NILRR Clips October 10, 2014

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Roy Exum: The UAW’s New Scab List

The Chattanoogan Online, October 10, 2014

There is a special page that is popping up on union websites in right-to-work states such as Tennessee that is called “The Scab List,†according to an article in Washington.

Glenn Taubmann, a lawyer at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, said it was expected. “It comes as no surprise that unions in right-to-work states engage in all sorts of harassment and pressure tactics against independent-minded workers. The ugly truth is that once UAW bosses get into power, they will not tolerate any worker who refused to ‘voluntarily’ join and pay dues. Their view of ‘voluntary’ unionism is an iron fist against anyone who dissents.â€

Truck Driver Files Federal Charge Challenging UAW Scheme to Intimidate Workers Exercising Their Right to Work

nrtw.org, October 10, 2014

With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, CEVA Logistics U.S., Inc. truck driver Kathileen Sulkowski filed the charge Wednesday with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Detroit.

According to the charge, Sulkowski sent a letter in August exercising her right to resign UAW union membership and refrain from paying union dues. Under Michigan’s Right to Work law, no worker can be forced to join or pay dues to a union as a condition of employment.

On September 18, 2014, a UAW Local 600 union official sent Sulkowski a letter denying her request. Further, the UAW union official demanded that she show up in person and provide photo identification in order for her to exercise her rights.

Michigan UAW Imposes ID Requirement to Exercise Rights

Washington Free Beacon Online, October 9, 2014

The UAW may consider voter identification laws suppressive, but it sees nothing wrong with making it a requirement for those seeking to stop paying union dues.

Dearborn-based UAW Local 600 told a member seeking to withdraw from the union that it would only process the request if he showed up in person

Work poised to begin this fall on Laurel library branch

The Baltimore Sun Online, October 01, 2014

After nearly a year of delay, Prince George’s County officials say construction on a new library for Laurel is expected to begin in about a month.

The project, which has been on the books since 2005 and was initially scheduled to break ground in October 2013, experienced a round of delays in the process of choosing a contractor, according to Prince George’s County Councilwoman Mary Lehman, who represents Laurel.

Suburban NYC Teachers Union Treasurer Pleads Guilty to Nearly $800K in Thefts

NLPC.org, October 8, 2015

Educators normally aren’t the kinds of people who steal hundreds of thousands of dollars. Frank Gluberman is the exception to the rule. On August 13, Gluberman, formerly teacher and then assistant principal at Woodlands High School in Greenburgh, N.Y., pleaded guilty in Westchester County Criminal Court to embezzling nearly $800,000 over a seven-year period from his union, the Greenburgh Teachers’ Federation (GTF), an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers.

Longshoremen’s union boss sentenced to 18 months in prison

njtoday.net, October 8, 2014

Vincent Aulisi, 82, of West Orange – the president of ILA Local 1235 from 2006 through 2007 – previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi to one count of an indictment charging him with conspiring to extort Christmastime tributes from ILA Local 1235 members. Judge Cecchi imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.Longshoremen’s union boss sentenced to 18 months in prison.

The NLRB’s Designs to Re-Define Joint Employer

National Law Review Online, October 8, 2014

Are you a franchisor? Do you have contractors? Do you use a staffing agency? Do you outsource functions (food service, cleaning, security, etc.)? Do you have affiliate corporate entities you established to operate separately? Do you have a vertically integrated operation? If you answered any single one of these questions affirmatively, the National Labor Relations Board is gunning for you.

AFL-CIO Chief Trumka: ‘Lot of Work to Do’ on 2014 Turnout

Wall Street Journal Online, October 8, 2014

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has spent the last month crisscrossing the nation to mobilize voters on behalf of union-endorsed candidates, largely Democrats.

Still, he says momentum is starting to build as organized labor targets its members and non-union members in battleground states, knocking on doors, sending emails, and following up with answers to questions that might sway voters to go to the polls.

As those entities already in these situations probably are aware, the NLRB has recently expressed a renewed interest in re-defining current standards for determining joint employer liability. Put another way, this means that the Board is trying to make it easier to find employers responsible (and liable) for another employer’s employees.

AG: Union broke campaign finance rules in donation to Hassan, must submit documentation

Concord Monitor.com, October 8, 2014

Local Union 131 Volunteer PAC failed to follow state campaign finance requirements when it donated $25,000 to Gov. Maggie Hassan’s 2012 campaign, the attorney general’s office ruled in response to a complaint filed in August by the New Hampshire Republican State Committee.

Trumka: ‘We are playing in state legislative races at a level we haven’t before’

Washington Post Online, October 7, 2014

Union spending this election cycle is likely to be in the range it was for the last midterm election in 2010: about $250 to 300 million, by some estimates. Trumka said that this year’s midterm fight is more local than it has been in the past in part because of gridlock in Washington. In battleground states, labor has focused its efforts on legislative candidates in tight races.

The AFL-CIO has also stepped up efforts to reach non-union households through a super PAC, Workers’ Voice, and the PAC’s state-level affiliates. The new organization emerged after the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizen’s United decision, which permitted independent political spending by corporations and unions. Before that decision, unions were limited to communicating political messages only to their own members. Now, they are able to communicate with any household — and in key races, that’s what they’re doing.

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