Posts tagged government union
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.
CALIFORNIA’S GOVERNMENT UNIONS CONTINUE STEADY DECLINE
October 10, 2022 // “This decline is most remarkable because it comes despite that massive hiring boom,” said Jackson Reese, Vice President of California Policy Center and director of CPC’s Janus project. “Every time a worker resigns union membership, her union loses close to $1,000 in dues per year. And, of course, that means $1,000 annually goes into the employee’s pocket.” Reese, who led CPC’s documents review, said his team calculates that the membership losses produced a decline in annual union dues income of just under $337 million. “That’s money the unions no longer have to finance campaigns, engage in political activism or lobby government officials — and that’s a key purpose of our work here,” Reese said.
Major government unions lose over 200K members
October 3, 2022 // The top four public labor unions in the U.S. lost hundreds of thousands of members since a 2018 Supreme Court case that ruled government employees could not be forced to pay a union to keep their job, a new report shows that. The Commonwealth Foundation released the report, which found that the top four public labor unions – AFT, AFSCME, NEA, and SEIU – lost nearly 219,000 members altogether since the Janus v. AFSCME ruling. “The Janus decision to end forced unionism for government workers accelerated a long-term decline in membership,” the report said. “In response, government unions are conducting aggressive campaigns to unionize new workers with recent successes in Virginia and Colorado.”
Top Unions Lost Nearly Quarter of a Million Members After Court Struck Down Mandatory Membership
September 30, 2022 // Report shows powerful public sector unions have stepped up lobbying efforts amid member exodus In the four years since the landmark Janus v. AFSCME ruling, the National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers, Service Employees International Union, and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees lost almost 219,000 union members. The report, published by the Commonwealth Foundation, found that the Supreme Court decision escalated a decades-long decline in dues-paying members at the public sector unions. Despite the drop in membership, labor groups have scored legal and political victories that are buoying their political power. Union bosses scored a major victory last year in Virginia, where they attained collective bargaining rights for government workers for the first time through the then-Democratic-controlled state house. The Missouri Supreme Court last year voided a law that would have required unions to have regular recertification votes and annual reports on political activity. Colorado, meanwhile, passed a law in 2020 that unionized its 30,000 state government employees. Jennifer Stefano, Rebecca Friedrichs, California Teachers Association,
EP. 53: ILLINOIS VS. TENNESSEE
September 29, 2022 //
ILLINOIS’ PUBLIC PENSION MESS SHOWS THREAT OF UNCHECKED GOVERNMENT UNION POWER
September 19, 2022 // Amendment 1 would be the pension clause on steroids. This amendment would place pensions and every term in a public union collective bargaining agreement above state laws. That would include issues commonly bargained over such as wages and working conditions, plus add broad new subjects that encompass virtually any and every public union demand.
THWARTING UNION’S THEFT OF VACATION TIME WAS NO SMALL MATTER
August 1, 2022 // What at first seemed to be insignificant ended up being very consequential indeed. The architects of this scheme knew the courts would have no sympathy. They had been caught and exposed for cheating nonmembers out of vacation time and violating their First Amendment Rights. So the unions chose instead to settle and restore the vacation time of this city Health Department worker and end this unlawful practice. This legal victory means that several union contracts in Ohio will have to be revised. And countless public employees across the state will have their vacation time returned to them.