Fact Check: Forced Dues Equals Forced Unionism
On Monday, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review published an editorial criticizing the special privileges Pennsylvania law gives to teacher unions:
The Pennsylvania State Education Association causes untold damage to kids, taxpayers and the commonwealth. Few Pennsylvanians know how costly is this teacher union. But the public has the power to tame the beast.
With more than 185,500 members, 281 full-time employees and an annual income above $84 million, the PSEA is one of the state’s wealthiest, largest and most politically active labor unions, reports The Commonwealth Foundation, a public-policy, free-market think tank in Harrisburg.
The PSEA has had cancerlike growth because of its ability to organize employees into collective bargaining units, influence legislation through its puppets that the union’s political action committee helped to elect, and push for endless amounts of public financing for public schools, which usually ends up in union members’ pockets.
Yesterday, the PSEA lied in response:
Contrary to the editorial, Pennsylvania is not a "compulsory" union state. Act 84, the Fair Share Fee law, preserves the right of all teachers and school employees to join or not to join a union.
But unions are legally required to represent each member of their bargaining units (including nonmembers) fairly and without discrimination. So it is reasonable for unions to charge nonmembers a fee for the costs of negotiating a collective bargaining agreement, as well as enforcing their collective bargaining agreements through processing grievances.
There is no question that Pennsylvania is a compulsory unionism state. That’s an outright lie from the PSEA. Further, this is a common refrain from union bosses, who refuse to mention that the only reason they must "represent" nonmembers because they seek monopoly bargaining over all employees, not just members.
The truth is that excellent teachers, who would often rather represent themselves in negotiations with school district officials, have no choice but to accept a union’s so-called "representation." That usually means good teachers are forced to accept lower compensation than they could get if they negotiated on their own behalf.
For more on teacher union abuses in Pennsylvania and other compulsory unionism states, check out this op-ed in the Tribune-Review by Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation.
For more on the issue of compulsory unionism and education, see this video and listen to this podcast.
New Right to Work Podcast: Obama Administration to Pack the NLRB
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the underlying law it enforces are major tools for union bosses to force workers into union collectives and force them to pay union dues. The incoming Obama administration is expected to help Big Labor use the NLRB even more aggressively in its war against employee free choice.
Today, Foundation VP Stefan Gleason is joined by former NLRB Member John Raudabaugh, who reveals some disturbing things American workers and businesses should expect from the Obama NLRB:
You can also listen to the Foundation’s podcast via iTunes or manually subscribe to the feed.
[Note: Some Firefox users have reported audio distortion when using the
player above. To ensure the podcast plays correctly just click here to listen.]
Agency Trial Judge Won’t Punish Union Officials for Threatening Non-Striking PVHMC Nurses with Fines, Jail
National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, providing free legal aid to a California nurse who faced threats of fines and imprisonment for choosing not to go on strike, will appeal an administrative law judge’s tortured reasoning with the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, DC.
Pomona, California (November 25, 2008) – Attorneys for a Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center nurse announced they will appeal an erroneous administrative law judge ruling dismissing a federal complaint against a local union. Union officials had threatened non-striking nurses with financial penalties and even arrest for refusing to abandon their patients.
Federal labor prosecutors agreed with unfair labor practice charges brought by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys and found that Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 121RN officials had illegally coerced nurses in the exercise of their rights to refrain from union activity. The General Counsel of the NLRB formally brought the case before the federal labor law judge.
In May 2007, the collective bargaining agreement between the union and the hospital expired. SEIU officials later ordered a series of general strikes. Dozens of nurses resigned from formal union membership so they could continue treating their patients without facing retaliation by union officials. In response, union bosses menacingly disseminated information to nurses stating that, under a California “strikebreaker” law, they may be “subject to a fine of up to $1,000 and up to 90 days in jail” for refusing to join the strike and returning to work. SEIU officials further suggested to nurses that nonmembers would continue to owe compulsory union dues even though no contract containing a valid forced-dues clause was in effect.
Read the rest of the Foundation’s press release here.
Are State Right to Work Laws in Jeopardy?
Currently, 22 states have Right to Work protections which ensure that while workers are free to join unions, they are also free to refuse to join or pay tribute to an unwanted union. But this summer, federal legislation to wipe away every Right to Work law in the country was introduced in Congress.
Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation and National Right to Work Committee, explains the nature of the threat — and how supporters of employee freedom rallied once before to protect Right to Work laws (while forced unionism proponents got wiped out in subsequent elections) — in Human Events:
In July, Sherman introduced legislation to repeal Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act — the provision of the 1947 law that affirms the right of states to enact Right to Work laws. Strike Section 14(b) from the books, and state Right to Work laws would be preempted by federal labor policy, which upholds forced unionism.
Sherman’s bill got little attention last year. Even most Democrats
ignored the proposed 14(b) repeal. Only eight House Democrats
cosponsored the bill before Nancy Pelosi sent it to committee.But as time goes on, and particularly if Big Labor’s cronies in Congress
pass legislation like the Card-Check Forced Unionism Bill or the Police
and Fire Fighter Monopoly Bargaining Bill, which would force countless
thousands of America’s first responders under union control against
their will, a fresh attempt to repeal Section 14(b) may gather steam.
Read the whole thing here.
Bush Executive Order Exempts Some Federal Employees from Monopoly Bargaining: Too Little Too Late?
Yesterday President Bush issued an Exectuive Order exempting several agencies and subdivisions of the Energy, Homeland Security, Justice, Transportation, and Treasury departments from draconian and stifling federal labor-management relations strictures.
This is good policy. However, while freeing any worker from forced union monopoly bargaining is a welcome step, the last-minute move begs the question: What took so long?
Unfortunately, making this common-sense change on the way out the door cheapens it, making it appear to be little more than political retaliation. The administration should have made this and many more pro-individual-rights moves long ago. Instead, the incompetent political managers in the White House thought that making policy concessions to the union bosses would have bought their support. How wrong they were.
Foundation attorneys have long advocated for freeing national security employees from forced unionization, including fighting for the rights of airport screeners to remain free from union monopoly control.
There are other recent examples of Administration officials foolishly failing to agressively protect employee free choice. There are big political lessons to be learned here.
Union Bigwigs Exploit Another Tragedy To Promote Forced Unionism
Tragedy struck on Black Friday at a Wal-Mart on Long Island when impatient customers trampled an employee as they rushed into the store at 5 a.m., leading to his death.
But union bosses — long engaged in a vicious corporate campaign against the retailer in an effort to force Wal-Mart employees into their forced dues rank — are trying to exploit the tragedy for their self-serving ends:
"This incident was avoidable," said Bruce Both, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500, the state of New York’s largest grocery worker’s union.
"Where were the safety barriers? Where was security? How did store management not see dangerous numbers of customers barreling down on the store in such an unsafe manner?
"This is not just tragic; it rises to a level of blatant irresponsibility by Wal-Mart," he said.
(Via Reason)
New Right to Work Podcast: Theft, Extortion, and Murder: Union Bosses Act Above the Law
In this week’s episode, Foundation VP Stefan Gleason appears on “The Drive with Gary Nolan”. Stefan and Gary discuss the Big Three/UAW union bailout. They then go on to discuss how union officials have become above the law, enabling them legally to target workers with coercion, intimidation, and violence (and how they can literally get away with murder):
You can also listen to the Foundation’s podcast via iTunes or manually subscribe to the feed.
[Note: Some Firefox users have reported audio distortion when using the player above. To ensure the podcast plays correctly just click here to listen.]
Union Partisan: «When It Comes to Unions, We Should Be More Like China»
It’s fascinating to examine the mindset of union partisans fighting to enact the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (a.k.a Card Check Forced Unionism Act), which would virtually eliminate the secret ballot in workplace elections.
Jon Tasini, a union consultant and former union boss, supports Card Check Forced Unionism which would allow union goons to collect "votes" in public by repeatedly harassing workers at the job and at home.
But Tasini thinks the Card Check Forced Unionism does not go far enough. He’d rather just have absolute government-imposed forced unionism, like China, where the authoritarian regime simply tells companies "you have to have unions" — and that’s, that.
Read Tasini’s entire post here.
Note that he doesn’t even attempt to couch his support of the bill under the premise that card card is a better barometer of majority support than an election (which, of course, is absurd). In fact, there’s no mention of majority support at all — or even whether or not ANY of the workers at a company want to unionize.
This Holiday Season, Shop Online and Help Right to Work!
The holiday season is upon us, and if you are like me, you still have plenty of presents to buy for family and friends. There has never been a better time to take advantage of the National Right to Work Foundation’s relationship with GoodShop.com.
Through GoodShop, you can shop at more than 700 top online retailers and a percentage of your purchases will go to help the Foundation provide free legal aid to victims of compulsory unionism.
Participating online stores include Amazon, Apple, Best Buy, Gap, Macy’s, Old Navy, Target, Toys R Us, and many, many more.
It’s free and easy to use. Just go to Goodshop.com, select the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation as your charity, and click on the retailer of your choice.
You can also help the Foundation even more by replacing your search engine with GoodSearch.com. With each search, GoodSearch sends a portion of the advertising revenue to the Foundation.
And if you’re feeling particularly generous, click here to learn about all the ways you can support the Foundation.
Dear SEIU President Andrew Stern: What’s the going rate for a U.S. Senator?
[For more on this scandal, see this post: SEIU Bosses Gave Gov. Blagojevich More Than $1.7 Million Already, Not Including Possible Payout for Senate Seat]
By now, many of you have already heard about the pay-for-play scandal enveloping Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Unsurprisingly, Blago’s corrupt antics are intimately connected to Big Labor. In return for a cushy appointment at the SEIU’s Change to Win coalition, he apparently offered to name SEIU’s hand-picked candidate to Barack Obama’s newly-vacant senate seat (from the federal complaint .pdf):
Defendants ROD BLAGOJEVICH and [his aide] JOHN HARRIS, together with others, attempted to use ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s authority to appoint a United States Senator for the purpose of obtaining personal benefits for ROD BLAGOJEVICH, including, among other things, appointment as Secretary of Health & Human Services in the President-elect’s administration, and alternatively, a lucrative job which they schemed to induce a union to provide to ROD BLAGOJEVICH in exchange for appointing as senator an individual whom ROD BLAGOJEVICH and JOHN HARRIS believed to be favored by union officials and their associates.
—
HARRIS said they could work out a three-way deal with SEIU and the President-elect where SEIU could help the President-elect with ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s appointment of Senate Candidate 1 to the vacant Senate seat, ROD BLAGOJEVICH would obtain a position as the National Director of the Change to Win campaign, and SEIU would get something favorable from the President-elect in the future.
The SEIU, of course, is denying any connection to the Blagojevich bribe, which is a bit hard to swallow given the circumstances. Here’s another damning excerpt from the charges (emphasis mine):
On November 12, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH spoke with SEIU Official, who was in Washington, D.C. Prior intercepted phone conversations indicate that approximately a week before this call, ROD BLAGOJEVICH met with SEIU Official to discuss the vacant Senate seat, and ROD BLAGOJEVICH understood that SEIU Official was an emissary to discuss Senate Candidate 1’s interest in the Senate seat. During the conversation with SEIU Official on November 12, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH informed SEIU Official that he had heard the President-elect wanted persons other than Senate Candidate 1 to be considered for the Senate seat.
SEIU Official stated that he would find out if Senate Candidate 1 wanted SEIU Official to keep pushing her for Senator with ROD BLAGOJEVICH. ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that “one thing I’d be interested in” is a 501(c)(4) organization. ROD BLAGOJEVICH explained the 501(c)(4)idea to SEIU Official and said that the 501(c)(4) could help “our new Senator [Senate Candidate 1].” SEIU Official agreed to “put that flag up and see where it goes.”
For those of you wondering, "Senate Candidate 1" is Valerie Jarrett, the SEIU’s once-favored choice for the Illinois senate vacancy. As the excerpted segment shows, the feds also have an anonymous SEIU official agreeing on tape to convey Blago’s proposed bribe to his superiors.
BREAKING NEWS: Notwithstanding SEIU denials, Politico reports a Democrat source has revealed the unnamed SEIU official is none other than President Andrew Stern himself.
UPDATE: NPR now reports that the SEIU official was actually Tom Balanoff, the union’s Illinois chief.
Blago’s abortive bargain was a pretty sweet deal. The Illinois governor would have picked up a plum SEIU job funded by forced union dues, while Big Labor would have gotten another bought-and-paid-for senator.
The workers funding Blago’s lavish new salary and the SEIU’s vast political apparatus may have felt left out of the deal, but that’s just the way Big Labor operates.
Just another example of the corruption that goes hand-in-hand with the injustice of forced unionism.
