Posts tagged organized labor
Unionized Public Education is Destroying California
March 13, 2023 // The teachers’ union in California supported a ballot initiative that guarantees at least 38 percent of the state general fund is spent on K-14 public education. This guarantees that any new government program – such as last year’s single payer healthcare proposal that would have added hundreds of billions to the state budget – will pour more money into public education. This creates an incentive for California’s teachers’ unions to push for huge increases to the size of the state government, because they’ll get 38 percent of the pie no matter how big it gets. Because California’s public schools receive state funds based on attendance, the teachers’ union is also incentivized to support anything that will increase the student age population. Hence they have an incentive to support anything that will facilitate mass immigration, whether or not that puts a strain on housing and other services. If those students are from low-income households or don’t speak English as their first language, the per student allocations are increased.
Secret ballot vital in union elections
February 17, 2023 // Consider one example from the public sector. In 2018, the US Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees that public employees can’t be forced to join unions or pay union dues. The Commonwealth responded by passing legislation that allows public employee unions to agree to different terms for union members and non-members, giving unions the sole right to negotiate lesser pay and reduced benefits on behalf of the non-members. The law also promotes tried and true intimidation tactics by giving unions access to employees’ personal information, including home addresses; work, home, and personal cellphone numbers; along with work and personal email addresses. Anyone in Massachusetts public policy circles knows the Commonwealth’s unions aren’t interested in using that information to augment their holiday card lists.
Worker strikes and union elections surged in 2022 – could it mark a turning point for organized labor?
January 10, 2023 // The increase in strike activity is also important. And while the major strikes that involve 1,000 or more employees and are tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics arouse the greatest attention, they represent only the tip of the iceberg. The bureau recorded 20 major strikes in 2022, which is about 25% more than the average of 16 a year over the past two decades.
Chris Smalls Taunts Musk, Says ‘Disgruntled’ Employee Wants Help Unionizing
November 30, 2022 // Labor organizer Chris Smalls taunted Elon Musk Monday evening, saying a "disgruntled" Tesla employee reached out to him, seeking help with unionizing. Smalls tweeted an image showing an email he received from an unidentified individual with the subject line: "Organizing activity at Tesla." He captioned the picture with a barb aimed at Musk, the Tesla CEO who has made headlines in recent weeks over his purchase of social media giant Twitter.
Tennessee’s Amendment 1 would add right-to-work to state’s constitution, unions oppose it
September 26, 2022 // "Through unions, employees can be forced to join something that they disagree with," said Justin Owen, the president of the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a conservative think tank. "That violates their freedom of association and should ultimately be left up to the individual. Tennessee has a complicated constitutional amendment process. For Amendment 1 to pass, it must receive more yes votes than no votes. In addition, the number of yes votes must also be greater than 50% of all the votes cast in the governor's election.
Blue Lake Rancheria workers form first tribal union in county
September 22, 2022 // The new grievance process allows employees to contest disciplinary actions levied against them by management in a four-step process starting with their day-to-day bosses, going to human resources, mediation and ending with tribal chair Jason Ramos as the arbiter. The union would gather evidence regarding the specific contested action and inform the person contesting discipline whether or not the union believes their punishment was warranted.
Support for labor unions has increased, but union membership is at an all-time low
September 9, 2022 // Harvard Business School also keeps data on union membership in countries around the world, since the late 19th century. Since their data goes back even further than the BLS data, we can see that the all-time peak for union membership was in the mid-1960s, when it exceeded 30 percent. Like the BLS data, Harvard’s figures show the percentage of the workforce in a union has been steadily declining for decades, and has recently reached lows not seen since before World War II.
Biden Loves Labor Unions But Blue-Collar Workers Don’t Love Him Back
September 8, 2022 // Macomb County, Michigan, is home to an old guard of auto manufacturing tradesmen and a new generation of young organizers in the service and cannabis industries. The jolt of organizing energy that Biden has failed to harness has come from baristas, warehouse workers and others in the service sector, whose low-wage jobs are replacing reliable, higher-paid ones on assembly lines in Macomb and elsewhere. Alyssa Coakley, Celine McNicholas,
Opinion: Newsom, Like Biden, Believes Selling out to Unions Is His Path to the Presidency
August 5, 2022 // Newsom’s resume is littered with union sellouts — which goes a long way toward explaining how he’s managed to turn the Golden State into an open cesspool — but the most recent was his approval on June 27 of a state budget that has the potential to force taxpayers to subsidize union dues while handing California’s labor unions an unprecedented handout to shore up their Janus-depleted finances. The so-called “Workers’ Fairness Tax Credit” would convert union dues from a tax deduction to a tax credit. The budget earmarks $200 million to “begin” a policy of paying union members for paying union dues John Moorlach, Jon Coupal, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association, Dan Walters, CalMatters, California Labor Federation, Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, House of Representatives,
Most Unionized Occupations
August 2, 2022 // But unionization has been on a steady downward trajectory in recent decades. Workers in heavily unionized fields like manufacturing lost power amid the economic downturn and high unemployment of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Globalization and free trade agreements made it easier for employers to offshore jobs to less expensive labor markets, and automation and other technological advances have also decreased the number of workers in unionized jobs. Deregulation and other policy changes like right-to-work laws have decreased union strength. These shifts sharply cut down the share of U.S. workers in unions.