Posts tagged collectively bargain
‘Employees come second’: Why California’s legislative staffers hope to unionize
July 21, 2023 // Unlike other state workers, legislative staff are banned from unionizing to advocate for better working conditions. That could soon change under a bill making its way through the State Capitol. Assembly Bill 1, authored by Assembly member Tina McKinnor (D—Inglewood), would provide a framework for legislative staff to form a union. California’s over 200,000 other public employees are able to unionize. But legislative staff are notably excluded from the law, the Dills Act, that established those rights in the 1970s. AB 1 is the fifth attempt in recent years to change that.
Conservative Supreme Court hands down a rare pro-union decision
June 5, 2023 // Unlike appearing before lower courts, lawyers at the Supreme Court not only argue the application of the law, but also “what the law should be” because the justices can overturn precedent. The Ohio decision, he said, is important because it reinforces “the rights of federal-sector unions to exist and to collectively bargain and to work in a civilian capacity.”
Right-to-unionize amendment clears Pa. House committee
May 2, 2023 // The House Labor and Industry Committee reported out the proposal introduced by Reps. Elizabeth Fiedler, D-Philadelphia, and Nick Pisciottano, D-Allegheny, with a 12-9 vote. Republicans, who questioned the amendment’s impact on other laws, were unanimous in opposition. “This bill is really, really simple,” Fiedler said. “It would enshrine in the state Constitution the right of workers to organize and collectively bargain, period, exclamation point.” To amend the state Constitution, a proposed amendment must be approved by both chambers of the General Assembly in consecutive sessions. The proposal is then put before voters in a referendum. The earliest the right-to-unionize amendment could appear on the ballot would be the 2025 primary election.
Michigan’s Repeal of Right-to-Work Law Helps Democrats, Not Workers | Opinion
April 5, 2023 // More importantly, preventing right-to-work protections ensures a steady flow of funds into the coffers of a union movement that has been bleeding members for decades. That's been true, even in Michigan, where the UAW—the auto workers' union that has now expanded to other industries—formed the activist heart of the movement, providing organizers, foot soldiers, and a bottomless well of campaign contributions for the Democratic Party. But after a sweeping victory in last year's midterm elections, Democrats found themselves back in control of both houses of the state legislature as well as the governor's office, where Gretchen Whitmer survived the blowback from her heavy-handed COVID regulations to win reelection. Among the first items on Michigan Democrats' agenda was to reward their loyal union supporters by repealing the state's right-to-work law. Helping ensure the cash flow to their union donors makes sense and might even be good politics in Michigan—which remains bluer than many pundits assumed during the Trump era. But the notion that repealing right-to-work laws is the path to bringing working-class voters back to the Democrats is a mistake.
The Problem(s) With Public Sector Unions
March 29, 2023 // Regardless of this contract outcome and which sides can claim victory, serious questions arise regarding the advisability of having public sector unions such as the SEIU, UTLA, et. al. in existence at all and their ability to collectively bargain and launch strikes against essentially the taxpayers of any given public jurisdiction. In the case of the recent LAUSD strike, 420,000 students and their families were held hostage by public sector unions in a school district already beset by financial and other woes. According to LAUSD superintendent Alberto Carvalho, what the union sought would have put the school district on the brink of insolvency. Also, the strike itself precluded many disadvantaged students from receiving necessary daily meals that their families count on. Most importantly, a school district still reeling from the effects of a Covid-induced school lockdown just could not afford three more days of non-instruction. Arguably, the LAUSD is already a floundering if not failing district with ever-increasing taxpayer spending in spite of withering enrollment and diminishing student performance. It is to be noted that the demographics of the American union have changed dramatically over the years. While at one time the predominance of union membership was mostly among private sector blue collar workers, the ratios have flip-flopped where now the greatest numbers are not only in the public sector but are also associated with white collar employees. It should be further noted that public sector unions were once illegal in the United States.
Video: ALEC’s Labor of Love: A History of Championing Worker Freedom
March 10, 2023 // Today, ALEC debuts its first episode, “Worker Freedom,” in our 50th anniversary video series. The episode features ALEC champions Scott Walker (45th Governor of Wisconsin), Matt Hall (Michigan House Minority Leader and ALEC Board of Directors Member), and Vinnie Vernuccio (Senior Fellow, Mackinac Center), discussing ALEC’s pivotal role in securing Worker Freedom policy wins across the states. In some states, private sector workers can be forced to join, leave, or pay fees to a union as job requirement. The Right-to-Work Act, which ALEC task forces approved as a model policy, provides a solution to this issue. It prevents private employers from requiring or banning union membership (or fees) as conditions for employment, giving workers in Right-to-Work states a guaranteed right to support a union or not to support a union without this choice affecting their hiring or job security.
Fairfax Co. first responders vote to unionize for the first time in 40 years
November 22, 2022 // Firefighters and paramedics in Fairfax County, Virginia, became the first group in 40 years to unionize Friday, after members totaled more than 3,300 24-hour days of mandatory overtime in just one calendar year. The vote was announced by the union in a press release, stating that the roughly 1,500 emergency personnel would be the first public sector employees in over four decades to enter a collective bargaining agreement. Until 2021, employees in the public sector couldn’t legally unionize. That changed in Fairfax County in early 2022, when the jurisdiction passed an ordinance that allowed state employees to collectively bargain.
US elections will gauge support for unionization in two states
November 1, 2022 // The most significant drive for labor unionization in the United States since the early 1970s will be put to the test in the upcoming midterm elections. Voters in Illinois and Tennessee are being asked to decide on two antithetical visions of the future of organized labor: the right to collective bargaining versus the right to work. The latter allows individual workers to choose whether or not to join a union, and frees non-members from paying compulsory union dues. Illinois wants to do away with right-to-work laws while Tennessee wants to amend its state constitution to include right-to-work provisions like nine other states. Across the US, 27 states have enacted various right-to-work laws, evidence that the country’s divisive polarization extends to labor relations.
Unions have enough power in Albany; legislative staff shouldn’t unionize
August 5, 2022 // But a legislative staffers union isn’t the answer to problems in Albany, and the simple reason is politics. Public-sector union officials who collectively bargain with the government are negotiating with the very people they help elect. Now add another layer to that – union officials negotiating with the people they help elect who then vote on the laws for the rest of the state. Imagine I’m a newly elected state senator. I won a hard-fought and ugly election against the incumbent, and now I’m reporting to Albany to set up my office and learn the ropes. Without unions, elected officials are free to choose their staff, and these staffers are at-will employees – meaning that if elected officials don’t feel their staff are trustworthy, or are doing a good job, they can terminate them. Upon arriving in Albany, I meet my new staff and am surprised to learn that because the collective bargaining agreement says so, my new staff is my former opponent’s old staff. The very staff that worked hard to ensure I wasn’t elected. Can I trust them? I now have no choice.
Murphy calls NJ Transit union walk-out ‘despicable’ as engineers agree to court order
June 22, 2022 // The union representing NJ Transit locomotive engineers agreed to a temporary ban on anything that can be construed as a work stoppage, according to court documents. The union's agreement — following a holiday weekend in which nearly 500 locomotive engineers called out of work and hundreds of trains were canceled — resulted in a hearing scheduled for Tuesday to be canceled. U.S. District Judge Catherine O'Hearn, NJ Transit,