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

New Labor Rules Attack Small Businesses

By Joe Trauger
07/24/2013
In June 2011, the Department of Labor proposed sweeping changes to the rules that administer the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. The changes, which could take effect as early as May 2013, seek to drastically re-interpret longstanding requirements on how employers can work with legal counsel to comply with labor laws. ► Current law requires...

TAGS: U.S. Department of Labor

Union membership has declined – but are they less influential?

By Judy Lloyd
02/13/2013
Since I served in the leadership of several national business associations and was formerly the Regional Representative at the U.S. Department of Labor, I’m often asked about the power of unions vs. the power of business. I always answer the question the same way: There is no such thing as unorganized labor. Unions almost always out-organize...

TAGS: U.S. Department of Labor

Watch Union Official’s Rude Antics at California High-Speed Rail Conference

By Kevin Dayton
01/15/2013
On January 11, 2013, a video camera recorded a stunning public tirade by Fresno’s top construction union official at a conference about supposed local contracting opportunities for the first segment of California’s High Speed Rail. Below is video footage of the beginning of a panel discussion about Project Labor Agreements, and below that is the...

TAGS: Associated Builders and Contractors, California high speed rail, California High-Speed Rail Authority, Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction, Community Benefits Agreements, Community Benefits Policy, Gray Davis, Project Labor Agreements, Proposition 1A (November 2008), San Joaquin Valley, State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, U.S. Department of Labor