Free Republic

Former populist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) bent the knee to the Democrat establishment by surrendering her first dues payment to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). House campaign committees require election cycle dues from lawmakers. The amounts vary depending on party status. Lawmakers accumulate power by raising and dispersing funds to committees and colleagues. The parties award members for the donations with better committee assignments and favorable legislation treatment.

In a surprise to nearly no one, children’s reading and math scores have plummeted. National Assessment of Educational Progress, nicknamed “the nation’s report card,” results show the first-ever drop in math and the largest drop in reading in more than 30 years. Black children had an even bigger collapse in scores. Decades of educational progress undone. Poof. Horrific. Stupid. Unnecessary. We know the school closures did this. It wasn’t the COVID virus. It was the hyper-political reaction, from the left, on reopening schools during the pandemic. The orders came from the top. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued...

Suit seeks to overturn union-withdrawal windows.. A railway worker is petitioning the Supreme Court to stop unions from forcing members and nonmembers to fund union political lobbying against their will. The worker asks the Court to draw on its 2018 Janus decision, which barred public sector employers from mandatory union dues on First Amendment grounds. The petition, filed Tuesday, argues the 5-4 ruling did not go far enough in cracking down on union attempts to subvert right-to-work laws through mandatory dues deductions. "This case is an ideal vehicle to resolve the exceptionally important question whether the First Amendment or the...

Labor unions are collecting dues from public employees without their “affirmative consent” in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling that state laws requiring nonunion government workers to make such payments are unconstitutional, a new lawsuit alleges. The Freedom Foundation, a free market think tank based in Washington state, joined with the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation to sue on behalf of 10 government employees in Oregon who argue that union dues or fees should not be deducted from their paychecks after they officially resigned from their union. “This is one of the biggest scandals I’ve ever witnessed from...

A Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) worker is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the union dues he was forced to pay must be returned, thanks to the 2018 Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union (AFSCME) decision. Benito Casanova was forced to pay dues to the local chapter of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) that represents CTA workers. He is represented by attorneys for the National Right to Work Legal Foundation (NRTWLF). The Court held in Janus that public sector employees who do not wish to join a union cannot...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez insisted she's a "proud" Democrat despite protesting a Democratic Party arm and withholding $250,000 in "dues" aimed at retaining the House majority. “I’m a Democrat, I’m proud to be on this team. I’m proud to be part of the Democratic majority,” Ocasio-Cortez told Fox News in an interview Friday amid criticism she should quit the party and become an independent if she won't be a "team player." As evidence that she's willing to work for the party, Ocasio-Cortez pointed to the more than $300,000 she’s raised directly for progressive candidates. That effort, she said, is for "preserving...

Two University of California system employees claim they are effectively being held "against their will" and forced to pay monthly union dues, despite a landmark Supreme Court ruling last summer barring public-sector unions from requiring nonmembers to pay so-called agency fees without their consent. The June 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME sent shockwaves through organized labor, holding not only that public unions violated the First Amendment by taking money out of unwilling workers' paychecks to fund collective bargaining, but also that employees must "clearly and affirmatively consent" before any fees or dues are collected.

A veteran flight attendant at Southwest Airlines says she was fired from her job after speaking out about her faith and criticizing her union. Charlene Carter of Aurora, Colo., filed suit against the company and union in a Texas federal court. She said her employment was terminated after she expressed her religious beliefs regarding abortion in Facebook posts and messages to union president Audrey Stone.**snip** and activity in opposition to Local 556." Carter criticized the union for using employee dues to fly two dozen officials and flight attendants to attend January's Women's March protest.

As the nation and official Washington prepared to mourn the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, watchers of the high court began to assess the immediate impact of his death on several pending cases whose decisions might have had momentous political implications. Among these is Friedrichs v. California Teacher’s Association, set to have been a landmark case regarding the mandatory collection of union dues and their use for political purposes. The ruling could have meant the death knell of collective bargaining and the political might of America’s unions. newzf After oral arguments in the case in January, The Washington Post...

About 10 union activists protested Thursday outside the Midland headquarters of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. The issue was the free-market think tank's involvement in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that could make it illegal to force government employees to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. The protesters were holding signs from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). From 2005 to 2013, the SEIU had a dues skimming scheme by which the union collected more than $34 million from home-based caregivers, many who were were caring for family members or friends. Progress Michigan,...

"CHICAGO (CBS) — State workers who do not agree with their union’s political activities would not have to pay dues under an executive order signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner."

A union representing workers in the Wyoming Public Schools district gave up as much as $12,700 in annual salary and concessions that would have been paid to its members so the union could keep language in the contract that makes the payment of dues or fees mandatory as a condition of employment. But the state's right-to-work law makes that illegal if the contract takes effect after a specific date, and, Matt Lewis, director of finance and human resources for Wyoming Public Schools, said district officials believe that clause is not enforceable. The Kent County Education Association wanted the district to...

A group of California teachers is preparing for a Supreme Court battle to overturn forced union dues in a groundbreaking lawsuit filed in June. For nearly three decades, the Supreme Court has allowed closed-shop unionism, in which public employees must pay dues to labor groups handling collective bargaining negotiations. The Supreme Court established Beck Rights in 1988 allowing workers to opt out of union dues for political activities, while continuing to pay for union negotiating expenses. The teachers are hoping to take that battle one step further by putting an end to all coercive union dues.

Five Alaska State Troopers are suing over the way union dues are collected, arguing the current system infringes upon their constitutional rights. The federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Alaska, states that even though the five are non-union members, they still pay dues. The lawsuit states that employees who do not opt-out of the current system wind up paying full dues, including those that go toward political purposes.

Christmas came early for Big Labor last week when the National Labor Relations Board handed down a pair of decisions that overturned longstanding precedent and will deliver a windfall to union finances. On Wednesday, the NLRB voted 3-to-1 to gut protections for workers who don't want their money spent on politics. In states without right-to-work laws, employees of unionized companies are coerced into paying dues as a condition of employment. But under the Supreme Court's 1988 Beck decision, workers are allowed to withhold the portion of their dues that unions spend on political activity. Unions must also maintain independently verified...

The former union member who won landmark worker protections from organized labor nearly 25 years ago said the Obama administration’s attempt to subvert those safeguards is responsible for the rise of right-to-work battles.

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On November 9, 2012 the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) issued a press release indicating that “Workers at the Transportation Security Administration made history today when they voted to ratify the first-ever collective bargaining agreement at the agency. The agreement between the American Federation of Government Employees and TSA was ratified with a vote of 17,326-1,774.” The AFGE represents over 650,000 employees of the federal government. It is the largest union for non-postal federal employees and the largest union for D.C. workers who report directly to the mayor. Brian Koenig writes that the AFGE “coerces members to fork over...

It was predictable. In Indiana, where Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) instituted by executive order a similar reform seven years ago, government-worker unions have since lost 91 percent of their dues-paying membership. In Wisconsin, Democratic and union bosses (a redundancy) understood what was at stake if Walker prevailed: not benefits, not “rights,” but the very existence of the unions. So they fought and they lost. Repeatedly. Tuesday was their third and last shot at reversing Walker’s reforms. In April 2011, they ran a candidate for chief justice of the state Supreme Court who was widely expected to strike down the law....

When the Service Employees International Union convention begins Monday in Colorado, there will be some bad news from its leaders out of Michigan. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette released a letter Friday that mandated that state agencies were to end the withholding of SEIU dues from private individuals who provide home health care. "Private individuals do not transform into public employees simply by participating in taxpayer-funded programs like Medicaid," he said in the letter. "In order to comply with the law, state agencies should end the withholding of public union dues from private individuals who provide home help." Gov. Rick...