NILRR Right to Work News Clips February 23, 2018

A blue and white seal with an eagle on it.


Does the NLRB’s Inspector General Have a Double Standard for When Board Members Must Recuse?

The Federalist Society Online, February 22, 2018   Raymond J. LaJeunesse

In short, IG Berry has broadly construed the recusal requirements for Member Emanuel, but did so only narrowly for former Member Becker. Moreover, Berry’s citation of Becker’s Service Employees Local 121RN opinion concerning recusal in Berry’s response to Congressman Issa suggests that Berry knows, or should know, that the grounds on which Becker relied in not recusing himself in Lamons Gasket apply a fortiori to Emanuel in Hy-Brand.

ANOTHER REASON WE NEED RIGHT TO WORK: Union To Worker: Join Or We Can’t Protect You

MacIver Institute, February 22, 2016

Patrick Semmens, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation, said Herr’s experiences with the union are not unique.

“Unfortunately, there is a long history of Big Labor engaging in all sorts of harassment and pressure tactics against independent-minded workers who choose to stop union payments, as is their right under state Right to Work laws,†he said in an email. “Rather than work harder to provide a service workers will voluntarily pay for, the all too common union boss response is to attack and harass the very workers they claim to represent.â€

Right To Work

lrionline.com, February 22, 2018

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of organized workers in Kentucky fell from 11.1 percent in 2016 to 9.6 percent in 2017. This, after right-to-work went into effect in the state in January of last year.

EDITORIAL: SEIU trying to shakedown taxpayers

Las Vegas Review Journal Online, February 16, 2018

“Remember we’re SEIU members, and we all vote,†county property appraiser and SEIU member Bob Costello told commissioners. “We will remember how this board treats us.â€

It doesn’t get any clearer than that. Pay up or SEIU foot soldiers will break your knees at the ballot box. That’s an especially potent threat this year, Steve Sisolak and Chris Giunchigliani, are running to be Democratic gubernatorial nominee.

Unions are back with bill to give them private workers’ phone numbers, addresses

rstreet.org, February 21, 2018

Despite a stinging rebuke from Gov. Jerry Brown last year, California’s union-allied lawmakers are back with a plan to force private employees working for privately funded organizations to provide their cellphone numbers and home addresses to any union organizer that demands them. The bill’s backers want to intimidate people into paying union dues, even though this legislation is a clear affront to the privacy rights all Californians are supposed to enjoy.

Fees case may enable U.S. Supreme Court to curb union power

reuters.com, February 23, 2018

Janus, 65, is backed in the legal fight by anti-union groups including the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

He said in an interview he is not a member of a political party and his objection to the fees was not based on politics. Janus said he has chafed at having to pay the fees, currently just under $50 a month, since starting his current stint working for Illinois in 2007.

“I don’t agree with the fact that someone is telling me I have to support something without asking me about that. This is not freedom of association. If I don’t pay, I lose my job,†Janus said.

Unions are confronted with an existential threat

economist.com, February 22, 2018

The relative strength of public-sector unions and their inveterate support of Democratic policymakers have made them a prime target of Republican governors, especially in the Midwest. The same year, in next-door Illinois, Governor Bruce Rauner, another Republican, asked a federal court to declare agency fees unconstitutional. Robert Gettleman, a judge in Chicago, dismissed Mr Rauner’s complaint. But he allowed Mr Janus’s suit to proceed. It was pushed by the National Right To Work Legal Defence Foundation (NRTW), a non-profit group, after it realised that Mr Rauner was not going anywhere with his suit.

Today’s News & Commentary

On Labor, February 23, 2018

by Maddy Joseph

In advance of Monday’s oral argument in Janus, Bloomberg and the New York Times consider what might become of public sector unions if Abood is overruled. In These Times has a long feature on the advocacy groups who are funding not only Janus but also other efforts to undermine public sector unions. Key groups include the National Right to Work Foundation, whose legal fund represents Janus, and the State Policy Network, a network of conservative think tanks and nonprofits connected with the state lobbying giant the American Legislative Exchange Council.  See all of our coverage of Janus here.

Oklahoma Woman Sentenced for $450K+ Ripoff of Operating Engineers Benefits

nlpc.org, February 21, 2018

On January 24, Tyson, former bookkeeper for an Oklahoma City firm, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma to three years in prison for stealing $467,352.43 from a benefit plan sponsored by International Union of Operating Engineers Local 627.

Kentucky Unions Appeal After Court Says They Don’t Have A Right To Workers Wages

thedailycaller.com, February 21, 2018

“Kentucky’s limitation of employees from whom unions collect dues is not a taking of union property but rather is a prevention of Kentucky employees paying compulsory union dues,†Wingate added, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

White House Reaches Out to Labor Unions on Trade Policy

Wall Street Journal Online, February 21, 2018

Many labor unions have decried Nafta as a job killer since it went into effect in 1994. They have found some common ground with Trump administration proposals, including a requirement that products sold in the U.S. under the agreement have minimum levels of U.S.-produced content. Many business groups, by contrast, have criticized Trump administration proposals for Nafta changes as harmful to the U.S. economy.

UAW moves beyond auto industry to colleges, expands by nearly 70K members

freep.com, February 19, 2018

Since 2010, about 20,000 academic workers have joined the UAW: Full- and part-time graduate workers, adjunct professors, postdoctoral researchers, and a handful of support staff and maintenance workers are based on about two dozen public and private school campuses in California, Washington, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut.

More on USCCB Amicus Brief in Public-Sector Union Dues Case

nationalreview.com, February 22, 2018

Two weeks ago, I criticized the USCCB’s amicus brief in Janus v. AFSCME on three grounds:

Last week, I highlighted Bishop Thomas John Paprocki’s forceful repudiation of the USCCB brief, and I separately responded to a critique of my post by the National Catholic Reporter’s Michael Sean Winters. Without engaging my responses, Winters has launched another critique in which he contends that I “seem[] to mistake both Catholic social doctrine and the facts of the case.†Alas, his critique is rife with errors from top to bottom.

With Janus v. AFSCME, the Supreme Court needs to end compulsory union dues

ocregister.com, February 23, 2018

I am one of those agency fee payers.

Whether you agree that teachers instead should be paid, promoted and laid-off on the basis of merit, everyone can agree that it is wrong to force an employee to pay hundreds of dollars each year to support positions with which they disagree. It is not right that state law allows the union to use my forced dues to advance policies that I believe hurt my individual interests, the interests of my own two children, and the interests of my classroom students.

Together with six other teachers, I brought a lawsuit against the California Teachers Association challenging compulsory dues on some of the same grounds as Mark Janus is challenging the Illinois law. Our case has been put on hold while the Supreme Court decides the Janus case. We are hopeful that the court will agree that compulsory dues violate the free speech rights of thousands of teachers like me who just want to have a choice whether to support a union.

Ryan Yohn is a middle school teacher in the Westminster School District.

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