Posts tagged Janus
The weak support for mandatory payments to unions
March 24, 2023 // As political organizations, unions tend to support Democrats, regardless of the proportion of their members who vote otherwise. Unions’ political spending, which is only a subset of their total political support, almost exclusively benefits Democrats. By requiring workers to pay unions, Democrats voted to mandate payments to political organizations that support Democrats. People might be more inclined to believe that this was not about such crass self-interest if the law’s supporters tried to justify and explain the bill’s mechanics. Instead, its political supporters projected their fantasies onto the bill.
Southern States Moving Bills to Reinforce Janus Ruling
March 23, 2023 // Moreover, while the Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Oklahoma proposals all include provisions not specifically mentioned in the Janus ruling as written by Justice Samuel Alito and affirmed by four of his colleagues, each is entirely consistent with its unambiguous intent. The ruling clearly states, “Neither an agency fee nor any other payment to the union may be deducted from a nonmember’s wages, nor may any other attempt be made to collect such a payment, unless the employee affirmatively consents to pay.”
ABC MICHIGAN V. ABRUZZO
March 17, 2023 // Soon after taking her new job, Abruzzo issued a memo announcing that the NLRB will now consider it illegal for employers to talk to employees about unions at mandatory meetings
OP-ED | Connecticut Lawmakers Block Pro-worker Reforms
March 16, 2023 // House Bill 5343 would have given public employees, like my fellow teachers, the right to vote at least every four years on whether to keep or replace their unions. A good union, a strong union — a union in spirit — that serves its members well would earn their votes and the supreme compliment of being recertified, while a weak or corrupt union that loses its members’ trust would be entitled no longer to a monopoly on bargaining power. Workers could choose a better one. Apparently, this simple democratic notion scared Big Labor so much that the majority party in Hartford has made sure that it won’t see the light of day. House Bill 5343 will receive not even a public hearing … because why would legislators listen to real public servants in an open forum when they can listen to the soothing white noise of union lobbyists instead?
Pennsylvania Musician Opposed To Funding Lefty Causes Challenges Forced Unionization
March 13, 2023 // “Before Covid, my contact with the union had been peripheral at best,” Wilkofsky said in an interview. “My union membership was forced on me as a condition of my employment. But I have found that the union is very politically active and does not really represent my interests. In fact, I would say the union is really a left-leaning political action committee that masquerades as an advocate for musicians. They support one political party nearly 100 percent of the time, and it looks to me like they spend zero percent of their time representing musicians.” The PAC for the American Federation of Musicians donated 100 percent of its contributions to Democrats in the 2019-2020 election cycle, according to campaign finance data.
Teachers need to think twice before they let unions into their paychecks
March 13, 2023 // According to Americans for Fair Treatment, the VEA reported $12.6 million in revenue in 2019 (based on IRS filings), with 82 percent of this coming from membership dues. As of 2019, the union’s largest liability was federal income tax. While the organization is tax-exempt, it is holding $4.2 million in case of “uncertain” federal income tax obligations. The second largest liability is the pension for union employees. Currently, the union’s pension obligation sits at $2.3 million, down from more than $4.7 million in 2017. Union employee salaries and benefits were the largest expense category but according to the latest filing, VEA had only 66 employees. Executive Director Brenda Pike was the highest-paid employee at $194,136 in base compensation, plus nearly $32,000 in retirement and nontaxable benefits. At the national level, NEA has 510 employees who earned an average salary of $134,000. Let that sink in. The union wants to take part of a teacher’s salary, up to $1,000 a year, knowing full well that teachers do not earn enough (in fact, using this as a recruitment talking point), so that they can first and foremost, pay their own union employees much, much more than most teachers will ever earn.
As Membership Rate Falls, Unions Double Down on Politics
March 10, 2023 // Labor unions portray themselves as champions of the little guy – standing up for workers against powerful special interests. But declining union membership rates suggest that many workers are no longer convinced that unions speak for them. The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that in 2022, the overall union membership rate fell to its lowest levels since the government began tracking it in 1983. Just 10.1% of wage and salary workers belonged to a union, down from 10.3% in 2021 – only about half the 20.1% rate of 1983. In other words, nearly 9 out of 10 American workers are not in a union, despite union efforts to organize them.
Michigan House passes right-to-work repeal in party-line vote
March 10, 2023 // Repeal bills still need to pass the Michigan Senate and be signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to become law News Story Michigan House passes right-to-work repeal in party-line vote Repeal bills still need to pass the Michigan Senate and be signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to become law By James David Dickson | March 8, 2023Share on FacebookShare on Twitter Wednesday night, the Michigan House passed two bills that would repeal right-to-work protections for union members. (Screenshot: Michigan House TV) By a 56-53 vote, with one Republican absent, the Michigan House on Wednesday approved both House Bill 4004 and House Bill 4005, which would repeal the state right-to-work law. House Bill 4004 would repeal right-to-work protections for public sector workers such as teachers. That bill is expected to face constitutional challenges if signed into law, given that it violates the protections for public sector workers recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME.
FEDERAL JUDGE ISSUES TRO AGAINST STATE OF OREGON IN DUES DEDUCTIONS CASE
March 9, 2023 // On March 8, U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Mosman granted a temporary restraining order preventing Oregon’s Department of Administrative Services from continuing to deduct dues on behalf of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) from a state employee who never authorized the deduction in the first place. When Victoria Bright began working for the state of Oregon in November 2022, she made a point of declining membership in SEIU, because she took exception to its political agenda and bargaining tactics.
Opinion: Florida Bill Would Make Government Unions More Transparent, Accountable
March 9, 2023 // The “Paycheck Protection Bill” includes language that would, among other things: prevent the state from deducting dues on behalf of unions from public employees’ paychecks, forcing unions to do their own billing and collections; require audits of unions representing public employees; require union membership cards to include wording echoing the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, which recognized the right of public employees to decline union membership, dues, and fees with no loss of representation or benefits; and, perhaps most significantly, the bill establishes a new threshold and closes some unintended loopholes in a 2018 law that forces certification elections in situations where more than half of the bargaining unit has refused to support the union. These elections allow all employees who are represented by the union an opportunity to vote on whether the union will be allowed to continue representing them.