Posts tagged Pennsylvania
NLRB Rejects USW Union Boss Attempt to Impose Contract Workers Voted Down to Block Election to Remove Union
November 30, 2022 // Steelworkers union officials attempted to wield anti-worker “contract bar” to trap workers in union they oppose, using union contract workers twice rejected With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Kerry Hunsberger and her coworkers at Latrobe Specialty Metals Company have scored a victory in their effort to vote United Steelworkers (USW) union officials out of their facility. Hunsberger and her coworkers are challenging USW officials’ secret “ratification” of a union contract that workers had overwhelmingly voted down twice, and union officials’ contention that the employees should be barred from exercising their right to oust the union because of that contract. A decision from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Regional Director in Pittsburgh now orders a union “decertification election” to be held among Hunsberger and her colleagues on December 6. In August, Hunsberger submitted to the NLRB a petition backed by the requisite number of her colleagues to trigger such a vote, but USW union bosses dragged their feet and argued that a non-statutory NLRB policy, the so-called “contract bar,” should block the employees’ right to vote because a contract was in place.
Opinion: Hunter Tower: Teachers’ unions deserve no ‘amnesty’ for exploiting Covid fears
November 8, 2022 // “There’s no way that you’re going to have full-time schools for all the kids and all the teachers the way we used to have it,” Weingarten actually said in July 2020. A month later, when the American Academy of Pediatrics encouraged schools to reopen for classes in fall 2020, Weingarten opposed then-U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ efforts to reopen schools.
Home Depot workers vote against unionizing U.S. store
November 7, 2022 // Home Depot Workers United sought to unionize to address concerns regarding wages, staffing and training, said Vincent Quiles, interim president of Home Depot Workers United and a receiving associate at Home Depot. The independent union in mid-October filed an unfair labor practices charge against the retailer for engaging in unlawful surveillance and interrogating workers at the Philadelphia location, according to Home Depot Workers United. Home Depot said it will cooperate with the NLRB in the investigation and is confident it has not committed the alleged violations, according to a spokesperson.
Op-ed: Nothing Does More to Weaken Unions Than Union Leaders
November 2, 2022 // In 2018, before the Janus decision affirmed that teachers can refuse to support their unions’ radical politics, the CTA boasted 310,000 members. Today that number stands at 280,000 — a loss of more than 30,000 members and $36 million a year in lost dues revenue — much of which would have gone into campaign coffers to buy elected officials who would serve Big Labor’s interests.
Jamie Walker: Emails reveal state teachers’ union colluded with districts to keep schools closed unnecessarily
October 11, 2022 // "In 2020, I was told that the Commonwealth’s teachers’ union had no influence over the decision whether to reopen schools in Bucks County. Two years later, I learned that was a lie."
Art Museum workers continue strike into second week
October 6, 2022 // In the week since the strike began, there have been no negotiations between workers and management. After two years of negotiating, the union called a strike on September 26 when management came to the table with an offer to raise wages an average of 8.5% in the first 10 months of the contract, and 11% by July 2024, among other benefits such as four weeks of paid parental leave and accelerated eligibility for new employees to access medical coverage.
BIG LABOR’S AGENDA PUTS UNIONS FIRST, POLITICIANS SECOND, WORKERS LAST
September 23, 2022 // The only way to ensure real prosperity for Pennsylvania is for workers to leave their unions, taking their dues with them and spending it to improve their own lives rather than lining the pockets of union leaders and politicians who see them only as a piggy bank to be cracked open. The more public-sector employees the Freedom Foundation helps opt out of their union and stop paying dues, the less money the unions have to buy out their radical candidates and, in turn, create a fairer, more limited government through individual liberty and free enterprise.
Op-ed: Jerry Shenk: Time for pro-worker, pro-taxpayer labor reform
September 16, 2022 // Unions have poured millions of dues payers’ dollars into the campaigns of politicians who pass and preserve laws favoring unions, and who approve public service employee union members’ pay and benefits — especially pensions — that have impoverished municipalities, school districts, counties and states. The late economist Sylvester Petro observed that, because they are born out of state-backed coercion rather than a mutual exchange, American public service unions eventually face demise triggered by their own corruption. Tom Corbett,
Ohio: State of the Labor Unions
September 6, 2022 // The union membership rate in 2021 of public-sector workers (33.9%) continued to be more than five times higher than the rate of private-sector workers (6.1%). The highest unionization rates were among workers in education, training, and library occupations (34.6%) and protective service occupations (33.3%).
Workers at 14 nursing homes in Pennsylvania go on strike
September 3, 2022 // Workers from 14 nursing homes in Pennsylvania went on strike Friday after marathon contract negotiations failed to produce a deal. About 700 unionized workers walked off the job in a dispute over pay, benefits and staffing levels. Photos and video on social media showed picket lines going up outside many of the homes, with workers carrying signs and wearing the purple T-shirts of their union, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania.