Posts tagged Public Sector
Commentary: The Media Are Doing Free PR for Big Labor
September 13, 2024 // According to a new report from the union watchdog Freedom Foundation (where I work), Big Labor’s return to the spotlight coincides with unionization efforts that have taken newsrooms by storm, securing one in six American journalists as dues-paying members. With journalists “more knowledgeable and sympathetic to labor issues” than ever before, recent union reporting insists that Big Labor is making a comeback; “that unions are good not only for individual workers but also for America itself”; and that legislation meant to ensure union accountability is a threat to democracy.
Back to school, back to the union? Commentary
September 9, 2024 // Union membership is a personal decision, and for a variety of reasons, thousands of Minnesota educators across the state have said no thanks to what the union is prioritizing. Just as educators encourage their students to be independent thinkers and hold true to themselves, so too should educators be trusted by their colleagues to make decisions that are best for them and their families. The right to say “no” to union membership is just as important as the right to say “yes” to it — but educators first need to know they actually do have a choice. And it’s important that respect exists for that choice.
Connecticut has most unionized public sector in the country
September 3, 2024 // Between 2018 and 2023, the number of public sector union members in Connecticut surged, making Connecticut the state with the highest percentage of unionized public sector workers in the country, and the fifth-highest rate of overall union membership, according to the latest numbers from Unionstats.com The figures, derived from Census data, show 15.8 percent of the state’s entire workforce is a union member, and 16.9 percent of workers are covered by a collective bargaining agreement. Those percentages have stayed relatively steady, but the actual numbers of union members have increased, even as Connecticut’s workforce has decreased.
The Accidental Success of the NLRA: How a Law about Unions Achieved Its Goals by Giving Us Fewer Unions
August 30, 2024 // The Wagner Act was passed to promote labor peace. It aimed to keep commerce flowing by promoting collective bargaining, and thus unionism. Taft-Hartley reversed one part of that policy: it helped make unionism, and thus collective bargaining, less common. But by doing so, it finally achieved labor law’s original goal. The labor market today is more peaceful than at any time in the last century. And that peace owes in large part to the relative scarcity of unions. That lesson is worth keeping in mind in contemporary debates. Today, voices on both sides of the aisle laud the benefits of unionism. They speak of unions as vehicles of workplace democracy—a productive way for workers to express their collective discontent. But unions have not always funneled discontent through peaceful channels: when given too much power, they have disrupted the avenues of commerce.
Union, hospital face more lawsuits from Michigan nurse over dues
August 23, 2024 // Madrina Wells, from Grand Blanc Township, had already sued Ascension Genesys Hospital and Teamsters in July, accusing them of threatening to fire her and a coworker for not signing forms authorizing the union to deduct dues from their paychecks. Now, Wells is filing additional complaints against those organizations for deducting union dues out of her paycheck anyway, without her providing the consent forms.
CUNY profs appeal to SCOTUS to leave anti-Semitic public sector union
July 31, 2024 // The National Right to Work Foundation (NRTW) and the Fairness Center, which are representing the professors, recently appealed to the Supreme Court to hear the case. The groups argue that compulsory union representation violates citizens’ right to freedom of association. The professors each resigned their membership from the union, CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY), following that group’s issuance of a pro-Hamas, anti-Israel resolution in 2021.
Thousands Of Virginia Public School Teachers And Staff Vote To Unionize
June 12, 2024 // The labor victory is the biggest for Virginia unions since Democratic lawmakers overturned a decadesold prohibition on public-sector bargaining.
CONNECTICUT: Senator’s Dual Roles Raise Ethical Questions Amid Legislative Decisions
April 29, 2024 // Citing the need to pay people “a fair wage and a fair pension,” Sen Hochadel argued that the state must provide higher wages — which already exceed the private sector — to address state job vacancies. This stance suggests a dual agenda: to attract job candidates to the state and swell the ranks of her union with more dues paying members. During her remarks, the Senator acknowledged her members, expressing appreciation for their contributions to the state of Connecticut and urged her colleagues “to vote yes.” While this advocacy may not be surprising, she also serves as the president of the Connecticut American Federation of Teachers (AFT) — one of the unions involved in the negotiations. AFT represents a broader group than just teachers. The union also includes dues paying members who are state employees in the executive and judicial branches, as well as staff at state colleges, universities and UConn Health.
Labor Union Strike Activity Increased 280% in 2023
March 20, 2024 // Crucially, the BLS data do not capture all strike activity because BLS only includes strikes involving 1,000 or more workers lasting at least one full shift. For example, a six-week strike involving 750 Temple University graduate student workers was not captured in the 2023 data, because it did not meet the BLS size limitations.
Big Labor’s death knell in Michigan
February 26, 2024 // The percentage of workers who are in a public or private sector union has collapsed. Almost 60% of government employees (a total of 350,000 people) used to be union members. Today, about 180,000 (or 39%) choose to remain. Public sector workers, unlike their counterparts in the private sector, are still free to leave their union under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME.