Posts tagged Wisconsin
Op-ed: The $921M Special Interest Machine That Controls California
February 21, 2026 // The California Policy Center’s analysis lays it bare: California’s public sector unions collected $921 million in 2018 alone. That’s not campaign contributions—that’s annual revenue. The prize they’re protecting? According to Govern For California, state and local governments spend $240 billion per year on public employee compensation and benefits.
Opinion: Teachers Unions Get Desperate
February 17, 2026 // Antichoice plaintiffs “usually file lawsuits right before families sign up for the program just to be particularly cruel. They know they’ll lose nearly every case, but delaying or enjoining the programs in any way is the last-ditch effort to slow maximum uptake for families,” says Tommy Schultz, CEO of the American Federation for Children. Many suits are striking out. Idaho’s high court just ruled 5-0 in favor of the state choice program. Top courts in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and West Virginia have upheld choice programs. The U.S. Supreme Court has continued to issue beneficial rulings. Yet the legal threat is real, and unions, often accompanied by local school districts, continue to throw millions at litigation and disruption, forcing states to spend huge amounts to defend against them. Then the unions and the districts claim schools are underfunded.
Wisconsin Funeral Home Workers Win Freedom from Teamsters Local 344
January 1, 2026 // Employees of Krause Funeral Home & Cremation Services have freed themselves from the unwanted “representation” of Teamsters Local 344 union officials. The workers’ victory comes after Krause management withdrew recognition of the Teamsters based on an employee-backed petition showing that the union had lost majority support.
‘We are ready to strike and standing by’: Allegiant pilots in Appleton join nationwide picket over contract talks
November 18, 2025 // “This is an informational picket, not a strike. 97% of our pilots have voted in favor of striking if that time comes,” Rodgers said. “If Allegiant continues to play the games that they are playing, we will have no choice.” The pilots stood outside the airport on their day off as flights were still flying in and going out as scheduled.
MAXFORD NELSEN: The Other Education Choice: Freeing Teachers from Monopolistic Unions
November 17, 2025 // Public-sector collective bargaining tends to crowd out the interests of students, families, and taxpayers in education policymaking, but teachers unions’ power comes from subjecting teachers to a monopoly system of workplace restrictions. While individual educators now have the legal right to forgo union membership, state policymakers have many opportunities to improve educators’ ability to exercise that right. To level the playing field and increase teachers unions’ accountability to the public and their own members, policymakers should consider reforming or replacing collective bargaining in public education.
Mercyhealth East workers end strike as union, healthcare provider reach deal
November 7, 2025 // Casiano said that, while union members will return to work, they did not get everything they wanted. Specifically, Casiano said they were not able to get a desired shift on health insurance premiums.
Declining union membership could be making working-class Americans less happy and more susceptible to drug overdoses
November 6, 2025 // We are continuing to research the connections between union membership and public health. The next question we are working on is whether a decline in union membership can have a multigenerational impact, going beyond the workers employed today and affecting the lives of their children and grandchildren.
DOL Awards $86M for Skilled Trades Training
October 29, 2025 // Administered by the department’s Employment and Training Administration, these grants will provide outcome-based reimbursements to employers for providing training in high-demand and emerging industries that align with President Trump’s Executive Order 14278, Preparing Americans for High-Paying Skilled Trade Jobs of the Future, and Executive Order 14629, Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance. These priorities are also in line with the goals published in America’s Talent Strategy and America’s AI Action Plan. “President Trump has directed the Labor Department to Make America Skilled Again by providing states with the resources they need to expand on-the-job training opportunities,” said Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
Blizzard’s Platform & Technology workers vote to unionize
October 17, 2025 // Early today, over 400 staff from the company's Platform and Technology department – including designers, engineers, QA testers, localization teams, and workers on Battle.net – voted to join several other Blizzard divisions to unionize. Microsoft has reportedly recognized the union. As reported by GameDeveloper, organizing committee members Daniel Weltz, Alex Kohn, and Timothy Biley decided to unionize following the departure of colleagues because of low pay or redundancies, stating "workplaces will now have to offer certain things in order to remain competitive to workers."
The 15 Most Unionized Places in America
October 16, 2025 // To determine the most unionized locations in the U.S., researchers at Construction Coverage analyzed data from UnionStats.com and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The researchers ranked metropolitan statistical areas according to total union members as a percentage of total employment. In addition to union membership, the researchers also included statistics on union representation, which is the share of workers whose terms of work are collectively negotiated (whether or not they are union members). Only metropolitan statistical areas with available data were included in the analysis.