NILRR News Clips February 20, 2015
VW recognizes anti-UAW worker group ACE at Tennessee plant
Reuters.com, February 16, 2014
Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) said on Monday it had recognized a new group called the American Council of Employees to represent workers at its auto assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in addition to the United Auto Workers.
The ACE is an alternative to and has campaigned against the UAW union, which a year ago lost an election to be the sole representative of workers at the plant.
Neither the ACE nor UAW has collective bargaining rights for workers at the plant.
GOP pushes to repeal public project wages law
Indiana Business Journal, February 16, 2015
Indiana’s law for setting wages on public construction projects would be repealed under a plan that Republican House leaders said Monday they aimed to approve this year, a move that could set off a fresh fight with labor unions.
N.H. House And Senate Considers “Right-To-Work” Bill
NHPR.org, February 17, 2015
Tuesday afternoon, the state Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on a bill that would make New Hampshire a . . . “Right-to-Work†state.
Game on in Illinois: Democrats React to Governor’s Fair Share Move
National Law Review, February 16, 2015
The week started in Illinois with newly elected Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner issuing an executive order ending a requirement that non-unionized state workers pay “fair share†union dues and filing suit in federal court seeking a declaration that the process was unconstitutional under the Supreme Court’s decision in Harris v. Quinn.
Obama to Intervene in Dispute at West Coast Ports
New York Times Online, February 14, 2015
At the president’s request, Thomas E. Perez, the secretary of labor, will travel to California to “meet with the parties to urge them to resolve their dispute quickly at the bargaining table,†according to a statement issued by Eric Schultz, a White House spokesman. Mr. Perez will try to mediate a settlement between an association of the major shipowners of the West Coast and the union of longshoremen who unload those ships, which collectively bring in half the nation’s imported cargo.
Wisconsin State Senate to Vote on Right to Work Bill
Associated Press Online, February 20, 2015
In a surprise announcement, the Republican leader of the state Senate says he will schedule a vote for next week on a yet-to-be-introduced bill that would make Wisconsin a right-to-work state.
Marshall Co. Fiscal Court Approves Anti-Right-to-Work Resolution
wkms.org, February 18, 2015
In response to a handful of Kentucky counties passing right-to-work ordinances, Marshall County has become the first in the commonwealth to approve an anti-right-to-work resolution.
With Obama’s Help, UAW Tries To Force VW Workers To Unionize
Investors.com, February 18, 2015
“This is starting to become a pattern that we’re seeing around the country with unions that can’t win elections,” laments Mark Mix of the National Right to Work Committee.
Under this model, the minority union, or “work council” as the left is calling the arrangement, negotiates contracts on behalf of only the workers formally represented by the union.
If these were simply voluntary arrangements between a group of workers who want the union representation and the companies that want to negotiate with them, there would be no problem.
But that’s not the case.
National Law Review Online, February 17, 2015
NLRB General Counsel Richard F. Griffin in the Browning-Ferris case urged the Board to abandon the current “direct control†joint employer standard, which has been in place since 1984, and replace it with a “totality of the circumstances†test.
Oil Workers Threaten to Expand Strike to Long Beach Port
Bloomberg Business Online, February 17, 2015
United Steelworkers members who help run crude terminals at a California port are threatening to join a national oil workers’ strike at U.S. refineries.
Is This Union Illegally Keeping Its Finances From The Government?
Daily Caller Online, February 17, 2015
Shortly after approval by the National Mediation Board in late 2010, the TWU formed Local 577. The letter argues that in the years to follow, Local 577 has engaged in various representational activities but has not filed financial disclosure forms with the DOL.
Boone County tackles right-to-work issue
Cincinnati.com, February 17, 2015
Boone County will be the first Northern Kentucky county to enter the national conversation about the right to work.
Blighted Olympia Buildings Bear Silent Witness to the Union Protection Racket
Freedom Foundation Online, February 18, 2015
Thus, several local labor dons, including the heads of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 612 and Laborers Local 252, quickly complained to the city that the work should be done instead by—you guessed it—dues-paying union workers.
At bloated union wages, of course.
And the city council, being dominated by . . . Democratic politicians, quickly capitulated, no doubt puzzled at how they could have made such a horrendous misjudgment in the first place.
In a very real sense, the transaction—or lack thereof—amounts to nothing short of protection money wrenched out of the taxpayers’ pockets and handed over to organized labor in return for a promise of continued support for the toadying city council members who aided and abetted this legalized shakedown.