Posts tagged whistleblower
Ranking Member Cassidy Demands Accountability from NLRB for Abusing Authority, Influencing Union Elections on Behalf of Labor Organizers
July 19, 2024 // In early 2023, a whistleblower came forward with information and documents alleging that NLRB regional officials in St. Louis, MO improperly coordinated with Starbucks Workers United (SWU) to tip union elections in favor of SWU. Following an investigation into the claims, the NLRB Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that NLRB officials in St. Louis engaged in “gross mismanagement” in an attempt to promote a union election victory at a Starbucks retail location. Similar allegations of improper election management have also been made at the NLRB’s Buffalo, NY office. On June 6, the NLRB OIG released another report detailing serious issues in the NLRB’s mail ballot election system, including the Board’s failure to ensure that all employees received a ballot in a union election. Specifically, OIG found that a staggering 49 percent of elections audited had instances of at least one voter not receiving a ballot. This gross mismanagement undermines the union election process, preventing all workers from having a voice on whether they want their workplace to be unionized.
The Liberty Justice Center Sues Union for Forcing Jewish Lawyers to Support Speech They Consider Antisemitic
April 12, 2024 // Congress recently launched an investigation into the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys due to whistleblower reports of antisemitism by union members. The Liberty Justice Center is suing the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, Legal Aid Society, and the City of New York on behalf of Mr. Levine and Mr. Popper, alleging that these defendants are violating the attorneys’ First Amendment rights by forcing them to subsidize political speech as a condition of employment. The Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment prohibits the government from compelling a person to subsidize a union’s speech. In Janus v. AFSCME, the Court held that a government could not force its employees to pay a union as a condition of their employment. And in Harris v. Quinn, the Court held that a government could not compel recipients of government funds, through a state program to provide services to other private individuals, to pay money to a union.
House, Senate GOP Workforce Leaders Demand Investigation into NLRB Misconduct
August 25, 2022 // Today, House Education and Labor Committee Republican Leader Virginia Foxx (R-NC); Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Republican Leader Richard Burr (R-NC); House Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee Republican Leader Rick Allen (R-GA); and Senate Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee Republican Leader Mike Braun (R-IN) sent a letter to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Inspector General David Berry to request an immediate investigation into allegations that NLRB officials intervened inappropriately in ongoing union organization efforts at Starbucks stores across the country. Inspector General David Berry,
Sue The Boss, Pay the Union: Bill Creates New Gravy Train For Labor
March 8, 2022 // The legislation (HB 5245) is designed to bypass employee agreements that prevent individual workers from suing their employers and require them to instead take disagreements to arbitration. As one proponent put it, the bill would “allow private citizens to enforce our labor and discrimination laws as private attorneys general on behalf of the state.”
State of the unions: why US museum workers are mobilising against their employers
February 4, 2022 // TA report by the American Alliance of Museums, published in April 2021, found that museums closed to the public for an average of 28 weeks during 2020. More than 75% of those surveyed stated that their income fell by an average of 40% that year, while 56% went through rounds of layoffs and furloughs. Rehiring, in most cases, is off the table. Those who kept their positions have had to pick up the slack.