May 23, 2011 NILRR News Clips

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Union Member Seeks to Block Obama Labor Department’s Efforts to Roll Back Union
Disclosure Rules

nrtw.org, 5/23/2011

Washington, DC (May 23, 2011) – With free legal aid from
the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a Maryland county
government employee is asking a federal court to stop the Obama Administration
from allowing union bosses to conceal lavish and corrupt union expenditures from
workers.

Right to Work or Right to Work for less?

Seacoastonline.com, 5/23/2011

Smith cites data offered by the Virginia-based National
Right to Work Committee, which has advocated anti-union policies since 1955, and
the associated National Institute for Labor Relations Research. In November
2010, the NILRR released a fact sheet that showed there was greater population
and income growth in RTW states than non RTW states. In particular, a study by
the Kansas Policy Institute found that between 1999 and 2009 private sector job
growth grew by 1.5 million in RTW states and declined by 1.8 million in non-RTW
states.

Right to Work in New England

Wall Street Journal Online, 5/21/2011

Twenty-two states have right-to-work laws, most of them in
the faster-growing South and West. The big news is that New Hampshire is edging
closer to becoming the 23rd, which would make it the first new right-to-work
state since Oklahoma in 2001 and could lead to a regional revolution.

The state House and Senate in Concord have passed a
right-to-work statute, but Governor John Lynch, a Democrat, vetoed the bill. On
May 25 the legislature will attempt to override that veto, and House Speaker
Bill O’Brien says he is “cautiously optimistic” that he can gain the two-thirds
majority to do so.

Tennessee Governor OKs Bill Barring Requirements for Project Labor Agreements

Daily Labor Report, 5/20/2011

Under the Freedom in Contracting Act, beginning July 1,
local governments may not mandate that bidders on public works projects pay
wages higher than the prevailing wage rate set by a state commission, if state
funds are involved.

The measure also prohibits such state-funded projects from
requiring bidders or workers to be affiliated with a labor organization.

Another Labor Board Power Play

Wall Street Journal Online, 5/23/2011

In a May 10 memo to regional staffers, Associate General
Counsel Richard Siegel discusses a March case in which the NLRB sided with
telecommunications company Embarq Corp. in a dispute over its decision to close
a Las Vegas call center and open a bigger facility in Florida. The company
refused to explain to its union the rationale for the move. In America, business
decisions are made by owners or executives and are rarely subject to compulsory
bargaining, while unions confine their concerns to working conditions, pay and
benefits.

NLRB Chairwoman Wilma Liebman, a long-time union lawyer,
doesn’t like that balance.

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