NILRR News Clips August 16, 2013
Job, Income Data Indicate Right to Work Laws Economically Beneficial
National Institute for Labor Relations Research Right to Work Fact Sheet, August 13, 2013
As of the end of 2012, 22 states had Right to Work laws on the books prohibiting the termination of employees for refusal to pay dues or fees to an unwanted union for a decade or more. Twenty-seven states lacked Right to Work laws. And one state, Indiana had a Right to Work law that was less than a year old. This March, Michigan became the 24th Right to Work state when the forced-dues ban approved by legislators and signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in December 2012 first took effect.
Air traffic controller sues FAA, alleges religious discrimination
onenewsnow.com, August 13, 2013
National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is representing Matthew Gray, a Seventh-day Adventist who had issues over getting Saturdays off for worship. Gray transferred to what is called a Safe Harbor position to have Saturdays off. “Part of the teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is that it is not appropriate for church members to be members of labor unions,†explains National Right to Work’s Bruce Cameron, so Gray told his union rep he had to resign. Cameron The union then communicated with FAA management.
“And they transferred him out of that section, the Safe Harbor, into a section where he was scheduled to work every Saturday,†says Cameron. “To punish him for exercising his religious beliefs about not being a union member, they put him in a section where he would again face a regular Sabbath conflict.â€
‘Freedom at the Expense Of the Negro’
Michchronicle.com, August 12, 2013
By this standard, black Americans have for decades been expressing a strong preference for Right to Work states. For example, from 2000 to 2011, the black American population of the U.S. increased by 13.1 percent. But 74 percent of the overall increase occurred in the 22 states that had Right to Work laws on the books at the time, even though slightly fewer than half of all black Americans resided in them in 2000. (Since Indiana and Michigan became the 23rd and 24th Right to Work states in 2012, they are counted as forced-unionism states in this analysis.)
Court: Right-to-Work Law Applies to State Workers
ABC News Online, August 15, 2013
Michigan’s right-to-work law applies to 35,000 state employees, a divided state appeals court ruled Thursday in the first major legal decision on the much-debated measure eight months after it passed.
Judges voted 2-1 to reject a lawsuit filed by unionized workers who make up more than two-thirds of all state employees. In a state with a heavier presence of organized labor than most, thousands of protesters came to the Capitol late last year as the Republican-backed measure won quick approval in a lame-duck session.
Michigan’s right-to-work law upheld by appeals court
Washington Post Online, August 16, 2013
MICHIGAN
The Michigan Legislature’s right to create a law that bans mandatory union membership trumps the authority of a state agency that oversees public employment, an appeals court ruled on Thursday.
UAW President Bob King On What Unions Can Do For Detroit
In These Times Online, August 14, 2013
All of this worries Bob King. But his biggest concern may be Detroit’s unemployment rate, which stands at 16 percent within city limits—the highest of any major metropolis in the United States. In the auto industry, workers face 9.1 percent unemployment, compared to a U.S. average of 7.4 percent. And auto industry unemployment is under threat of spiking even higher if bankruptcy prompts auto manufacturers to move more business out of the city.
AFL-CIO to target Snyder in 2014 election
WYNcountry.com, August 14, 2013
LANSING (WKZO) — The AFL-CIO is putting a target on Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and five other Republican governors in the 2014 election.
An Ohio Prescription for GOP: Lower Taxes, More Aid for Poor
Wall Street Journal Online, August 14, 2013
Mr. Kasich also has promised union leaders he will oppose efforts to turn Ohio into a “right to work” state that bars labor contracts requiring all workers to be union members or pay dues. He struck a populist chord with a proposal, later turned down by the GOP-controlled legislature, to raise taxes on out-of-state oil companies so he could cut Ohioans’ income-tax rates.
Likely Labor regs would aid vets, disabled, unions
CNS News Online, August 14, 2013
With Thomas Perez now confirmed as head of the Labor Department, the agency is expected to unleash a flurry of new regulations that have been bottled up for months — a prospect that has business leaders worried and labor advocates cheering.
Californian proclaims: Welcome Texans
publicsectorinc.com, August 14, 2013
As demographer Wendell Cox has demonstrated, California has lately turned into a net loser of jobs to other states, when migration in and out of states by firms is considered. Confronted with such numbers, California apologists will observe that job re-locations are a small contributor to net employment growth, which is true. A state is far more likely to generate new jobs from growth in existing firms or from start-ups.