Free Republic

Local governments in Kentucky took major steps by enacting legislation at the county and metro level which has divided state lawmakers for years. In Bowling Green Friday the Warren County Fiscal Court became the first county in the nation to enact a right to work law with a 6-1 vote, and on Thursday night Louisville Metro government became the first city in the south to increase the minimum wage. Both actions from local government officials will likely land the governments in court defending their actions, Attorney General Jack Conway The Warren County Fiscal Court took the first step towards “right...

The momentum for right-to-work measures at the local level across the country might be gaining steam: Kentucky’s Warren County — which includes Bowling Green — just passed a local right-to-work ordinance. A 5–1 bipartisan majority of the country legislature voted to make union dues voluntary for private-sector workers. The measure comes up for a second and final reading next week. If it passes, then unions will lose the ability to compel workers in Warren County (home to a sizeable GM plant) to pay union dues — at least until the inevitable court challenge. The National Labor Relations Act, which largely...

Eighteen-year-old Saira Blair recently made history as the youngest person elected to the West Virginia legislature. She may make history again as a lawmaker by securing passage of a right-to-work law. Currently, 24 states have such laws making union dues voluntary. After the conservative sweep in November, a majority of states may be poised to put them on the books—and local governments in the remaining states could follow suit. In West Virginia, Republicans took control of both houses of the legislature for the first time in more than 80 years. They have long made right-to-work a priority, and they now...

Is Wisconsin better off with weaker unions? Some conservatives think so. Legislators will consider the question when right-to-work legislation is introduced early next year. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said members in his house would begin debate within weeks. But I think Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican leadership should tread carefully. There is scant evidence that right-to-work laws boost job creation; there is evidence that weaker unions hurt working people. And there is no doubt whatsoever that a fight over right to work in Wisconsin will be bloody. Remember Act 10? Under right-to-work laws, workers in unionized shops...

Last Thursday, the Indiana Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the state’s right-to-work law. The constitutionality of the law, which allows employees to choose whether or not to financially support a union, was challenged by Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers AFL-CIO. The appellees claim the law is unconstitutional under the Indiana Constitution because it demands particular services from the union without compensation. The Indiana Supreme Court ruled 5-0 that Indiana’s right-to-work law does not violate the state constitution. The ruling is a victory for workers across Indiana because it will preserve their right to choose whether...

I’d almost forgotten to write this column. I’m sitting here watching election returns, and I am just stunned. Massachusetts? Maryland? MARYLAND?!?! Forget the Senate for a minute, or the massive Republican majority in the House, and think about the fact that Republicans did so well in the gubernatorial races across the country. In Michigan, after passing a “Right-To-Work” law, Gov. Rick Snyder wins handily. Union money and muscle plus President Obama campaigning against him couldn’t sink a man with the Twitter handle @OneToughNerd. Speaking of unions, no one had a bigger target placed on their back by the unions than...

"As soon as I was given the choice, I left," Amy Rosno, a teacher with the virtual class program at the Waukesha school system, told FoxNews.com. "I never really understood the union anyway." Rosno said she had a better understanding once she was asked to be a representative for her department and attended her first WEAC meeting. "I realized that it was all political and not about teaching," she said. Teachers who spoke to the nonprofit education think tank EAGnews.org said they were glad to be free of the union's grip, especially because of the perception their dues were spent...

A Michigan court ruled that the state branch of the powerful Service Employees International Union does not have to pay back tens of millions of dollars in dues taken from home health care workers who were forced into unionization. The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled last week that the SEIU Healthcare Michigan does not have to pay back more than $34 million in dues collected from over 40,000 home health care workers. Many were forced into the union under state requirements that they join because they were taking care of sick family members at home.

Long after the pro-union monopoly National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) was adopted in 1935, even strong supporters of this statute rejected the appropriateness of attempting anything analogous in federal, state, or local government. For example, in 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who just two years earlier had publicly endorsed and signed the NLRA, wrote a letter to a government union official explaining it is “impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or bind the employer” in dealings with “Government employee organizations” because “the employer is the whole people . . . .” In the late 1950s and early 1960s, politicians...

A 2013 Mackinac Center study found positive economic effects for states with right-to-work laws. RTW states enjoy increased real personal income growth, population growth and employment growth. New evidence supports this finding. The evidence comes from a Competitive Enterprise Institute study. Authors Richard Vedder (a member of the Center’s Board of Scholars) and Jonathon Robe control for a variety of factors that impact state economic growth. They then compare the performance of RTW states and non-RTW states from 1977 to 2012. A chief finding is “that the overall effect of a RTW law is to increase economic growth rates by...

Hey, do you remember when Michigan shocked the nation and became a right to work state in 2012? That was supposed to usher in the end of the world, at least in the view of union leaders and their Democrat water carriers. As Thomas Lifson reminds us at The American Thinker, the predictions were nigh on to apocalyptic. “There will be blood, there will be repercussions,” State Democratic Rep. Douglas Geiss, speaking on the House floor on Tuesday, warned ahead of the votes. And of course, there were predictions of disaster for the “little guy” as ruthless bosses would exploit...

As the current term of the United States Supreme Court nears its end, a ruling remains to be announced that could fundamentally change the way government unions are organized. Harris v. Quinn, which involves personal care providers in Illinois who contested a forced unionization they were subjected to, is largely equivalent to the home health care "dues skim" that took place in Michigan. In both unionization schemes, workers who take care of the elderly and disabled were forced into a union. In Michigan, an affiliate of the Service Employees International union took more than $34 million from the Medicaid checks...

During the battle of Michigan becoming a right-to-work state, opponents predicted doomsday scenarios about what would happen to workers and the state. But in each of the most important economic measures — job growth, income growth and population — right-to-work states are far outperforming non-right-to-work states. My colleagues and I produced a few charts showing the trends. The information is from the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics and from the U.S. Census Bureau. In terms of employment growth, from January 1990 to April 2014, right-to-work states averaged growth at twice the rate of their counterparts and made up...

During the fight over Michigan becoming a right-to-work state President Obama said that the law was really "a race to the bottom" and "the right to work for less money." The President's comments joined a chorus of similar statements from labor executives and critics of right-to-work laws. But a look at income growth since 1990 shows that right-to-work states are significantly outpacing non-right-to-work states, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. From 1990-2012 (the latest year data is available), right-to-work states made up 13 of the 20 states with the fastest median household income growth. Of the 15 states...

In the first year since the Wolverine State adopted a right-to-work law in 2013, SEIU Healthcare Michigan lost a staggering 80 percent of its members. The case illustrates a dirty secret of the modern labor movement: A lot of its rank and file members don't want to be in a union in the first place and will leave if given the chance. What right to work did in Michigan, the Supreme Court might soon do nationally: In the case of Harris v. Quinn, the justices must decide if Illinois state government can force its own public sector employees to participate...

Since 1990, nearly all of the top 10 states for job growth are right-to-work states, while nearly all of the 10 states with the least amount of job growth are non-right-to-work states. More broadly, 18 out of the 25 states with the fastest employment growth are right-to-work states while 19 of the 25 states with the slowest growth are non-right-to-work states, according to data from the U.S. Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. For the past nearly quarter of a century, right-to-work states have averaged job growth at about twice the rate of non-right-to-work states. Excluding Michigan and Indiana (which...

More than 44,000 home-based caregivers no longer are part of the SEIU Healthcare Michigan, according to federal reports filed by the union. The workers previously were forced to pay dues or fees to the SEIU after the union orchestrated a scheme that took money from the Medicaid checks of the people the workers were caring for in homes across the state. The "dues skim" ended in 2013, but not before the SEIU took more than $34 million from the elderly and disabled across the state. According to the union's LM-2 report filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, 44,347 home-based...

A trio of Michigan public school teachers is actually fighting with their union. “The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation brought a suit on behalf of Angela Steffke, Rebecca Metz and Nancy Rhatigan, who were forced to continue paying dues or fees to their union or face being fired,” Derk Wilcox reported in the March/April 2014 issue of the Mackinac Center’s report. “This status would have lasted for the next 10 years under the union’s ‘insecurity’ clause — a dubious collective bargaining agreement hastily enacted on the eve of the right-to-work law [in Michigan] taking effect.” “When the lawsuit was heard in...

Since 2008, Rich States, Poor States: ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index has used the latest economic data to determine which states are doing well and which states are struggling. The past 50 years of data point to a clear connection between pro-growth policies of lower taxes, less regulations and competitive labor policies. The states that embrace free markets and limited government fare much better than their high-tax, big government counterparts. Utah, South Dakota, Indiana, North Dakota and Idaho—this year’s top five states—showcase how good economic policy can lead to economic prosperity, while New York, Vermont, Illinois, California and Minnesota—the bottom...

Labor: Missouri's legislature votes this week on whether to become a right-to-work state. More hiring is the goal, and if any state needs a jobs pick-me-up, it's the Show Me State. Missouri lost 24,000 jobs in 2009, 2010 and 2011, even as many surrounding states gained employment. Labor bosses, of course, detest right-to-work laws and brand them as anti-union. Wrong. Right-to-work laws don't prohibit unions; they merely allow workers the choice of whether they want to join a union and pay dues. Many workers select not to join a union because they personally object to the political advocacy of the...