Posts tagged Public Sector Workers
Opinion: Six Ways to Hold Government Unions Accountable
January 10, 2025 // For generations, government unions have existed for their members to be organized and have a seat at negotiating tables. But for too long, the influence of those public employee unions has been less about negotiating raises and sick leave and more about funneling taxpayer dollars and volunteers toward partisan political activity that almost exclusively benefits the Left. Government unions should re-focus their energy and resources on their intended purpose: working on behalf of public-sector employees so those workers can do the job the American people hired them to do.
Illinois needs responsible Tier 2 pension reform
November 22, 2024 // Illinois is at risk of getting in costly trouble with the federal government over its Tier 2 public employee retirement benefits. Here’s a solution that doesn’t make the state’s monstrous public pension debt even worse. Illinois’ public pension problems are facing a new threat impacting the newer hires covered under the more modest “Tier 2” retirement benefits: the state can either add $280 million a year into their plans or face the feds demanding over $856 million a year.
Myths vs. Facts: Public Workers’ Janus Rights
November 7, 2024 // ALEC’s model Public Employee Rights and Authorization Act can help states reach full compliance. Its comprehensive reforms reiterate workers rights by ensuring that workers are unambiguously informed of their rights, have ample windows to make membership decisions, and can make labor decisions on an annual basis.
Canvassers respond to anti-Semitic demonstrations at UCLA
October 18, 2024 // While we are always looking to be respectful and informative, our canvassers have also been met with extremely vulgar attacks from none other than AFSMCE 3299 shop stewards. Just yesterday the pair was castigated for simply handing out literature and trying to engage with workers in front of the medical center. Profanities and threats of attacks were met with a polite, yet bold, resistance.
Commentary: Union power in Illinois: Shrinking membership and surging political clout
October 18, 2024 // On their face, the slow decline of the unionization rate in the Illinois workforce and the obstacles to public sector unionization created by the Janus decision could raise questions about the long-term viability of the labor movement in Illinois. But a closer look shows labor unions in Illinois are politically stronger than ever.
Op-Ed: Public Sector Unions Should Only Speak for Their Members
September 3, 2024 //
Commentary: Workers of the World, Vote!
September 3, 2024 // Labor Day is the traditional start of the campaign season, which means labor unions will soon hold get-out-the-vote efforts among their members. Yet a new study from the Institute for the American Worker finds that 95.1% of private-sector union members never voted to join their union. Worse, unions are getting more unrepresentative. Based on one estimate, the percentage of private-sector union members who have voted in a unionization election at their workplace has declined by 2 points since 2009. The lack of workplace democracy isn’t an accident. As unions have acknowledged, they have sought to organize more workers through card check, a process by which they can pressure workers into supporting unionization. Card check—a public form of signature gathering—deprives employees of secret-ballot elections, which would allow them to express their preferences without fear of being ostracized.
State of the unions: 8 facts you need to know about unions in Colorado
August 8, 2024 // Colorado is a modified “right to work” state because, under the state’s Labor Peace Act, workplaces with unions may hold a second election to become an all-union workplace. If at least 75% of eligible workers approve its Labor Peace Act election, the workplace becomes all-union, meaning every worker must join the union and pay dues. The act was passed in 1943 as a compromise between unions and business owners. In 2023 and 2024 to date, nine Labor Peace Act elections have been held — six won and three lost, according to the Colorado Fiscal Institute.
Unions applaud ‘most pro-union president in history’ following Biden’s decision to end campaign
July 24, 2024 // As president, Biden instituted reforms aimed at rebuilding the federal workforce, both increasing recruitment at federal agencies and restoring rights taken away during Trump’s first term in office. Shortly after taking office, he rescinded Schedule F, an abortive—though not abandoned—effort to reclassify tens of thousands of federal employees in policy-related jobs into the government’s excepted service, effectively making them at-will employees.
CUNY Professors Ask U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Case Challenging Forced Association with Antisemitism-Linked Union
July 23, 2024 // “Knight did not sanction a state forcing Jewish faculty members who are ardent Zionists to accept the representation of a union that supports policies they consider anti-Israel,” the petition continues. “The Court should grant this petition to clarify Knight and make clear that the First Amendment protects individuals’ right to dissociate themselves from advocacy groups that support policies contrary to their deeply held beliefs.”