Posts tagged Freedom Foundation
Teachers’ Unions vs. Teachers, Parents, and Children: The NEA and AFT
September 20, 2023 // Between them, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have nearly five million members. Their national associations report annual revenues of approximately $370 million and $200 million, respectively, which are drawn overwhelmingly from dues paid by those members, and that doesn’t include the hundreds of millions in revenue that their local affiliates collect. The Bigfoot lobbyists of the NEA and AFT want more more more when it comes to spending, as lobbies invariably do, but they are frequently found in a negative posture, for no one hates the idea of reform quite as much as a teachers’ union. Vouchers, charter schools, education savings accounts, merit pay for teachers…you name it, the teachers’ unions are against it.
HHS Appears To Forget To Redact Email Calling For Expanded COVID-19 Mandates For Students
September 13, 2023 // “It’s concerning … [if] the CDC was even seriously considering imposing COVID vaccine mandates on students nationwide,” Nelsen said. “But if they weren’t seriously considering it, then they shouldn’t have redacted or attempted to redact disclosure of the contents of that email.” A CDC spokesperson told the DCNF that Lubar “obviously was not referring to vaccines for children” but was instead referencing the testing requirement. “At the time, the vaccine was not authorized or recommended for kids under 12 years of age,” the spokesperson said. “That recommendation did not come until November 2021. She was commenting on the testing of school children to keep classrooms open and safe. Her comment came on the heels of CDC funding totaling $10 billion to make testing widely available to school districts and was concerned that not enough attention was being focused on testing of students.”
Commentary: Dem Governors Buy Union Backing — Just Like Biden
August 30, 2023 // In the backrooms where such deals are cut, buying a politician’s favor is called “influence peddling,” and President Biden, for all his seeming cognitive lapses, has been playing the game with ruthless aplomb for decades. Now he may be handing the baton to a younger, faster competitor. Recent history has shown the presidency itself can be bought if you control a big enough infusion of someone else’s dues dollars — and the promise to pay it all back with interest from the public treasury.
WA Supreme Court rules on disclosure of public employees’ work information
August 29, 2023 // The court’s opinion is in response to a litigious dispute between the Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Olympia, and approximately 50 labor unions representing thousands of public employees across the state. The foundation had made formal requests to numerous state agencies requesting the full names of their workers along with dates of birth, job titles, work email addresses, annual salary, work location stations and addresses, full or part-time work status and names and titles of their union bargaining representatives. The foundation said it wanted to contact the employees to inform them about a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which banned mandatory union membership and dues in the public workplace. The foundation, in its lawsuit, also asserted that unions had no standing in the case. Justice Barbara Madsen,
Burlison introduces bill to stop automatic Union payroll deductions
July 31, 2023 // Missouri 7th District Representative Eric Burlison introduced the Paycheck Protection Act, which will establish transparency and protect the rights of federal employees by prohibiting labor unions from deducting dues directly from their paychecks. Labor unions, unlike other dues-paying membership groups, are allowed to deduct dues directly from paychecks. The Paycheck Protection Act would eliminate this practice by requiring federal labor unions to collect dues payments directly from their members. Burlison said the measure will empower workers with vital information about the exact amount of dues they pay, thereby promoting transparency, financial awareness, and informed decision-making.
FREEDOM FOUNDATION APPLAUDS REP. FITZGERALD’S PROPOSAL TO OVERHAUL THE NEA’S FEDERAL CHARTER
July 19, 2023 // Some of the reforms include: prohibiting the NEA from engaging in electoral politics and lobbying, a restriction included in 60 percent of federal charters; requiring the NEA to submit an annual report to Congress; fully repealing the NEA’s D.C. property tax exemption; prohibiting the NEA from collecting dues from a public employee unless the employee has been notified of his or her right to refuse — and affirmatively consented — and require the NEA to collect dues without the use of government payroll systems; prohibiting taxpayer-funded release time for NEA officers; barring the NEA from incorporating the core tenets of Critical Race Theory into its governance, operations and advocacy; subjecting the NEA and its affiliates to the financial transparency requirements and union democracy protections of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act; and, requiring the NEA to refrain from initiating, and to actively intervene to prevent, any strikes or work stoppages by its affiliates.
Despite President Joe Biden’s repeated boasts, union membership continues to fall
July 18, 2023 // Union members do not always agree with Democrats on policy matters. Biden's own green energy agenda is coming up against labor resistance, with organized auto workers prepared to strike over the hazards and lack of benefits in electric vehicle production. Biden must also work to keep blue-collar union members from slipping into the Republican column as candidates like former President Donald Trump play up American manufacturing and the virtues of import tariffs. But more recent headlines showcase unions fighting their traditional battles over pay, benefits, and worker protections.
New Book Details Government Unions Using Taxpayer Dollars to Push Radical Ideology on the Nation
July 6, 2023 // Teachers unions are writing the playbook of the hard Left. The Freedom Foundation obtained “Racial Justice in Education,” an internal document published in 2018 by the National Education Association. It illustrates, in shocking detail, the degree to which the nation’s largest teachers union embraces the tenets of critical race theory and shows how this neo-Marxist ideology serves as the fountainhead of the union’s support of a host of radical policies, from defunding the police to banning voter ID requirements.
Biden Labor Board May Have Just Opened The Door For Union Activists To Infiltrate Private Companies
July 6, 2023 // David Osborne, fellow at the Institute for the American Worker, told the DCNF that non-competes are a valuable tool for businesses. “Eliminating noncompete agreements would make it easier for union ‘salts’ to infiltrate American businesses; eliminating noncompete agreements would allow them to move more freely from business to business pushing unionization on other employees,” Osborne said. “But the more immediate effect is to put the government’s thumb on the scales of union organizers by removing a perfectly acceptable tool—noncompete agreements—that American businesses have long used to protect valuable intellectual property.” As for how the efforts will affect workers, Osborne said that inevitably, “unionized employers will have to be less trusting of employees, less generous, and stricter about who receives access to valuable intellectual property, knowing that employees can immediately secure a job with their closest competitors at any time.”
Five years ago, U.S. Supreme Court strikes down forced public union dues
July 5, 2023 // Following the Supreme Court ruling, Janus left his job with the state of Illinois to join the Illinois Policy Institute, a free market think tank. The ruling affected union participation around the country. According to the Freedom Foundation, over a quarter of a million workers have left the four largest public unions since the Janus decision, which is a decline of about 10 percent. After the ruling, AFSCME Council 31, the union Janus sued, saw nearly a 20% drop in membership.