NILRR Right to Work Clipsheet March 11, 2016


A black and white image of an eagle with its wings spread.

Shock: Simon Poll Finds Majority of Illinois Voters Support Right-To-Work

huffingtonpost.com, March 10, 2016

The poll also found more than 60 percent of respondents favor so-called “right-to-work” laws that prohibit mandatory union membership in union-represented workplaces.

Teacher files Right-to-Work unfair labor practice against unions

mlive.com, March 10, 2016

Becky Lapham accuses the unions of violating her rights under the state’s right-to-work law that prohibits requiring workers to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment.

Lapham, a district teacher for 13 years who now works at the Lincoln campus, filed the charges with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) on March 1. She is receiving free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

Teachers Unions Bully The Very Teachers They Claim To Protect

Daily Caller Online, February 27, 2016

Friedrichs spoke at the Concerned Educators Against Forced Unionism (CEAFU) conference about her experience with the California Teachers Association (CTA). The same experience that led her and nine other teachers to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court against mandatory union payments. Friedrichs recalled how she was once bullied by the very union entrusted to represent her.

California Proposal to Let Uber Drivers, Other Sharing Economy Workers, Unionize

reason.com, March 11, 2016

“All we’re trying to do is set up a legal framework by which, if there’s 10 independent contractors all working for the same employer, they could get together and organize and collectively bargain with that employer,” the San Diego Democrat told KFBK radio.

BANNER YEAR’ FOR UNION ORGANIZING?

politico.com, March 11, 2016

Union density in the U.S. stayed flat at 11.1 percent in 2015, but the year was still a good one for organizing, according to a new analysis from Bloomberg BNA.

Still, a lot of union wins don’t necessarily lead to a lot of unionized workers,†BNA’s Robert Combs writes. “Labor victories at the NLRB yielded about 62,000 newly organized workers in 2015. That’s below average for the past decade, and the second straight annual decline in total workers organized. So it wasn’t such a big year for big bargaining units.â€

Union pickets Swartz Creek company owned by former member

mlive.com, March 10, 2016

Members from the Sheet Metal Workers Union Local 7 picketed along Center Road on Thursday, March 10, hoping to sway a former union worker to have his company join organized labor.

This won’t be the last one – we’ll follow him to the next (job),” Kinzie said.

Sherman said he started his company in 2010 after he was laid off from the union.

Labor Regulators Target McDonald’s

realclearpolicy.com, March 10, 2016

Imagine the government brings charges against you but won’t tell you what you’re accused of. The judge insists you should know and proceeds with the case.

The NLRB is supposed to operate as a neutral arbiter that represents the public interest in labor disputes, but in recent years it has essentially become the legal arm of organized labor — to the detriment of businesses and workers all across America.

Safeguarding Public-Pension Systems

economics21.org, March 09, 216

Public pension funds for state and municipal workers in the United States have accumulated, by most recent estimates, approximately $4 trillion in obligations—roughly one-fourth of U.S. GDP and almost 130 percent of state and local governments’ annual budgets—to fund government workers’ retirements. Actual assets available to fund these obligations, however, total only about $3 trillion, leaving a $1 trillion shortfall that threatens to jeopardize public employees’ retirement security and/or burden the public fiscal situation—potentially squeezing out vital pending on health, education, and infrastructure

This is labor’s plan

Washingtonpost.com, March 10, 2016

Trumka has an anti-Trump plan, the first parts of which will roll out next week: educate voters about what he says is Trump’s history of anti-worker, anti-union policies. That campaign — on which he would not put a price tag, but unions spent more than $9.3 million in the 2012 presidential race — will eventually evolve into uniting labor voters behind a Democratic candidate.

“We’ll have literally millions of phone calls, leaflets, door knocks, rallies and seminars,†Trumka said.

The group intends to focus time, energy and money on five to seven states, which could include Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Wisconsin and Missouri. All of those states have strong labor presence and are home to competitive Senate battles in November.

 

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