Posts tagged Wisconsin
Video: ALEC’s Labor of Love: A History of Championing Worker Freedom
March 10, 2023 // Today, ALEC debuts its first episode, “Worker Freedom,” in our 50th anniversary video series. The episode features ALEC champions Scott Walker (45th Governor of Wisconsin), Matt Hall (Michigan House Minority Leader and ALEC Board of Directors Member), and Vinnie Vernuccio (Senior Fellow, Mackinac Center), discussing ALEC’s pivotal role in securing Worker Freedom policy wins across the states. In some states, private sector workers can be forced to join, leave, or pay fees to a union as job requirement. The Right-to-Work Act, which ALEC task forces approved as a model policy, provides a solution to this issue. It prevents private employers from requiring or banning union membership (or fees) as conditions for employment, giving workers in Right-to-Work states a guaranteed right to support a union or not to support a union without this choice affecting their hiring or job security.
Can Women Help Fill the Shortage of Trade Workers? Unions Are Betting On It.
February 27, 2023 // Cassidy is one of a small but growing number of women who’ve entered the trades in the last few decades who are urging others to join a fast-growing industry where union-protected jobs provide good pay and benefits. Historically, trades have overwhelmingly employed men. Now, the lack of women in these jobs could hurt the country’s ambitions to fix the country’s aging roads and bridges and transition more quickly to renewable energy like wind and solar. This point was driven home at a forum on workforce development held by the North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) in January, where union leaders and industry executives met in Washington, D.C., to address the shortage of skilled trades workers.
Fox Cities Essity Employee Hits Steelworkers Union with Federal Charges for Illegal Termination Threat
February 17, 2023 // Wenske’s case is the latest in a number of recent cases in which Foundation staff attorneys have defended workers from Steelworkers union officials’ coercive practices. Just last month, metal workers at Latrobe Specialty Metals/Franklin Carpenter Technology in Franklin, PA, successfully voted Steelworkers officials out of their facility with free Foundation legal aid, after Steelworkers chiefs tried to trap workers under a contract they voted against twice. Also last month, Foundation attorneys spurred the NLRB’s prosecution of Steelworkers Local 832 for illegally seizing months of dues from Kentucky employee Melva Hernandez. “Steelworkers union officials are continuing their nationwide campaign of punishing workers who disagree with the union’s agenda,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “That Steelworkers chiefs tried to get Ms. Wenske – a veteran Essity employee – fired merely because she no longer supports the union demonstrates just how little they care about the free choice rights of workers and winning over employee support voluntarily.”
Teamsters across Iowa reach three-year agreement with Aramark over working standards
February 6, 2023 // Teamster members employed by Aramark Uniform Services reached a three-year agreement with their employer over wages and health care costs, staving off a potential strike across the Midwest. The new agreement "provides for increased wages and no increase in the percentage employees will pay for health care over the duration of the agreement," according to a news release from the labor union.
CNH Industrial union workers end strike at two U.S. plants with deal
January 23, 2023 // The contract, which was voted on as an improved "last, best, and final offer" by CNH Industrial workers, included wage increases, shift premium increases, classification upgrades and as other improvements, the UAW said in a statement. The UAW, which represents more than 1,000 hourly workers at the two plants, did not disclose details of the vote.
UAW workers to vote on CNH offer 8 months after strike began
January 4, 2023 // More than 1,000 striking CNH Industrial workers will soon vote on an offer from the maker of construction and agricultural equipment for the first time since they walked off the job eight months ago. The United Auto Workers union said this week that it decided to put the company’s “upgraded last, best and final offer” to a vote, but the union didn’t offer any details of what is included in it.
Racine County’s top stories of 2022, No. 7 | CNH Case strike continues for more than half a year
December 26, 2022 // The strike is still underway more than seven months later. In that time, many people locally and across the nation have been vocal in supporting the strikers. Politicians such as U.S. Senate candidate Tom Nelson during his campaign trail and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders visited with the Strikers to show their support. As of December, the strike has been going on for 7 months. Many of the younger strikers have either found other work while on the line or have left and never looked back altogether.
CNH Industrial strike; Racine workers seek better pay
December 21, 2022 //
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.
Flanked by Union Allies, Biden Touts $36 Billion Pension Bailout
December 9, 2022 // President Joe Biden announced a $36 billion bailout for the Central States Pension Fund, one of the nation’s biggest multi-employer plans, touting the help for union workers and retirees as he looks to mend ties with organized labor after a contentious rail deal.