Posts tagged S6477
New York: Union Pressure Aims to Hit Home
May 10, 2023 // The bill (S6477) was filed last month by Senate Civil Service and Pensions committee chair Robert Jackson. It would let the unions representing government workers request each person’s home address and subject employers to penalties if they don’t turn it over. In his bill memo, Jackson falsely claims this information is “necessary to represent their members under the duty of fair representation,” under the state’s public-sector collective bargaining law, the Taylor Law. The unions, however, have no legal or other obligation to contact someone who has chosen not to pay them. Those workers, among other things, don’t get to vote on union contracts or the union officers who negotiate on their behalf. The interest here is strictly financial: New York’s largest public employee unions have shrunk since 2018 due to both a reduction in public employment and people choosing not to join after the U.S. Supreme Court held they couldn’t be forced to pay a union. The rate of union membership in state government slid from 89 percent in 2018 to 85 percent last year.
New York: EDITORIAL: No right to know public employees’ addresses
May 10, 2023 // We believe information about public employees’ disciplinary records related to their jobs should be disclosed in many cases, especially when it affects public safety, such as in the case of police officers. Taxpayers have every right to know how public employees conduct themselves on their dime and to know how their supervisors handle accusations against public employees of malfeasance. The state Freedom of Information Law does not, nor should it, shield public employees from disclosure of actions that might embarrass them or make them look bad. We agree with that. But certain personal information about public employees — like their home addresses — should not be disclosed.