New Right to Work Podcast: Right to Work, Card Check, and the Police and Firefighters Monopoly Bargaining Bill

Foundation Vice President Stefan Gleason sits down with Reality Check Radio to discuss the history of the Right to Work movement, Card Check, and the Police and Firefighters Monopoly Bargaining Bill. Click here to listen or use the embedded player below:

Compulsory Unionism Bankrupting States: Workers Flee to Right to Work States for Jobs

As the current economic downturn continues, many states across the nation are starting to find it increasingly difficult to stay afloat after having capitulated to the union bosses' extortionate demands.  Last week, the Wall Street Journal cited the National Institute for Labor Relations Research (NILRR) -- an anti-compulsory unionism think tank that exposes the harm forced unionism inflicts on workers -- when discussing Big Labor's contribution toward the severe financial difficulties California, New York, and New Jersey are experiencing and the migration of workers leaving these forced-unionism states:

Oklahoma Leader of Professional, Non-Union Teachers Receives High Recognition from National Right to Work

On April 24, the National Right to Work Committee presented Professional Oklahoma Educators (POE) executive director Ginger Tinney with the Carol Applegate Education Award.

Right to Work Foundation Urges Department of Labor Not to Trash Union Disclosure Rules

Washington, DC (March 9, 2009) – Prompted by a Rahm Emanuel directive on Inauguration Day, the U.S. Department of Labor seems ready to discard new union disclosure rules developed over two years by the previous administration. In response, the National Right to Work Foundation has submitted comments urging the Department to maintain or strengthen rules aimed at curbing union boss corruption. In late January, the Department of Labor announced that it was considering changes to recently revised LM-2 disclosure guidelines, which require unions to list the specific compensation – financial or otherwise – of individual union officers and to name all parties involved in any union-related transactions. Unions routinely spend millions of dollars on staff compensation, purchases unrelated to collective bargaining, and lavish perks for top union officials. The disclosure requirements are intended to ensure that dues-paying workers have some idea what they’re paying for.

U.S. Supreme Court Misses Opportunity to Expand Protections for Employees Forced to Pay Union Dues

Today’s ruling highlights the need for Right to Work laws, which end forced unionism Washington, DC (January 21, 2009) -- Today, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Maine state employees can be compelled under penalty of losing their jobs to pay into an international union’s litigation slush fund – even where all the litigation expenditures are made outside of their own bargaining unit. In doing so, the High Court affirmed a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirming a loose standard of protection under the U.S. Constitution for employees forced to pay dues as a condition of employment.

Obama’s DOL Pick: Secret Ballot Process «Unquestioned And Above Reproach,» But Only When It Protects HER

Today, President-elect Barack Obama named his pick for Labor Secretary, California Congresswoman Hilda Solis. Unsurprisingly, union bosses are rallying behind the pick. Solis is a prominent supporter of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (a.k.a. the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill), which would replace the secret ballot with intimidating "card check" campaigns in which union goons repeatedly harass workers at work and at home to sign union authorization cards. Once the union collects a simple majority of these public "votes," every worker in the bargaining unit loses the right to negotiate directly with the employer.

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.

NRTW Podcast, Episode 3 – What’s This Whole «Card Check» Thing REALLY About?

Vice President Stefan Gleason sits down with Foundation Staff Attorney Glenn Taubman to discuss the ugly realities of coercive card-check organizing drives and Big Labor's efforts to make this process for unionization mandatory; Listen here:

Teacher Union Bosses Turn America’s Public Schools into Campaign Zones

Big Labor's big money boys are pulling out all the stops to get the presidential candidate of their choice elected. Across the country, teacher union bosses have been pushing their preferred political causes and candidates and the result is the disturbing politicization of the classroom. Today, the Washington Times reported that union brass of the Virginia Education Association Union (VEA), an affiliate of the National Education Association Union (NEA), sent an e-mail to Virginia teachers which:

After Carrying Union Lawyers’ Water, Bush’s Solicitor General is Humiliated by a Rare Supreme Court Rebuff

In an extremely rare move, the United States Supreme Court today has smacked down (.pdf) the U.S. Solicitor General after he tried to force his way into the October 6 oral arguments in the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation's upcoming Locke v. Karass case involving forced union dues.