Posts tagged firefighters
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.
CALIFORNIA; OPINION: WHEN WILL GOVERNMENT UNIONS STAND UP FOR ALL WORKERS?
July 20, 2022 // Government unions in California have the power to make changes that help everyone, instead of just their members. For starters, they can stop marching in solidarity with the teachers union, which is incorrigible. Then they can find common ground on at least some issues with conservatives, while agreeing to disagree on others. They might take on the environmentalists, by supporting spending on new water supply infrastructure and by helping to restore California’s timber industry.
More workers seeking to be represented by Wisconsin unions
May 2, 2022 // Gundlach said on top of the aforementioned groups, there are other workplaces where staff are starting to organize. They just haven’t been made public yet
Chicago-area Firefighters Kick Out Unwanted SEIU Officials
April 7, 2022 // Chicago-area Firefighters Kick Out Unwanted SEIU Officials SEIU officials back down, depart Carpentersville facility after worker exposed false claims SEIU made to disenfranchise firefighters opposed to union
Unions oppose employee rights with false claims re: Janus
March 21, 2022 // Vincent Vernuccio, testifying in support of SB 511, said, “ensures that public employees are informed about their First Amendment right to choose whether to pay union fees and further allows them to exercise this right at any time. This right is guaranteed to them under the U.S. Constitution and recognized by the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME.” Vernuccio is an attorney and labor policy senior fellow with Workers for Opportunity, a national project of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
Labor organizers and anti-union activists square off again on membership, dues issues
March 18, 2022 // “It codifies the process by which an employee may exercise this right and safeguards that person’s ability to exercise it at any time,” Vernuccio said. “It does this by having the public employees tell their employers directly that they wish to have money taken from their paycheck, instead of employers taking the union’s word for it.”
Stamford Firefighters’ Lawsuit over Test Scores Lingers as Police Win Their Cases
March 2, 2022 // In 2006, for example, the Stamford Fire Commission had to throw out its list of candidates after top scorers on the exam asked why those with lower scores were offered jobs, including a commissioner’s son, the chief’s son, and the mayor’s nephew.
Polis, Democratic lawmakers and local governments are all squaring off over public bargaining rights
February 20, 2022 // Today, only 15 of Colorado’s 272 municipalities have collectively bargained agreements with any part of their workforce, and almost all of those contracts are with police and firefighters. Just about a quarter of school districts have collective bargaining, too.
Embezzlement Plagues Union Offices Around U.S.
February 18, 2022 // Since 2018, roughly a dozen UAW union bosses have pleaded guilty to taking bribes from vendors and/or misappropriating union treasury money. And last November, yet another UAW kingpin was charged with embezzlement. (