Flashback: The Union-Label Health Care Bill
With today’s United States Supreme Court decision upholding Obamacare, it’s worth revisiting the hidden privileges to Big Labor contained in the bill.
In August 2009, National Right to Work President Mark Mix wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about the sweetheart deals for union bosses:
In the heated debates on health-care reform, not enough attention is being paid to the huge financial windfalls ObamaCare will dole out to unions—or to the provisions in the various bills in Congress that will help bring about the forced unionization of the health-care industry.
Tucked away in thousands of pages of complex new rules, regulations and mandates are special privileges and giveaways that could have devastating consequences for the health-care sector and the American economy at large.
…
Americans are unlikely to support granting unions more power than they already have in the health-care field. History shows union bosses could abuse their power to shut down medical facilities with sick-outs and strikes; force doctors, nurses and in-home care providers to abandon their patients; dictate terms and conditions of employment; and impose a failed, Detroit-style management model on the entire health-care field.
ObamaCare is a Trojan Horse for more forced unionization.
Read the rest of the op-ed here.
Worker Advocate Files Amicus Brief in Support of Idaho Ban on Discriminatory Project Labor Agreements
Worker Advocate Files Amicus Brief in Support of Idaho Ban on Discriminatory Project Labor Agreements
Union bosses seek to protect power to discriminate against nonunion workers
Boise, ID (June 27, 2012) – Staff attorneys from the nation’s premier advocate for workers who suffer from the abuses of compulsory unionism have filed an amicus curie brief in support of an Idaho law prohibiting state and local government agencies from imposing so-called project labor agreements (PLAs) that require unionized workers for public projects.
National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys filed the brief today in federal appeals court.
The “Open Access to Work Act” prohibits Idaho and all state governmental units from entering into taxpayer-funded contracts that require union-only workers.
Two building and construction unions challenged the law in U.S. District Court. The lower court’s decision regarding the matter is now being appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Update: Supreme Court May Take Foundation Case Challenging SEIU Homecare Forced Unionism Scheme in Fall
This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court took action in another case brought by Foundation staff attorneys. Instead of issuing an order granting or denying cert in the case, the High Court invited the U.S. Solicitor General to file a brief in the case Harris v. Quinn. That request shows that the Justices are interested in the case.
The case stems from a legal challenge initiated by eight Illinois homecare providers with the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys against executive orders issued by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and his disgraced (and now incarcerated) predecessor, Rod Blagojevich.
Quinn and Blagojevich issued executive orders aimed at forcing unwilling homecare providers into a union. Under the Governors’ decrees, personal care providers are considered "public employees" for the purposes of union organizing, a move that has since forced thousands of unwilling care providers into the SEIU’s forced dues-paying ranks.
The providers, including lead plaintiff Pam Harris (interviewed in the video above), are challenging the executive orders on the grounds that forcing them to affiliate with a union and subsidize union activities violates their rights to free expression and association.
The U.S. Supreme Court will now decide whether or not to hear the case this Fall, after the U.S. Solicitor General files a brief.
For more information on the case, check out the Foundation’s Supreme Court petition. You can also read amicus curiae briefs filed in support of the Foundation’s petition from the Cato Institute and the Pacific Legal Foundation.
Union Bosses Forced to Settle Federal Charges After Illegally Levying Retaliatory $7,300 Strike Fine Against Worker
Union Bosses Forced to Settle Federal Charges After Illegally Levying Retaliatory $7,300 Strike Fine Against Worker
Worker fined for exercising his right to refrain from formal union membership
Kansas City, MO (July 3, 2012) – A Honeywell nuclear assembly worker has won a settlement from a local union for retaliating against him for exercising his right to refrain from union membership and continue to work during a union boss-instigated strike.
With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Daniel Gudde filed a federal charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Overland Park, Kansas after union officials levied a $7,361.36 fine against him.
Gudde began working at Honeywell in late September, believing he had to join the International Association of Machinist (IAM) Local Lodge 778 union. In early October, IAM Local 778 union officials instigated a strike. Gudde and three of his coworkers were unsure if they had to go on strike as union members or if they had to fulfill a required 30-day probationary period of employment.
Union officials told Gudde and his colleagues to continue to work to complete the 30-day probationary period.
School Bus Drivers Slam the Brakes on Shoddy Federal Settlement in Teamster Union Disclosure Case
School Bus Drivers Slam the Brakes on Shoddy Federal Settlement in Teamster Union Disclosure Case
Labor Board settlement lets scofflaw Teamster union off the hook
Long Island, NY (July 6, 2012) – A group of Lindenhurst, New York, school bus drivers have appealed a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office’s proposed settlement of a federal charge filed against a local Teamster union.
With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a Baumann & Sons Bus Company driver filed the charge for herself and at least four of her coworkers in late 2011 with the NLRB regional office in Brooklyn, after Teamsters Local Union 1205 officials refused to provide the workers with adequate information about the union’s financial expenditures as federal law requires.
The workers exercised their right to refrain from formal, full dues-paying union membership upheld under a National Right to Work Foundation-won precedent in the Supreme Court case Communication Workers v. Beck.
Tenth Circuit Slaps Teamster Union With Sanctions
Tenth Circuit Slaps Teamster Union With Sanctions
Teamster union bosses sought to punish worker refraining from union membership
Denver, CO (July 6, 2012) – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has upheld a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling against a local Teamster union policy that discriminated against nonunion workers employed by Interstate Bakeries in Oklahoma.
Oklahoma worker Kirk Rammage received free assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation during his six and a half year legal battle challenging the Teamster union’s discriminatory policy.
Rammage was the single nonunion sales representative with Dolly Madison for over 15 years before his division was merged in 2005 with Wonder Bread/Hostess. Although the company initially wanted to protect Rammage’s seniority during the merger, Teamsters Local 523 union officials insisted that union members receive preferential treatment by putting Rammage at the bottom of the seniority roster despite his longer workplace tenure. The company later caved in to the union bosses’ demand.
At Interstate Bakeries, seniority increases employees’ chances of securing desirable sales routes. By insisting that Rammage lose his seniority, Teamster officials effectively signaled that union workers took priority over their nonunion colleagues. As a result, Rammage was forced to commute to a new work location more than 70 miles away.
“Big Labor, Big Spending”
Fox Business has a great report on union bosses’ extravagant spending habits, including lavish junkets and visits to luxury resort hotels:
Besides the tens-of-millions of dollars big labor spent buying luxury resorts, country clubs or Learjets, labor unions are also spending millions of dollars in tax-free union funds on conferences at lavish hotels and resorts — including junkets at resorts owned by the unions themselves . . .
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), run by Richard Trumka, is the largest umbrella federation of unions in the U.S., with 56 unions representing more than 12 million. Its officials have been living large at member expense.
AFL-CIO unions spent at least $2.6 million in union funds on junkets to nine conferences at places like the Flamingo Hotel or Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, including more than $1.7 million at the swanky union-ownedWestin Diplomat resort and golf club in Florida, from 2010 to 2011, government documents show . . .
Luxury getaways aren’t the only thing Big Labor is buying, however. According to The Wall Street Journal, unions spent over 4.4 billion dollars on electioneering from 2005 to 2011, a figure that exceeds previous estimates (except for two studies by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research) by a factor of four:
The usual measure of unions’ clout encompasses chiefly what they spend supporting federal candidates through their political-action committees, which are funded with voluntary contributions, and lobbying Washington, which is a cost borne by the unions’ own coffers. These kinds of spending, which unions report to the Federal Election Commission and to Congress, totaled $1.1 billion from 2005 through 2011,according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
The unions’ reports to the Labor Department capture an additional $3.3 billion that unions spent over thesame period on political activity.
The costs reported to the Labor Department range from polling fees, to money spent persuading union members to vote a certain way, to bratwursts to feed Wisconsin workers protesting at the state capitol last year. Much of this kind of spending comes not from members’ contributions to a PAC but directly from unions’ dues-funded coffers. There is no requirement that unions report all of this kind of spending to the Federal Election Commission, or FEC.
Much of this political cash is collected from nonunion workers forced to pay dues as a condition of employment. These employees aren’t affiliated with unions and often disagree with their political agenda. Technically, union officials are supposed to allow nonunion employees to opt out of paying for union political spending, but – as recent Right to Work cases demonstrate – that requirement is often ignored or actively subverted.
Whether it’s politics or luxury junkets, the only real solution to Big Labor’s lavish spending is right to work laws, which make the payment of union dues strictly voluntary. The power to extract dues from unwilling workers has made union bosses unaccountable. If unions were solely dependent on voluntary contributions, they’d be much less likely to risk alienating their supporters with divisive political lobbying or lavish getaways for the higher-ups.
SEIU Officials Face Charge for Violating State Pharmacist’s Rights
SEIU Officials Face Charge for Violating State Pharmacist’s Rights
Case shows desperate need for California Right to Work law to make union membership and dues strictly voluntary
San Jose, CA (July 10, 2012) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, a Santa Clara Valley Medical Center pharmacist has filed a state charge against a local union for illegally refusing to honor his right to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership.
Jeffrey Lum of Cupertino filed the charge with the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) against Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 521 for illegally forcing him into full union dues payments against his will.
Lum, a state employee, exercised his right to refrain from formal union membership in November 2011 and sent a letter to the SEIU notifying the union hierarchy of his decision.
Pro-Right to Work Employees File Formal Comments with Indiana Department of Labor
Pro-Right to Work Employees File Formal Comments with Indiana Department of Labor
Agency considers rules regarding enforcement of new law, workers argue for strong rules to ease enforcement of workers’ Right to Work protections
Indianapolis, IN (July 11, 2012) – With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, two Indiana workers filed formal comments with the Indiana Department of Labor (DOL) in support of their newly-enacted Right to Work freedoms as the agency drafts regulations for the enforcement of the law.
Douglas Richards, an employee with Goshen-based Cequent Towing Products and David Brubaker, who works for Georgia Pacific, filed their comments this morning.
Both Richards’s and Brubaker’s workplaces are unionized by the United Steel Workers (USW) union hierarchy. Both workers have refrained from union membership. However, they are still forced to accept USW union officials’ so-called “representation,” and are required to pay dues to the union as a condition of employment, until their employers’ old contracts with the union expire.
Union Bosses Forced to Settle Federal Charges After Illegally Levying Retaliatory $7,300 Strike Fine Against Worker
Kansas City, MO (July 3, 2012) – A Honeywell nuclear assembly worker has won a settlement from a local union for retaliating against him for exercising his right to refrain from union membership and continue to work during a union boss-instigated strike.
With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, Daniel Gudde filed a federal charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional office in Overland Park, Kansas after union officials levied a $7,361.36 fine against him.
Gudde began working at Honeywell in late September, believing he had to join the International Association of Machinist (IAM) Local Lodge 778 union. In early October, IAM Local 778 union officials instigated a strike. Gudde and three of his coworkers were unsure if they had to go on strike as union members or if they had to fulfill a required 30-day probationary period of employment.
Union officials told Gudde and his colleagues to continue to work to complete the 30-day probationary period. After the probationary period, union bosses obligated Gudde and his coworkers to leave their jobs at the nuclear facility. Union members bound by the union’s constitution and bylaws can be fined for continuing to work during a strike.
After the 30-day period, Gudde learned of his right to resign from full dues paying union membership at any time. He notified the IAM union hierarchy that he was resigning from formal union membership when his 30-day period ended and then returned to work after a couple of days. Workers who refrain from union membership cannot be fined or otherwise disciplined for working during a strike. However, because Missouri does not have a Right to Work law, nonmember workers are still forced to pay a certain part of union dues and fees.
In mid-March, IAM union bosses fined Gudde. Moreover, three coworkers who did not resign from the union but also worked during the 30-day probation period were not fined, thus suggesting the fine was in retaliation for Gudde exercising his rights.
The settlement requires union officials to rescind the fines imposed on Gudde and other employees who worked with union authorization and post a notice in the workplace informing workers of their rights.
“Cynical IAM union bosses retaliated against a worker for exercising his rights to continue providing for himself and his family during a strike, even after they told him to keep working,” said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “These types of compulsory unionism injustices will continue to occur until Missouri passes Right to Work protections for its workers.”
