California’s legislative session is coming down to its final days and Big Labor is looking for another industry to foist its forced-unionization scheme upon. Believe it or not they are targeting the Golden State’s babysitters.
As this year’s legislative session entered its final week Tuesday, state lawmakers pursued one measure that would help politically powerful unions bolster their ranks … In unveiling the last-minute labor measure, Democratic leaders proposed allowing the unionization of nearly 40,000 people who receive state money to provide child care in their homes. That would vastly expand the dues-paying ranks of unions that contribute heavily to Democratic causes. Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed three earlier versions of the proposal. It is unclear what action Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, would take….
The bill is modeled on a measure that allowed the unionization of workers paid by the state to provide in-home care for disabled patients. That law added more than 75,000 members to California unions and helped them become a dominant force in state politics. Paul McIntosh, a lobbyist for the California State Assn. of Counties, said the new measure would require counties, which administer the state grants, to form entities to bargain with the unions. ”It would certainly drive up administrative costs if counties have to hire someone to negotiate contracts,” he said.
On June 1, Tennessee achieved a legislative milestone when its elected officials effectively repealed a 33-year-old state statute authorizing and promoting union monopoly-bargaining control over teachers and other K-12 public school instructional employees.
Under the new K-12 reform law approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Bill Haslam (R ), no union or other organization will be handed a legally protected monopoly over all “employee” input in discussions with school boards over working conditions.
Once this law, known as the Collaborative Conferencing Act, takes effect, teachers who choose not to join any union will, for the first time in decades, have a voice in discussions throughout Tennessee regarding salaries, benefits and grievances.
Tennessee revoked teacher union bosses’ monopoly-bargaining privileges last month largely thanks to persistent lobbying by the roughly 46,000 National Right to Work Committee members and supporters in the Volunteer State.
And, according to Stanford University political scientist and education specialist Terry Moe, the Tennesseans who helped pass the Collaborative Conferencing Act have done an enormous favor for their state’s schoolchildren.
From Children’s Standpoint, Union Boss-Perpetuated Salary Rules ‘Make No Sense at All’
In his new book Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America’s Public Schools (Brookings Institution Press), Dr. Moe documents how teacher union monopoly bargaining, still statutorily enshrined in more than 30 states, impairs school outcomes while sharply raising the cost to taxpayers.
In practice, charges Dr. Moe, “exclusive” union bargaining routinely produces “key decisions that depart from — and are systematically biased against — what is best for kids and effective organization.”
One example among many are so-called “single salary schedules” that furnish teachers with extra pay for additional degrees and course taking, even though “research has consistently shown” that simply accumulating degrees and/or additional course credits, “does not make teachers more effective.”
From “the standpoint of what is best for children,” such Big Labor-perpetuated salary rules “make no sense at all” (emphasis Dr. Moe’s). But teacher union officials ferociously defend “single salary schedule” rules, because they keep educators dependent on the union for securing better pay and career advancement.
Monopolistic Unionism Can Never Be ‘Reform Unionism’
In today’s America, Special Interest goes on to point out, many education policymakers and other leaders “recognize that teacher unions are standing in the way of effective schools,” but mistakenly believe that union officials “can be persuaded to do good things with their [monopolistic] power.”
This is the false hope of what is commonly called “reform unionism.” (more…)
Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s support for Right To Work ignited long and enthusiastic rounds of applause from the New Hampshire audience.
The state came close to living up to its motto when it passed, by large majorities, Right To Work legislation this Spring. But, Big Labor Gov. John Lynch vetoed the legislation and chose to continue to allow union bosses to forcibly take union dues from New Hampshire workers’ paychecks.
However, New Hampshire legislators are preparing to override the Lynch veto of worker freedom. Before the summer is over, there could be a 23rd Right To Work State. Judging by the enthusiastic response in the debate, the veto override clearly has momentum.
From the The National Right To Work Legal Defense press release (6/2/2011):
National Right to Work Foundation attorneys helping workers and former Machinist union president challenge attempt to send jobs to Washington
Washington, DC (June 2, 2011) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a group of Charleston-area Boeing Corporation employees are asking to intervene in the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) unprecedented case targeting Boeing for locating production in South Carolina in part due to its popular Right to Work law. That law ensures that union dues and membership are strictly voluntary.
The NLRB’s complaint, if successful, would eliminate over 1,000 existing jobs in South Carolina, not to mention several thousand more jobs that would be created once the Boeing plant reaches full production capacity. Further, the case could set a dangerous precedent that allows union bosses to dictate where job providers locate their facilities. (more…)
Mitch Daniels’ decision to shutdown Right To Work legislation leaves indiviudals like this WRTV anchor, Patricia Shepherd, battling Big Labor greed.
From the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation news release:
Union Forced Dues Threats against WRTV Anchor Highlight Need for Indiana Right to Work Law
Union hit with federal labor board charges for demanding TV anchor pay union dues despite lack of valid contract between her employer and the union
Indianapolis, IN (May 19, 2011) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, WRTV anchor Patricia Shepherd has filed federal unfair labor practice charges against the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) union.
Shepherd’s charges allege that AFTRA officials demanded she pay dues despite the fact that she is not a union member and the union has not had a contract with her employer for the past two years.
Because Indiana lacks a Right to Work law, employees can be forced to pay union dues for the purposes of workplace bargaining just to get or keep a job. In recent months, Indiana legislators were considering a law to make union dues payments strictly voluntary, but Governor Mitch Daniels and House Speaker Brian Bosma, despite strong majorities on record in favor of a Right to Work bill in both chambers of the state legislature, ultimately killed the legislation.
In this case, the AFTRA union has not had a contract with WRTV since March 2009 and therefore is not entitled to collect dues for negotiations with management. Moreover, the last contract between the union and the television station indicated that joining AFTRA or paying union dues was not a condition of employment at WRTV.
Although the union’s own contract includes language stating that dues payment is not a condition of employment, AFTRA officials continue to insist that Shepherd pay union dues. The union has gone so far as to refer Shepherd’s name to a professional collections agency in Pennsylvania.
Shepherd’s charges will now be investigated by the National Labor Relations Board.
“The decision by Speaker Bosma and Governor Daniels to block a vote on an Indiana Right to Work law means that union bosses will continue to order employees fired for refusing to pay union dues,” said Patrick Semmens, Legal Information Director for the National Right to Work Foundation. “In this case, union officials broke the law by attempting to collect dues without a valid forced unionism clause, but other Indiana union bosses are still empowered to collect hundreds of millions of dollars from workers who face termination if they don’t pay up.”
Semmens continued: “Ultimately, a Right to Work law for the Hoosier State would be the best way to end this injustice, ensuring that union membership and dues payment are strictly voluntary.”
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, is assisting thousands of employees in nearly 200 cases nationwide. Its web address is www.nrtw.org.
The NLRB’s action against South Carolina Boeing employees is mystifying even to a former NLRB Board member appointed by pro-Big Labor President Bill Clinton.
Bill Gould, a Clinton Administration Board member is “mystified” by the NLRB’s actions. “The Boeing case is unprecedented,” he says. “I agree with much of what this board has done and is likely to do, but I don’t agree with what the general counsel has done in the Boeing case. The general counsel is trying to equate an employer’s concern with strikes that disrupt production and make it difficult to make deadlines—he’s trying to equate that with hostility toward trade unionism. I don’t think that makes sense.”
Bill Gould has some advice for the labor movement: Turn back. Turn back before it’s too late.
“The administration is acting like a bunch of thugs,” said Sen. Jim DeMint. “If this is checks and balances, God help our country,” said Gov. Nikki Haley. “This is nothing more than bullying by the labor unions. This is President Obama and Harry Reid carrying their water.”
First, the brigade of Big Labor’s Bullhorn Bullies failed to keep the Wisconsin legislature from operating when it used intimidation in an attempt to bypass the November 2010 democratic election, and all-the-while chanting the anarchist chant: “This Is What Democracy Looks Like.”
Then, having failed with their weeks of harassment, those same forced-dues financed bullies poured $3 million-plus into JoAnne Kloppenburg’s campaign for the Wisconsin Supreme Court against Justive David Prosser. The goal: overturn democracy and the legislative results that flow from it.
Yet, even with union pouring in campaign money and paying for precinct workers, the voters of Wisconsin again rejected Ms. Kloppenburg, who so actively embraced Big Labor’s myopic vision on compulsory unionism that she ended the public’s ability to ever see her again as an impartial jurist.
In the end, it appears Wisconsin has shown us what democracy looks like. State employees, at least, will have the choice to continue to contribute or not contribute to the same union officials who organized the chaos in Wisconsin. And, isn’t choice and freedom what democracy looks like verses intimidation and compulsion?
Time For Politicians in Both Parties to Own Up to Their Mistakes
In late February, many concerned Americans in other states were paying close attention to the fierce, and still unresolved, battle over public-sector union monopoly bargaining in Wisconsin.
Many observing the Madison showdown from their homes inwere undoubtedly amazed by what they saw.
These five states, like roughly a dozen others, have no statutes on the books empowering government union officials to act as state and local public employees’ monopoly-bargaining agents.
When elected officials in such states make a judgment that a reform in public-employee compensation packages and work rules is necessary and can be prudently implemented to give taxpayers a better return on their money, they have the power to proceed.
It is then up to the voting public to judge whether the reform was a good idea or not.
In Wisconsin, however, like in other states which statutorily mandate union monopoly bargaining over public employee pay, benefits, and working conditions, elected officials from the governor on down have far less control over the roughly 50% of public expenditures that go into employee compensation.
In the Badger State, half of state and local government employees are unionized. Elected officials and their appointees cannot make any significant changes in the way these employees are compensated or in how they are instructed to do their jobs without government union bosses’ approval.
Today, millions of Americans whose state and local governments operate free from Big Labor constraints appreciate, after watching the bitter struggle in Wisconsin unfold, better than ever before the importance of keeping union monopolists out of the government workplace.
Only Intense Right to Work Lobbying Blocked Monopoly-Bargaining Bill
What most freedom-loving Virginians, North Carolinians and Texans probably don’t realize is that, just last year, the U.S. Congress came within a hair of taking away their prerogative to decide how their state and local government workplaces are run.
At the outset of the 2009-2010 Congress, the votes were there to pass the so-called “Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act” in both the House and the Senate. Furthermore, President Obama was publicly vowing to sign this legislation as soon as it reached his desk.
This measure, more accurately labeled the “Police/Fire Monopoly-Bargaining Bill,” would have foisted Wisconsin-style labor relations on state and local public-safety departments in all 50 states. (more…)
California’s legislative session is coming down to its final days and Big Labor is looking for another industry to foist its forced-unionization scheme upon. Believe it or not they are targeting the Golden State’s babysitters.
