Union Bosses Out For Revenge in Wisconsin

Union Bosses Out For Revenge in Wisconsin

The implementation and retention of its new state public-sector Right to Work law are critical for Wisconsin's efforts to furnish relief for taxpaying individuals and businesses and reinvigorate private-sector income growth. Credit: Rick McKee/Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle  Pro-Right to Work Legislators Targeted in July 'Recall' Elections (Source: June 2011 NRTWC Newsletter) For at least a decade leading up to the election of Right to Work advocate Scott Walker (R) as governor, Wisconsin, like many other forced-unionism states, was on an unsustainable fiscal path. From 2000 through 2010, total taxpayer costs for compensation of Wisconsin state and local government employees grew by an inflation-adjusted 9.2%, to a total of $19.83 billion last year. By 2010, state and local government compensation swallowed up the equivalent of nearly 17% of all private-sector wages, salaries, bonuses and benefits in Wisconsin. And over the past decade Badger State government employee compensation grew more than two-and-a-half times as fast as private-sector employee compensation, in percentage terms. Upon Taking Office, Governor Properly Focused His Energy On Forced-Dues Repeal Measure
Right to Work Bill Introduced in U.S. House

Right to Work Bill Introduced in U.S. House

Rep. Steve King is lead sponsor of H.R.2040, the House version of the National Right to Work Act. Credit: Congressman King’s Office Would Bar Firing Employees For Refusal to Bankroll Unwanted Union (Source: June 2011 NRTWC Newsletter) With their hopes buoyed by the passage earlier this year of two new state laws barring the extraction of forced union dues from public servants in Wisconsin and Ohio, pro-Right to Work Americans are now preparing to take the offensive in the U.S. Congress. "National Right to Work Committee members and their grass-roots allies in the Badger and Buckeye States stunned Big Labor in March when they successfully lobbied for legislation removing government union bosses' forced-dues privileges," recalled Committee Vice President Mary King. "Now it's time for Committee members and supporters nationwide to show we can lobby just as effectively in support of legislation that would repeal federally-imposed forced union dues and fees." S.504 and H.R.2040 Would Repeal Federally-Imposed Forced Union Dues Ms. King continued: "When it comes to private-sector forced unionism, Congress is the culprit.
Michigan Renounces Day-Care Forced Unionism

Michigan Renounces Day-Care Forced Unionism

Last year, Carrie Schlaud appeared on a Fox News broadcast along with Committee President Mark Mix to discuss her and other Michigan home day-care providers' efforts to defend their Right to Work. Credit: Fox News But Union Dons May Get to Keep $4.5 Million Wrung From Providers (Source: June 2011 NRTWC Newsletter) Five years ago, bosses of two AFL-CIO unions, the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), teamed up to acquire forced-unionism control over home-based day-care providers in Michigan. The UAW/AFSCME joint-venture union, known as "Child Care Providers Together Michigan" (CCPTM), was set up with the express aim of unionizing "all home-based child [day] care providers in Michigan." Then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Big Labor Democrat, was ready from the beginning to pull as many strings as necessary for the CCPTM union. In July 2006, Granholm-appointed bureaucrats helped establish a shell corporation known as the "Michigan Home Based Child Care Council" (MHBCC). The sole genuine purpose of this venture was to act as the entity against which the CCPTM union was supposedly organizing. Many of the 40,500 day-care providers targeted by CCPTM organizers report that they never even heard of this outfit until after it had prevailed in a low-turnout "mail ballot" election. In 2008, forced union fees began being siphoned out of the reimbursement checks day-care providers receive from the government for serving needy families who are unable to pay their own way. With Right to Work Attorneys' Help, Michigan Home Day-Care Providers Fought Back
Right to Work Good For Pay and Benefits

Right to Work Good For Pay and Benefits

By prohibiting compulsory union dues, state Right to Work laws spur the growth of private-sector employee compensation in the form of wages, salaries, benefits and bonuses, as well as employment growth. Sources: U.S. Commerce Department, U.S. Labor Department Private-Sector Compensation Growth Lags in Forced-Unionism States (Source: June 2011 NRTWC Newsletter) Even union bosses and their apologists sometimes grudgingly admit that long-term private-sector job growth in states that currently have Right to Work laws on the books far outpaces job growth in states that lack such pro-employee statutes. This fact is indeed hard to deny. From 1990 to 2010, according to the U.S. Labor Department, private-sector payrolls in Right to Work states soared by 32.0% -- an increase triple that of forced-union-dues states combined. Over the past decade alone, nationwide private-sector employment fell by 3.3% due to the impact of the severe 2008-2009 recession. But Right to Work states experienced an overall private-sector job increase, while forced-unionism states suffered a 5.5% aggregate job loss. Big Labor tries to downplay the significance of Right to Work states' large, persistent employment-growth advantage by suggesting that the jobs created outside of forced unionism's dominion are "the wrong kind." Unfortunately for union propagandists, however, U.S. Commerce Department data show that Right to Work states also enjoy a large, persistent advantage over forced-unionism states with regard to growth of private-sector employee compensation (including wages, salaries, bonuses and benefits). Real Compensation Grew Nine Times as Much Over Past Decade In Right to Work States

Want Jobs and Rising Income Levels? Pass Right to Work

The Investor's Business Daily confirms that enacting Right to Work laws is a recipe for jobs and economic growth: The business world is abuzz over the National Labor Relations Board's complaint vs. Boeing's new South Carolina production line. For NLRB critics, the case boils down to one thing: "right-to-work" laws. Right-to-work states have generally lower unemployment, higher job growth, lower taxes and better business climates. They have growing populations and have been attracting businesses from other states. In most states, once a workplace is unionized, employees are required to join the union or they can't work there. But 22 states, including South Carolina, have passed laws that give employees the right not to join. Hence the term "right-to-work." Unions dislike these laws for the obvious reason: It reduces their membership.

Teacher Files Brief in Wisconsin Government Unionism Reform Battle in Federal Court

From the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation press release: Public-sector union bosses file desperate lawsuit seeking to protect forced dues stranglehold over Wisconsin’s public workers and taxpayers Madison, WI (June 29, 2011) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a Kenosha teacher affected by Wisconsin’s recent public-sector unionism reforms has filed an amicus curiae brief in federal court. Kristi Lacroix, who has been a teacher for 13 years and is an English teacher at the LakeView Technology Academy in Pleasant Prairie, filed the brief Monday in favor of the reforms which sharply limited government union officials’ monopoly bargaining power over public workers and taxpayers. Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld Governor Scott Walker’s government-sector monopoly bargaining reform bill, which protects the Right to Work for most government employees and bans automatic forced-union-dues seizures from public employees’ paychecks. In response, union lawyers filed a new lawsuit in federal court seeking to overturn the bill, claiming that Freedom of Association – the right of American citizens to voluntarily come together to express their opinions and petition the government – gives union bosses forced-dues and monopoly bargaining powers.