Free Republic

Delegates to the United Auto Workers convention have voted to raise dues by 25 percent to shore up the union’s finances, the first increase in 47 years. Representatives from local unions across the nation approved the increase with a show of hands, raising dues from two hours of pay per month to 2½ hours. […] It will raise about $15 million per year for the union, but the average longtime auto worker who makes just over $28 per hour will pay around $14 more per month. Annual dues revenue has dropped nearly 40 percent since 2006 to $115 million as...

The latest state to challenge monopoly union power is Pennsylvania, where the legislature is debating a "paycheck protection" bill banning automatic dues payments. A political brawl is breaking out, though the Republican Governor has so far offered little support. The SEIU's Pennsylvania State Council says the legislation "threatens collective bargaining rights in Pennsylvania and creates unnecessary and unreasonable restrictions on labor unions." The state AFL-CIO warns the bill "would significantly impair unions' ability to represent their dues and fee paying members." Their real worry is that they'll have less money to spend on politics. The paycheck proposal would prohibit state...

Michigan teachers are discovering that their union is determined to make it as hard as possible for them to take advantage of the state's new right-to-work law, which prohibits workers from being forced to pay dues to a union. Nine teachers sued the Michigan Education Association in the last week alleging unfair labor practices. Eight teachers sued the MEA on Monday. They are being represented by the conservative Mackinac Center Legal Foundation. Their complaint alleges the union is violating the intent of the right-to-work law by only giving them a very brief period — the month of August — to...

An honest person (which of course excludes most Democrats), understands that any “War on Women” in this country it is most certainly being conducted by Democrats at all levels of government. “A Republican War on Women” is a Freudian use of words, invented by a lapdog media to deflect the truth. Despite the fact that we hear the phrase over and over again from a Democrat controlled media there is no such thing as a Republican War on Women. Nevertheless, there is an actual war that is unquestionably being waged by the Republican Party against its union enemies. There is...

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.

Prop 30: Your Wallet or Your Kids. NO Either approve $36 billion in higher sales and income taxes or else Gov. Brown threatens to shoot the schools. Don't worry, the income taxes are only on the "very wealthy," but it turns out the "very wealthy" include many small businesses filing under sub-chapter S, meaning lower wages, higher prices and fewer jobs. California already has one of the highest overall tax burdens in the country and yet has just approved a budget to spend $8 billion dollars more than it's taking in. Moral of the story: it's the spending stupid. Prop...

Imagine it's Nov. 7, 2012.Yesterday, California voters approved Proposition 32, ending payroll- deducted funds for politics and eliminating union and corporate contributions directly to candidates. So now what? Here come the lawyers. Attorneys live to probe ballot measures for legal loopholes and constitutional conflicts. In this case, Proposition 32 bans "unions" and "corporations" from using payroll-deducted funds for "political purposes." Government contractors also are banned from giving to candidates or their committees.But what do those words mean? What about non-corporate business entities, such as limited liability companies? What about contributions from Indian tribes? What's a political purpose, anyway? Ultimately, the...

November 2012 Statewide Ballot Measures Proposition 30 Initiative Constitutional Amendment 1578. (12-0009) - Final Random Sample Update - 06/20/12 Temporary Taxes to Fund Education. Guaranteed Local Public Safety Funding. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. Qualified: 06/20/12 Proponent: Thomas A. Willis c/o Karen Getman (510) 346-6200 Increases personal income tax on annual earnings over $250,000 for seven years. Increases sales and use tax by ¼ cent for four years. Allocates temporary tax revenues 89 percent to K-12 schools and 11 percent to community colleges. Bars use of funds for administrative costs, but provides local school governing boards discretion to decide, in open meetings...

Press release from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (AP story below): Washington, DC (June 21, 2012) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 today, siding with nonmember California state employees challenging a Service Employees International Union (SEIU) political fee charged to them without notice and opportunity to opt out.   The case concludes a prolonged legal challenge affecting some 36,000 California government employees initiated by eight California civil servants who filed a class-action lawsuit with free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.   In 2005, SEIU officials imposed a “special assessment” to...

The Supreme Court says a union must give nonmembers an immediate chance to object to unexpected fee increases that all workers are required to pay in closed-shop situations. The court on Thursday ruled for Dianne Knox and other nonmembers of the Service Employees International Union's Local 1000, who wanted to object and opt out of a $12 million special assessment the union required from its California public sector members. Knox and others said the union did not give them a legally required notice that the increase was coming.

The Supreme Court says a union must give nonmembers an immediate chance to object to unexpected fee increases that all workers are required to pay in closed-shop situations. The court on Thursday ruled for Dianne Knox and other nonmembers of the Service Employees International Union’s Local 1000, who wanted to object and opt out of a $12 million special assessment the union required from its California public sector members. Knox and others said the union did not give them a legally required notice that the increase was coming.

MADISON, Wis. -- State unions were dealt a setback Friday when a federal judge said they would have to get their members to opt in, rather than opt out, to having the state deduct union dues from their paychecks. What's more, the judge did not rule on dues deductions for unions that he earlier found the state improperly decertified. The state's largest unions were decertified, and the ruling -- at least for now -- will make it harder for them to get money from dues. But U.S. District Court Judge William Conley gave unions one beneficial ruling by saying that...

Send Dues To Charity In the twenty-two right-to-work States1, an employee can choose whether he or she wishes to belong to a union. In the other twenty-eight states2, the employees of any unionized employer are forced to belong to the union in order to work and these employees will find themselves paying dues to a union without any choice. These dues will be taken to support the union at the local, state and international level. Some workers may have sincere religious beliefs that conflict with their being compelled to support the union. For example, you may find that the union...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Members of Ohio's largest teachers' union have agreed to a one-time, $54 dues increase to pay for the fight against Ohio's new collective bargaining law. A spokeswoman for the Ohio Education Association says 111,000 active union members would pay the extra dollars under a proposal overwhelmingly approved Friday. School support staff would pay $25. Student and retired members were exempted. The dues change could mean an additional $5.5 million for the union.

Prison guards at a Western Maryland correctional facility say a union boss berated and tried to intimidate them after they raised questions at a pre-shift meeting about how their fees are spent and the benefits of belonging to a union. The guards said the March 11 meeting at the Maryland Correctional Training Center started amicably enough when Steve Berger, their American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union representative, tried to rally opposition to proposed changes in the employee retirement plan. The meeting took an unexpected twist, they say, when Mr. Berger opened the floor to questions. When...

Wisconsin's ongoing crisis is exposing the channeling of taxpayer money to unions, and thence to Democrats. Taxpayers are being swindled by a system in which their interests come second. Though there are currently moves afoot to alter some of the procedural details contained in Governor Walker's Budget Repair Bill, nothing of any substance has emerged thus far as the Democrat "fleebaggers" are still camped out in Rahmland and show no evidence of returning to Wisconsin to vote on the bill. The budget, which Walker believes is critical if fiscal sanity is to be injected into an out-of-control spending process, also...

Next month, California voters will decide whether to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry by altering the state's constitution. This week, the California Teachers Association announced it opposes Prop 8 by donating $1 million to fight the initiative. Prop 8 seeks to ban same-sex marriages in California. The teachers union said it decided to oppose Prop 8 during its state council meeting in June. The CTA felt that it needed to donate the gift to help defeat the measure. "CTA views Prop 8 as a human rights issue. Everyone should be allowed equal protection under the law, and...

Amendment 47 would prohibit mandatory labor union dues. "This simply says that regardless if you have a union or not, if you do decide to get unionized or you're currently unionized, you cannot force someone to participate in a labor union against their will." Supporters of the so-called Colorado Right To Work Amendment said government employees already have this right. The measure would extend it to the private sector.

That $13.2 million grant Washington state won last year to enhance the teaching of Advanced Placement courses in math and science is history. It’s lost because of the financial incentives it would have provided for teachers who improve test scores. The Washington Education Association didn’t much like the idea of tying teacher pay to student performance on exams. Neither did the teachers union like the involvement of an outside party, the grant provider, in teacher-pay decisions.