NILRR Right to Work News October 20, 2017
www.ilnews.org, October 19, 2017
Patrick Semmens with the National Right to Work Defense Foundation says it’s not just Toyota and Mazda that’s passing over Illinois. He said many job creators simply won’t look at a state that doesn’t give workers a choice if they want to join a union.
NAFTA debate demonstrates the failure of forced union membership
prairiepundit.blogspot.com, October 18, 2017
The superiority of right to work states is easily demonstrated by the red state-blue state divide. The job growth in the US has been mainly in the red states with right to work laws. It creates more jobs and more prosperity for all. If Canada insists on the forced union approach, then the US should reject NAFTA. The treaty is already seen is self-destructive in many places in the US and this would alienate even more states to oppose the treaty.
Democrat Northam Removes Running Mate from Ads to Appease Virginia Union Supporters
National Review Online, October 18, 2017
Local Virginia paper the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Northam chose to remove Fairfax from some of his campaign literature at the request of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, whose spokesman claimed the lieutenant-governor candidate “wasn’t supporting [unions] on the issues.â€
An Early Halloween Trick for Connecticut Public Sector Unions?
jdsupra.com, October 18, 2017
Over the past five years the Abood decision has been under what amounts to a legal siege. For example, in Knox v. Serv. Employees Int’l Union, Local 1000, 567 U.S. 298 (2012), a conservative majority of the Supreme Court noted that agency shop arrangements amount to compelled speech that “impinges†upon an objecting fee payers’ First Amendment rights, and held that the First Amendment requires that public-sector unions may only charge fee payers special, non-regular assessments if the objecting fee payer affirmatively opts in to pay such assessments. Two years later, in 2014, in Harris v. Quinn, 134 S. Ct. 2618 (2014) the same conservative majority rejected what it considered to be an expansion of Abood, holding that non-union member “quasi-public†Illinois home health care workers who are hired by homecare recipients but reimbursed by Medicaid could not be required to pay service fees under an agency shop requirement.
The UAW is helping itself at US workers’ expense
Washington Examiner Online, October 16, 2017
There are no shortages of object lessons. Right now in Grand Rapids, Mich., UAW leadership has said it would rather see a Dematic production plant close — with hundreds of jobs potentially shipped to Mexico — rather than give ground on their contract demands. The president of UAW Local 1485 was shockingly callous: “If the company decides to close, the union would support it at this point.”
Moody’s Warns of ‘Likely’ Hartford Default, Decades of Deficits Ahead
hartfordcourant.com, October 19, 2017
“Revenues are not keeping up with the growth of these expenditures,†Moody’s warned, “and highlight the need for concessions from three primary stakeholders — bondholders, the state and labor unions — to achieve financial sustainability.â€
High labor costs stem from “decades of contractual salary increases and employee benefits,†Moody’s wrote, and those benefits — which include health insurance, pensions payments and workers compensation, among others — are expected to increase by $21 million in 2018. Moody’s found that benefits and insurance costs have increased 6 percent each year for the last 10 years, compared to an annual increase of just 2 percent in the urban consumer price index during the same period.
The Supreme Court Has the Chance to Fix Its Own Mistake
Foundation for Economic Freedom Online, October 17, 2017
This is not the law in every state, as this establishes a low baseline in terms of free speech. There are “right to work†states which provide an exit for those who are unrepresented by the local union. But that does not change the fact that many public sector employees are forced to pay dues by their employer, the government, to a union that does not accurately reflect their views politically or even as a contract negotiator. Nor does it change the probability that public sector unions may benefit both in contributed dollars and inflated membership from laws that compel dues as a condition of employment.
School district, union fined in right-to-work case
Detroit News Online, October 15, 2017
An Oakland County school district and its teachers union each have been ordered to pay $500 for violating Michigan’s right-to-work law.
Teacher Ron Conwell says he was told he would have to pay a service fee when he quit the union in 2015.
Conwell got help from lawyers at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. President Mark Mix says the union made a “desperate attempt†to keep money flowing.
Feds seize $350K, second luxury pen in FCA-UAW scandal
Detroit News Online, October 17, 2017
FBI agents have seized $354,000 and rare $35,700 fountain pens during a hunt for money and assets tied to Alphons Iacobelli, the former Fiat Chrysler executive charged in a corruption scandal.
Iowa teachers union loses round 1 in collective bargaining appeal
Cedar Rapids Gazette Online, October 19, 2017
A Polk County judge has denied the state teachers union’s motion for summary judgment in a case challenging the collective bargaining law approved by the Iowa Legislature earlier this year.
Inside the SEIU: Leftist Origins
Capital Research Center Online, October 17, 2017
In 2012 the Wall Street Journal acknowledged the SEIU as the Democrats’ top spender after the union spent $70 million, surpassing the measly $54 million spent by President Obama’s main super PAC, Priorities USA. 300,000 SEIU members reported donating an average of $7 per paycheck to political activism, on top of their dues.
Dispute among Philly’s building trades unions
philly.com, October 19, 2017
According to sources, the dispute is between the sheet metal workers union and the electricians’ union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98, over who should do work on electronic signs constructed at projects on Market Street and at the Parx Casino in Bucks County.