NILRR Clipsheet June 26, 2015
ALRB’s top lawyer named to governor’s staff
Fresno Bee Online, June 24, 2015
Sylvia Torres-Guillen, 49, of Los Angeles will become special counsel to the governor. She had been the ALRB’s general counsel since 2011.
Beyond the Gerawan case, Torres-Guillén has been sparring with the ALRB’s new chairman, William Gould, who has wanted to take back some of the wide powers she had been granted previously.
A New York scheme to force small business to unionize.
Wall Street Journal Online, June 19, 3015
Tammany Hall is supposedly long gone, though sometimes it’s hard to tell. For three years community organizers have struggled and failed to unionize New York City’s car wash industry. So the new Boss Tweeds are imposing their agenda instead.
The activists at an outfit called Make the Road New York, who claim to speak for Latinos and the working class, claim car washes exploit labor. They have joined with City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito to write a bill to annex the 130-odd independent car washes across the five boroughs.
How Unions Use “Scab†Lists to Intimidate Workers
Unionwatch.org, June 18, 2015
Unions have long sought to demonize replacement workers, union members who cross picket lines, and others whom the unions label “scabs.†Sometimes, this takes the form of implied or explicit threats or other efforts to create fear and to intimidate. Now the Obama administration’s National Labor Relations Board is pressuring employers to give personal information to unions, while the Internet is providing new ways to publicize “scab lists†and make people toe the union line.
Union organizing machine targets St. Louis, Kansas City
Watchdog.org, June 26, 2015
Labor front groups are making headway in their “Fight for $15″ fast-food organizing campaign in Missouri’s two largest cities.
Officials in Kansas City and St. Louis have taken steps toward hiking each city’s minimum hourly wage to $15 in response to protests for a “living wage.â€
Carpenters’ Coryell promises no DNC interference, with one condition
philly.com, June 26, 2015
Union carpenters, embroiled in a long-standing dispute with the Pennsylvania Convention Center, have promised not to interfere with the 2016 Democratic national presidential convention in Philadelphia unless . . .
. . . Unless the Democratic National Committee holds events at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
Weekly Standard, June 29, 2015
Not all Californians believe that drought is the greatest threat to their state’s future. Early this month, a bipartisan group of current and former local officials filed the “Voter Empowerment Act of 2016,†a statewide ballot measure aimed at reforming the politics of public pensions. Its passage would forbid politicians in California from lavishing expensive retirement benefits on workers without explicit voter approval.
Former Operating Engineers Local 17 member sent to prison for six months
Buffalo News Online, June 24, 2015
Carl Larson, 50, of Boston, was ordered by Senior U.S. District Judge William Skretny Wednesday to serve a prison term of up to six months and then submit to one year of supervised released for his role in efforts by Local 17 of the International Union of Operating Engineers to force an Orchard Park contractor to use Local 17 members on a local construction job.
And they shall admit the truth
Watchdog.org, June 24
When Wisconsin voted in March to become the nation’s twenty-fifth Right To Work (RTW) state, they sent a clear message to unions across the country: right to work is gaining ground, and the next state to pass a RTW law will make those living with employee freedom a majority in this country.
Unions in the non-RTW states, such as Delaware, have taken notice, and are even more aggressively countering any efforts to bring worker freedom, though even they know they are losing ground.
N.J. Supreme Court Says ‘No’ to Unions; Allows Gov. Christie to Delay Pension Payment
nlpc.org, June 23, 2015
On June 9, the Court ruled 5-2 that Christie was within bounds in delaying two years of contributions, nearly $2.5 billion, to the state’s chronically underfunded public-employee pension system. The ruling, a clear blow to the unions who brought forth the suit, for now averts a fiscal calamity.
After loss in trade fight, AFL-CIO is lifting its freeze on political contributions
Fortune.com, June 24, 2015
The AFL-CIO is lifting the freeze on political contributions it imposed back in March to pressure Democrats against supporting free trade measures, sources familiar with the development tell Fortune.
Volkswagen supplier adding 500 jobs in Chattanooga
USA Today, June 23, 2015
A metal parts supplier will add more than 500 jobs in an expansion of its Chattanooga, Tenn. operation fueled by the nearby Volkswagen assembly plant.