Posts tagged freedom of association
COMMENTARY Justin Owens: First Principles Series: Worker Freedom
September 17, 2025 // At the end of the day, it’s not government mandates to pay union dues or receive a certain wage that protect workers. It’s the negotiation that takes place between individual workers and employers that empowers workers to get paid what they earn and choose whether to keep those earnings or join a union to negotiate on their behalf. That’s why more and more people are relocating to Tennessee to live and work and fleeing states that refuse to protect their freedoms, like California, Illinois, and New York. If you really want to know which states protect workers, look no further than where they are voluntarily choosing to go.
Op-ed: Stanford’s Graduate Student Union Tries to Stifle Dissent
September 4, 2025 // At the University of Chicago, graduate students in a similar position have taken their union to federal court, arguing that forced support of the union violates their constitutional rights. In Graduate Students for Academic Freedom v. Graduate Students United, the plaintiffs—including Jewish students—say they are being compelled to fund a union that promotes the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel, a stance they view as antisemitic. The graduate unions at both Stanford and Chicago are registered as local chapters of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, a national union that funds progressive activism.
Cato Institute: Reforming Labor Union Laws
July 29, 2025 // The 1930s labor union laws were premised on the false idea that management and labor are enemies in the workplace, notes Baird. The reality is that individuals and businesses work together to produce products for consumers. Management and labor are complementary, not rivalrous, inputs to value generation in the economy. The new Cato study is a great introduction to federal labor union laws from a libertarian perspective. Baird concludes that American workers would enjoy more freedom and prosperity if the labor laws of the 1930s were repealed.
United States Announces Successful Resolution of Rapid Response Labor Mechanism Matter at Modern Metal Alloys, S.A. de C.V.
July 22, 2025 // Department of Labor: United States has resumed liquidation of tariffs on goods from the MMA facility, which manufactures aluminum for the production of auto parts. The RRM, developed under the first Trump Administration, is an unprecedented trade tool that helps to level the playing field for American workers and businesses, by preventing Mexican businesses from gaining a competitive advantage by violating labor laws
Investor group urges Ford to address claims of ‘union avoidance’ at Kentucky battery plant
May 8, 2025 // A nonprofit faith-based group that seeks to leverage its investing to advance human rights, racial equity and “the common good” is calling on automaker Ford to address claims of anti-union activities at the BlueOval SK battery plant in Kentucky. The letter from Investor Advocates for Social Justice details the group’s concerns over “strong indications that BlueOval Kentucky is engaging in union avoidance activities,” ranging from disseminating “anti-union flyers and media” to the United Auto Workers (UAW) telling the Washington Post that anti-union consultants have been brought in to persuade workers against unionization. The UAW launched a campaign last year to unionize the BlueOval SK battery plant in Hardin County, and workers at the plant in January asked the National Labor Relations Board to hold a union election. The BlueOval SK battery plant, one of two planned at Glendale to produce batteries for electric vehicles, is jointly owned by Ford and South Korean company SK Group.
Michael Watson: Big ESG’s Big Partner: Big Labor
April 20, 2025 // Unions’ principal interest in the ESG activism movement is on the “S” or “social” prong of the acronym. Both unions themselves, like the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and critics of unions, like the Institute for the American Worker, will argue that Big Labor views ESG as a category for advancing union organizing and other core union priorities. Proxy Preview shows unions and union-aligned groups (like city and state pension funds and the largely union-owned and union-controlled Amalgamated Bank) pushing shareholder resolutions demanding that companies “adopt a noninterference policy respecting freedom of association” or “respect for freedom of association and collective bargaining”—euphemisms for neutrality in union organizing. Under a neutrality agreement, the employer agrees not to present its views on the potential consequences of union organizing to employees, and it may agree not to confirm union majority support by a government-supervised secret-ballot election, instead using public union-card signatures (known as “card check”).
Jewish Teachers Forced to Pay Dues to Anti-Semitic Labor Union They Don’t Belong To
November 24, 2024 // The lawsuit says the EERA and the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that the union signed leaves the plaintiffs trapped in a union at odds with their political and religious beliefs. “UTLA inserted requirements into the CBA for adoption of model curricula for the classroom that is openly ant-Semitic, and has provided teacher training opportunities where teachers are taught how to avoid detection for anti-Israel rhetoric. UTLA also supports anti-Semitic and anti-Israel professional development classes–classes that can advance teachers’ careers.” The end result is that both “the EERA and the CBA compel Plaintiffs to associate with UTLA’s anti-Semitic speech and curriculum despite Plaintiff’s objections based on their sincerely held beliefs.
CUNY profs appeal to SCOTUS to leave anti-Semitic public sector union
July 31, 2024 // The National Right to Work Foundation (NRTW) and the Fairness Center, which are representing the professors, recently appealed to the Supreme Court to hear the case. The groups argue that compulsory union representation violates citizens’ right to freedom of association. The professors each resigned their membership from the union, CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY), following that group’s issuance of a pro-Hamas, anti-Israel resolution in 2021.
Op-Ed: Union membership is now political. So can the government still require people to associate with a union?
July 10, 2024 // Since then, employees have argued that exclusive union representation does violate the First Amendment. Exclusivity saddles them with the “services” of nakedly political bargaining agents. Lower courts have turned those arguments aside mostly because of an older case, Minnesota Board for Community Colleges v. Knight, which suggested that exclusive representation was okay in the public sector. Knight seemed to say that when the government bargains about working conditions, it can choose its own bargaining partner. And if it chooses one exclusive union to bargain with, that choice burdens no one’s associational rights. But whether or not that’s what Knight meant, the decision has no bearing on private-sector bargaining. In the private sector, the government does not choose its own bargaining partner; it imposes one on private parties. And some of those parties object to their unions’ political views—views that are increasingly central to unionization itself. So private-sector bargaining raises a different question: can the government force private citizens to associate with a union when that union’s core purpose is increasingly political? (Elsewhere, I have argued at greater length that it cannot.)
Op-Ed: Ensure long-lasting protection for workers with a Right-To-Work constitutional amendment
May 24, 2024 // Right-to-work laws are not a tool used to break up unions, but to protect workers from unions that are taking membership dues from members who disagree with union political practices and efforts. The law also protects non-members from being fired simply because they do not join a union. Instead of fighting against right-to-work laws, unions should strengthen their efforts to recruit new members by listening and following the direction of dues-paying members. A recent Harvard Study found that people living in RTW areas have higher employment, higher labor force participation, lower disability receipts, and higher population growth because of the attractive economy. All these factors are associated with lower childhood poverty rates in RTW locations.