NILRR Clipsheet October 2, 2015
Taxpayers fleeing Ohio, IRS report shows
Watchdog.org, September 30, 2015
State-to-state migration was a net drain of $1.2 billion on Ohio’s economy in 2011 and $1.1 billion in 2012. Almost 24,000 fewer IRS returns were filed in Ohio in 2013 than in 2011 as a result of Ohioans moving to other states.
With the exception of Colorado, the five biggest winners in the interstate migration battle were states where right-to-work laws protect workers from mandatory union dues.
Ohio and all five of the biggest losers were forced-unionism states, where workers can be required to pay a labor union in order to have a job.
New poll reveals union workers are unhappy workers
mlive.com, September 30, 2015
The survey, released in September, asked nearly 3,000 workers to rate their workplace satisfaction based on 13 criteria. The poll’s sample was weighted, based on the percentages of unionized workers in the nation, and the general findings are summed up by Gallup’s Web headline: “Union Members Less Content With Safety, Recognition at Work.”
Teamsters charged with threatening, obstructing “Top Chef†filming
Boston.com, September 30, 2015
Furious that the television show “Top Chef†wasn’t using local union workers for their filming in Boston last year, five Teamsters used racist and homophobic slurs, threatened physical violence and slashed car tires to protest the non-union company doing the work, federal prosecutors charged in an indictment filed Wednesday.
Updated: Kelly: A lesson in hypocrisy
The Times-Tribune Online, September 30, 2015
The school district policy defines bullying in many forms, in real-time and cyberspace. Student violators face swift punishment. On the other hand, teachers and administrators can violate the bullying policy without fear of penalty. The Hot Spells Angels are led by teachers union President Rosemary Boland, who is paid $80,000 a year not to teach. Her 9-to-5 (give or take) is devoted to union business. The union reimburses the district for her salary.
While Dr. Kirijan has taken most of the heat, the Grandparents of Anarchy are actually headed by the giant ego of Scranton School Board President Cy Douaihy. Cy didn’t write the book on bullying, but he definitely read it. His boorish behavior at board meetings — berating fellow directors and using profanity — are also violations of the student code of conduct. If they were students, he and Mrs. Boland would live in detention.
Teachers Unions at Risk of Losing “Agency Feesâ€
Educationnext.org, Winer, 2016
Now a case awaits hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court that could dramatically change this picture. The Far Left periodical In These Times calls Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association the case “that could decimate American public sector unionism.†Perhaps that’s simply an ideological overstatement. Nonetheless, the case, if decided for the plaintiffs, could end the practice of “agency†fees—money paid to the union by nonmembers in exchange for collective bargaining services. Unions call them “fair-share†fees and assert that their elimination would create a class of free riders, workers who would pay nothing while still enjoying the higher salaries and other benefits negotiated by unions.
But agency fees are just one of the tools of public-sector union power. Without them, the teachers unions will have to retrench. They are certainly not going to disappear.
Why Sports Are Suspended During Scranton Teachers Strike
WNEP.com, September 28, 2015
What is unusual about the teachers strike in Scranton is that it’s not only canceling class, the strike is cancelling sports, too.
So why is it different with Scranton?
The teachers union for the Scranton School District made the call.
“When the union goes out, we go out. We are an AFL/CIO union and we don’t cross the line. We shut down. A work stoppage is a work stoppage. We are all in the same union. We are all out on strike,” said teachers union president Rosemary Boland.
Labor unions awarded millions from federal agencies
Washington Times Online, September 30, 2015
In contrast, Mr. Obama has thus far awarded at least $53 million to these two groups — 83 percent more than Mr. Bush’s entire tenure.
“I’m utterly unsurprised federal grant-making to unions has increased under Obama. This administration has a way of rewarding their friends and harming their enemies,†said Doug Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office and now president of the American Action Forum, a center-right policy institute.