In the wake of the 2010 mid-term elections there are several state governors and legislatures exploring ways to limit the influence of public sector unions. This is occurring primarily in states that are newly under Republican control (26 states have Republicans controlling both state houses, 29 states have republican governors, and and impressive 21 states...
In a meticulously detailed press release issued on February 2nd, Prime Healthcare Services (PHS), the largest for-profit hospital system in California, announced they are victim of an extortion campaign by the Service Employees International Union – United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU) over the past year. What PHS is going through is a classic example of...
Does a recent court ruling in Los Angeles really signal the beginning of the end of an unjust teacher seniority system? Or does the decision amount to nothing more than a zero-sum game, favoring some at the expense of others? A recent “landmark decision” in Los Angeles is said to have made inroads into the...
The NLRB Is On The Offensive James R. Grasso, January 31, 2011, The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel When President Obama took office in 2009, one of the top priorities of his administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress was passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). EFCA would have dramatically altered the labor relations landscape by removing...
How Public Unions Took Taxpayers Hostage By Fred Siegel, January 25, 2011, The Wall Street Journal The turbulent years of the 1960s and ’70s are best known by the headline-grabbing civil rights and women’s rights movements. But there was another “rights” movement, largely overlooked, that has also had a profound effect on American life. The...
While much analysis has been forthcoming on the impact of the November 2010 election on the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, it is harder to get compiled information on how that election affected political control of 50 states. An excellent source for this much larger body of data comes from the American Legislative...
Congratulation go to South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley who made comments about South Carolina being a right-to-work state, and in the process essentially told unions to go to hell. She was a bit more polite than that, but not by much. Please consider Union sues over Haley’s remarks about Boeing plant South Carolina Gov. Nikki...
Bob owns a small business that provides heating and air conditioning service and installation. He employs approximately 10 staff and workers and is located in Anywhere, USA. Bob has been in business for over 20 years, strong relationships with his employees, and enjoys a good reputation in the community. Bob has always focused on running...
State Of The Unions – Public Support for Labor Unions Hits a New Low By James Surowiecki, January 17, 2011, The New Yorker In the heart of the Great Depression, millions of American workers did something they’d never done before: they joined a union. Emboldened by the passage of the Wagner Act, which made collective...
There is an excellent summary of the definition of “right-to-work” vs. forced unionism, posted today, on the website Labor Union Report entitled “Fighting to Free Workers’ Paychecks from Union Bosses: Advancing the Right to Work.” Here they are: “A “Right-to-Work” state that forbids workers from being fired for non-payment of union dues or fees.” “A...
It appears the SEIU has once again utilized the old “Persuasion of Power” trick, this time at the expense of New York City taxpayers. It was reported by government employees that the Sanitation Department’s Slow Snow Cleanup was a Budget Protest and that big labor bosses instructed union membership to slack off on the job...
Labor’s Coming Class War By William McGurn, January 4, 2011, The Wall Street Journal Private-sector union workers begin to notice that their job prospects are at risk from public-employee union contracts. Jeffrey Brown of PBS’s “NewsHour” recently summed up the year’s economic performance by invoking the most overworked chestnut of modern American punditry: “the disconnect...
An article in the Canada Free Press published earlier this week provides an extraordinarily articulate and passionate summary of the destructive power of public sector unions. To read the entire article, click on this aptly descriptive title “Who Will Protect the People from the Unions?” Rather than paraphrase author Steven Greenhouse’s inimitable prose, here are...
Last week, big labor bosses were provided two early Christmas presents while the nation was being distracted by the theatrics of its “Lame Duck” Congress. In Beware the Lame Duck, I warned of potential attempts by Obama and his sidekicks Pelosi and Reid to pass some version of the “Employee Free Choice Act” (a.k.a. Card...