Posts tagged Idaho
Strike halts work on North Spokane Corridor, other projects
August 14, 2025 // WSDOT says it's aware of the strike and confirms work has been suspended on the North Spokane Corridor Spokane River Crossing, paving projects near Pullman on US 195, and in Chewelah on US 395. The northbound lanes of the Greene Street Bridge and one southbound lane are closed indefinitely due to an ongoing strike, according to the WSDOT. WSDOT said there are holes in the bridge and there's no way to reopen it while the strike continues. The agency said it does not know how long the strike will affect the closure.
The local Planned Parenthood spent $15,570 on union-busting last year
May 18, 2025 // The latest filing comes amid ongoing complaints of poor working conditions and low pay, a recent merger with the only other non-unionized Planned Parenthood affiliate in Washington and continuing unionization efforts from employees.
ISBA distances itself from Idaho teachers union’s anti-GOP campaign—sort of
May 15, 2025 // According to the IEA, the “central focus” of its so-called “May Matters” campaign will be “[m]obilizing IEA members to turn out voters in the May 2026 primary elections and return a pro-public education majority to the Idaho Legislature.” Part of the union’s strategy involves getting Democratic and independent teachers to make some “pragmatic political calculations” and “re-register” as Republicans “in strategic districts” so they can vote for the most liberal candidates running under false colors in the GOP primary. Such rhetorical fire-breathing and political scheming is par for the course when it comes to teachers unions. More notable, however, was the IEA’s claim that “allies” like the Idaho School Boards Association (ISBA) “will join” the union’s May Matters effort.
Op-ed: The evidence is in: Forcing workers to join unions destroys good-paying jobs
May 5, 2025 // He then noted: “This difference is substantial, equivalent to a 28 percent increase in manufacturing employment” in right-to-work counties relative to their forced-unionism neighbors. Practically all elected officials in the U.S. claim to support the creation of new manufacturing jobs and the retention of current ones. But the many Big Labor politicians in Washington, D.C., who support the elimination of state right-to-work laws and the expansion of union bosses’ forced-unionism privileges to all 50 states are objectively in favor of the destruction of good-paying manufacturing jobs.
Idaho teachers union plots campaign to target conservatives in 2026 primaries
March 29, 2025 // But while the IEA may be nonpartisan in the sense that it doesn’t care about party labels per se and will happily back candidates running as Republicans if they support the IEA, there’s no disputing that the union’s ideology places it on the far-left flank of Idaho politics. As a Freedom Foundation analysis of the IEA’s political activity in 2024 previously documented: “The IEA behaves exactly as one would expect of a far-left advocacy group in a conservative state. The union attempts to curry favor by endorsing Republicans running in safe elections when the outcome isn’t in doubt, though rarely do such endorsements come with meaningful financial support. In GOP primary elections, the IEA focuses its resources on defeating select ideological adversaries and, as soon as the general election rolls around, it switches gears to prioritize electing Democrats in competitive races. Overall, 93 percent of IEA-connected PAC spending in the 2024 general election supported Democrats.” Also, as the Freedom Foundation reported last year, the IEA paid $25,000 in members’ dues to the Idaho Progressive Investor Network in the 2021-22 tax year.
Complaints allege Idaho school districts’ collection of union dues violates state law
March 23, 2025 // According to Freedom Foundation research, Idaho school districts collected at least $4.4 million in union dues from the paychecks of about 5,000 teachers’ paychecks in 2023 alone. The funds are divided among the district affiliate, the statewide IEA, and the Washington, D.C.-based NEA, which received about $1.1 million of the dues collected that year. Using government records, the complaints document how the NEA spends tens of millions of dollars on political activity and lobbying each year, including $1.8 million spent on Idaho since 2018 including, most recently, a $20,000 contribution to Idaho Students First, a political committee focused on backing the union’s preferred state legislative candidates in the 6th District in the 2024 general election. Bonneville, Caldwell, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Falls, Kuna, Lake Pend Oreille, Marsing, Middleton, Mullan, New Plymouth, Post Falls, Shelley
Analysis: 93% of Idaho teachers union political spending benefited Democrats in 2024
February 19, 2025 // In short, the IEA may endorse GOP candidates that it finds ideologically compatible if those candidates are going to win anyway but, in competitive races where its support might make a difference, the IEA consistently backs Democrats while simultaneously throwing moral support behind the Democrat candidate in any race involving a Republican it doesn’t think it can work with.
Postal workers to hold day of action, ID rallies planned
September 30, 2024 // "It just kind of grew as more people became interested," said Butler. "The small idea of a letter-writing campaign turned into a larger movement called 'We Won't Be Silenced.' With this movement we are ending the silence and sharing why our stories need to be told." Members at the American Postal Workers Union national convention in July then passed her resolution for a rally. Rallies are scheduled across Idaho - including in Boise, Caldwell, and Idaho Falls. Workers will call for more public comment opportunities at Board of Governors meetings, better staffing and services, and more cooperation from management at the bargaining table.
Federal judge says H-2A workers don’t have right to unionize
August 28, 2024 // In her ruling, Judge Lisa Wood acknowledged the Department of Labor has the authority to make rules governing H-2A workers. However, she says the Labor Department does not have the authority to “create law or protect newly created rights of agricultural workers.” That authority, she says, belongs to Congress. Citing previous legal precedents, Woods determined that issuing a nationwide injunction would give a single district court an outsized role in the federal systems. Therefore, her ruling only affects those listed as plaintiffs in the case initiated by the Southern Legal Foundation.