Posts tagged union fees
Despite President Joe Biden’s repeated boasts, union membership continues to fall
July 18, 2023 // Union members do not always agree with Democrats on policy matters. Biden's own green energy agenda is coming up against labor resistance, with organized auto workers prepared to strike over the hazards and lack of benefits in electric vehicle production. Biden must also work to keep blue-collar union members from slipping into the Republican column as candidates like former President Donald Trump play up American manufacturing and the virtues of import tariffs. But more recent headlines showcase unions fighting their traditional battles over pay, benefits, and worker protections.
A bill that changes how union dues and fees are collected is headed to the Governor’s desk
April 27, 2023 // Lanny Mathis is the President of North Central Florida Central Labor Council who represents nearly 3,000 people. He says payment changes are just one of his concerns. The legislation also proposes to raise union membership from 50% to 60 % of those eligible to join or they could face decertification. The legislation does not effect law enforcement including: fire fighters and correctional officers.
Will Michigan politicians force workers to pay corrupt unions?
March 3, 2023 // The UAW in Michigan has lost about 10,000 members in the past decade, despite job increases in manufacturing. Why? Michigan lawmakers passed a right-to-work law in 2012 that freed workers from being forced to contribute to labor unions. That may soon change. Democrats control the state Legislature, and labor unions are their largest political funders. Forcing the more than 140,000 Michigan workers who have left their unions to contribute dues or fees would bring tens of millions of dollars in additional revenue to organized labor. When it comes to the United Auto Workers, its former members had some good reasons to leave. The past decade has seen rampant corruption in the UAW.
Opinion: Union partisanship puts conservatives in a bind
February 1, 2023 // A bill under consideration in the legislature, HB 216, would address these problems by requiring government employers to annually notify employees that union membership is optional, allowing public employees to cancel dues deductions from their paychecks at will, and creating a process to challenge unconstitutional provisions in union collective bargaining agreements. Like any other business, unions function best when they’re accountable to their clients, but accountability only exists if customers have the option to leave.
Michigan could become first state in nearly 60 years to ditch ‘right-to-work’ law
January 13, 2023 // Michigan was not the first state to enact right-to-work. But it is a state steeped in labor history now poised to become the first state in nearly 60 years to ditch such a law, with Democrats controlling the executive and legislative branches of state government for the first time in four decades.
Former NKY worker at Duro Hilex Poly tells state official that steelworkers union forced her to be a member
July 7, 2022 // The complaint notes that Local 832 officials are illegally demanding both union membership and full dues payment from workers as a condition of staying employed, a clear violation of the Commonwealth’s Right to Work law that makes union membership and financial support strictly voluntary. The employee, Melva Hernandez, is receiving free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. She maintains that the company deducted dues money illegally from her paycheck for the union as the result of a forced unionism contract provision that cannot lawfully be enforced in Kentucky. Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet Secretary, Melva Hernandez, Kentucky Labor Cabinet, USW Local 832 President Tara Purnhagen,
Northern KY Worker Asks State Official to Prosecute Steelworkers Union for Violating Kentucky Right to Work Law
July 1, 2022 // After Hernandez tendered her resignation to Purnhagen, “Ms. Purnhagen scolded and harassed me, accusing me of trying to convince my fellow co-workers to drop their union memberships,” Hernandez’s complaint says. Purnhagen also forbade Hernandez from discussing with her coworkers reasons to refrain from union membership. “As of today’s filing, the company and the union have not reimbursed me for the money seized in union dues in violation of Kentucky law,” the complaint says. Kentucky’s Right to Work law, Kentucky Labor Cabinet, USW Local 832 President Tara Purnhagen, Kentucky Labor Cabinet Secretary,
Teamsters Officials Hit With Federal Charges for Having USF Holland Worker Illegally Fired
June 9, 2022 // Jannie Potgieter, who up until recently was a freight employee at industrial park USF Holland in Jackson, Minnesota, has filed federal charges against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 120 union and his employer. Mr. Potgieter’s charges say that Teamsters bosses became hostile because he exercised his right not to be a union member, and that USF Holland officials illegally terminated him at Teamster officials’ behest. Mr. Potgieter is receiving free legal representation from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys. Remmington Duk, Robert Basil Buick GMC, International Association of Machinists, Jackson