Posts tagged union membership
Worker Who Criticized Union Official Defeats Attempt to Slap Him with Restraining Order
October 26, 2023 // In the more recent dispute over the restraining order, the UIA chapter president sought such an order against Cruz because he made Facebook posts criticizing the union’s representation of employees and the chapter president’s performance, specifically describing the chapter president as “lazy.” The union official claimed that a restraining order was necessary because Cruz would have to be stalking him to know of his “lazy” behavior. The UIA chapter president identified no evidence other than the Facebook posts themselves. Foundation attorneys rebutted this outrageous theory. “Reynaldo Cruz’s Facebook posts are protected speech and activity that lawfully criticize and oppose the UIA President’s leadership, not ‘gestures or actions intended to intimidate, threaten, or pursue’ the union president or his family,” Cruz’s motion to dismiss reads. On October 17, 2023, a trial court judge dismissed the UIA official’s charges against Cruz.
23 American Industries With the Highest Union Membership Today
September 29, 2023 // The most highly unionized U.S. sector is educational services, where nearly 30% of workers are union members and one in three workers are covered by union representation. This includes nearly 3.5 million of the country’s 9 million elementary and secondary school teachers who are part of organized labor. Public administration is the second-most unionized industry with about 28% union membership. For example, about 41% of the nearly 2.8 million workers involved in justice, public order, and safety activities — a category that includes police officers and firefighters — carry union cards. In third place: One out of five transportation and warehousing workers are union members.
Commentary: Leaked Messages From UAW Official Reveal a Big Cause of Unions’ Decline
September 28, 2023 // If union officials actually want to protect UAW jobs and improve workers’ compensation, then they have to want the Big Three American automakers to succeed and to grow. Considering that U.S. auto production is less than half of what it was two decades ago, success is likely going to require that the UAW work alongside—rather than against—U.S. automakers to help them become more competitive. To the extent that involves lobbying policymakers, the focus should be on getting the government out of the business of picking winners and losers by its subsidizing of more expensive electric vehicles that require 40% less labor while also seeking to ban gas-powered vehicles that Americans still overwhelmingly desire. And if unions across America want to increase their membership, they should appeal directly to workers by offering things they value instead of using their dues to get politicians to go against their interests by doing things like attacking secret ballot union elections, restricting employers’ ability to share important information with workers before union elections, and establishing a pathway to force an employer to bargain with a union even if workers don’t want to be represented by it.
Despite rising number of strikes, union memberships remains low
September 7, 2023 // While the rate of work stoppages in 2023 is on pace to break the record set last year, union membership is still lagging at a record-low. So far, there have been 251 strikes in 2023, compared to 417 in 2022, according to data compiled by Cornell University’s Labor Action Tracker. Last year’s 10.1% unionization rate was the lowest on record, however, and workers have a long way to go to reach the 20% rates not seen in 20 years. While no comprehensive data exists detailing the success rate of recent worker strikes or labor disputes nationwide, some union workers have gotten their way this year.
Here’s why the US labor movement is so popular but union membership is dwindling.
September 6, 2023 // Labor laws in the US make it more difficult for employees to form unions: Around 27 states have passed "Right to Work" laws, making it more difficult for workers to unionize. These laws provide union representation to nonunion members in union workplaces– without requiring the payment of union dues. It also gives workers the option to join a union or opt out. Workplace sectors that were traditionally union strongholds, now make up less of the workforce, such as manufacturing, transportation, and construction.
Elisabeth Messenger: Where Do Your Union Dues Go?
September 1, 2023 // I think when a union can stay very independent and hyper-local, it can be what it was meant to be, and that is a force to speak for all, to help all, to protect all, to raise all at the same time. But again, it’s only when it’s independent it’s not tied to a national, bloated corporate union. And it’s only when it’s at the local level.
Commentary: When Wokeness Implodes: An Irony-Steeped Showdown in Florida, Echoes of Janus v. AFSCME, and a Fresh Start for Florida’s Public Employees
July 3, 2023 // In an environment of “wokeness,” the NEA—one of the largest teachers’ unions in the country—is tasting a bitter concoction of its own brewing, served up by its ideological kin, the Saint Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE). The SPFE has declared a boycott of the NEA’s 2023 Representative Assembly in Orlando, Fla., in response to the NAACP’s travel advisory warning of Florida’s purported hostility toward African Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals. This irony-steeped drama unfolds alongside the fifth anniversary of Janus v. AFSCME, a landmark ruling that strengthened public employees’ rights by allowing them the freedom to choose whether to join and pay dues to a union. Federal reports show a drop in the NEA’s membership of more than 200,000 workers (7.6 percent) since the Janus decision. The Freedom Foundation, in that same period, has assisted more than 143,000 government employees in opting out of their unions. This legacy of empowerment starkly contrasts with the NEA’s current predicament, where ideology appears to overshadow dialogue and mutual respect.
Five Years Later, Janus Is Decimating Government Unions
June 30, 2023 // Government unions never should have exercised so much control over so many people for so many years. The Supreme Court righted this wrong in 2018, and five years later, more than a million public sector workers have exercised their freedom, keeping at least $720 million of their hard-earned money every year. These numbers are all but certain to grow over the next five years. Perhaps by the 10th anniversary of the Janus decision, government unions will admit how much they’re hurting and change to a less partisan and more effective model of member persuasion.
Connecticut Public Sector Union Membership in Two-Year Decline
June 22, 2023 // Labor also benefitted after Connecticut legalized marijuana use by adults in 2021, as the legislation included a provision requiring retailers to obtain a labor peace agreement with a union before being awarded a license. Labor peace agreements are contracts made between an employer and a labor union with the former agreeing not to undermine the latter’s ability to organize the workforce in exchange for the union not to strike, picket or disrupt the employer’s business. Lawmakers always have the option of hiding labor bills in a budget as they did this past session by requiring grocery stores established in food deserts to enter into a labor peace agreement with a union in order to receive municipal tax abatements. Labor unions possess an inherent organizational and financial framework that grants them significant power in identifying candidates, mobilizing voters and promoting individuals who align with their interests, while having the necessary financial resources to achieve these objectives.
5 years after Janus ruling, 22% of government employees opt out of unions
June 20, 2023 // “We estimate that union revenue is down $733 million annually, based on the estimated 1.2 million government employees who have resigned or declined union membership,” reports Jarrett Skorup, author of the study.