Posts tagged misconduct
Freedom Foundation: Are California Unions Legally Untouchable?
October 28, 2026 // The Freedom Foundation sued under California’s unfair business practices laws on behalf of employees allegedly harmed by these and other deceptive practices. But the California courts concluded that consumer protection claims arising from these disputes fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), the state agency that oversees public-sector labor disputes. (Those decisions are on appeal, Marsh et al. v. SEIU Local 2015, No. F090824 (Cal. Ct. App., 5th Dist.); Kendrick et al. v. United Domestic Workers, No. C106403 (Cal. Ct. App., 3d Dist.)) So, the Freedom Foundation’s legal team pivoted and filed unfair labor practice charges with PERB.
Member Apathy and College Students Give Fain a Second Term as UAW President
October 21, 2026 // While the results from the election are currently waiting for certification, Fain appears to have been reelected with about 68 percent of the vote in an election with an abysmally-low turnout rate of nine percent. Notably, Fain performed strongest in regions that have a lower number of union members working in actual auto plants. Fain’s strongest areas were UAW Region 9A, which generally represents university students and lawyers in the northeast, and UAW Region 6, which generally represents students at the University of California. Fain took 76.65 percent of the vote in Region 9A and 75.23 percent of the vote in Region 6.
Ex-NFLPA lawyer settles lawsuit with union over alleged retaliation
August 18, 2026 // McPhee was fired less than two weeks after filing her federal lawsuit, which accused former union executive director Lloyd Howell Jr., lead counsel Tom DePaso and Matt Curtin, president of union licensing arm NFL Players Inc., of illegal misconduct, sex discrimination, breach of fiduciary duty and retaliation. Last July, Howell resigned as ESPN prepared to report that he had used union funds to pay for a car service from a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, airport to a Miami strip club and had sought union reimbursement for a visit to an Atlanta strip club accompanied by a pair of union employees.
SJ Police Officers’ Association accuses department of corruption, misconduct
August 18, 2025 // "A pattern of willful misconduct within the Internal Affairs Department that goes beyond simple mistakes and has exposed outrageous conduct that appears to be sanctioned by the highest levels within the San Jose Police Department," the video said. This includes misconduct, lack of training and altered documents. SJPOA President Steve Slack is demanding accountability. "My members are held accountable every day," Slack said. "Where is accountability for our command staff and the bureaucratic decision makers at city hall?"
Commentary: Blatant Lawlessness
August 7, 2025 // A new Yankee Institute report, Blatant Lawlessness: How the CT Department of Labor & Union Leaders Disrespect Union Workers and Ignore the Law, highlights the Connecticut Department of Labor’s (CT DOL’s) failure to enforce vital state laws. These laws require unions to provide financial transparency to their members, and the state’s non-enforcement leaves dues-paying workers vulnerable to potential mismanagement and corruption. Enacted in 1959, Connecticut General Statutes Sec. 31-77 mandates that unions representing public and private sector employees submit verified annual financial reports to the CT DOL and make them available to members.
Hold the Salt: Essential Takeaways from NLRB Acting GC’s Guidance On Union Salting Investigations
July 29, 2025 // The Acting GC emphasized that the investigating Regions must “no longer conclusively presume that an applicant is entitled to protection as a statutory employee” and that “neither will we presume, in the absence of contrary evidence, that an application for employment is anything other than what it purports to be.” The Acting GC also instructed the Regions to focus their initial investigations on obtaining evidence from the charging party
‘Reinstate the doctors!’ Hundreds protest firing of 2 UH pediatricians
July 14, 2025 // UH CEO Cliff Megerian said Beene and Fouts-Fowler inappropriately downloaded nearly 5,000 healthcare workers' personal information for reasons other than direct patient care. "It's a violation of at least five of our policies," Megerian said earlier this week. "They denied it. We found out they did, and as you can expect, that's what led to the issue." Neither of the terminated doctors knew what policies they'd broken.
Trump administration moves to fast-track firings of federal workers for misconduct
June 6, 2025 // The U.S. Office of Personnel Management published a proposed rule, opens new tab that would allow the office, which acts as the federal government's human resources department, to direct other agencies to fire employees for conduct such as tax evasion, leaking sensitive information and refusing to testify in other workers' disciplinary cases.
New Trump civil-service reform rule nearer to going into effect
May 7, 2025 // According to former Department of Labor official Vincent Vernuccio, who is now president of the labor nonprofit Institute for the American Worker, OPM may amend the rule or issue it as it’s proposed, which could happen within the next few weeks or months. “So, you’re talking about 50,000 federal employees—about 2% of the workforce who will become ‘at will’,” Mr. Vernuccio said. “These are still career employees,” he said. “They still have protections. They’re not changing that. It’s just that if they are in a policy-influencing position, they’re ‘at will’, and they can be removed if they’re throwing sand in gears of policy.” He added, “And if they simply don’t want to do their jobs and they don’t want to implement the policies that the people’s duly elected representatives have implemented, they can be removed.”
Backgrounder: Trump Civil Service Reform Proposed Rule
April 27, 2025 // On April 23, 2025, OPM proposed a new rule to improve accountability for federal career employees, especially those in policy roles. The rule implements President Trump’s Executive Order 14171, which he signed on his first day in office. Executive Order 14171 explicitly directed OPM to render civil service regulations implemented during the Biden administration inoperative, citing the President’s authority to manage the executive branch. Among other things, the rule would create a new job category called Schedule Policy/Career in the excepted service for policy-influencing positions, making them at-will employees and, therefore, meaningfully accountable for their performance and conduct.