Posts tagged condition of employment
Security Guards at Federal Buildings Across Delaware Voting Soon on Whether to End SPFPA Union’s Forced-Dues Power
June 27, 2024 // SPFPA union officials drew the ire of Bowden and his colleagues by signing a contract with GXC Inc. management without the workers’ knowledge or consent. While voting the union out of the workplace would be their next logical step, the NLRB’s so-called “contract bar” allows union officials to immunize themselves from worker-backed decertification attempts for up to three years after a union contract has been finalized. The “contract bar” appears nowhere in the text of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the federal law the NLRB is charged with enforcing, but is the product of union boss-friendly decisions made by partisan NLRB members over the years.
Biden Pushes Early Renomination of Failed NLRB Chair in Effort to Deny Possible Trump Administration Control over Labor Board
June 12, 2024 // The NLRB is composed of five members, usually three of whom are from the president’s political party and two from the opposing party. The Board uses both adjudication and rulemaking to put forward its interpretations of the NLRA, but it needs a quorum of three members to act. Currently, there are four Board members (see Board composition here). Three of the members are Democrats, while one is a Republican. The other Republican seat has been vacant since December of 2022, because President Biden chose not to nominate anyone to that vacancy for a year and a half. While agency vacancies and delays on nominations are nothing new in Washington, this one is notable and shows an unusual partisanship and dishonesty.
Workers at Americold Logistics Win Campaign to Remove Teamsters Union from Workplace
June 10, 2024 // Garcia filed the petition on May 16 with the NLRB, the federal agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law, which includes administering elections to install (or “certify”) and remove (or “decertify”) unions. Garcia’s petition contained support from a majority of employees, which is more than is required to trigger a decertification vote under NLRB rules. When it became clear that the election would be scheduled, Teamsters Local 695 disclaimed recognition on May 23, 2024, stating in an email to the employer that the union “unequivocally disclaims its interest in representing and collectively bargaining for the unit at Americold in Darien, Wisconsin…that this will end processing of the Petition.” On May 24, NLRB Region 18 acknowledged the union disclaiming recognition, meaning no election would be needed since the workers’ desired result – the removal of the union – had already been accomplished.
Unions must represent all covered workers, even nonmembers, Michigan Supreme Court rules
May 13, 2024 // Workers who disagree with their union’s political speech cannot be forced to subsidize that speech through dues or fees. Despite this, unions aggressively attempt to organize public sector workers, knowing that by doing so, they are choosing to represent members and nonmembers equally. By upholding a union’s duty of fair representation, the Michigan Supreme Court has ensured that these protections continue, and cut short union efforts to strongarm employees into membership.
Michigan Security Guard Slams Union with Federal Charges for Illegal Dues Seizures, Transparency Issues
May 9, 2024 // According to Reamsma’s charge, he submitted a notice to UGSOA union agents in March that requested the union reduce his dues payments in accordance with Beck and provide him with the required financial information. In response, union officials claimed that the amount of dues chargeable to nonmembers was equal to 100% of full union dues. Reamsma’s charge states that UGSOA “failed to provide the required financial disclosures for itself and its affiliated unions, and a chance to object to its alleged reduced fee.” The charge also notes that, despite Reamsma notifying union officials in April that he prefers to pay union dues by check, UGSOA ignored this request and has continued to take money directly from his paycheck by payroll deduction. Federal labor law forbids union officials from using direct deduction to collect union dues or fees without worker consent.
Return of union dues skim threatens home health workers
May 8, 2024 // With dues skim finally put to rest, home healthcare workers’ true feelings were made clear. In under a year, SEIU lost tens of thousands of members, shrinking from 55,265 to 10,918. By 2022, membership had fallen to 5,031, less than 10% of its membership at the height of dues skim. When given a choice, home healthcare providers fled the union in droves. Despite this, the Michigan Senate has since introduced SB 790-791, which would allow for the untimely return of the dues skim.
Commentary: The Teachers’ Unions Are More Political than Ever
April 18, 2024 // Americans for Fair Treatment, a national nonprofit organization that educates public employees about their rights in a unionized workplace, recently released a report detailing the National Education Association’s (NEA) financial filings from Sept. 1, 2022, through Aug. 31, 2023. The NEA declared that its political spending totaled $50.1 million during the fiscal year, though the true number is much higher. During the most recent reporting period, the union disclosed that it spent “$126.3 million on ‘contributions, gifts, and grants,’ which is where most unions detail their charitable giving.” However, a closer look at the union’s “contributions, gifts, and grants” shows that the NEA is directing more money towards political causes than it reports.
The Liberty Justice Center Sues Union for Forcing Jewish Lawyers to Support Speech They Consider Antisemitic
April 12, 2024 // Congress recently launched an investigation into the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys due to whistleblower reports of antisemitism by union members. The Liberty Justice Center is suing the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, Legal Aid Society, and the City of New York on behalf of Mr. Levine and Mr. Popper, alleging that these defendants are violating the attorneys’ First Amendment rights by forcing them to subsidize political speech as a condition of employment. The Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment prohibits the government from compelling a person to subsidize a union’s speech. In Janus v. AFSCME, the Court held that a government could not force its employees to pay a union as a condition of their employment. And in Harris v. Quinn, the Court held that a government could not compel recipients of government funds, through a state program to provide services to other private individuals, to pay money to a union.
Rigged: The fight over a union election in New York City
April 3, 2024 // According to Local 983’s filings, Puleo in 2022 received $349,083 in compensation from the union, more than 10 percent of the $3.2 million Local 983 received from membership dues, meaning at least ten cents of every dollar members paid the union for representation went to him. Puleo gets an extra bump of $22,522 from the District Council, bringing total pay in 2022 to $371,605, putting his pay just above that of DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, and well above the compensation for Mayor Eric Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Puleo and his union administration had won election in 2013 over long-time incumbent Mark Rosenthal. Rosenthal had been elected to union leadership in 1998 following a corruption investigation that revealed a “vast pig-sty of corruption, self-dealing, lavish party going, and vote rigging,” according to City Journal. The scandal within DC 37 saw union local presidents in handcuffs and DC 37 placed under trusteeship by AFSCME International. Rosenthal came in and cleaned house. When he was elected, it was the first contested election in 20 years and it was not without controversy, including accusations of threats and intimidation. Puleo won an election in 2013 over the aging Rosenthal, who since passed away in 2017, and has been at the helm of Local 983 ever since.
Op-ed: A right-to-work repeal warning from Michigan
February 29, 2024 // Yet Michigan should be a warning, not a beacon for other states. Evidence shows that reversing right-to-work is bad for workers, businesses, local economies, and even unions themselves. Michigan has already lost out on two major new plants from General Motors and Stellantis (Chrysler’s parent), which recently chose to invest across the state line in right-to-work Indiana. Michigan’s pain is Indiana’s gain. Approximately 150,000 Michigan employees have voluntarily left their unions since 2013. They will now be forced to pay their unions around $1,000 in annual dues, an especially painful tax given the current cost-of-living crisis.