Unions Tag

Yesterday, the Michigan Supreme Court voted 4-3 to make public sector employees subject to the state's 2012 Right to Work law. The holding dealt a huge blow to the labor unions vying to represent the state's almost 40,000 employees. The court's argument turned even the friendly appeals court ruling on its head; while the appeals court ruling said that the existence of the Michigan Civil Service Commotion did not preclude the inclusion of state employees under the right to work laws, the supremes held that the Commission never had the authority to require state employees to pay the union-related agency fees, even before right to work laws existed. More from Michigan Capitol Confidential:

Justices Viviano, Markman, Young and Zahra ruled that while the Civil Service Commission has control of salary, benefits, grievance procedures and employment conditions, it does not have the authority to require involuntary payments to the union. Adopting an argument provided by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, the majority held that agency fees were akin to a tax on public employees and that the Michigan Civil Service Commission lacked the power to tax. Justices Bernstein, Kelly and McCormack disagreed with the majority, saying that the Civil Service Commission’s authority includes the ability to force union payments from employees.

The NLRB has spent the past year doing their best to make it easier for union organizers to force workers into union membership. Their McDonald's ruling brought us closer to mass unionization, and a new rule that was just passed seeks to speed up the union elections process: From Politico:

The rule will require businesses to postpone virtually all litigation over eligibility issues until after workers vote on whether to join the union, thereby depriving management of a stall tactic that unions widely claim benefits the employer. In effect, regional NLRB directors will be given broad discretion to rule such litigation unnecessary until an election takes place. ... The regulation will eliminate a previously-required 25-day period between the time an election is ordered and the election itself, and it will require employers to furnish union organizers with all available personal email addresses and phone numbers of workers eligible to vote in a union election. An NLRB decision handed down yesterday essentially prohibited employers from denying union organizers access to company email. The rule will also, for the first time, allow for the electronic filing and transmission of union election petitions.

You can call it a stall tactic, but it's certainly a valid one, considering the demands union organizers make not only on employers, but on the personal privacy of employees. Now, employees won't even have a choice when it comes to participating in the conversation. Obviously, businesses and unions are at odds with each other over whether or not this new rule will help workers, or make it impossible for them to make an informed choice about unionization:

On Thursday, fast food and home healthcare workers across the country walked away from their jobs and joined the "Fight for $15," an SEIU-backed movement demanding a $15 minimum wage and unabridged union rights for fast food workers. In the past, organizers and participants have largely avoided trouble with law enforcement. This time, however, protesters came armed with a mandate from on high to engage in civil disobedience to the point of arrest. In Detroit, a crowd of about 200 protesters locked arms across the street fronting a local McDonald's, causing a traffic backup and a shortage of officers available for school patrol:

“The protesters who were sitting on Mack Avenue and refusing to move had a bit of a negotiating session between the police department and the organizers — that didn’t go anywhere,” Szumanski said. “So, police have now swooped in and what they have done is arrested at least 20, maybe 30 people. They’re leading them away in handcuffs to the back of the squad cars.”

Remember when Michigan union members collapsed a tent on attendees at an Americans for Prosperity event supporting changes to Michigan union rules? We do, Most chilling Michigan video — “There are people under there, oh my God”:

As the union members attacked the Americans For Prosperity tent, a woman cried out “there are people under there, oh my God” (at 1:20). At 1:40, as union members start walking on top of the collapsed tent, a man shouted “hey, there are people in there” but again the crowd didn’t stop, and the union members continued walking on the collapsed tent defiantly as the crowd shouted obscenities and cheered. At 1:57 the woman cried out again “there’s people in there,” but to no avail. You can then see various people probing at large lumps under the tent, presumably checking if anyone was trapped. Yet the crowd continued with its profane taunts, as others lifted the edges of the tent and looked underneath, again presumably to see if anyone was trapped. Someone shouts “go home you bunch of parasites” as the crowd chanted “Go Home.” At 3:30 someone asks, “does someone want to help me lift this? I wonder if there are any people in there.” Then another person said, “there was, there was a bunch of women and older people.” Then another person yelled, “fuck these people.” Another yelled, “they want a war, they got it.”

(language warning) Now the proverbial tent has collapsed on one aspect of Michigan unions, the previously compelled unionization of home care workers. As The Wall Street Journal reports, when the law was changed to free up home care workers to choose, they overwhelmingly rejected unionization, Michigan Union Collapse:

Recent fundraising figures show the RNC faring better than its DNC counterpart in just about all areas. Notably, the RNC has no debt and nearly $10 Million in cash on hand. The same, however, cannot be said for the DNC, thanks in part to some clever money shuffling among kindred spirits. In the final two months of the 2012 election cycle, the DNC was strapped for cash, and opted to take out two low interest loans totaling $15 Million. The loans were provided by Amalgamated Bank, which uses the tagline, “America’s Labor Bank” and promises to continue “the progressive traditions of its founders as the only majority owned union bank in the United States." [Emphasis Added] Established in 1923, Amalgamated Bank nearly went under following the 2009 housing crisis, but was bailed out by a $100 Million investment from two billionaires (irony?). The two billionaires together received 40% ownership in the bank following their timely contributions. That stake, however, wasn’t enough to unseat the majority owner, Workers United. Workers United is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the well known 2 million member labor union. As membership has declined of late, unions are increasingly looking to find other ways to exercise prominent influence over the political process, apart from traditional contributions. The SEIU and Workers United may have found such a way through low interest loans from their financial institution, Amalgamated Bank. To date, the DNC has yet to pay back even half of the short-term loan, which is due in full by the end of June this year, according to the Federal Election Commission. Of course, loans aren’t the only way unions keep the DNC afloat.

The DNC’s special relationship with the SEIU goes beyond the loans. The union is also one of the largest financial backers of the Democratic Party. The SEIU has given at least $200 million to Democratic candidates and committees since 1990. The SEIU spent over $30 million on elections in the 2012 election alone, spending about $16 million to attack Republican candidates and about $18 million to express advocacy for Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

So, not only do a large contingent of Democrats owe their political careers to unions, their national committee also owes them more cash than they actually have on hand. And let's not forget the President's words, "[the SEIU's] agenda has been my agenda..."