Look out, America. The United Auto Workers union is prepared to do whatever it takes to “defend democracy,” including using the tactics of the protesters in the Middle East. And they say their first priority is re-electing President Barack Obama. But behind the rhetoric, the UAW is busy waging a war on democracy in order to shore up its base of support. No, this revelation of the UAW’s plans doesn’t come from any secret memo obtained under cover of night. The news comes straight from the mouth of none other …
A new National Labor Relations Board regulation that expedites elections for union representation will likely lead to dramatically higher rates of unionization, a new study has found. A majority of workplace union elections are decided by five or fewer votes, according to a Bloomberg Government analysis. What’s more, “cutting the time between a request for an election and the ballot increases the chances union supporters will prevail,” according to the study. “Unions win 87 percent of elections held 11 to 15 days after a request, a rate that falls to …
Indiana’s Senate yesterday passed—and Governor Mitch Daniels (R) signed—the state’s long-awaited right-to-work law, making it the 23rd state in the nation and the first state in the union-heavy Rust Belt to give workers the right to choose whether or not to pay union dues. Meanwhile, 1,700 miles away, Arizona is considering a bill that would restore voter control over government by, among other measures, stripping government unions of their collective bargaining power. Indiana’s move is a victory for the state’s workers—and the state’s economy. Now Hoosiers cannot be forced to …
The Obama Administration’s decision to forego the Keystone pipeline has forced the country’s labor groups into a bitter civil war. At issue is the central purpose of the labor movement: those who feel it should represent workers in the workplace generally oppose the administration’s decision; those who see unions as primarily political organizations have generally supported it. Unions that had a stake in the Keystone decision were livid that the administration abandoned it, and equally angry at their fellow union members who had supported that decision, according to a Friday …
This week, all eyes are on South Carolina as the Palmetto State votes on Saturday in the next Republican presidential primary contest. Jobs and the economy are rightly being debated by the entire political spectrum. It’s not the first time in the past year that South Carolina has been center stage when it comes to jobs in a country struggling to get back on its feet. Last year, the Obama Administration took aim at Boeing when the Seattle-based company sought to build a new assembly plant in Charleston, South Carolina, …
One of the officials President Obama illegally appointed to the National Labor Relations Board advanced policies in his position at a major labor union that hindered efforts to reform corrupt union locals. Incoming NLRB member Richard Griffin, formerly the general counsel for the International Union of Operating Engineers, pushed a union rule in 2007 that barred union leadership campaign websites from being made available to the general public. We spoke with Mike Quigley, a member of IUOE Local 150, about his experience challenging a corrupt union official, and the difficulties …
The NFL Players Association just came out against Indiana’s proposed right-to-work law. This is not too surprising: Even the poorest NFL player makes $390,000 a year. The average NFL player makes $1.9 million. NFL players make enough to barely notice union dues. They also have jobs. Right-to-work makes little difference to them. The same is not true for most workers in Indiana. Union dues cost the typical worker hundreds of dollars a year. For many families, that is not pocket change. Almost 300,000 unemployed Hoosiers cannot find work. A policy …
In yesterday’s “Room for Debate” feature, The New York Times asks whether public-school teacher compensation should be increased. The answer we give, based on our recent report, is that teachers already receive more compensation than comparably skilled private-sector workers. If the current compensation bonus has yet to increase the quality of the teacher workforce, it is not clear how an additional raise would produce better results. Public school districts should focus on maximizing the value of their existing resources rather than spending even more money inefficiently. But why is there …
“Occupy Wall Street” is being absorbed into the existing network of liberal grievance groups, turning what began as an unconventional, generally spontaneous amalgam of demonstrations into simply an apparatus for the professional left’s unending campaign of protests. The group Rebuild the Dream staged protests on Capitol Hill Tuesday afternoon, flying the figurative ‘Occupy’ flag, and plugging all of its standard talking points about income inequality and corporate political influence. Scribe reported recently on the increasing presence of Big Labor among Occupy protests. Rebuild the Dream will advance that trend, as …
What does it take to bring an airline to its knees? Uncompetitive union-negotiated labor contracts and a fundamental unwillingness to recognize that in a down economy, unions have a hard time raising wages without destroying jobs. That was a lesson that unions refused to learn in the case of American Airlines, which yesterday announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, making it the last large U.S. full-fare airline to seek court protection from creditors. American was forced to take that action when the airline pilots union refused to budge on …
