms where such deals are cut, buying a politician’s favor is called “influence peddling,” and President Biden, for all his seeming cognitive lapses, has been playing the game with ruthless aplomb for decades. Now he may be handing the baton to a younger, faster competitor. Recent history has shown the presidency itself can be bought if you control a big enough infusion of someone else’s dues dollars — and the promise to pay it all back with interest from the public treasury.
Federal Contractors Must Publicize Whether They Use Union Avoidance ‘Persuaders’
August 2, 2023 // Likewise, this information may result in organized labor ratcheting up pressure on employers to abandon these practices and on the federal government to refuse to do business with any contractor that engages in persuader activity, Pryzbylski noted. "The bottom line here is that companies who are contractors with the federal government should be cognizant of the fact that their use of persuaders in labor relations matters will be receiving more scrutiny and could potentially impact the award of contracts in the future," he said.
Starbucks Union Demands Company Bargain A National Contract
May 24, 2023 // The company's insistence on separate contracts for more than 300 organized stores has made the process unworkable, union president says. Fox said Starbucks should agree to a broad contract that sets a national minimum wage, “fair scheduling” procedures, guaranteed minimum hours and an agreement for union elections moving forward, among other provisions. Regions and individual stores could then add supplemental agreements if they choose to. But Starbucks said Workers United should stick to negotiating individual contracts since the union has been organizing stores one by one.
OPINION: Public sector union employees deserve more power over their leadership
May 15, 2023 // The attempt to alter the Pennsylvania Constitution by passing HB 950 will further diminish the rights of union members in favor of union executives. According to an analysis by the Commonwealth Foundation, government unions have spent more than $190 million on politics in Pennsylvania since 2007. In 2021-2022, government union PACs spent over $20 million in Pennsylvania, including $13.1 million directly to candidates and partisan PACs. More than 99% of the contributions to candidates for statewide office went to Democrats.
Pennsylvania House Committee Passes Forced-Unionism Amendment
May 4, 2023 // “No law shall be passed that interferes with, negates or diminishes the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively over their wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment and work place safety,” the proposed amendment reads. State Representative Elizabeth Fiedler (D-Philadelphia), the avowed socialist who authored the bill, claimed in committee testimony that employers routinely violate workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain. She said some employers hold seminars and “bombard” employees with literature meant to “scare” workers out of unionizing. “This constitutional amendment will help prevent future attacks on workers and their rights,” Fiedler said. “And, with this constitutional amendment, we can prevent future laws that seek to silence workers. Strong unions benefit everyone and the decline of unions has played a big role in rising inequality and wage stagnation.”