Posts tagged big labor
Commentary: Workers of the World, Vote!
September 3, 2024 // Labor Day is the traditional start of the campaign season, which means labor unions will soon hold get-out-the-vote efforts among their members. Yet a new study from the Institute for the American Worker finds that 95.1% of private-sector union members never voted to join their union. Worse, unions are getting more unrepresentative. Based on one estimate, the percentage of private-sector union members who have voted in a unionization election at their workplace has declined by 2 points since 2009. The lack of workplace democracy isn’t an accident. As unions have acknowledged, they have sought to organize more workers through card check, a process by which they can pressure workers into supporting unionization. Card check—a public form of signature gathering—deprives employees of secret-ballot elections, which would allow them to express their preferences without fear of being ostracized.
Op-Ed: Kamala Harris aims to screw workers AND businesses to help Big Labor bosses
September 2, 2024 // Yet on issues of labor, no speculation is needed: Harris has consistently, loudly and unequivocally advocated for policies that grant union officials unprecedented control over both workers and their pocketbooks. Most notably, the union-label Harris has repeatedly expressed support for the repeal of every state Right to Work law in the country.
Matt Kane: Better For America Ep 298 | Vinnie Vernuccio (Podcast)
August 6, 2024 // In mid July, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien addressed the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. It was the first time that a leader of the union ever addressed the GOP convention. However, the Teamsters have also requested a speaking slot at the DNC later this month, meaning a lot is still up in the air regarding their support. Vinnie Vernuccio, the president and co-founder of the Institute for the American Worker joined Matt Kane on the Better For America podcast to share what he makes of this notworthy development. Vernuccio says that while O’Brien’s presence was significant, he feels his messaging “whiffed,” as his remarks could have been mistaken for ones targeted at a DEMOCRAT convention. Vernuccio also wonders whether the Teamsters are truly considering a Republican endorsement, or if they are simply hedging their bets due to their expectation that President Trump will win the November election.
Opinion: UAW’s President Shares Union’s VP Wish List, and It Conflicts With Likely Kamala Pick Shapiro
August 5, 2024 // After a notable moment of dead air, Fain explained that the UAW has "really broken down these candidates, looked at them." Who is the top favorite? Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who, the union organizer pointed out, has walked the picket line with UAW, like lame duck Pres. Biden. He also gushed about the Bluegrass state progressive governor's ability to win reelection in a "traditionally" red state: He's been with us through every bit of our walk, and he's won in a state that [former Senate Majority Leader, GOP Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell is from. It's been a red state traditionally. He's won twice there.
Foxx Expands Investigation of Biden-Harris Scheme to Use Pension Assets for Big Labor
July 31, 2024 // “The Committee on Education and the Workforce (Committee) is investigating attempts by the Biden-Harris administration and certain pension funds to leverage retirement assets for the benefit of organized labor. The Internal Revenue Code (Code) makes public pensions eligible for significant tax subsidies if, among other things, their benefits are part of a plan ‘for the exclusive benefit of [an employer’s] employees or their beneficiaries.’ The Committee seeks information to determine whether the law is being undermined by the Biden-Harris administration and violated by certain pension funds. … The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has an obligation to enforce the provisions of the Code to ensure that taxpayers are not improperly subsidizing a retirement plan that does not, in fact, comply with the Code’s exclusive benefit requirement. To the extent that CalPERS is using plan assets for the benefit of social or political causes, the plan’s tax status is no longer valid.”
Op-Ed: Big Labor’s GOP Gamble Serves Unions, Not Workers
July 29, 2024 // Rather than reevaluate union practices driving workers away, the same day that Sean delivered his speech at the RNC, the Teamsters hired three high-priced law firms to sue my organization, the Freedom Foundation, for the high crime of contacting his members with an invitation to leave their union.
Big Labor’s Quid Pro Quo Political Convention
July 8, 2024 // During the convention’s opening remarks, CT AFL-CIO Executive Secretary Tiano Ocasio revealed as much, saying, “Our endorsement means more than other endorsement,” adding, “It means more because we put boots on the ground and work hard to ensure our endorsed candidates are elected.” She vowed to hold candidates “accountable for their shortcomings and applaud them for the times they stood with us in our fight for justice.” Strangely, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Shellye Davis has yet to receive an endorsement, even though she is running for State Senate in the 2nd District.
Opinion: Trump, Republicans Must Resist Dem-Funding Union Leadership’s Attempt To Con Them
July 3, 2024 // A new report from the Center for Union Facts, first reported by the Daily Caller News Foundation, shows that the Teamsters spent $9 million on politics between 2019 and 2022. Of that, a staggering 99% funded Democrat-aligned groups and anti-Trump media outlets. More than $2.6 million in Teamsters political donations went toward registered Democrats and Democratic campaign arms. The Teamsters also funded anti-Trump activist groups that plan to bury a second Trump presidency in litigation. Given that nearly all of the Teamsters political spending went to Democrats and far-left causes, it would be reasonable to assume that rank-and-file union members uniformly vote Democrat. That is not the case: In 2020, 40% of households with a union member voted for Trump.
MEMBERSHIP IN SEIU 1000, CALIFORNIA’S LARGEST STATE EMPLOYEES UNION, FALLS BELOW 50 PERCENT
June 20, 2024 // In May 2018, the month before Janus was decided, 96,229 state employees worked under SEIU 1000 contracts, effectively all of whom had union dues or fees deducted from their paychecks by the state. The next month, following the Supreme Court’s ruling, the number of represented employees with union payroll deductions had dropped to 58,953 — a membership rate of 61.4 percent — reflecting the loss of fee payments from nonmembers rendered unconstitutional by Janus.
Has Pushback to Full of ‘S’ Labor Unions Finally Arrived?
June 10, 2024 // Written by I4AW’s Sam Adolphsen and F. Vincent Vernuccio, the study warns that the initial “Environmental” focus of ESG is being supplanted by labor leaders, who are focusing on the leftist acronym’s “social” component in order to intimidate companies and force membership growth: With help from the whole of Biden’s big government, Big Labor is replicating the ESG strategies used by environmentalists and other activists. These groups aim to cajole fossil fuel-producing companies and other businesses they consider socially unacceptable into abandoning profitable business ventures. The tactics of the Big Labor plan call for hijacking the shareholder resolution process through proxy voting and shareholder activism to force pro-union policies. Unlike typical shareholder proposals, those supported by Big Labor do not seek to advance shareholder value. Instead, they seek to increase union membership and strengthen Big Labor’s power.