Posts tagged union representation
Op-Ed: John Grande: Hartford Federation of Teachers shirked its duty to represent me
February 23, 2023 // This skewed process is one reason why unions exist. I should know—I was a member of the Hartford Federation of Teachers (HFT) for 29 years, a building representative for five years, and helped negotiate two teacher contracts. I always stood up for my colleagues when administrators treated them unfairly. Though I resigned from the union in 2018, teachers still call me when they need advice. I knew that I could effectively defend myself in front of an unbiased third party during arbitration. But only the union can start the arbitration process. That’s when the surprise came: HFT’s vice president emailed me saying that because I was no longer a dues-paying member, the union would not initiate arbitration. Over 30 years of teaching service. Thousands of dollars in dues payments. A union appreciation plaque for being part of a team that negotiated Hartford teachers’ last good contract. None of this swayed union officials whose representation I, by law, must accept.
Americans for Fair Treatment: Member Spotlight: Rochelle Porto
February 6, 2023 // "The union does not stand up for kids, and I care about the children I teach and think we should do what’s best for them.”
Morris Tri-State Asphalt Workers Decisively Vote Out Teamsters Union Officials
December 16, 2022 // Morris-based Tri-State Asphalt employee Brent Johnson and his coworkers have successfully voted Teamsters Local 179 union officials out of their workplace, following Johnson’s filing of a worker-backed petition earlier this month requesting a vote to remove the Teamsters union. Johnson received free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation in filing the petition for his coworkers. The vote, conducted by Indianapolis-based National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 25, tilted overwhelmingly against continued union boss control, with nearly 80 percent of the employees voting to reject the union. The NLRB is the agency responsible for enforcing federal private-sector labor law, which includes holding union “decertification votes” among workers.
Teamsters Union Officials Flee Albany XPO Logistics Workplace After Vast Majority of Workers Seek Vote to Remove Them
December 14, 2022 // Currently, the NLRB’s own data show that a unionized private sector worker is more than twice as likely to be involved in a decertification effort as the average nonunion worker is to be involved in a unionization campaign, with one analysis finding decertification petitions up 42 percent this year. “Officials of the Teamsters union – a union that has spent a large portion of its history under federal supervision – have a well-earned reputation for prioritizing power and control over the needs of rank-and-file workers,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix.
National Right to Work Foundation Submits Comments Opposing Biden Rule to Give Unions Control Over Taxpayer-Funded Contracts
October 18, 2022 // Today, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation filed comments opposing a Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council proposed rule to block non-union workers from working on federal contracts. The rule, which implements President Biden’s Executive Order 14063, requires federal agencies to impose PLAs (Project Labor Agreements) on contractors and employees who work on federal construction projects that will cost $35 million or more. PLAs mandate that, to work on a construction project, contractors’ workers must be under union monopoly control. Given that around 80 percent of construction workers and contractors have opted against unionization, this union-only requirement discriminates against the vast majority of America’s construction workers. This also drives up the costs to taxpayers due to inefficient union work rules that union officials insist on.
Debunking Democrats’ Union Myths
September 14, 2022 // American headlines are saturated with an outpouring of pro-union activity and support; major news outlets claim that interest in union organizing is increasing at companies across the country. In reality, a slim percentage of America’s workers are interested in joining a union even as Democrats and the Biden administration assemble task forces and mandate union support. To help cut through the nonsense spread by the Left, we separate myth from fact:
Opinion: Paying unions: Recurring opt-in requirements protect public workers
August 31, 2022 // Much of the political spending is used to encourage and support ideologically aligned politicians in opposing badly needed reforms to public education such as addressing tenure policies, offering performance-based merit pay and alternatives to traditional public education like charter schools and tax-credit programs. A big chunk of those “dues and agency fees” also are used to advance controversial curriculum like critical race theory, divisive bathroom practices and abortion policies that go against the wishes of parents and communities.
David R. Osborne: What one teacher did when her union didn’t represent her
August 31, 2022 // The Westinghouse teachers aren’t the first educators in their state to have their workplace upended by a union supposedly dedicated to working on their behalf. The PSEA is notorious for ignoring the needs of its membership. Last year, the union spent only $1 out of every $5 of dues actually representing its members. The other $4 went to overhead, politics and lobbying.
JUST 19% OF CTU’S SPENDING IN 2021 WAS TO REPRESENT TEACHERS
August 26, 2022 // Only $134 of each Chicago Teachers Union member’s dues is actually spent on representing Chicago Public Schools teachers. The rest is spent on other CTU leadership priorities and on the union hierarchy. Representing members is supposed to be a union’s core purpose, but just 19% of the Chicago Teachers Union’s spending in 2021 was on “representational activities.”
NEA dues rise, spending on teachers drops for 6 straight years
August 15, 2022 // To assist teachers in evaluating NEA’s and IEA’s spending, this report examines data pulled from the unions’ LM-2s5 in the following three areas: Representational spending Leadership spending Political spending. JUST 6% OF NEA’S AND IEA’S COMBINED SPENDING WAS ON REPRESENTING MEMBERS NEA AND IEA SPENDING ON UNION LEADERSHIP SALARIES OUTPACED SPENDING ON MEMBERS NEA AND IEA SPENT 1.5 TIMES MORE ON POLITICS THAN ON REPRESENTING TEACHERS IN 2021