NILRR Right to Work Clips
oann.com, August 30, 2017
The Right to Work Foundation submitted a brief Tuesday asking the high court to consider the case of Illinois state worker Mark Janus.
The foundation, which is representing Janus, argues that required fees for government employees are illegal and are “incompatible with the first amendment.â€
Supreme Court asked to take up fight over mandatory union fees
Washington Examiner Online, August 30, 2017
“For too long, millions of workers across the nation have been forced to pay dues and fees into union coffers as a condition of working for their own government. Requiring public servants to subsidize union officials’ speech is incompatible with the First Amendment,” said Mark Mix, president of the foundation, which is representing the plaintiff, Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services worker Mark Janus.
NLRB takes on Catholic college’s religious freedom
campusreform.org, September 01, 2017
A fight over graduate student unionization is looming at Boston College (BC). “Unions wanted them to, and the Obama labor board pretty much did what unions wanted,†Patrick Semmens, Vice President of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, explained to Campus Reform. “They’re looking for new sources of forced dues.â€
Professor Bruce Cameron, an expert on religion in labor law at Regent University, told Campus Reform that views the ruling as an “outrage.â€
FROM THE SUPREME COURT TO A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, LABOR IS ON THE DEFENSIVE
cityandstateny.com, August 27,2017
Heading into the fall of 2017, New York’s union movement confronts an existential crisis on multiple levels. There’s the threat from pending U.S. Supreme Court case Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which could strip labor unions of their ability to require members to pay dues. There’s an openly hostile Republican-controlled Congress and executive branch looking to push back protections won by the federal workers when President John F. Kennedy granted them collective bargaining rights back in 1962.
Why the Freedom From Union Violence Act is desperately needed
Washington Times Online, August 31, 2017
The recent acquittal of four Boston Teamsters charged with attempting to extort the producers of the popular “Top Chef†television show is the latest illustration of a loophole in federal law that permits organized labor to engage in acts of extortion that would be illegal if anyone else tried it.
The only possible silver lining of the verdict is that it will help focus public attention on the need for Congress to adopt legislation overturning the misbegotten Enmons decision. Since 1997, the Freedom from Union Violence Act has been regularly introduced in Congress to do just that, with the 2017 version expected to be introduced on Capitol Hill shortly after Labor Day.
Fight for $15 group, union push to elect pro-labor Democrats in Michigan
freep.com, August 28, 2017
“Michigan’s right-to-work is popular, and pro-right-to-work candidates should benefit from that popularity, which is overwhelming and bipartisan,” Semmens wrote in an e-mail. “The more right-to-work is the central issue, the more of an advantage it is for officials with a track record of opposition to forced union dues.”
Connelly: Judge upholds Seattle’s collective-bargaining law for Uber, Lyft drivers
seattlepi.com, August 27, 2017
“The ruling is very disappointing and means Uber and Lyft drivrs will soon be targeted by Teamsters organizers with a coercive card check campaign seeking to impose one-size-fits-all monopoly unionization, including forced union dues on drivers,” said its vice president Patrick Semmons.
The UAW needs to take ‘no’ for an answer
Washington Examiner, August 30, 2017
The United Auto Workers union, however, refuses to process that same logical impulse that tells us to stop. They keep reaching out and getting burned. Once again, workers from an automotive manufacturing facility have rejected the UAW. By an almost 2-to-1 ratio this month, Nissan workers in Mississippi clearly sent the union a message, rejecting union rhetoric they have been buried with over the past few months. After numerous losses and millions of dues wasted over the past decade, most of us would take the hint.
AFL-CIO’s Rick Bloomingdale: At the intersection of politics, labor
philly.com, August 31, 2017
The U.S. Supreme Court will likely consider the Janus case, similar to one in Pennsylvania, meaning that public employees who don’t want to be in unions, but are represented by them, may no longer have to pay partial dues or agency fees — costs that unions incur for bargaining and grievances.
AFSCME has a whole generation of state employees who have always lived under what’s been called an agency shop, where everybody had to pay. So at AFSCME, in Pennsylvania, [executive director] Dave Fillman has been doing an amazing job of educating people, signing them up, and looking for alternatives, even if they eliminate payroll deduction.
The Continuing Eclipse of the Organized Labor Movement
huffingtonpost.com, August 31, 2017
“Right to work†laws in 24 states which impede union membership and the prospect that the Supreme Court might decide to hear the case of Janus v. AFSCME “which seeks to overrule decades of precedent enabling public sector unions to charge a fair-share fee to nonmembers for the representation they provide.â€
Maine state union members vote to accept LePage’s ‘right to work’ contract language
Bangor Daily News, August 31, 2017
Both unions eliminated agency fees in exchange for higher raises than the state was offering otherwise, and both unions will receive raises of 6 percent spread over the next two years, according to Heidrich.
Governor kicks off West Virginia business summit
wvva.com, august 30, 2017
With West Virginia being the 26th Workplace Freedom Right-to-Work state in America, West Virginia Senate President Mitch Carmichael gave an example of another state announcing their passage of Right-to-Work.
“Immediately upon passage of the Right-to-Work announced the develop of a $1.3 billion aluminum plant in Kentucky. And the chairman of the company that relocated there said they would not even have considered Kentucky if it weren’t for the Right-to-Work,” Carmichael said.
Union voters swung behind Trump, Richard Trumka says
Washington Examiner, August 30, 2017
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said President Trump did significantly better among union voters in last year’s election than 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, confirming a widely held assumption that Trump had unusually strong appeal among the labor rank and file.
Report: Florida Unions Milk Taxpayers for Millions Through ‘Release Time’
reason.com, August 31, 2017
Taxpayers in Miami have spent more than $9 million over the past three years to pay union workers to do nearly 300,000 hours of work for the benefit of public sector unions.
Worse than the expense, the report notes, is the lack of accountability for how union workers use their release time. In Miami-Dade County (the report also examined the cities of Tampa and Jacksonville), there is no official record-keeping of release time activities—making it impossible to determine if union members are straying from the list of approved activities. “The county’s failure to track what activity public employees undertake while being paid by the taxpayer demonstrates a complete lack of both transparency and accountability over the practice,” the authors note.
County’s largest union blasted for how it treats its own workers
San Diego Tribune Online, August 30, 2017
As the region’s largest public employee union prepares to strike, Service Employees International Union Local 221 is itself coming under attack for the way it treats its own employees.
CWA represents rank-and-file workers at SEIU 221’s headquarters, and its Aug. 18 letter details a series of concerns its members have with SEIU, ranging from a shortage of office supplies to managers who have short workdays.
American Workers Need a New Kind of Labor Union
Wall Street Journal Online, August 30, 2017
Today bargaining over employment terms is mostly superfluous. The law already mandates a 40-hour week, paid overtime, a minimum wage, workplace safety standards and employer-sponsored health insurance. The government provides benefits to the elderly, disabled and unemployed. Yet unions still must find something to deliver to members. Thus the prevalence of destructive work rules, grievance procedures and seniority systems.