LaborPains.org

Driven by opposition to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal passed last year that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for nearly all public sector workers, unions have been extremely active in the state’s campaign to force a recall election. In a recent statement, the AFL-CIO praised the Wisconsin union members for collecting over a million signatures throughout the last two months.

However, not all of the action will be in Wisconsin. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has a bold plan to overhaul pensions for future city- and state-government workers. The New York chapter of the AFL-CIO is mobilizing its 2.5 million union members to oppose the plan.

“How they can be against adjusting future benefits just boggles my mind,” Cuomo told the New York Post. “It’s just unbelievable to me.”

The AFL-CIO is making waves on a national level as well. On Wednesday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka slammed the White House jobs council’s latest report. As one of the two union leaders on the council, Trumka said the body is too narrow to provide recommendations to President Obama that are balanced between the interests of business and labor.

For a group that just launched a new ad campaign touting how “work connects us all” the AFL-CIO sure doesn’t seem to work well with others.

Union membership has steadily declined for decades. Membership peaked in 1979, with over 20 million union members. Today, less than 15 million members remain—less than half of which are in the private sector. In light of the recent push for labor reform and right-to-work laws, combined with unions’ dwindling membership, labor leaders are fighting for a last chance at relevancy and control.

The AFL-CIO is attempting to revive its image with a new advertising campaign. The Wall Street Journal reports that the $1.5 million campaign featuring 30 and 60 second television ads has begun, airing in Pittsburg, PA and Austin, TX. The awkward ads attempt to show how everyone is connected by organized labor, but what they obviously don’t show is all of the people who are forced to be connected to unions in non-right to work states.

Public sector unions in Wisconsin, with the help of their national unions, are also engaged in a fight for their life, as they desperately attempt to rid the state of Gov. Scott Walker. Last year Walker championed a bill that limited state employee collective bargaining rights, leaving union leaders seething.

In 2011, unions spent $35 million in a failed attempt to stop labor reform by recalling a number of Republican state representatives, and this year Walker himself told Fox News, “[Unions] want those automatic dues, and they’ll spend just about anything to get it back.”

With the current standoff in Indiana over right-to-work leaning in its opponent’s favor, the unions’ survival skills will again be tested.

Last Wednesday Hostess Brands Inc., maker of sweet snacks including Twinkies, Ho Hos and Ding Dongs, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to settle its unsecured debts, primarily weighed down by its heavily unionized workforce.

Debts beholden for ingredients like flour, sweeteners and cocoa pale in comparison to the exorbitant amounts owed to union health and pension funds. The top unsecured creditor on the list is the Bakery & Confectionery Union & Industry International Pension Fund, owed $944.16 million. In fact, 16 of the top 40 unsecured claims belong to union benefit funds.

Hostess operates in 48 states and has approximately 19,000 unionized employees, 7,500 of which are represented by the Teamsters Union. Furthering Hostesses problems surviving in the market, the Company has 372 separate labor agreements, while most of its competitors are not unionized.

This is not Hostess’s first time dealing with bankruptcy. In 2004, the company formerly known as Interstate Bakeries went bankrupt and re-emerged as Hostess Brands in 2009.

Back in November of 2011, Labor Pains told readers not to hold their breath for a 23^rd right to work state. This is why.

Close to a year after Indiana House Senate Democrats fled the state to protest Republican plans to curtail union rights, the legislators have employed a similar tactic to stall new right to work legislation by once again refused to show up last week.

While Indiana House Republicans have the votes to pass the measure, the House does not have the quorum it needs to conduct business without the Democrats in attendance.  If the House Democrats return, the legislature’s Republicans are expected to pass the measure without difficulty, holding a 60-40 majority in the House and a supermajority of 37-13 in the Senate.

In its last session, the Indiana legislature passed an anti-bolting statute, allowing daily fines of $1,000 to be assessed on members who are absent for three or more consecutive days without an excuse. Although these have yet to be imposed, the fines can be levied at the discretion of Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma.

One indication of the anti-bolting statute’s effectiveness is the recently scheduled vote on amendments to the bill, in which House Democrats are expected to attend this week.

Under the right to work legislation that Republicans are working to pass, employees at unionized private companies would not be required to pay dues to the union. If the bill passes, Indiana would become the first right to work state in what’s considered to be the nation’s traditional manufacturing belt.

Gov. Mitch Daniels, along with other supporters, argues that the bill would attract more jobs to Indiana–a state hit with 9 percent unemployment.

Given the likelihood that the bill will clear the House and Senate, Indiana workers may be able to breathe a little easier.

The campaign to educate Americans about the need for labor law reform continues today as the Center for Union Facts placed a new ad in the New York Times.

Once a workplace is unionized it is nearly impossible for employees to decertify a union. As a result, millions of unionized employees work in union shops where they have never had the opportunity to vote on whether or not they want to remain represented by that union.

The Employee Rights Act requires that every unionized workplace have a supervised secret ballot election every three years to determine whether employees want to continue to be represented by any incumbent union.

You can read more about the Employee Rights Act at www.Employee Rights Act.com or you can join our new Facebook page.

After the successes of New Jersey’s Chris Christie and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker in tempering the power of public sector unions, the failure of Senate Bill 5 in Ohio was a difficult loss. But the desire to curb Big Labor’s power is not completely lost; Ohio and Indiana are proving otherwise – even if the odds are against them.

Despite the recent defeat of Ohio Senate Bill 5, Ohioans have set their sights on ending forced union membership. “Ultimately, freedom to associate also means freedom not to associate,” said Maurice Thompson of the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law to The New American. Thompson heads the organization, which is one of several attempting to pass a right to work law in Ohio. If the newly proposed “Workplace Freedom Amendment” is approved by Ohio voters in November 2012, then the state will become the 23^rd state to protect the freedom of choice for its employees – unless Indiana beats them to it.

Indiana leaders also have their eye on the right to work prize. In the 2011 session, right to work legislation was tabled after House Democrats fled the state forcing the Indiana House to shut down. Passing such legislation looks more promising this time around, especially since Governor Mitch Daniels is reportedly willing to put his weight behind the bill. Indiana Republicans control both the House and the Senate, so the votes are likely there. That leaves Indiana Democrats with only the extreme option of once again fleeing the state.

Yet despite the somewhat favorable political environment, observers doubt that either Ohio or Indiana will become the 23^rd right to work state. Right to work legislation hasn’t been successfully passed since the 1980’s, with the exception of Oklahoma in 2001. The reason? Labor unions will fight these efforts tooth and nail. It is estimated that Unions spent up to $50 million to successfully fight against SB5 in Ohio.

An excellent example of just how difficult it is to pass this kind of legislation can be seen in Colorado. In the fall of 2008, Colorado sought to pass right to work legislation, Amendment 47. In response, unions launched four “poison pill” measures, Amendments 53, 55, 56, and 57. These initiatives would have been “devastating to Colorado’s economy,” said Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce president Joe Blake to the Colorado Statesman.

The poison pill measures were more or less introduced as union bargaining chips in order to kill Amendment 47 by effectively blackmailing businesses – and it worked. Members of the business community struck a deal and pledged $3 million to defeat Amendment 47 in exchange for the removal of the offending measures. Amendment 47 did not pass, and Colorado was left with its hybrid right to work law, which allows employees by a vote of 75 percent or more, to eliminate right to work privileges and become a closed shop.

Union leaders are so desperate to retain their members that they are willing to go to almost any length to make sure right to work legislation is out of play. Right to work legislation is a great way to expand employee rights, but history suggests you shouldn’t hold your breath for it to pass in either Ohio or Indiana.

The Albany Times Union has a must-read report today that demonstrates just how difficult it is to fire a misbehaving educator in New York state. How difficult? Teachers who were late 101 times, downloaded porn on their work computers, and beat students all remained on the job after a costly appeals process. The problem is so bad that many districts don’t even bring cases because of the cost:

according to a state Education Department database obtained by the Times Union through a Freedom of Information request, it appears to be nearly impossible for a school district to fire a tenured public school teacher. The reason is twofold: job protection for unionized teachers is strong and the process for firing bad teachers — called a 3020-a hearing — is so drawn out and costly that most districts can’t afford it. …

Though it has been well-documented that the cases drag on for years and can cost a district hundreds of thousands of dollars — they last an average of 502 days and cost $216,588 — the database shows that 3020-a hearings rarely result in termination. Of the more than 2,000 cases brought in the last five years, just 167 teachers were fired, the vast majority in New York City. Only 38 cases brought by schools districts upstate and on Long Island ended in termination, though a number are still undecided because it takes so long for a case to be completed. Statewide, 593 cases were simply settled and another 164 were withdrawn or consolidated.

Even though the New York City Department of Education employs about half as many teachers as the rest of the districts in the state, it brought twice as many 3020-a cases. The NYCDOE employs 70,000 full-time teachers and brought 1,356 such cases in the last five years, according to the database. On Long Island and in upstate, where there are a combined 132,000 teachers, districts brought just 731 cases.

Emphasis added, because it’s important point out that, over a five year period, only 38 of 132,000 teachers in upstate New York (i.e., teachers outside of New York City) were fired for any reason whatsoever. When people complain about union work rules serving as an impediment to reform, this is the kind of nonsense they’re talking about.