Veteran English teacher Kristi Lacroix isn’t easily intimidated. She reports that she has been “laughed at, screamed at and spit on” due to her unabashed opposition to compulsory union dues and fees and union monopoly-bargaining abuses in K-12 public education.
More than two decades ago, a three-judge panel on the Fourth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals considered the question of whether an “employee who wishes to remain a union member but desires to contribute financially only to the…
When teacher union bosses are seeking to justify their monopoly privilege to speak for educators who don’t wish to join the union as well as union members in contract negotiations, or their power to force union nonmembers to fork over…
The Free Beacon asks an interesting question -- will Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan recuse herself from a case dealing with recess appointments to the NLRB? Critics of President Barack Obama’s recess appointments are calling on Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan to recuse herself from a potential Supreme Court hearing on the matter. The Chamber of Commerce raised the prospect of recusal, citing then-solicitor general Kagan’s defense of President Obama’s recess appointments in a previous case regarding the composition of the National Labor Relations Board. The Supreme Court invalidated more than 600 NLRB decisions in the June 2010 case New Process Steel v. NLRB because the board had been issuing decisions with only two members. Kagan defended Obama’s approach to board composition and recess appointments in several briefs, writing in April 2010 that the court “would significantly burden the rights protected” by the National Labor Relations Act if it decided against the administration. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in January ruled in Noel Canning v. NLRBthat Obama violated the Constitution when he appointed Richard Griffin and Sharon Block to the board without Senate confirmation while the upper legislative chamber was in pro forma session. Legal experts predict the case will end up in the Supreme Court.
Forty US Senators, led by Sen. Orrin Hatch, are demanding that members of the National Labor Relations Board step aside until valid and legal appointments can be made. The letter to Sharon Block and Richard F. Griffin, Jr., the two…
The American Thinker blog lives up to its name with a post analyzing the faulty logic behind big labor's ACLU supported lawsuit attempting to overturn Michigan's Right to Work law: Do you recall what happened at the Wisconsin state Capitol building in March 2011, when the state Senate was considering legislation to curb public employee unions? For days, union members trashed the place. They blew horns. They swore at legislators unfortunate enough to cross their path. Litter was everywhere. Meanwhile, all Senate Democrats high-tailed it to Illinois, trying to prevent a vote. Not the prettiest exercise in representative democracy. In Michigan last December 6, someone at the Republican-controlled legislature decided not to have a replay of Wisconsin. The state police locked the doors at one point during afternoon debates over the proposed right-to-work law, with supporters and opponents who had already gained entrance staying inside. Four hours later, the House and Senate reopened the doors before both houses voted to pass the legislation. On Dec. 11, Gov. Rick Snyder signed it, making Michigan the 24th right-to-work state, which means employees in the Wolverine State can work without having to join a union.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has introduced National Right to Work law legislation to protect workers across the nation from being forced to join or pay union dues against their choice. S. 204 would “would preserve and protect the free choice…
After spending millions in forced workers dues money to pass ObamaCare, union bosses are growing wary of the impact of the law. Of course, they are ready to ask for a taxpayer subsidy: Labor unions enthusiastically backed the Obama administration's health-care overhaul when it was up for debate. Now that the law is rolling out, some are turning sour. To offset that, the nation's largest labor groups want their lower-paid members to be able to get federal insurance subsidies while remaining on their plans. In the law, these subsidies were designed only for low-income workers without employer coverage as a way to help them buy private insurance. In early talks, the Obama administration dismissed the idea of applying the subsidies to people in union-sponsored plans, according to officials from the trade group, the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans, that represents these insurance plans. Contacted for this article, Obama administration officials said the issue is subject to regulations still being written. Some 20 million Americans are covered by the health-care plans at issue in labor's push for subsidies. The plans are jointly managed by unions and employers and used mostly by small companies. They are popular in industries such as construction or trucking or hotels, where workers' hours fluctuate. By contrast, unionized workers at big employers such as Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. tend to have a more traditional insurance arrangement run through only one employer.
Nolan Finley of the Detroit News discusses Big Labor efforts in Michigan to undercut Right To Work protections for workers. Rather than convincing workers that it is worth continuing their membership in the union, the bosses are seeking subvert new rights: Unions busy subverting right to workIf you're a professor at Wayne State or Western Michigan, or a school teacher in Taylor or Berkley and are eager to exercise your right to end your forced union membership, fuggedaboutit.The mob that runs the public employee unions in Michigan has already figured out a way to keep you as an indentured servant to the unions and their financial beneficiaries in the Democratic Party. Unions at those schools are rushing to renegotiate labor contracts before the March 27 effective date of the newly passed right-to-work law.Because the law includes a grandfather clause, contracts in place before that date aren't affected by right to work until they expire.In Wayne State's case, that would be 10 years from now, if the professors union's proposal to extend the current contract is approved by a board of trustees made up nearly entirely by Democrats whose election campaigns were financed by labor unions.Similar extensions are being weighed at Western Michigan and the Taylor and Berkley public schools, and a growing list of other places. It's a warning flag that right to work alone will not be enough to break labor's stranglehold on local politics and policy making.One of the reasons public employee unions are such a target of government reformers is that Michigan's collective bargaining laws basically create the opportunity for them to negotiate contracts with themselves.All the unions need to do is put their money behind candidates who support their agenda and get them elected in school board elections that attract little interest from voters.