Posts tagged legislation
Opinion: Congress Doesn’t Care About Freelancers — and It May Cost Them at the Polls
August 11, 2024 // Supporters of reclassification do not understand how essential independent contracting is to our livelihoods. This was evident in 2020 in the fight against California’s AB5—a law implementing a restrictive ABC test that reclassified many independent contractors as employees and inspired the DOL’s new rule. One elected state official claimed the independent status being stripped from us was just “taking away our lollipops.” Instead, AB5 hollowed out self-employment, pushed up unemployment, and destroyed many livelihoods in the process. While California is not in play in this election, Virginia is. Independent professionals are aware of what they will lose if similar policies are nationalized.
Congressional Testimony Exposes Union Tactics to Undermine Elections
May 27, 2024 // One of the most popular tactics unions use to drive support is a process known as card check. Union organizers hand workers cards to sign as a way to indicate support for the union. Workers are typically asked to sign these cards in front of organizers, adding an extra layer of pressure when a vote is done publicly. Some unions have intimidated workers who may be reluctant to sign, showing up at people’s homes and threatening a worker’s family. As Delie explains in his testimony, a better way to ensure that an election is fair and workers are free from intimidation is to use secret ballots in union elections.
Workers for Opportunity Applauds Gov. Kay Ivey for Signing Landmark Worker Freedom Legislation
May 14, 2024 // SB231 protects workers’ right to a private vote in union organizing campaigns at companies that receive taxpayer incentive dollars. Alabama joins Georgia and Tennessee in asserting that workers deserve to make decisions about who represents them in private and state taxpayers should not be subsidizing coercive unionization efforts. “The Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s national Workers for Opportunity initiative applauds Gov. Kay Ivey for signing this landmark legislation,” said Tony Daunt, senior director of Workers for Opportunity.
Union representing Maryland state employees opens ranks to supervisors
May 7, 2024 // he legislation applies only to front-level supervisors who do daily supervision of staff and perform similar duties to the people they oversee including, for example, nurse supervisors at state hospitals or lieutenants at a state prisons. It does not apply to state employees in managerial positions who have the ability to hire, fire and make departmental decisions.
Sen. Joni Ernst Introduces Legislation To Track Taxpayer Dollars Subsidizing Federal Employee Unions
March 15, 2024 // President Joe Biden’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) stopped reporting “taxpayer-funded union time,” or “official time,” which agencies use to pay federal employees to conduct activities on behalf of federal employee labor unions, not the agencies which employ them or U.S. taxpayers. In 2019, which is the last year for which data is available, OPM reported that union activities during official time cost taxpayers $135 million. Federal employees spent 2.6 million hours, or 296 years, working for their union instead of doing their agency jobs.
Opinion: Big Labor systematically lies to forced dues-paying workers
January 2, 2024 // I quoted directly from Article II of the United Auto Workers union’s new national contract covering tens of thousands of rank-and-file factory employees. “Employees covered by this agreement at the time it becomes effective and who are members of the Union at that time, shall be required as a condition of continued employment to continue membership in the Union for the duration of this Agreement,” the contract states. “Employees covered by this Agreement who are not members at the time this Agreement becomes effective shall be required as a condition of continued employment to become members of the Union.” This language can have no conceivable purpose other than to mislead workers about their legal rights. And except for the effective date tacked on at the end, it is exactly the same deceitful, anti-worker compulsory-membership provision that was inserted into the 2019 UAW contract by “old guard” UAW bosses, from whom current “reformist” boss Shawn Fain is eager to distance himself.
Miami-Dade teachers’ union faces potential decertification
November 17, 2023 // As of last week, only 58.4% of United Teachers of Dade members were paying dues to the union, short of the 60% required by most public sector unions under a new state law. On Friday, the union was set to send a snapshot of membership to the Public Employee Relations Commission, or PERC, the state agency that regulates public employee unions.
Do we all work for the federal government?
November 6, 2023 // Under the NLRB’s reasoning, the federal government is a joint employer of all workers covered by these laws. It even says that joint employers include those who exercise “reserved control” — i.e., they don’t set standards, but they have the power to do so. That expands the definition of joint employer even more. Congress has the power to draft legislation affecting essentially any part of the economy. As such, it reserves the right to set standards for all workers, making the federal government a joint employer of anyone and everyone. It’s highly unlikely that unions or the NLRB will try to apply the new rule in this way, since it’s clearly beyond the pale. (Imagine Department of Labor officials bargaining with union officials over the future of workers at your mechanic, along with almost every other business you’ve ever patronized.) Yet if it’s wrong to say that Washington, D.C., is a joint employer over the economy’s workers, it’s equally wrong to make that claim about larger companies and the workers at their independent franchisees. It defies logic — and will injure millions of small businesses and their workers.
Despite rising number of strikes, union memberships remains low
September 7, 2023 // While the rate of work stoppages in 2023 is on pace to break the record set last year, union membership is still lagging at a record-low. So far, there have been 251 strikes in 2023, compared to 417 in 2022, according to data compiled by Cornell University’s Labor Action Tracker. Last year’s 10.1% unionization rate was the lowest on record, however, and workers have a long way to go to reach the 20% rates not seen in 20 years. While no comprehensive data exists detailing the success rate of recent worker strikes or labor disputes nationwide, some union workers have gotten their way this year.
WA electrical contractors jolted by new law they say favors big contractors, unions
September 7, 2023 // Tim Rockwell is the owner of Rockwell Electric Inc, which is a small electrical contractor also based in Bellingham. Rockwell said trying to start his own apprenticeship program was extremely difficult. To do so, he had to receive a recommendation of approval of the apprenticeship program through the state Department of Labor & Industries, followed by another recommended approval by the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. The Washington State Apprenticeship Training Council could then provide provisional approval after one year. Prior to a council meeting, the proposed apprenticeship program can be objected to by another apprenticeship program that operates within the same region. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union objected to Rockwell's proposed apprenticeship program.