Posts tagged political activities

    Flight Attendant Fired Over Religious Beliefs at Behest of TWU Union and Southwest Airlines Wins Reinstatement

    December 8, 2022 // With free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, former Southwest Airlines flight attendant Charlene Carter has again triumphed in her federal lawsuit charging Transport Workers Union (TWU) officials and Southwest with illegally firing her over her religious beliefs and opposition to the union’s political activity. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas this week ordered Southwest and the union to give Carter the maximum amount of compensatory and punitive damages permitted under federal law, plus back-pay, and other forms of relief that a jury originally awarded following Carter’s victory in a July trial.

    California teachers union spends over $2.8 million on school board elections

    November 13, 2022 // This year, unions backed multiple ballot propositions on topics such as the “Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond” in New York or Colorado’s Proposition FF to raise taxes to fund a school meal program. The trend of union involvement in politics is nothing new. Unions bankrolled over $1.8 billion in political lobbying and political activities in the 2020 election cycle, $1.4 billion of which came from union dues. AFFT offers detailed breakdowns of union spending on our website.

    Florida Teachers’ Union Bleeding Members

    November 3, 2022 // The Florida Education Association (FEA) lost more than 4,500 members – a 3.3 percent drop – in just the 2020-21 school year. By comparison, the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) lost 2.3 and 2.1 percent of their memberships, respectively, in the same single school year.

    Debunking Democrats’ Union Myths

    September 14, 2022 // American headlines are saturated with an outpouring of pro-union activity and support; major news outlets claim that interest in union organizing is increasing at companies across the country. In reality, a slim percentage of America’s workers are interested in joining a union even as Democrats and the Biden administration assemble task forces and mandate union support. To help cut through the nonsense spread by the Left, we separate myth from fact:

    California’s Latest Gift to Big Labor

    September 8, 2022 // California may have fired the first shot in an interstate political arms race. If lawmakers in blue states begin forcing taxpayers to fund national progressive political organizations, politicians in red states will inevitably feel that forcing their respective tax bases to subsidize conservative groups is necessary and justified. It doesn’t take much imagination to see how this could accelerate the nation’s descent into extreme partisanship and winner-take-all governance. Given the already precarious state of civil society, that’s the last thing the country needs.

    National View: Union members doing the math, withdrawing dues

    July 6, 2022 // As more and more teachers learn they have a right not to fund labor leaders’ lavish lifestyles and a political agenda they may not agree with — especially when gas and groceries have become increasingly expensive — they begin doing the math on how stopping union dues deductions can alleviate some of their financial burdens. The problem is that most teachers are not even aware of their rights under Janus, and that’s because the teachers union officials do not want them to be educated about their options. Washington Post, Charles Lane, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, Denise Specht, Bernadette Burnham, Rodney Rowe

    The history of right to work, 75 years later

    June 27, 2022 // “Right to Work is on the move,” Mix said despite Big Labor’s efforts. Five states passed Right to Work laws over the past decade and the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in a NRWLDF-won case in 2018, he notes. In Janus v. AFSCME, the U.S. Supreme Court held that forcing any public sector worker to pay union dues as a condition of employment violated their First Amendment rights. Mix and others are urging Congress to instead to pass the National Right to Work Act, which would eliminate forced union dues powers from federal law and provide Right to Work protections for employees nationwide.

    Illinois worker alleges union taking wages for political activity

    June 22, 2022 // Mary Beck, who works at Penn Aluminum International in Murphysboro, has filed a federal charge against the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 702, saying it had no legal authority to deduct from her paychecks and use the funds for political activity. Village of Carpentersville firefighters, Service Employees International Union Local 73,

    Teamsters Officials Hit With Federal Charges for Having USF Holland Worker Illegally Fired

    June 9, 2022 // Jannie Potgieter, who up until recently was a freight employee at industrial park USF Holland in Jackson, Minnesota, has filed federal charges against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 120 union and his employer. Mr. Potgieter’s charges say that Teamsters bosses became hostile because he exercised his right not to be a union member, and that USF Holland officials illegally terminated him at Teamster officials’ behest. Mr. Potgieter is receiving free legal representation from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys. Remmington Duk, Robert Basil Buick GMC, International Association of Machinists, Jackson