Posts tagged lobbying
Efforts to unionize agricultural workers in WA face long-standing hurdles
May 9, 2023 // With Ostrom — and, now, Windmill Farms — workers, labor organizers and community members have held rallies outside the mushroom farm and at several locations where the mushrooms are sold. UFW has asked people to look for the mushrooms in their local grocery stores and help track their distribution. “We have also reached out directly to retailers that carry Ostrom products, asking them to also put pressure on Ostrom to recognize the union,” De Loera said in an email in February. “Consumers can help us do this work by helping to identify Ostrom products in their local stores.” Workers from Sunnyside, community members and UFW staff rallied outside an upscale Seattle grocery store in December 2022 to raise awareness among consumers. Students at the University of Washington successfully lobbied that the school stop using mushrooms from Windmill Farms. The students organized into a group called Students for Farmworkers (SFFW) at UW.
Progressive group pressures congressional office on staff unionization rule
March 21, 2023 // “Capitol Hill staffers’ unionization attempts are not about worker’s rights but building political power and political capital,” said Brigette Herbst, AFFT organizing director, “Unions today are a far cry from unions in the past because they care more about organizing ‘elite’ employees, such as university graduate students or Capitol Hill staffers, than taking care of blue-collar basic concerns. It’s just a new money grab from worker paychecks for union bosses to siphon to politicians.” “As with all public employees, when Capitol Hill staffers unionize, then they will directly negotiate collective bargaining agreements with the politicians that they work for and help elect,” she added, “how is this not a conflict-of-interest and a breach of public trust?”
Outgoing New York Teachers Union Boss Leaves Behind an Organization Deep in the Red
February 20, 2023 // NYSUT and its allies pushed hard last year for a mandate that requires New York City’s public schools to phase in class-size limits over the course of five years. At least 20 percent of the city’s schools will need to reduce class sizes, requiring more classes and more classroom teachers. The union has also been fighting to stymie the growth of charters: Earlier this month, Governor Hochul in her most recent budget proposal moved toward increasing the number of charter schools in New York City. “If I was paying dues under the assumption that the union was using those dues to represent me with my employers, it would be a little concerning to me that so much of that is being used for other things,” the senior organizing director of Americans for Fair Treatment, Brigette Herbst, says. “Perhaps they should focus more on those representational activities.”
Florida Teachers’ Union Bleeding Members
November 3, 2022 // The Florida Education Association (FEA) lost more than 4,500 members – a 3.3 percent drop – in just the 2020-21 school year. By comparison, the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) lost 2.3 and 2.1 percent of their memberships, respectively, in the same single school year.
Debunking Democrats’ Union Myths
September 14, 2022 // American headlines are saturated with an outpouring of pro-union activity and support; major news outlets claim that interest in union organizing is increasing at companies across the country. In reality, a slim percentage of America’s workers are interested in joining a union even as Democrats and the Biden administration assemble task forces and mandate union support. To help cut through the nonsense spread by the Left, we separate myth from fact:
General Motors Worker Forces UAW Bosses to Stop Seizing Dues for Politics
September 6, 2022 // Even after a sweeping federal corruption probe that has resulted in jail sentences for at least 12 union executives, it seems some United Auto Workers (UAW) officials haven’t learned their lesson regarding misuse of worker funds. Rochester General Motors employee Roger Clemons this January won a settlement forcing UAW officials at his plant to stop illegally funneling money from his paycheck into union politics.
National View: Union members doing the math, withdrawing dues
July 6, 2022 // As more and more teachers learn they have a right not to fund labor leaders’ lavish lifestyles and a political agenda they may not agree with — especially when gas and groceries have become increasingly expensive — they begin doing the math on how stopping union dues deductions can alleviate some of their financial burdens. The problem is that most teachers are not even aware of their rights under Janus, and that’s because the teachers union officials do not want them to be educated about their options. Washington Post, Charles Lane, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, Denise Specht, Bernadette Burnham, Rodney Rowe
NJ Unions Hit the Bricks for Hazard Pay
June 21, 2022 // On June 16, union members, a couple with their toddlers in tow, snaked through the Capitol complex looking to present a letter making the case for hazard pay. It was signed by several union presidents, including Charles Wowkanech, president of the New Jersey AFL-CIO and was addressed to Senate President Nicholas Scutari and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin. The letter was also addressed to Gov. Phil Murphy. New Jersey Transit ATU, Janet Booker, 32 BJ SEIU, Make the Road New Jersey, Essex County Assemblywoman Mila Jasey,
Op-Ed: County collective bargaining bill rewards unions, harms employees and taxpayers
May 17, 2022 // Buoyed by taxpayer support and armed with coercively inflated dues revenue, unions will plow resources into electing county commissioners more favorably disposed to union demands at the bargaining table, thus further increasing their power.
Teachers union spends more on Dem causes than its own members, analysis finds
April 13, 2022 // According to data compiled by Americans for Fair Treatment, 17.6% of the NEA's spending went to political activities and lobbying, with just 8.6% going to representational activity. Political activities also accounted for more spending than employee benefits, which made up 15.1% of the organization's expenditures.