Union members in Massachusetts support Senator Scott Brown (R). So it is perhaps surprising to see Massachusetts unions announcing their plans to target him for defeat. Or perhaps not. Union bosses, not union members, decide how to spend union dues. Union bosses oppose Brown’s efforts to cut government spending. So …
It’s no secret that Obamacare is chock full of favors for big labor. One example is the new law’s excise tax on “Cadillac” insurance plans, which won’t apply to collectively bargained health plans when it goes into effect. It doesn’t end there. Obamacare also created the Early Retirement Reinsurance Program, …
There has been a lot of discussion and confusion as of late about the role of government unions. What does collective bargaining look like for government workers? The Heritage Foundation has released a new factsheet that explains everything you need to know about Government Unions, what they do, and what …
Early yesterday morning, the Wisconsin assembly passed Governor Scott Walker’s (R) budget repair bill, which includes language requiring public employees to contribute 5.8 percent of their salaries to cover the cost of their pensions and pay 12 percent of their health insurance premiums. The measure also significantly limits collective bargaining …
The Heritage Foundation has posted a new working paper that considers whether public workers in California are overpaid compared to their private sector counterparts. The paper’s findings are summarized today in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, coauthored by myself and AEI’s Andrew Biggs. We argue that previous public-private comparisons at …
“It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.” That wasn’t Newt Gingrich, or Ron Paul, or Ronald Reagan talking. That was George Meany — the former President of the AFL-CIO — in 1955. Government unions are unremarkable today, but the labor movement once thought the idea absurd. The founders …
What happens when the going gets tough for unions? They protest, even if they don’t have a legitimate reason to do it (other than an inability to compete and their plummeting membership rolls). Take the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters (MRCC), for example. As The Mackinac Center for Public Policy …
