Posts tagged big labor
Newark-Area Nurses Request Vote to Oust SEIU Union Officials as Federal Labor Board Seeks to Disenfranchise Workers
October 30, 2024 // Registered Nurses at the Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville Township have filed a petition demanding a vote to remove United Healthcare Workers East (1199SEIU, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union) officials from their workplace. Registered Nurse Nancy Bombaro filed the union decertification petition with Region 22 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys.
Commentary: For Teacher Union Elites, It’s Always About Empowerment – of Themselves
October 25, 2024 // The first requires locals to give 60 days’ notice of plans to disaffiliate, allowing the NEA to gear up a defense. Locals must also give NEA officials time to speak at a membership meeting. A two-thirds majority is now required to leave the national union, not the simple majority required to affiliate in the first place. The second restriction allows the NEA itself – not only state affiliates – to establish trusteeships over local unions. Trusteeship permits the NEA to invalidate any attempt to disaffiliate and to conduct what amounts to a hostile takeover, directing the local’s books, funds, actions, and officers.
The Port Strike Is a Reminder That Unions Have Too Much Power
October 18, 2024 // Union bosses can only behave this way because they have monopoly power over labor supply in certain industries. A 62% wage increase would cripple any normal business. Big Labor’s monopoly power, buttressed by an executive branch that greases the skids for union interests at every turn, allows union bosses to extract exorbitant benefits from port employers. This arrangement has benefited Daggett handsomely, given that his more than $1 million annual salary has afforded him a yacht, luxury cars, and multiple mansions.
Canvassers respond to anti-Semitic demonstrations at UCLA
October 18, 2024 // While we are always looking to be respectful and informative, our canvassers have also been met with extremely vulgar attacks from none other than AFSMCE 3299 shop stewards. Just yesterday the pair was castigated for simply handing out literature and trying to engage with workers in front of the medical center. Profanities and threats of attacks were met with a polite, yet bold, resistance.
Commentary: The Media Are Doing Free PR for Big Labor
September 13, 2024 // According to a new report from the union watchdog Freedom Foundation (where I work), Big Labor’s return to the spotlight coincides with unionization efforts that have taken newsrooms by storm, securing one in six American journalists as dues-paying members. With journalists “more knowledgeable and sympathetic to labor issues” than ever before, recent union reporting insists that Big Labor is making a comeback; “that unions are good not only for individual workers but also for America itself”; and that legislation meant to ensure union accountability is a threat to democracy.
Journalists are hyping up a supposed golden age for unions while ignoring their corruption and declining popularity.
September 12, 2024 // The mainstream media’s coverage of Big Labor clearly misses the mark. Beyond recent labor reporting centering on hot-button events such as organization efforts at Starbucks and Amazon amid 2023’s “hot labor summer,” coverage of unions creates a false sense of reality. Headlines such as “Unions targeting Big Business: Disney, Mercedes-Benz, CVS face organizing campaigns,” for example, suggest sweeping unionization efforts across the private sector. But in the pharmacy industry, just 30 CVS pharmacists in Rhode Island and Las Vegas voted to join the Pharmacy Guild, a fraction of the 30,000 employed by the drugstore giant.
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.