Posts tagged public-sector union
California Policy Center: The unions that count California’s votes
June 15, 2026 // Union contracts also make the organized workforce harder to bypass or supplement. Los Angeles, like other counties, must give notice and bargain before contracting out work its represented employees have historically done, so a registrar facing a slow count cannot simply bring in outside help. This dependency deepened when California began mailing a ballot to every active registered voter during the COVID pandemic. A mailed ballot adds a labor-intensive chain not required for in-person ballots, including signature verification, envelope opening, extraction, and scanning, often performed by permanent unionized staff over weeks. The count has thus consolidated into a single central operation dependent on a unionized workforce.
CTDOL Finally Enforces the Union Transparency Law It Tried to Kill
May 24, 2026 // Frank Ricci, Yankee Institute’s labor fellow, argued that CTDOL’s reversal came only after outside pressure and legislative scrutiny. “Laws are worthless if the powerful can simply ignore them,” he said. “This statute exists to deter the misuse of funds and stamp out corruption — yet it was treated as optional by those sworn to uphold it.” That is the real story here. Connecticut’s public-sector unions enjoy enormous privileges under state law. Government employers collect dues on their behalf. Union contracts shape public budgets. Union leaders exercise political influence at the Capitol. At minimum, members should be able to see how their own money is being used. Transparency is not anti-union. It is pro-worker. Honest union leaders should have no fear of showing members the books. Members who pay dues should not have to hire lawyers, contact legislators, or embarrass a state agency into action simply to obtain records the law already guarantees.
Unions Brace to Bargain With New Boss Zohran Mamdani
December 2, 2025 // At a party during SOMOS, the annual Puerto Rico getaway for New York’s political class, District Council 37 executive director Henry Garrido proudly introduced Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to a packed outdoor crowd at the Caribe Hilton of jubilant union officials, political insiders and government lobbyists. Just days after Mamdani’s election, the public display of support from the union leader — highlighted with a hug — underscored the emerging alliance between the incoming mayor and the leader of New York City’s largest public-sector union. That bond is about to be tested, or at least leaned on more than ever before
This Federal Bureaucrat Allegedly Lied About Taking Money From His Union
September 27, 2025 // The indictment, obtained by The Daily Signal, also alleges that Lendo “did take and carry away, with intent to steal and purloin, money from one or more bank accounts, of a value exceeding $1,000” between July 18, 2014, and July 30, 2021. Lendo was no longer serving as president of the union in May, according to the Department of Labor. As recently as August, Lendo listed the VA as his employer when giving $150 to the AFGE’s political action committee.
National Right to Work Foundation Files Legal Brief Defending Wisconsin Act 10 as Union Bosses Seek to Regain Coercive Powers
July 10, 2025 // The Foundation’s amicus brief also states that the Dane County Circuit Court failed to consider whether, instead of striking down Act 10 as a whole, it could have expanded the statute’s pro-employee liberty provisions to cover all public departments to correct the alleged imbalances the court perceives in the law. “[T]he Circuit Court could have expanded the protection of Act 10’s re-certification requirements to all public employees in the State,” the brief says. In addition to Act 10’s benefits for independent-minded public workers, public spending analyses indicate that the law has relieved Wisconsin taxpayers from the enormous financial weight of wasteful union contracts. Some estimates show that Act 10 has saved the state roughly $35 billion since it was enacted.
Pa. Worker Sues Union, State Over Mishandled Promotion
June 13, 2025 // Veteran state employee Todd Burns was in line for a well-deserved promotion until state officials allegedly violated his employment contract to promote someone less qualified but who had close ties to management. Burns turned to his union for help, only for AFSCME, Council 13, to refuse to defend the contract, despite his many years as a dues-paying member. Now, Burns is suing his union for violating state law by failing to provide him with fair representation and his employer, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), for breaking his employment contract.
MARYLAND: Gov. Wes Moore, lawmakers stand with unionized state and federal employees
March 25, 2025 // The bill passed out of the House chamber with an amendment to provide an additional $1.5 million to Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat, to sue the Trump administration on behalf of terminated federal employees. It has yet to move in the Senate chamber.
(I4AW) Report Shows Extent of Tax Dollars Spent on Public-Sector Unionism
January 17, 2025 // After the last official report was compiled in 2019, the OPM stopped reporting the hours and costs involved in union-related “official time” despite repeated calls from House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx for President Trump’s 2018 Executive Order to be honored. Pushback continued in 2023 when Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) directed a letter to the OPM querying why the website reporting page went missing in July of that year, only to be told the site was undergoing “maintenance”. In March of last year, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) introduced legislation entitled the Taxpayer-Funded Union Time Transparency Act which called on a return to reporting on the part of the OPM regarding time spent on collective bargaining. In August, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced a bill entitled the No Union Time on the Taxpayer’s Dime Act to curtail union activities by federal employees during work hours. All these attempts to increase transparency for taxpayers were roadblocked by Democrats in Congress and even now, the site still has not re-emerged – making I4AW’s report even more critical.
WASHINGTON: State worker tells peers, ‘WFSE isn’t worth it’
November 13, 2024 // His supervisor somehow found out about his disability and began treating him differently. To his shock, he learned his supervisor had divulged his private, HIPAA-protected medical information while he was out for surgery. He immediately turned to WFSE, asking for protection from this unfair treatment. His union representative assured him they would take care of it. But weeks passed, and the gossip and bullying continued.
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.