Posts tagged Paycheck Protection
Op-ed: Tennessee: The nation’s best right-to-work state
May 13, 2025 // Community Benefits Agreements might sound benign, but in reality, they have become a tool for politically motivated groups to extract money and influence on the taxpayers’ dime. These agreements often dilute or divert economic incentives by forcing businesses to commit funds to causes, organizations or hiring mandates or quotas that go beyond their agreed-upon economic obligations. This new law will block special interests from cashing in on taxpayer-funded incentives.
Study shows how Missouri taxpayers are subsidizing teachers’ unions
March 13, 2025 // While it may not sound controversial, Straka explains the reality is that “union participation in NEOs [new employee orientations] is designed to pressure employees into joining the union, contributing to union political funds, and inculcating pro-union sentiment among employees.” “All of these meetings take place during work hours at the taxpayers’ expense,” he continues. “Missouri lawmakers should ensure that no teacher or public school employee is required by their employer to attend union events, listen to a union sales pitch, or otherwise interact with a union against their will.
Opinion: Six Ways to Hold Government Unions Accountable
January 10, 2025 // For generations, government unions have existed for their members to be organized and have a seat at negotiating tables. But for too long, the influence of those public employee unions has been less about negotiating raises and sick leave and more about funneling taxpayer dollars and volunteers toward partisan political activity that almost exclusively benefits the Left. Government unions should re-focus their energy and resources on their intended purpose: working on behalf of public-sector employees so those workers can do the job the American people hired them to do.
Government Unions are Down — But Not Out
September 10, 2024 // For nearly a decade, the Commonwealth Foundation has tracked state-by-state changes in labor laws. Every two years, the Commonwealth Foundation releases its research on the ever-changing legal landscape for public sector unions, assessing each state’s efforts to promote public employees’ rights or cave to unions’ entrenched influence. This fourth edition examines government unions’ attempts, following Janus, to hold onto and expand special legal privileges under state laws. The research also highlights the states reining in government unions’ power and influence by empowering workers.
Unions pursue law changes to boost membership
September 8, 2024 // “The overarching theme is that the unions have really responded to the membership losses since JANUS to drive up union membership,” Osborne said. In the JANUS decision, courts held that unions could no longer collect “fair share” dues from non-members who benefit from collective bargaining agreements. Follow-up litigation has challenged the cumbersome process many former members had to overcome to leave the union and recoup dues improperly withheld. In the report, states known as union “strongholds” scored lower than others that have enacted collective bargaining reforms.
Op-Ed: Florida vs. Michigan on Public Unions
August 30, 2024 // Each local union chapter must show that at least 60% of its eligible members are paying dues, or the state requires it to hold a new election. That sets teachers, clerks and custodians free from unions that haven’t won them over, and at least 20 units have been decertified in the past year. A few other states have also rolled back union coercion. Arkansas and Tennessee enacted paycheck protection for teachers. Kentucky legislators overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear to secure the same. On the other side of the trend is Michigan, where Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a repeal of paycheck protection for teachers last summer. She also ended a requirement that schools pay teachers based on merit instead of seniority alone
‘You better be ready for a fight’: Labor union warns Legislature not to target worker’s rights in Utah
March 6, 2024 // Pushback by Utah’s labor unions was enough to derail a pair of bills that aggressively targeted workers during this year’s legislative session. A show of force from Utah’s labor unions likely played a big hand in the outcome. HB429 sought to eliminate career path protections for new state employees, reclassifying them as “at will.” Right now, after a 6-month probationary period, state workers can only be fired “for cause.” The bill squeaked through the House of Representatives on a close vote, but died in a Senate committee after hundreds of Union members showed up in person to oppose the bill.
Tens of thousands of workers in Florida have just lost their labor unions. More is coming.
February 22, 2024 // The numbers are not being tracked or published by the state or any labor organization, so WLRN requested the records and created a public database to track the fallout of the law. Most affected employees perform core public sector jobs like teaching in schools, doing clerical work for state and local government, repairing engines and machinery for government agencies, answering 911 calls at call centers and working at city parks.
CELEBRATING THE HISTORIC JANUS DECISION FIVE YEARS LATER
June 27, 2023 //
DeSantis touts ‘Teacher Bill of Rights’ as he signs 5 education bills Tuesday in Miami
May 11, 2023 // “This bill gives Florida teachers a voice and a choice,” said Senior Labor Policy Advisor Vincent Vernuccio. “Teachers and other public workers will know their rights. They’ll know exactly how much union membership costs them each year. And they’ll know that, if their union isn’t serving them, they can do something about it.” Workers for Opportunity said the legislation drew from its proposed reforms giving employees more control over their paychecks and union representation.