Posts tagged Paycheck Protection
DeSantis stands up for teachers
February 10, 2023 // The governor’s proposal, dubbed a Teacher’s Bill of Rights, draws clear boundary lines between the interests of teachers and the interests of teachers unions. The proposal restores the rights of taxpayers and teachers, who don’t always support union politics. For example, DeSantis’s proposal would end the practice of union dues being deducted directly from teachers’ paychecks — a process undertaken at taxpayers’ expense. And the governor’s proposal would prohibit union officials from doing union work while on the clock for their taxpayer-funded job. Known as “release time,” the paid workday hours that public employees spend doing union work can add up. In Miami-Dade County alone, public employees spent 132,433 on-the-clock hours doing union work between fiscal 2017 and fiscal 2019, according to a James Madison Institute report. Those hours cost taxpayers more than $4 million. The governor has also taken aim at so-called “zombie unions,” which lack adequate documented support from the teachers they claim to represent.
Florida labor reforms have not strengthened unions
January 5, 2023 // In other words, Florida’s largest teachers union is down more than 9,000 members since 2019, or 6.3%. The labor reforms Florida is pursuing are good for teachers and other workers. Nobody should be forced to be represented by a political organization they oppose — so the Workplace Democracy Act, requiring unions to be recertified regularly, makes sense. And taxpayers should not be funding the withholding of money for political organizations — so Paycheck Protection to put an end to that is sound policy.
The Battle for Worker Freedom in the States: Grading State Public Sector Labor Laws
September 30, 2022 // In the four years following the Janus v. AFSCME U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the nation’s four largest government unions—AFSCME, SEIU, NEA, and AFT—have lost almost 219,000 union members. The Janus decision to end forced unionism for government workers accelerated a long-term decline in membership. In response, government unions are conducting aggressive campaigns to unionize new workers with recent successes in Virginia and Colorado.
Why Pennsylvania Needs Wisconsin-Style Government Union Reform
February 24, 2022 // Government union executives use this power to trap government employees in unions, deny them alternative representation, and lobby against fiscal and educational reforms needed to make Pennsylvania more prosperous.
Florida lawmakers must embrace pro-worker reforms | Opinion
February 10, 2022 // Government employees perform a public service for the people of our state. They’re not obligated to serve unions, too. By embracing the commonsense pro-worker reforms in Paycheck Protection, lawmakers would measurably improve the lives of state employees while making Florida an even better place to live, work and raise a family.
MOONEY: Free Speech Suit against Teacher’s Union Could Boost Labor Reform
January 25, 2022 // “Pennsylvania should not have unconstitutional laws on its books. Nor should we use taxpayer-funded payroll systems to collect campaign cash. Correcting these problems will empower public employees and help ensure fairness in government. It’s encouraging to see House lawmakers moving to protect employees’ private data and shine the light of transparency on deals that cost taxpayers millions of dollars.”
Paycheck protection needed to prevent government payroll from funding partisan political activism
January 19, 2022 // But a proposed “paycheck protection” bill would end this practice by prohibiting school districts, and other public employers, from automatically deducting contributions to political action committees out of employee wages.
‘We are in crisis mode’: Museum workers are turning to unions over conditions they say are untenable
November 4, 2021 // The coronavirus compounded the stressors of past years. According to a report by the American Alliance of Museums in April, museums in the United States locked their doors to the public for an average of 28 weeks starting in March 2020 because of the pandemic; nearly 30 percent remain shuttered today. Lost revenue from the forced closures hit the bottom line hard: Three-quarters of all museums surveyed said their income fell an average of 40 percent last year.