Free Republic

The National Education Association passed a resolution during their annual Representative Assembly in Chicago that would allocate thousands of dollars to conduct opposition research on 25 organizations that are supposedly attacking gender identity and sexual orientation freedoms in public schools. "NEA shall compile research to create fact sheets about the largest 25 organizations that are actively working to diminish a students' right to honesty in education, freedom of sexual and gender identify, and teacher autonomy," the resolution said. NEA's resolutions are called new business items (NBI) and represent the teachers' union's opinions and beliefs. They also open the door to...

Clark County Manager Yolanda King has suspended union contracts for some 9,000 employees, including medical workers at University Medical Center. The move, which union leaders say was unprecedented and came without warning Tuesday, followed a March 15 emergency declaration by the county. In an email sent to county employees Wednesday evening, King wrote that the contracts would remain suspended through the duration of the emergency, which was spurred by the new coronavirus outbreak.

Two powerful, left-wing public unions lost over 90 percent of non-member fees after the Supreme Court ruled against forcing non-members to pay union dues. In other words, until June of 2018 we lived in a country where public sector workers who chose not to join their respective unions were still forced to pay union dues, which are called agency fees. These agency fees represented 70 to 80 percent of union dues and were forcibly removed from the pay checks of public workers who wanted nothing to do with far-left unions that spend billions of dollars every year to elect Democrats....

With a U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Janus v. AFCSME case expected any day, Connecticut’s public sector unions are trying to convince members not to opt-out of membership if the Supreme Court decides in favor of Mark Janus. The Connecticut State Employees Association and the American Federation of Teachers informed their members of a Freedom of Information request for union members’ contact information that originated out of Illinois. Leaders say this information could be used for an opt-out campaign in the wake of a positive Janus decision. ... A decision in favor of Janus would essentially make Connecticut a...

In Douglas County, Colorado, the front line of the fight for school choice and vouchers on the SCOTUS level, Republican voters outnumber Democrats about two to one. Yet until recently, Republican taxpayers .. paying about $1.25 million a year to fund Democrats’ political campaigns. How so? Most of the district’s 4,300 plus teachers belonged to the local American Federation of Teachers (AFT) union, to which they paid about $1.25 million in dues annually, according to the union’s IRS filings. Since teachers’ salaries are paid by the county’s property tax payers, their dues come out of those salaries. So the $1.25...

Clark County School District educators have won an arbitration over their 2017-2018 contract that will provide increases in pay and health care contributions. The district says the estimated $52 million deal could cause another major budget shortfall. Teachers will move a step in the salary schedule effective June 1, 2018. The district’s contributions to health care through the Teachers Health Trust also will increase from roughly $538 to $583 a month. That increase will be retroactive to July 1, 2017.

When Mark Janus got his first paycheck working as a child support specialist for the state of Illinois in 2007, he was stunned to see a nearly $50 deduction for union dues. He had worked for the state in the 1980s and didn’t remember anything like it. “I’m going like, ‘I’m not a member of the union. What’s going on here?’” he said. Worse yet was where he saw the union dues going, such as to efforts demanding wage increases at a time when Illinois was struggling with a crippling pension debt. Now Mr. Janus is taking his case to...

... f State, County and Municipal Employees in response to the civil unrest in late April and early May after the death of Freddie Gray from injuries suffered in police custody. The organizers targeted the neighborhoods of West Baltimore, where Gray was arrested. AFSCME Maryland has done voter registration efforts before, but the unrest "put it into hyperdrive," said Patrick Moran, president of the union group. On Saturday, the ASFSCME members had more luck elsewhere, registering 22 new voters. One of them was 18-year-old Brandi Womack, who was set to graduate from Carver Vocational-Technical High on Sunday. Womack, whose mother,...

CARSON CITY — Two longstanding pillars of organized labor — union membership and employee seniority — would face changes under a Nevada collective bargaining bill that addresses how local governments and unions do business together. The Assembly Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday heard Assembly Bill 182, which would allow government employees to quit their union membership whenever they wish. AB182, sponsored by Assemblyman Randy Kirner, R-Reno, also would allow local governments to look at employees beyond simply their seniority level when making layoffs. Kirner said the bill’s purpose falls in line with Nevada’s standing as a right-to-work state in...

In a stunning move that could reshape the face of city schools, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission voted Monday to unilaterally cancel its teachers’ contract. The vote was unanimous. The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers was given no advance word of the action — which happened at an early-morning SRC meeting called with minimal notice — and which figures to result in a legal challenge to the takeover law the SRC believes gives it the power to bypass negotiations and impose terms. Jerry Jordan, PFT president, called the move "cowardly" and vowed to fight it strongly. "I am taking nothing off...

Most Americans think federal employees are working for the public. But a new report issued by the Office of Personnel Management on Monday shows that in fiscal 2012, 1.2 million federal workers spent 3.4 million hours reporting to their government unions. Paradoxically, time spent not working for the taxpayer is called “official time.” OPM reports that official time costs taxpayers $157 million in salary and benefits, up from $129 million in 2009 and $102 million in 2006. Taxpayers are subsidizing unions such as the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Treasury Employees Union and the National Federation of Federal...

One of the nation's most powerful labor unions could face a costly onslaught of lawsuits seeking tens of millions of dollars in dues, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the money was collected improperly, legal experts said. In a ruling Monday, the high court held that Service Employees International Union cannot force people who care for loved ones to be union members and deduct dues from the government checks of those they care for. The practice has gone on for several years in a handful of states, creating a lucrative stream of cash for the powerful labor organization, which represents...

Federal workers look like they could be the big losers if House and Senate budget conferees reach a deal. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) are working behind closed doors to reach a deal that would replace some of the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester with other reductions. They are believed to be looking at hiking federal worker employee retirement contributions, which would effectively lower federal pay. The savings would be used to prevent sequester cuts to the Pentagon and non-defense discretionary spending. Unions representing workers are worried about the cuts already on the table....

In a move that portends a labor firestorm, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and four other city leaders filed papers on Tuesday aiming to put a public pension measure on the November 2014 statewide ballot. If approved, the measure would change the California Constitution to give state and local government authority to lower current employees’ pension and retiree health benefits prospectively.

Declaring that he wants to open up a “serious national debate” about public-sector unions, the Kentucky Republican came out swinging at a Friday event with the American Enterprise Institute. “They are the reason so many state and local municipalities are flat broke,” he said of unions that represent public employees at the local, state and federal levels of government. “They’re behind the unsustainable expansion of public pensions. They’re a major problem.”

Every time a government has a budget shortfall, the remedy is always to furlough or even to lay off workers. But all those workers could be retained and the job get done by simply reducing their pay-rates commensurately. I understand that furloughing and laying off generates publicity and exerts pressure. But why does no one ever offer the pay-cut alternative? Why not, for example, an across-the-board 10% pay-cut? I understand that many governments employees are stupidly permitted to belong to unions that can strike over pay issues, Wisconsin and Indiana notwithstanding, and that public-sector unions have contracts. Isn't it time...

Almost every state in the U.S. has made cuts to its public-employee pensions, seeking to dig out from the economic downturn, but so far the measures have fallen well short of bridging a nearly $1 trillion funding gap. Since 2009, 45 states have rolled back pension benefits for teachers, police, firefighters and other public workers, including cuts by Michigan and California this month. Next week, Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich is expected to sign legislation requiring, for example, that certain teachers work longer and pay more toward their pensions.

Discussion between court administrators and Clark County commissioners regarding court marshals — formerly known as bailiffs — served as a reminder Tuesday of a union issue simmering for months that is now part of a federal lawsuit.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Monday said Chicago teachers are turning their backs on thousands of students and that President Barack Obama is rooting for the striking educators. Obama's top spokesman said the president has not taken sides but is urging both the teachers and the city to settle quickly. Chicago's mayor, Obama ally Rahm Emanuel, called Romney's statement "lip service"... .....Romney released a statement that promised to "side with the parents and students depending on public schools to give them the skills to succeed." He said he was "disappointed" with Chicago teachers, who walked off the job in...

Chicago teachers began walking the picket line for the first time in 25 years Monday morning, leaving parents to scramble for alternatives for their children. .....Steve Parsons, the lead picket who teaches AP psychology at the high school said Monday: “It’s all up to Mayor Emanuel. We all want to go back to the classrooms. The mayor is not valuing our opinions as educators.” .....Vitale said the contract amounted to a 16 percent raise over four years for the average teacher when factoring other increases. And the raises could not be rescinded for lack of funds — which is what...