Posts tagged firefighters union

    The Texas Supreme Court recently handed a significant victory to taxpayers, and Louisiana lawmakers should take note.

    July 29, 2024 // The court held that the CBA did not authorize union activities like lobbying, supporting candidates, or engaging in other partisan political activities while on release time. To allow this type of activity would violate the Texas Constitution’s Gift Clauses, which prohibit state and local governments from allocating public resources to private purposes. Release time is time spent conducting union business—lobbying, attending conferences, or negotiating collective bargaining agreements—for which the member is granted paid time away from the job he or she was hired to do. In other words, it’s a form of taxpayer funded lobbying.

    ILLINOIS: City Council set to vote on new contract for largest city worker union

    September 13, 2023 // AFSCME employees would receive immediate 11% pay increase, $1,250 bonus The city has agreed to a tentative contract with the largest union representing city employees, more than eight months after the union’s previous contract expired at the end of 2022.

    Flint Taxpayers Pay For Employees Doing Union Business, City Doesn’t Track How Much

    March 28, 2022 // In states like Michigan that permit public sector workers to unionize and engage in collective bargaining, some government employees also become officers in those unions. Michigan permits these union officer/public employees to use a specified amount of their hours on the job to do union work, rather than the job they were hired to do. This practice is called “union release time.”