Posts tagged government union
New Report Shows Large Drop in Union Membership Five Years After Janus Decision
June 16, 2023 // “There is a wide range of opinions about the impact of the Janus decision, with some claiming it would lead to large losses in membership and others saying it would have minimal effect or even rejuvenate organized labor,” said Jarrett Skorup, vice president for marketing and communications at the Mackinac Center and the author of the report. “This research aims to inform this debate. It presents more accurate and comprehensive data than anything out there currently being used to assess Janus’ impact.”
The Buckeye Institute Wins Victory for Public Employees Against Government Unions
June 9, 2023 // The Buckeye Institute secured victories for five of its clients in Darling v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), with AFSCME and the Ohio Education Association acknowledging that money was illegally taken out of workers’ paychecks and given to government unions. “This is a significant victory for The Buckeye Institute’s clients and a vindication of their First Amendment rights,” said Jay R. Carson, senior litigator at The Buckeye Institute and the lead attorney representing the plaintiffs in this case. “In returning money that was illegally taken from Buckeye’s clients, the unions acknowledge that public employees have the right to quit government unions whenever they want and that when workers end their union membership, unions must immediately stop seizing workers’ wages.”
Florida sets the stage for labor reforms
May 18, 2023 // Whenever a union falls below 60 percent of membership in a collective-bargaining unit, public employees will have the right to an election. They can vote to keep the union at their workplace, replace it with a different union, or remove union presence altogether. A Florida-senate bill analysis found that at least 40 local teachers’ unions in Florida were below the 60 percent threshold, and a 2012 Heritage study showed that a mere 1 percent of teachers in Florida’s largest schools actually voted for their unions, meaning current workers may be ready to revisit previous generations’ decisions.
TWO BILLS PASSED BY WA LEGISLATURE EXPOSE UNION HYPOCRISY ON PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PRIVACY
May 3, 2023 // One bill, HB 1533, creates a process for public employees purporting to be “survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, harassment, or stalking” to exempt any information about themselves from being disclosed to people seeking government records under the Public Records Act (PRA). Meanwhile, the other bill, HB 1200, requires government employers in the state to regularly turn over the personal contact information—including home addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses—of their employees to labor unions. While the two bills are at odds in their substance, the common thread is that they both advance public-sector unions’ goal of being the only nongovernmental organizations with the ability to communicate with public employees. Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 upheld public employees’ First Amendment right to refrain from joining and paying dues to a union in its Janus v. AFSCME decision, government unions in Washington and around the country have worked overtime to make signing up for membership as easy as possible while making cancelling membership unnecessarily cumbersome. Part of the approach has involved attempting to silence the Freedom Foundation’s efforts to communicate information to public employees about their rights while simultaneously increasing unions’ ability to communicate for the purposes of soliciting membership.
Why Government Unions—Unlike Trade Unions—Corrupt Democracy
April 9, 2023 // Newly-elected governors and mayors in most states quickly discover that they have no managerial control over schools, police, and other government operations. If an elected executive has the backbone to try to buck the union, and restore managerial powers when an agreement comes up for renegotiation, the executive in many states will find that unelected arbitrators have the final say. Near-zero accountability makes its practically impossible to transform a lousy school, or an abusive police culture, because the supervisor can’t enforce good values and standards. No accountability also removes the mutual trust needed for any healthy organization. Why try hard, or go the extra mile, when others just go through the motions? The absence of accountability is like releasing a nerve gas into the agency or school. Rigid work rules guarantee massive inefficiency. Basic services such as trash collection, and road and transit maintenance, cost two to three times what it would cost in the private sector. Need someone to help out or fill in? Sorry, not permitted. Need teachers to do remote teaching during the pandemic? There’s nothing about that in the agreement, so it must be negotiated.
Unions Are Stealing Dues Through Forgery. The Supreme Court Must Step In.
February 12, 2023 // The Freedom Foundation, a national union watchdog group, has filed about a dozen cases where unions allegedly forged people’s signatures in order to keep taking money from their paychecks. It’s an issue that has become so pervasive the Supreme Court must eventually step in and correct the 9th Circuit’s decision.
California: TRACKING POLITICAL SPENDING BY GOVERNMENT UNIONS
December 29, 2022 // To begin to get an idea of how difficult it is to track government union political spending in California from the ground up, monitoring every campaign, go to the California Secretary of State’s Campaign Finance website, select “Committees, Parties, Major Donors & Slate Mailers,” and enter the search term “teachers.” After you’ve eliminated the ones that are inactive and terminated, you will be staring down a list of 461 active recipient committees funded by state and local teachers unions. Examining the reports from these 461 committees formed by teachers unions quickly reveals how little we really know. Many of the incoming contributions come from other committees; many of the outgoing donations are to other committees. It is almost impossible to track the money coming in or going out to its ultimate source or destination.
Op-ed: Nothing Does More to Weaken Unions Than Union Leaders
November 2, 2022 // In 2018, before the Janus decision affirmed that teachers can refuse to support their unions’ radical politics, the CTA boasted 310,000 members. Today that number stands at 280,000 — a loss of more than 30,000 members and $36 million a year in lost dues revenue — much of which would have gone into campaign coffers to buy elected officials who would serve Big Labor’s interests.
COOK COUNTY COLLEGE TEACHERS UNION SETS STRIKE DATE BEFORE OCTOBER’S END
October 26, 2022 // Cook County College Teachers Union leaders said they will announce a strike date to members Oct. 24 ahead of planned informational pickets at city colleges and a strike rally set for Oct. 27. The work stoppage would keep 77,000 students out of classes. The strike authorized by 92% of CCCTU members Oct. 6 would shut down Chicago’s seven community colleges and satellite sites to secure contract concessions for greater housing security and child care options for students, in addition to reducing class sizes and increasing staff salaries.
3RD ANNIVERSARY OF 2019 CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION STRIKE GIVES GLIMPSE OF AMENDMENT 1
October 19, 2022 // The Chicago Teachers Union has a history of demanding contract provisions far beyond wages and benefits. If Amendment 1 passes in November, government unions such as CTU will have a right to demand virtually anything and go on strike to get those demands met.