Posts tagged Public Sector Workers
City Workers Ditch Unions, Skip Dues, Following Supreme Court Ruling
November 2, 2023 // Pre-Janus, public sector employees had the option to explicitly opt out of union membership thanks to an earlier Supreme Court decision but still had to pay “agency fees” out of their paychecks to the unions. Union leaders, including New York City’s Municipal Labor Committee, warned before the decision of potentially large declines in union membership if signing up became optional. Any dramatic loss of dues-paying union members could threaten unions’ operations or even their ability to exist – a possibility on the horizon in some so-called “right to work” states.
Supreme Court ruled public sector workers cannot be forced to pay dues; unions take them anyway
October 28, 2023 // After the Janus ruling, Ms. Quezambra sought to invoke her rights to stop the involuntary union dues payments, demanding she be refunded going back to 2013. The union refused on the grounds that she had allowed the union to make the deductions. This was news to Ms. Quezambra. The union “presented Ms. Quezambra a membership and dues deduction authorization card containing a forged signature that she purportedly signed. Ms. Quezambra did not sign this card,” her complaint states.
Say it again, Supremes: Forced union dues in government are illegal
October 27, 2023 // Alaska’s largest public sector union fought the new system in court. In May, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled for the union and ordered the state to revert to the old system. Now the US Supreme Court is being urged to weigh in. If the Alaska Supreme Court decision stands, Janus will have been neutered. So the state of Alaska, 11 other states, and eight public policy institutes are saying to the justices, in effect: “You made your decision. Now enforce it.” Public sector workers who choose to support a union must be free to do so. Employees who choose not to must be equally free. The Supreme Court said as much five years ago, but it needs to say so again.
Record number of public employees abandoned their unions this quarter
October 10, 2023 // “I couldn’t be more proud of the work the Freedom Foundation is doing to help people keep more of their hard-earned paychecks and stop funding distant, bloated, ideological government unions," Freedom Foundation CEO Aaron Withe said in a statement. "These aren’t merely statistics; they represent thousands of public employees exercising their constitutional right not to be forced to fund union activity as a condition of employment. “It’s gratifying to know that as the cost of everyday goods and services continues to rise, our work is directly helping people put more gas in their car or food on their table rather than line the pockets of union bosses who back the very policies causing many of the country’s economic hardships,” Withe said. Public unions nationwide have about 7 million members and subsequently collect over $5 billion annually in dues. As the average annual rate of dues is $1,000, the Freedom Foundation estimates that $13 million was saved with the third quarter opt-outs alone.
Unions seek gains in hostile territory: ‘If you change the South, you change America’
September 15, 2023 // The Union of Southern Service Workers, an SEIU-backed group, is organizing low-wage workers from across the service industry. The National Domestic Workers Alliance, a non-union membership organization, is mapping blue-leaning Southern jurisdictions, such as Miami-Dade County, that could be open to enacting a floor of labor standards for homecare. That effort has already led to the passage of “Bill of Rights” legislation in 10 states and four cities. And the Southern Workers Assembly, an advocacy group for both union and non-union workers, is trying to educate and organize workplaces across the region.
As L.A. City Hall staffers consider unionizing, competing unions seek to woo them
September 12, 2023 // The city work force, like the vast majority of the public sector work force across California, is heavily unionized. Staffers for elected officials, however, have long been at-will employees — they can be hired without dealing with civil service requirements, but also lack the protections that a civil service job confers. That’s the norm for staffers to elected officials across the country. But the City Hall effort is far from an outlier.
Fetterman introduces bill to allow striking workers to collect SNAP benefits
July 28, 2023 // The Food Secure Strikers Act comes amid a summer wave of union organizing activity — from locomotive plant workers in Erie to Hollywood writers and actors. A strike by newsroom workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Fetterman’s hometown newspaper, has been going on for nearly a year. “Every union worker who is walking the picket line this summer needs to know that we have their back here in Washington,” Fetterman said in a statement. “The union way of life is sacred. It’s what built Pennsylvania and this nation. It is critical for us to protect workers’ right to organize, and that includes making sure they and their families have the resources to support themselves while on strike.”
Federal court hands down a major conviction of corrupt union bosses
July 2, 2023 // "LEEBA inflicted severe damage on its members over the years, to the point that it created division, disgust and disdain," said Bruce Mateer, a former member of the union. "Thanks to LEEBA, we have one of the worst-paid police departments in the entire state of New York and we lack proper retirement benefits. LEEBA is supposed to serve their members, but both contracts that LEEBA signed did not meet their members’ needs." Labor unions are supposed to have one simple function: represent their workers during negotiations with management and try to get the best deal possible. Kenneth Wynder and his cronies are unfortunately just the latest in a long tradition of union bosses who decided to make enriching themselves their No. 1 priority.
Know your Janus rights: Government employees still can’t be forced to pay unions in Michigan
March 31, 2023 // “Passing bills that are currently unconstitutional can mislead employees into believing that the law has changed and that they must now pay a union,” said Steve Delie, director of labor policy at Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “Public sector employees across the country have a First Amendment right to not pay a union thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus v. AFSCME decision. Repealing right-to-work does nothing for public sector employees except cause confusion.”
Opinion: Labor unions, workers and the need to think outside the box
February 23, 2023 // The California Policy Center reports that as of December 2022, 27.1% of eligible public employees in California have chosen not to pay into government unions. Last November, employees of the local union SEIU 2015, a statewide union representing public employees in California, went on strike alleging unfair labor practices at SEIU 2015. Every two year election cycle hundreds of millions of dollars worth of membership dues from public sector unions in California alone are spent financing elections and lobbying efforts. And, because of a longstanding California employment law, employees from the University of California system are now being forced to repay wages they received while on strike last fall. These examples point to a larger issue: traditional unions are not protecting and supporting their own members.