Membership in California’s government unions plummeted in 2018, federal report shows

By Editorial Staff
02/11/2019
“Walk out on the union, not the kids”: A California Policy Center social media advertisement delivered during the Los Angeles teachers strike. Memo to anyone still wondering about the impact of the Supreme Court’s landmark 2018 decision in Janus v AFSCME: Wonder no more. Despite a surging economy, union membership in California dropped by 86,000...

TAGS: California, government unions, Janus

More evidence school employees left their unions in late 2018

By Editorial Staff
02/04/2019
“Union members now have a choice”: CPC email, one of 13.9 million communications with California government employees. Union membership in yet another California school district is down dramatically, providing new evidence of a broader statewide decline in government unions following last summer’s Supreme Court decision in Janus, the landmark labor case. In 2018, Orange Unified...

TAGS: Janus, Mackinac Center, Orange Unified School District

Despite Janus, unions still forcing workers to pay annual dues

By Steven Greenhut
11/14/2018
Sacramento The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision from June in Janus v. the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees was clear: Public employees no longer are required to pay union dues, even for collective-bargaining purposes. This was no technical or ambiguous point. The court declared it an infringement of the First Amendment when the...

TAGS: Janus

EMBARGOED: Janus attorneys and Cal Policy Center represent Los Angeles teacher in lawsuit against LAUSD, UTLA

By Editorial Staff
11/09/2018
MEDIA ADVISORY from the LIBERTY JUSTICE CENTER and CALIFORNIA POLICY CENTER MEDIA CONTACTS Kristen Williamson kwilliamson@libertyjusticecenter.org or 847-651-8611 Will Swaim will@californiapolicycenter.org or 949-274-1911 EMBARGOED until Nov. 13 at 10 a.m. PST Janus attorneys and California Policy Center represent Los Angeles teacher in lawsuit against LAUSD, UTLA LOS ANGELES (Nov. 13, 2018) – Attorneys from the Liberty Justice Center and the...

TAGS: Janus, LAUSD, Unions, UTLA

Teachers’ unions appalled at idea of paying teachers like rock stars

By Steven Greenhut
10/23/2018
Sacramento — If you’re looking for a stellar example of teachers’ unions ongoing commitment to mediocrity or worse, then you need only look at their reaction to California GOP gubernatorial candidate John Cox’s idea of paying top-notch teachers much higher salaries – perhaps even rivalling those earned by ballplayers and rock stars. The unions, of course,...

TAGS: Janus, merit pay, Vergara

Red teachers/Blue unions

By Larry Sand
10/16/2018
How long will conservative teachers dutifully fund the teacher unions’ leftist political agenda? As I wrote in July, following the Janus decision, teachers unions had two roads to travel. They could become more politically ecumenical as a way to attract teachers who were no longer required to join, or they could continue to do business...

TAGS: California Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, Daniel DiSalvo, Janus, Josh Pechthalt, Larry Sand, Manhattan Institute, National Education Association, teachers union

In light of union’s journalism awards, we offer our own suggestions

By Steven Greenhut
10/12/2018
Sacramento The state’s largest public-sector union, the California Teachers’ Association, hands out annual journalism awards, which are named after John Swett. He is known as the father of California public school system and as CTA’s founder. Swett was the state’s fourth superintendent of public instruction, from 1863 to 1867, and his vision clearly embodies the views...

TAGS: CTA, Janus

Janus: Hysteria, reality and foggy windows

By Larry Sand
10/09/2018
The Janus case, which gave public employees a choice whether or not to join a union, elicited apocalyptic proclamations, but the reality – thus far – has been quite different. “I listened as the right wing launched attack after attack on unions and on what collective bargaining gains for working people, those they serve and...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, Claudia Briggs, Educators for Excellence, Eric Heins, Freedom Foundation, Janus, Larry Sand, Mackinac Center, Michigan Education Association, Randi Weingarten, teachers union, Tom Gantert

From ‘end of the world’ to ‘no big deal’: Unions change their tune on Janus decision

By Steven Greenhut
09/24/2018
Sacramento — The U.S. Supreme Court is attacking working people by destroying public-sector unions. That’s the gist of the argument that the union movement has made as the court considered Janus v. the American Federation of State, Municipal and County Employees (AFSCME). Actually, their arguments were far more overheated, both before and after the high court ruled in June that...

TAGS: Janus, Unions

Don’t believe the hysteria: There are other ways for public workers to get benefits

By Steven Greenhut
08/17/2018
Sacramento The media coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Janus decision, striking down all mandatory union dues-collections as an infringement of the First Amendment, has been met with weeping and gnashing of teeth from union leaders. In their view, the conservative majority’s ruling is an assault on the ability of union members to negotiate...

TAGS: California, Janus