May 20, 2011 NILRR News Clips
Right to Work Laws Defended, Attacked In Wake of NLRB ULP Charge Against Boeing
Daily Labor Report Online, 5/18/2011
Patrick Semmens, director of legal information at the
National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a group that favors right to
work laws and, according to its website, offers “free legal aid to employees
whose human or civil rights have been violated by abuses of compulsory
unionism.â€
In addition to providing “strong economic benefits†to both
state governments and workers in right to work states, Semmens said right to
work laws “make unions better in terms of representing their employees,†because
the unions then must “earn workers’ dues for the services they provide.â€
Semmens added that workers in non-right to work states who
do not belong to unions are more frequently fired for reasons related to union
membership than those in right to work states. “We represent employees choosing
between being fired and paying dues to a union,†he said.
Channel 6 anchor files complaint against union
Indianapolis Star Online, 5/20/2011
Shepherd received free legal assistance in filing the
complaint from the Virginia-based National Right to Work Foundation, a proponent
of more states adopting the legislation that unions think is intended to weaken
their finances.
GRAY: NLRB takes unconstitutional stance on Boeing’s expansion
Washington Times Online, 5/18/2011
The most provocative and potentially most dangerous
economic policy initiative of the Obama administration is only now beginning to
attract coverage — its proposal to shut down Boeing’s second 787 Dreamliner
plant in right-to-work South Carolina in mid-stream (after hundreds of millions
of dollars have already been spent) in order to confine Boeing’s new airplane
construction to a union state (Washington).
There is much convincing analysis that the National Labor
Relations Board has no authority or precedent for doing this. What needs to be
examined is whether the move in fact is not also unconstitutional as a frontal
assault on a central building block of our national economy.
Organized Labor No Longer Just Backing Democrats?
Weekly Standard Online, The Blog, 5/20/2011
Organized labor makes up 12 of the top 20 political donors
in the last 20 years and nearly all of that money has gone to Democrats. Labor
leaders have also been less than subtle in their criticisms of Republicans over
the years. However, with public sector unions the target of voter outrage and
the radical union agenda increasingly becoming a liability for Democrats,
suddenly the AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka is now talking about creating an
“independent labor movement”:
So organized labor won’t spend $400 million in 2012, like
they did electing Barack Obama and Democrats in 2008? Don’t bet on it.
Obama Administration Defends Waivers Against Pawlenty’s Claim of ‘Crony
Politics’
Daily Labor Report, 5/18/2011
In a White House blog post, Department of Health and Human
Services spokesman Richard Sorian said the administration has granted 1,372
waivers to employers, health plans, and unions “to make sure workers are able to
maintain their existing insurance, because on their own they would likely be
shut out of the individual market or face unaffordable options.â€
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