Posts tagged U.S. Supreme Court
Labor demands return of union apprentice jailed in El Salvador
April 20, 2025 // Abrego Garcia’s fate has drawn enormous national attention, including from the union movement. SMART has been demanding his return and asking supporters to call their member of Congress. The national AFL-CIO is echoing that call. At the annual legislative conference put on by North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), NABTU president Sean McGarvey also spoke up for Abrego Garcia.
NEW HAMPSHIRE: ‘Right-to-work’ bill voted down once again
February 17, 2025 // "This bill is not anti-union, it is pro-worker," said Creighton, who pointed out it remains part of the state GOP platform. "This is vital to fair employment practices. Workers and employers should have the option to negotiate their own agreements. We owe it to our constituents to hear these arguments." Rep. Daniel Popovici-Muller, R-Windham, authored the bill and said it would be a "win-win" for the state, allowing employees to avoid having to financially support unions. "Many union members are unhappy with the performance of union managers, but have no option to air those grievances," Popovici-Muller said.
Conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice steps aside in pivotal union rights case
January 31, 2025 // A conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice said Thursday he will not participate in a pending case that will determine whether tens of thousands of public sector workers regain collective bargaining rights that were taken away by a 2011 law. Justice Brian Hagedorn drafted the law, known as Act 10, when he was chief legal counsel for then-Gov. Scott Walker. His decision to recuse himself from the case leaves the court with four liberal justices and two conservatives.
New Hampshire to consider ‘right to work’ proposal
January 29, 2025 // Not surprisingly, union leaders oppose the 'right to work' legislation, arguing that it prevents workers from negotiating higher wages and conflicts with contractual agreements between workers and employers. ‘Right to work’ legislation has been debated in New Hampshire for decades but has failed to win enough support to become a law. The Legislature approved a ‘right to work’ bill in 2011 but was vetoed by then-Gov. John Lynch. The most recent effort came in 2021 when Democrats blocked a Republican-led proposal to prevent labor unions from collecting dues from private sector workers.
Michigan University Hospital, union feud over parking spots
January 28, 2025 // Labor unions typically bargain on behalf of employees over paid time off, worker pay and workplace conditions. But unions and employers also fight over unconventional issues such as the price of vending machine food and how many criminal offenses a teacher may have and stay on the job. Nurses prevailed last month in a struggle over parking lot protocols. The University of Michigan altered employee parking arrangements to create more spaces for patients. The Michigan Nurses Association in 2019 demanded that the university make more parking spaces available for nurses and requested to bargain over the issue.
REPORT: How government unions work against interests of private-sector unions, taxpayers
January 22, 2025 // First, there is no archetypal profit motive in the government sector. Congress passed laws promoting collective bargaining in the private sector to prevent the exploitation of workers by employers who were seeking to increase their profits through long work hours and poor working conditions.
Wichita abortion clinic workers join same union as city and school district employees | Opinion
December 17, 2024 // “Some of our units over in Missouri take care of health care workers,” Freeman said. “There’s also an SEIU nurses’ union. A lot of them are up in Kansas City area. This was just something local that was within our reach. And we’ve got several small units like Rolling Hills Zoo and the Eisenhower (Presidential) Library and Museum in Abilene.” Trust Women is at the same location and is the successor to the east Wichita clinic formerly run by the late Dr. George Tiller, who was gunned down in his church by an antiabortion fanatic in 2009. Read more at: https://www.kansas.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/dion-lefler/article297013309.html#storylink=cpy
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.
‘Unprecedented’ lawsuit could roll back farmworker union wins from 2023 California law
August 25, 2024 // The Wonderful lawsuit is the latest legal challenge brought forth by employers against the ALRB and the state’s landmark 1975 Agricultural Labor Relations Act. This law was the first in the country to grant farmworkers the right to collective bargaining without retaliation, which farmworkers were not granted under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. The exclusion was rooted in racism because, at the time, many of those workers were Black.
Commentary: California’s Unions Lost Their Long Battle Against Uber and Lyft
August 13, 2024 // The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled that ridesharing drivers can be exempted from California's crackdown on independent contracting.