Welcome to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation weekly news update. In this week's report we update our continuing legal battle to protect Michigan's Right To Work laws in addition to helping 15 More Caterpillar employees file charges against the Machinists union.
This week's update covers action involving the AFT, Plumbers, and Machinists unions.
To protect his constitutional rights against, a New York educator fights the New York State United Teachers union. National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys took the first step by filing New York Public Employment Relations Board charges against the NEA-AFT local.
Teachers' union officials ignored Miller's rights and continue to collect full union dues from his paychecks and have failed to provide without providing any Supreme Court-precedent procedural protections.
Even though Delaware does not have Right to Work protections making union affiliation completely voluntary, the U.S. Supreme Court has long held that workers have the right to refrain from full-dues-paying union membership.
Ignoring constitutional protections, Plumbers and Pipe Fitters union officials deducted full union dues from these employees' paychecks.
After federal charges were filed on behalf of these employees, union officials agreed to back off their threats and intimidation of the workers, and to refund illegally seized union dues.
"Plumbers Local 74 union officials flushed these workers' rights down the toilet in order to keep their forced dues gravy train going," said Mark Mix.
In another victory for National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, this time on the West Coast, school bus drivers slam the brake on AFT union officials' threats.
In Gresham, Oregon, a group of local school bus drivers won a federal settlement including back pay.
Oregon School Employees Union officials had illegally demanded that demanded that all drivers join the union and pay full union dues or be fired.
The settlement stems from a federal charge six of the drivers filed with the National Labor Relations Board Regional Office in Seattle with free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.
AFT union officials confiscated full union dues from the drivers' paychecks without informing the workers of their right to refrain from formal union membership. Union officials continued to confiscate full union dues from both drivers who refused to join the union.
After the six drivers represented by Foundation attorneys filed the federal charge, union officials were forced to settle the case and also agreed to refund back pay to four other drivers.
An update to one of our recent previous reports... With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, another Maryland IKEA employee filed federal unfair labor practice charges against IKEA and the International Association of Machinists union. Herman Brunswick, Jr. alleges that union officials failed to notify him of his rights not to join the union and pay full dues and illegally threatened to have him fired for refusing to pay up.
Brunswick's complaint follows similar charges filed by two of his coworkers, Kelvin Smith and Robert Rammel, last January.
Not only did IAM officials and IKEA fail to notify Brunswick and his coworkers of their rights, they actively misled employees about their obligations to the union. IAM officials claimed that joining the union and paying full dues were required as a condition of employment. Faced with the prospect of losing his job,
When Brunswick asked about his right to refrain from financially supporting the IAM's political activities, he was told by a Machinists union official that he had no such rights. After he learned otherwise, Brunswick resigned from the union and objected to paying for union political activities. The IAM, however, refuses to honor his objections.
Brunswick's charges will now be investigated by the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency responsible for administering private sector labor law.
"Union officials actively misled IKEA employees about their rights in order to collect more forced dues cash for the IAM's coffers," said Mark Mix
Welcome to the National Right To Work's weekly report. The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation averages about 200 active cases at any given time. Our goal is to help keep you informed about these cases as they move through the legal system.
This week's update covers action involving the NBC Sports, the Communications Workers of America union, and California Nurses Association which is affiliated with National Nurses Organizing union.
Welcome to the National Right To Work's Weekly Wrap-up for the Fourth Week of February. The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation averages about 200 active cases at any given time. Our goal is to help keep you informed about these cases as they move through the legal system.
This week's update covers action involving the Teamsters union and the Laborers International union.
We talk endlessly about improving public schools. So what's standing in the way? Stanford Professor Terry Moe identifies the biggest obstacle -- teachers unions.
Professor of Political, Science, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Ph.D., University of Minnesota
3. Liberal media: The performance of Candy Crowley and others who acted as a tag team for Obama, acting more like lap dogs than as journalists. Among other things, the fact they ignored the scandals of the Obama administration has blinded the American electorate, and they exerted lots of leverage in the final results of Election 2012.
2. Big Labor: Unions accused of pursuying power grab. Chicago teachers strike (left hundreds of thousands of students without instruction), SEIU, UAW, Longshoremans Association (cooking up a port strike), the demise of Hostess Bakery ... all have helped solidify political power at the expense of the rank and file.
1. Stephanie Cutter on CNN: Cutter ran a dishonest campaign during the 2012 political season with her incessant lies told throughout the campaign season. She redefined the saying, "How low can you go?" In a very competitive year for political turkeys, she vaulted to the top of the list.
It’s been a pitiful sight – a sad week for progressives and “Big Union” Democrat-shilling thugs. In the wake of Tuesday night’s (June 5, 2012) devastating recall smackdown in Wisconsin, tens of thousands of “Occupy” hippies across the nation have simply been too depressed to get stoned and not look for work.
On Wednesday (June 6, 2012) the White House released President Obama’s detailed itinerary through October:
1. Worry
2. Lie
3. Obfuscate
4. Golf
5. Fundraise
6. Worry
Indeed, the president has much to worry about. No honest politico can deny that liberals’ Wisconsin debacle likely represents a shadow of things to come – a precursor to November.
Recall DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz’s admission on CNN. In a rare moment of candor, she said Wisconsin was a “dry run” – a “test run” for the 2012 election. (A bit like the Titanic’s test run, as it turns out.)
Tuesday night Sarah Palin took to Fox News where she said that Scott Walker’s humiliating defeat of Tom Barrett, the DNC and heretofore-excessively-coddled-labor-union-leaders spells big trouble for little Barry. “Obama’s goose is cooked,” she said. “It’s the union leaders who need to be recalled.”
Does this mean the Democratic Party is not long for the world? That our two-party system is on its way out?
Of course not.
As long as there are voters who really, really want lots of free stuff from other people, there will be Democrats and Democratic politicians.
Still, what it does mean is that beyond the short-term political reality that Wisconsin presents a bleak forecast for Democrats in 2012 – liberalism itself (or “progressivism,” as the left euphemistically prefers) is terminally ill.
On Tuesday night, blogger David Burge of the Iowa Hawk blogtweeted: “The principal delusion of liberals is that liberalism is popular. The principal delusion of conservatives is that liberalism is popular.”
Simple, yet profound.
Liberals should be afraid. They should be very afraid. The jig is up. Polls consistently show that Americans identify as conservative over liberal by a two-to-one margin. Wisconsin was an earthshaking manifestation of this reality.
But it was only a tremor.
There’s a distinct probability a massive quake awaits liberals when, later this month, the U.S. Supreme Court releases its decision on Obamacare. If this, both Obama’s and Democrats’ signature accomplishment, goes down, so too do the obtusely utopian, neo-Marxist dreams of the Democratic Party’s progressive base.
And in November? The tsunami.
Indeed, the political tectonic plates are shifting. Unsurprisingly, so-called “progressives” pretend it ain’t so.
Problem is, so do conservatives.
Stop it, both of you!
This is about worldview. This is about an epic clash between two irreconcilable, diametrically opposed socio-political philosophies. It’s a zero-sum game. Somebody wins and somebody loses.
On the one hand, we have secular-socialism, a cultural and political philosophy embraced by labor unions, Barack Obama, the base of the Democratic Party, the mainstream media and many of those controlling the reins of our elitist institutions. It is “progressivism.”
This is a philosophy that, throughout history, has proven to be a serial failure. One need only look to Europe for the latest example. This secularist worldview is based loosely on the unattainable, redistributionist ramblings of Karl Marx, the father of communism.
It hates Christianity. It hates constitutionalism. It hates the precepts of individual liberty and responsibility codified throughout our nation’s founding documents. It embraces moral relativism and says there are no clear lines of demarcation between right and wrong.
It says that government is God and that as government giveth, government taketh away.
In sum: It’s garbage.
On the other hand we have the Judeo-Christian worldview. This is the socio-political philosophy embraced by our Founding Fathers. The historical record is unequivocal. It was within this framework that our U.S. Constitution was created. It is conservatism.
It says that we are endowed by our “Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
It embraces the virtues of fiscal responsibility, individual liberty and personal charity. It says there is black and white – right and wrong. It strives for less government and more freedom.
It acknowledges that there is a sovereign God – to whom we are all accountable – including both government and those whom “we the people” place in government.
It holds that as God giveth, God taketh away, and that you lying, cheating, ungodly snakes in Washington, D.C., better just take a step back and quick.
In sum: It is truth.
On Tuesday night, as the election returns came in and it became clear that Scott Walker was landsliding liberals and their union thugocracy, some progressive nut broke down, sobbing on camera and cried: “Democracy died tonight!”
Progressives, get this straight: On Tuesday night democracy didn’t die. Democracy was fulfilled in a powerful and transformative way.
And it’s only the beginning.
Liberals went to Wisconsin for a recall vote and a revolution broke out. We the people have spoken. Tea party? Yes. “Occupy”? Not so much.
Christian apologist C.S. Lewis wrote, “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”
On Tuesday America hit Wisconsin and did an about-turn.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker survived a union backed recall vote. Does this spell doom for public sector unions, and union backed candidates like President Obama? Find out on this PJ News Break with Scott Ott.
Labor union officials enjoy many extraordinary powers and immunities that were created by legislatures and the courts. Union officials claim to rely on the support of rank-and-file workers. Yet, they clamor in the political arena to secure and expand their government-granted powers, including the powers to shake down workers for financial support and even to wage campaigns of violent retaliation against non-union employees.
The following list of special privileges reveals the extent to which union bosses have rigged our nation’s labor laws in their favor.
Privilege #1: Exemption from prosecution for union violence.
-------------
The most egregious example of organized labor’s special privileges and immunities is the 1973 United States v. Enmons decision. In it, the United States Supreme Court held that union violence is exempted from the Hobbs Act, which makes it a federal crime to obstruct interstate commerce by robbery or extortion. As a result, thousands of incidents of violent assaults (directed mostly against workers) by union militants have gone unpunished. Meanwhile, many states also restrict the authority of law enforcement to enforce laws during strikes.
Privilege #2: Exemption from anti-monopoly laws.
-------------
The Clayton Act of 1914 exempts unions from anti-monopoly laws, enabling union officials to forcibly drive out independent or alternative employee bargaining groups.
Privilege #3:
-------------
Power to force employees to accept unwanted union representation.
Monopoly bargaining, or “exclusive representation,” which is embedded in most of the country’s labor relations statutes, enables union officials to act as the exclusive bargaining agents of all employees at a unionized workplace, thereby depriving employees of the right to make their own employment contracts. For example, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935, the Federal Labor Relations Act (FLRA) of 1978, and the Railway Labor Act (RLA) of 1926 prohibit employees from negotiating their own contracts with their employers or choosing their own workplace representatives.
Privilege #4: Power to collect forced union dues.
-------------
Unlike other private organizations, unions can compel individuals to support them financially. In 28 states under the NLRA (those that have not passed Right to Work laws), all states under the RLA, on “exclusive federal enclaves,” and in many states under public sector labor relations acts, employees may be forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment, even if they reject union affiliation.
Privilege #5: Unlimited, undisclosed electioneering.
-------------
The Federal Election Campaign Act exempts unions from its limits on campaign contributions and expenditures, as well as some of its reporting requirements. Union bigwigs can spend unlimited amounts on communications to members and their families in support of, or opposition to, candidates for federal office, and they need not report these expenditures if they successfully claim that union publications are primarily devoted to other subjects. For years, the politically active National Education Association (NEA) teacher union has gotten away with claiming zero political expenditures on its IRS tax forms!
Privilege #6: Ability to strong-arm employers into negotiations.
-------------
Unlike all other parties in the economic marketplace, union officials can compel employers to bargain with them. The NLRA, FLRA, and RLA make it illegal for employers to resist a union’s collective bargaining efforts and difficult for them to counter aggressive and deceptive campaigns waged by union organizers.
Privilege #7: Right to trespass on an employer’s private property.
-------------
The Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932 (and state anti-injunction acts) give union activists immunity from injunctions against trespass on an employer’s property.
Privilege #8: Ability of strikers to keep jobs despite refusing to work.
-------------
Unlike other employees, unionized employees in the private sector have the right to strike; that is, to refuse to work while keeping their job. In some cases, it is illegal for employers to hire replacement workers, even to avert bankruptcy. Meanwhile, union officials demonize replacement workers as “scabs” to set them up for retaliation.
Privilege #9: Union-only cartels on construction projects.
-------------
Under so-called project labor agreements, governments (local, state, or federal) award contracts for construction on major projects such as highways, airports, and stadiums exclusively to unionized firms. Such practices effectively lock-out qualified contractors and employees who refuse to submit to exclusive union bargaining, forced union dues, and wasteful union work rules. So far, just three states have outlawed these discriminatory and costly union-only pacts.
Privilege #10: Government funding of forced unionism.
-------------
On top of all of the special powers and immunities granted to organized labor, politicians even pour taxpayer money straight into union coffers. Union groups receive upwards of $160 million annually in direct federal grants. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In 2001, the federal Department of Labor doled out $148 million for “international labor programs” overwhelmingly controlled by an AFL-CIO front group. Federal bureaucrats spend approximately $2.6 billion per year on “job training programs” that, under the Workforce Investment Act, must be administered by boards filled with union officials. Union bosses also benefit from a plethora of state and local government giveaways.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) is facing a labor sponsored recall vote. Are unions legal, taxpayer funded rackets that undermine democracy? Is the SEIU union running the White House? Find out on this Trifecta.
Welcome to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation weekly news update. In this week's report we update our continuing legal battle to protect Michigan's Right To Work laws in addition to helping 15 More Caterpillar employees file charges against the Machinists union.
We talk endlessly about improving public schools. So what's standing in the way? Stanford Professor Terry Moe identifies the biggest obstacle -- teachers unions. 
of Political, Science, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Ph.D., University of Minnesota
3. Liberal media: The performance of Candy Crowley and others who acted as a tag team for Obama, acting more like lap dogs than as journalists. Among other things, the fact they ignored the scandals of the Obama administration has blinded the American electorate, and they exerted lots of leverage in the final results of Election 2012.
It’s been a pitiful sight – a sad week for progressives and “Big Union” Democrat-shilling thugs. In the wake of Tuesday night’s (June 5, 2012) devastating recall smackdown in Wisconsin, tens of thousands of “Occupy” hippies across the nation have simply been too depressed to get stoned and not look for work.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker survived a union backed recall vote. Does this spell doom for public sector unions, and union backed candidates like President Obama? Find out on this PJ News Break with Scott Ott.
Labor union officials enjoy many extraordinary powers and immunities that were created by legislatures and the courts. Union officials claim to rely on the support of rank-and-file workers. Yet, they clamor in the political arena to secure and expand their government-granted powers, including the powers to shake down workers for financial support and even to wage campaigns of violent retaliation against non-union employees.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) is facing a labor sponsored recall vote. Are unions legal, taxpayer funded rackets that undermine democracy? Is the SEIU union running the White House? Find out on this Trifecta.
