NILRR Right to Work News June 15, 2018
heartland.org, June 12, 2018
Gretchen Whitmer, a candidate in the Michigan Democratic Party gubernatorial primary, says she will work to repeal the state’s right-to-work (RTW) law, if selected by her party and elected in November.
Stan Greer, a senior research associate for the National Institute for Labor Relations Research and a policy advisor for The Heartland Institute, which publishes Budget & Tax News, says statistics show Michigan’s worker-freedom law has sparked skyrocketing job growth over the past five years.
“We see evidence in Michigan that, in fact, job-creating businesses have been making decisions based on RTW since Michigan switched over from forced unionism,†Greer said. “In the five years for which there are data, manufacturing employment in Michigan went up by nearly 16 percent—and that’s more than all but two states in the country in percentage terms.â€
www.nrtw.org, June 13, 2018
Hospital employees at Kaiser Permanente filed federal unfair labor practice charges against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1199 NW stating that union officials are violating their right to refrain from paying for union political activity. The charges were filed with free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and Freedom Foundation attorneys.
americanspectator.org, June 14, 2018
The case is Janus v. AFSCME, a case out of Illinois.
According to Huguenel, the entire dynamic of the Democrat Party will have to change — and it might entail a split altogether.
What Huguenel says, and he’s correct, is that if public sector unions stop being the moneybags for the Dems they currently are, that party is going to have to rediscover their old love affair with private-sector unions — like the Teamsters and the AFL-CIO:
Unions duck, cover, and advertise ahead of Janus ruling
washingtonexaminer.com, June 12, 2018
The advertising campaign isn’t directed at the justices who will make the ruling (which is almost certain to go against the unions), so what’s behind the big money move by big labor’s strategists?
Several things. First, anticipating that the ruling will go against them, the unions are using conspiracy-theory scare tactics to discredit the decision before it is handed down, cloak themselves in victimhood, and create a bunker mentality to keep their members in line.
reason.com/blog, June 13, 2018
On the current trajectory, the school district will face a $422 million shortfall by 2020, driven in large part by its $15 billion in unfunded health care benefit liabilities for current workers and retirees.
The district has been happy to blame the charter school exodus for its ongoing financial problems, but a report released Wednesday by the Reason Foundation (the nonprofit that publishes this blog) examines the district’s structural deficit, which is “forged from hiring surges, burgeoning and unaddressed pension and benefit obligations, unadressed low attendance, overextended facilities, and antiquated management and financial structures.”
New UAW president takes oath, vows to fight right-to-work laws
freep.com, June 14, 2018
Gary Jones took the oath of office Thursday as the new president of the UAW, steeling members for what he called a fight for both the future of the union and the American middle class.
Jones, who’s been a UAW member since 1975, told delegates that the union faces challenges such as right-to-work laws in some states, including Michigan, that prohibit agreements requiring union membership to work in a particular organization.
Auto Workers still frustrated in organizing the South
peoplesworld.org, June 14, 2018
Even Dennis Williams admits there’s a problem. In his address and report to his union, the retiring president of the Auto Workers touched upon his union’s – and labor’s – greatest frustration: Organizing the South. From Virginia sweeping through Texas and Oklahoma, the South is the nation’s fastest-growing and least-unionized region. And they’re all so-called “right to work†states, too.
A Catalog of California’s Anti-Janus Legislation
californiapolicycenter.org, June 07, 2018
AB-83 Collective bargaining: Judicial Council – enacted
SB-201 Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act: employees – enacted
SB-285 Public employers: union organizing – enacted
SB-550 Public school employment: meeting and negotiating: legal actions: settlement offer: attorney’s fees – enacted
CALIFORNIA’S PENDING ANTI-JANUS LEGISLATION
AB-1937 Public employment: payroll deductions – passed Assembly
AB-2017 Public employers: employee organizations – passed Assembly
AB-2049 Classified school and community college employees: payroll deductions for employee organization dues – passed Assembly
The Hotel California Contract – You Can Check In, But Checking Out…
AB-2886 Public Employee Relations Board: Orange County Transportation Authority: San Joaquin Regional Transit District – passed Assembly
AB-3034 Public transit employer-employee relations: San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District – passed Assembly
SUMMARY OF ANTI-JANUS LEGISLATION
So in response to Janus, California’s unions representing public servants are doing the following:
1 – Expanding the pool of public employees eligible to join unions – AB 83, SB 201, and AB 3034
2 – Making it difficult, if not impossible, for employers to discuss the pros and cons of unionization with employees – SB 285 and AB-2017
3 – Precluding local governments from unilaterally honoring employee requests to stop paying union dues – AB 1937 and AB-2049
4 – Making employers pay union legal fees if they lose in litigation but not making unions pay employer costs if the unions lose – SB 5505 – Moving the venue for dispute resolution from the courts to PERB, which is stacked with pro-union board members – SB 285 and AB 2886
This catalog of countermeasures to Janus is undoubtedly incomplete.
U.S. Labor Department Sues to Overturn [Teamsters] Local 41 Election
tdu.org, June 13, 2018
The US Department of Labor (DOL) has gone into federal court to overturn the Kansas City Local 41 election held last November, and have the DOL conduct a rerun.
The DOL complaint charges that numerous members were denied the right to vote due to an improper printing of the return ballot envelopes; hundreds of ballots were returned back to members.
If the Local Union doesn’t agree to a rerun, then a federal trial will be held. A rerun election conducted by the DOL is very likely, but it could be delayed by the trial schedule.
Jason Huffman, Garrett Ballengee: The WV comeback has started (Daily Mail)
gazette-mil.com, June 12, 2018
West Virginia’s turnaround is turning heads across the country. GoBankingRates, a personal finance website, ranked West Virginia first in a study of the fastest growing economies in the United States for 2017. A few weeks ago, Fitch Ratings, a major bond rating agency, upgraded West Virginia’s outlook from negative to stable.
In 2016, West Virginia repealed its antiquated prevailing wage mandate that forced government to artificially inflate the cost of public construction projects beyond that of true local market rates. By eliminating the mandate, West Virginia tax dollars can now build schools, parks and roads more affordably.
In the same year, West Virginia became the 26th right-to-work state in the country. Right-to-work laws protect workers’ constitutional rights of freedom of speech and association, ensuring they cannot be fired for refusing to join or pay a union with which they may disagree. Right to work also helps create jobs.