Posts tagged National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation
Hydra-Lock employees vote to decertify their union
November 11, 2024 // “This is the latest in a surge of Michigan workers rejecting union bosses’ forced dues powers since the repeal of Michigan’s popular right-to-work law,” Patrick Semmens, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation, told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email. Public opinion surveys show that Michigan voters, including unionized workers, strongly opposed the right-to-work repeal, Semmens added.
Commentary: The Rise of “Pro-Labor” Conservatism
September 9, 2024 // Yet O’Brien’s move has attracted the attention of commentators from both sides of the political spectrum who see it as a bellwether. It is what conservative commentator Sohrab Ahmari has called a “brave gambit” and veteran labor reporter Steven Greenhouse dubbed a “huge gamble.” “A glacier of hostility has divided the GOP from organized labor for two generations,” Ahmari wrote in Compact. But the Teamsters president “took a pickaxe to that glacier” by speaking at the RNC. Ahmari attributes the rise of this strain of pro-labor, anti-union conservatism to Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), a MAGA firebrand who has come out as perhaps the lone GOP senator to oppose right to work legislation, the anti-union laws on the books in 28 states.
Union, hospital face more lawsuits from Michigan nurse over dues
August 23, 2024 // Madrina Wells, from Grand Blanc Township, had already sued Ascension Genesys Hospital and Teamsters in July, accusing them of threatening to fire her and a coworker for not signing forms authorizing the union to deduct dues from their paychecks. Now, Wells is filing additional complaints against those organizations for deducting union dues out of her paycheck anyway, without her providing the consent forms.
Trader Joe’s workers look to decertify union at first unionized store
August 16, 2024 // Workers at a unionized Trader Joe’s location in Hadley, Massachusetts, have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to hold a vote to determine whether to remove Trader Joe’s United from its role representing employees at the store, according to a Monday announcement from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which is assisting the workers. The petition includes signatures from “well over” 30% of workers at the store — above the threshold the NLRB requires to trigger a decertification election — the foundation said.
Commentary: Why Labor Strikes Are Likely to Take Off under a Harris-Walz Administration
August 14, 2024 // It is worth noting that the United Auto Workers (UAW) want to unionize the employees of Musk’s electric-car company, Tesla. Fain was paid $228,872 as head of the UAW in 2023; the twelve “top officers are paid in excess of the [sic] $200,000 and hundreds more earn six figures, putting them in the top 5 percent of US income earners.” It is also worth noting that the “total dues-paying membership of the UAW fell by 13,000 last year to 370,000, down from 383,000 in 2022.” According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average autoworker is paid $30.78 per hour and works 41 hours per week, adding up to about $66,000 per year.
Beleaguered CUNY Professors Appeal to SCOTUS for Relief from Union They Claim Is Antisemitic
August 6, 2024 // The cert petition says the heart of their complaint is the question, “Can the government force Jewish professors to accept the representation of an advocacy group they rightly consider to be anti-Semitic?” They claim that various Supreme Court rulings, including Janus and NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., articulate their First Amendment right to “eschew association for expressive purposes” and “boycott entities to express a message.” The petition charges the lower courts have misinterpreted Knight, saying that ruling “did not sanction a state forcing Jewish faculty members who are ardent Zionists to accept the representation of a union that supports policies they consider anti-Israel,” and urges the Court to grant to petition to “clarify Knight and make clear that the First Amendment protects individuals’ right to dissociate themselves from advocacy groups that support policies contrary to their deeply held beliefs.”
A California court just granted an ag giant a win. It could jeopardize new farm union law
July 23, 2024 // Growers’ associations have spent millions running advertisements on Spanish radio networks and other platforms discouraging farmworkers from unionizing, the Sacramento Bee has reported. The industry has also objected to what they say is confusion in how the new law works; the labor board this month was still scheduling hearings on formal regulations to implement the law. Four of the five employers have objected to the new unions, which prompts the board to investigate and hold administrative hearings.
Jewish MIT students sue union, say they are forced to pay dues to anti-Semitic organization
April 2, 2024 // “Jewish graduate students are a minority at MIT. We can’t remove the GSU or disabuse it of its antisemitism,” Sussman wrote. “But we also can’t support an organization that actively works toward the eradication of the Jewish homeland, where I have family living now.” Sussman and his colleagues initially sought recourse through non-legal channels, sending letters to the union asking for an exemption. UE allegedly denied these requests, however, writing in their reply to Sussman that “no principles, teachings or tenets of Judaism prohibit membership in or the payment of dues or fees to a labor union.” The students reportedly filed their charges through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a federal body responsible for enforcing worker laws that “make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex … national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.”
The Medieval Times Union Campaign Is Over
March 14, 2024 // Workers at the California castle went on an unfair labor practice strike last February, saying the company was refusing to bargain in good faith. The strike was meant to pressure Medieval Times into reaching a contract. The company flew in replacement knights — “scabs,” in union parlance — to fill in for those who’d walked off. Zapcic said it was hurtful to watch so many customers — including one she remembers with his union logo tattooed on his neck — crossing their picket line each night.
The UAW Has Set Its Sights on the Anti-Union South
March 8, 2024 // Young people are a crucial group for the campaign. In Alabama, very few young workers have ever been in a union, and their lack of familiarity with organized labor can prove a major stumbling block. While young people across the United States are particularly pro-union, their generational remove from the movement in the Deep South was a central factor in why workers voted against unionizing with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) at an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, just twenty-five miles up the road from MBUSI.