NILRR Right to Work Clipsheet
Hillary Pledges Support for Union Agenda
Free Beacon, June 22, 2016
“We should strengthen unions that have formed the bedrock of a strong middle class. It should be easier to bargain collectively,†she said. “That’s not only fair, it makes workers more productive and strengthens our economy.â€
ABC’s Fight Against Government-Mandated Project Labor Agreements Produces Impressive Results
thetruthaboutplas.com, June 21, 2016
A Hillary Clinton presidency would almost certainly continue, if not expand, President Obama’s pro-PLA policy. Earlier this year at the North American Building Trades Union legislative conference, Clinton promised to gut Right to Work laws, protect the archaic 1935 Davis-Bacon Act, create jobs exclusively for union apprentices and support government-mandated PLAs:
JUDGE WON’T HALT PERSUADER RULE
Politico.com, June 23, 2016
A Minnesota federal judge Wednesday declined to enjoin the Labor Department’s persuader rule, but also said the rule was vulnerable to a lawsuit once it’s enforced. “There is inherent harm in enjoining an agency from enforcing a regulation that has been promulgated pursuant to authority delegated from Congress,†U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz said. “Although the court has found that the new rule is likely invalid in some respects, plaintiffs’ minimal showing of a threat of irreparable harm is not sufficient to warrant the extraordinary relief of a preliminary injunction.â€
American Prospect, June 22, 2016
Perez has proven himself an able handyman, steering a dizzying array of labor rules and regulations through Washington’s often-stymied bureaucracy despite constant political threats and general hostility coming from Republicans and the business lobby. Those include not only the overtime rule, but an expansion of federal labor protections to cover home-care workers; a long-shot crusade to establish new standards in the retirement-advising industry; an executive order to use the federal government’s contracting process to create good jobs; and a stern guidance aimed at stopping rampant worker misclassification.
Defense wins point in ‘Top Chef’ case
Boston Herald Online, June 23, 2016
Federal prosecutors have agreed to give defense attorneys the names of witnesses in the case against Teamsters accused of threatening and insulting nonunion workers on the set of “Top Chef†in June 2014 — but only after voicing fears that the union men could pose a danger.
Democrats Ask for Investigation into Risky Investments By Union Pension Fund Managers
wksu 89.7.com, June 24, 2016
Dozens of Democratic Senators and members of Congress are calling for a federal investigation into risky investments made by firms managing a group of union pension funds.
In a letter this week to the Government Accountability Office, Congress’s investigative arm, Sherrod Brown, Marcy Kaptur, Tim Ryan, Marcia Fudge and others asked for a review of Wall Street firms that managed the funds.
LIUNA TO PEREZ: NO PBGC PREMIUM INCREASES PLEASE
politico.com, June 24, 2016
LiUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan wrote Labor Secretary Tom Perez Thursday urging the administration not to increase annual PBGC premiums for multiemployer pension funds. The letter comes less than one week after the PBGC issued a report that said the agency needed to raise premiums substantially in order to prevent its multiemployer program from going insolvent. But O’Sullivan noted that the 2014 multiemployer pension reform law already hiked premiums to $27 in 2016, up from $12 in 2013.
Booming again: West Michigan’s economy is on a roll
bridgemi.com, June 23, 2016
Michigan’s economy is enjoying some of the lowest sustained jobless rates since before 9/11, with a return of thousands of manufacturing jobs swept away by the Great Recession. With joblessness below 5 percent, that’s been mostly good news, despite wages that remain generally stagnant.
Wisconsin teachers union membership plummets since Act 10
Wisconsinwatchdog.com, June 21, 2016
Membership in the Wisconsin Education Association Council is down 58 percent since the 2011 enactment of Act 10, which ended collective bargaining over benefits for public employees, including teachers unions, according to the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy.
Volkswagen will not help UAW union organize Tennessee plant: HR chief
Reuters, June 22, 2016
“If the UAW wants to organize the American auto workers at our plant in Chattanooga it has to do so by itself, like the IG Metall does it in Germany,” Volkswagen human resources chief Karlheinz Blessing said on Wednesday. “The VW management board or the IG Metall cannot handle this for the UAW.”
Another NLRB appointment questioned
politico.com, June 21, 2016
The Supreme Court will once again review an Obama administration appointment to the National Labor Relations Board, two years after ruling that three recess appointments to the board were unconstitutional because the Senate wasn’t, technically, in recess. The NLRB executive under scrutiny this time is former acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon, whom President Barack Obama nominated for that position while Solomon was filling it in an acting capacity. The D.C. Circuit ruled part of Solomon’s term unlawful under the 1998 Federal Vacancy Reforms Act, which said nominees awaiting Senate confirmation could not serve in acting capacities.
politico. com, June 21, 2016
More than 4,000 nurses walked off the job Monday at five Twin Cities Allina hospitals in a contract dispute over health benefits, according to the Star-Tribune’s Jeremy Olson and Christopher Snowbeck. The strike is planned to last all week.
EXPOSED: Local Teachers Union Protects Abusive Teacher
laborpains.org, June 21, 2016
A Project Veritas video revealed two union officials with the Yonkers Federation of Teachers (YFT)—a New York affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers—brainstorming ways to protect an abusive teacher played by an undercover journalist. The planted (white) teacher, who hypothetically struck a minority student and then took a two-week vacation in Mexico without telling the school, admitted his “wrongdoing†to YFT President Patricia Puleo and YFT Executive Vice President Paul Diamond.