Postpartum choice

By Larry Sand
01/23/2018
As we celebrate National School Choice Week, some data, news and questions about the private option. Though the usual suspects are resolute as ever, school choice is advancing. There are now 469,000 students enrolled in 63 different private school choice programs in 29 states and Washington, D.C. Between 2013 and 2015, enrollment at private schools...

TAGS: Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, American Federation of Teachers, Chicago Teachers Union, education savings account, ESA, Larry Sand, National Education Association, National School Choice Week, Pell Grants, Service Employees International Union, tax credit scholarship, teachers union

Fresno Cop Deals Blow To SEIU… And Everyone Shakes Hands

By California Policy Center
06/30/2016
I met Eulalio Gomez in Bakersfield earlier this year. The correctional officer from Fresno was part of an MLK Day gathering of public sector union reformers, and I was there to document. Each California employee present had spent time and resources challenging their unions in one form or another. They came to compare war wounds...

TAGS: Service Employees International Union

The National Education Association's Stagnant Finances

By RiShawn Biddle
12/18/2015
As Dropout Nation reported last week, National Education Association has had to deal with declining rank-and-file numbers as well as prop up affiliates struggling with pension woes and other issues. None of this, by the way, includes the nation’s largest teachers’ union’s own virtually-insolvent defined-benefit pension. Yet as NEA has shown in its 2014-2015 financial...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Dropout Nation, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, National Education Association, RiShawn Biddle, Service Employees International Union, U.S. Department of Labor

Union Offensive Against Prop. 13 Gains Momentum

By Jon Coupal
05/18/2015
There’s a joke about public sector union bosses making the rounds in Sacramento lately:  What happens when the California Legislature hands over a blank check to the California Teachers Association (CTA)?  It’s returned the next day marked “insufficient.” No matter that spending on schools is up 36 percent over the last four years, the state...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, Jon Coupal, Service Employees International Union

Fifty States of Right-to-Work?

By Larry Sand
02/17/2015
Elected officials, the courts and John Q. Public are supporting worker freedom these days; teachers unions and other public employee unions are on the run. Last Monday, Illinois governor Bruce Rauner issued an executive order that, if it stands, will absolve state workers from paying forced dues to a union. As The Wall Street Journal...

TAGS: Bruce Rauner, California Teachers Association, Center for Individual Rights, Chicago Teachers Union, Harris v. Quinn, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Policy Institute, Karen Lewis, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Paul Kersey, Right to Work, Service Employees International Union, teachers union

SEIU Motives and Tactics Remain the Same

By Dave Bego
01/27/2015
Times have changed, but the SEIU’s motives, and the means and tactics used to accomplish these motives — as documented in The Devil at Our Doorstep — remain the same. The SEIU’s ultimate goal is to achieve its agenda of destroying America’s Free Enterprise system and replacing it with statism. As seen in recent actions across the...

TAGS: Harris v. Quinn, Illinois Policy Institute, seiu, Service Employees International Union

Rank and File Union Membership Post Victories

By Dave Bego
07/11/2014
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) issued its decision in the matter of Harris v. Quinn. In its decision not to exempt all public workers from paying union dues, it was nevertheless apparent that workers were handed a victory over unions (see Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Challengers to Union Fees, But Avoids Broad...

TAGS: Dave Bego, Harris vs. Quinn, seiu, Service Employees International Union, UAW, Union Conservatives, United Auto Workers

Will the Supreme Court Do an “Abood Face?”

By Larry Sand
07/08/2014
The decision in Harris v Quinn could be just the first shoe to drop in the fight against forced union dues. Last month was not kind to Big Labor. First, the teachers unions in California had some of their favorite work rules knocked out of the state constitution by Judge Rolf Treu in his Vergara...

TAGS: Abood, agency fee, American Federation of Teachers, big labor, California Teachers Association, Center for Individual Rights, collective bargaining, Dennis Van Roekel, fair share, Harris v. Quinn, Larry Sand, National Education Association, Randi Weingarten, Rebecca Friedrichs, Samuel Alito, Service Employees International Union, Supreme Court, teachers unions, Vergara

Big Labor and Allies Escalate Tactics as Mid-term Elections Approach

By Dave Bego
04/16/2014
Activity by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Department of Labor (DOL) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), as well as several of the largest labor unions, over the past two weeks evidences the Obama Administration’s growing anxiety as the mid-term election approaches. The Administration, facing loss of the Senate and ultimate control in...

TAGS: AFL-CIO, Department of Labor, National Labor Relations Board, NLRB, seiu, Service Employees International Union, United Auto Workers

Turning Points in the Fight Against Forced Unionism?

By Stan Greer
03/24/2014
Summary:  Two current cases offer the U.S. Supreme Court opportunities to stop abuse. The National Labor Relations Act declares that “encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining” is “the policy of the United States.” Federal courts have often treated that declaration as if it authorized union officials to do whatever they deem necessary to bring...

TAGS: American Federation of State, card check, County and Municipal Employees, Harris v. Quinn, National Labor Relations Act, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Service Employees International Union