Posts tagged public sector unions
CALIFORNIA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES OPT OUT IN RECORD NUMBERS
December 15, 2022 // Momentum from the Freedom Foundation’s record-breaking October propelled California to its largest one-month opt-out total ever in November. A jaw-dropping 1,398 public employees submitted request forms during the month to the Freedom Foundation’s California team. As more and more workers at every level of government come to understand the right-to-work protections affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Janus v. AFSME (2018), anew wave of independent-minded thinking has arisen.
New California Law Forces Taxpayers to Pay for Union Members’ Dues
October 17, 2022 // On its surface, the law, Assembly Bill 185, provides $400 million of taxpayers’ money to a select group of people who purchase a private, optional service. (The so-called tax credit is refundable, or available to people who do not pay state income taxes, which makes it a payment instead of tax credit.) The stated intent “is to help individuals with the cost of being a member of a union.” But California lawmakers haven’t passed or proposed bills providing hundreds of millions of dollars to help individuals with the cost of becoming members of AAA or their local gym or farm bureau. So, why the special handouts for labor unions alone?
Top Unions Lost Nearly Quarter of a Million Members After Court Struck Down Mandatory Membership
September 30, 2022 // Report shows powerful public sector unions have stepped up lobbying efforts amid member exodus In the four years since the landmark Janus v. AFSCME ruling, the National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers, Service Employees International Union, and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees lost almost 219,000 union members. The report, published by the Commonwealth Foundation, found that the Supreme Court decision escalated a decades-long decline in dues-paying members at the public sector unions. Despite the drop in membership, labor groups have scored legal and political victories that are buoying their political power. Union bosses scored a major victory last year in Virginia, where they attained collective bargaining rights for government workers for the first time through the then-Democratic-controlled state house. The Missouri Supreme Court last year voided a law that would have required unions to have regular recertification votes and annual reports on political activity. Colorado, meanwhile, passed a law in 2020 that unionized its 30,000 state government employees. Jennifer Stefano, Rebecca Friedrichs, California Teachers Association,
How to Make Official Time Even Worse
August 10, 2022 // AFSCME Council 8 had included in its contract with Cincinnati that the city would divert the equivalent of four hours of annual vacation time from all city workers and give it to the union. Those funds would compensate the city for the official time used by union members. This didn’t save taxpayers anything, since they were still ultimately paying for the official time. Rather, what it did was take even more money away from the workers, who were already paying regular union dues. Most Cincinnati city workers had no idea this was happening. The practice has been discontinued following a lawsuit by the Freedom Foundation, which argued that the arrangement violated the Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus ruling, which said that government workers’ pay could only be diverted to unions with the workers’ affirmative consent.
CALIFORNIA; OPINION: WHEN WILL GOVERNMENT UNIONS STAND UP FOR ALL WORKERS?
July 20, 2022 // Government unions in California have the power to make changes that help everyone, instead of just their members. For starters, they can stop marching in solidarity with the teachers union, which is incorrigible. Then they can find common ground on at least some issues with conservatives, while agreeing to disagree on others. They might take on the environmentalists, by supporting spending on new water supply infrastructure and by helping to restore California’s timber industry.
What is Governor agreeing to in secret union employee compensation talks?
July 15, 2022 // Since the collective bargaining law went into full effect in 2004, union executives no longer have their priorities weighed equally with every other special interest during the legislative budget debate. Instead, they now negotiate directly with the Governor in secret, while lawmakers only have the opportunity to say “yes” or “no” to the entire contract agreed to with the Governor. Not only are there serious transparency concerns with this arrangement, but there are also potential constitutional flaws by unduly restricting the legislature’s constitutional authority to write the state budget. HB 1268, state budget, University of Washington Law Review, public budget process,
With allegations of hypocrisy, State House staffer union ups pressure on Senate President Spilka
July 1, 2022 // “The Senate has a once-in-a-generation moment to create a sustainable workplace legacy for State House staffers,” Wilson added. “We are asking the Senate President: Join us this [legislative] session,with the best interest of the Senate and the commonwealth in mind. Bargain with us. Move forward in partnership with us.” Mike Monahan, Tara Wilson, Mark Martinez, Beacon BLOC, anti-racist cultural shift, Ravi Simon,
Union Station: Public-sector labor policy litigation four years post-Janus
June 27, 2022 // We are currently tracking 144 pieces of legislation dealing with public-sector employee union policy. On the map below, a darker shade of green indicates a greater number of relevant bills. Click here for a complete list of all the bills we’re tracking.
Op-ed: Hunter Tower: In Pennsylvania, Janus is more relevant than ever
June 21, 2022 // Government employee unions responded to Janus by adopting a variety of still-being-litigated defensive strategies, including: only processing opt-out requests during a two-week annual window; challenging each request in court, forcing individual workers to battle the union’s well-financed legal team; subjecting union defectors to workplace harassment; and, when all else fails, forging the worker’s signature on membership documents. HB-2042, Charles Lane
Lawsuit claiming public-sector employees must be informed of Janus rights dismissed
April 12, 2022 // Judge John F. Kness of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed an Illinois teacher’s lawsuit claiming that, under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, public-sector unions are obligated to inform prospective members of their right not to join or pay fees to a union.