LaborPains.org

With the news that labor unions have shrunk to their lowest level in decades, many media outlets looked to the Center for Union Facts to weigh in.

Reuters: U.S. union membership falls to lowest percentage in 76 years

The activist group Center for Union Facts, which is critical of the labor movement, said unions have made salary and benefit demands that have hurt the budgets of corporations and the public sector.

Detroit Free Press: Unions shrink in size, clout to 1930s membership levels, data show

“No one is surprised by the numbers,” said J. Justin Wilson, managing director of Center for Union Facts in Washington, D.C., an interest group that criticizes unions. “It has been a slow and precipitous decline since 1979.”

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In one respect, “unions have been too good at their job,” Wilson said. They fought for safety, anti-discrimination and other rights that have since become protected by the federal government.

But on the negative side, “they have become non-responsive to their members,” said Wilson, who receives many calls a day from union members who feel leadership is not looking out for their interests.

Washington Examiner: Unionization rates fell to 11.3 percent in 2012

Richard Berman, executive director of the business-backed Center for Union Facts, said in a statement: “The continued decline of union membership, even during four years of a labor-friendly administration, is a sign that organized labor is no longer serving the best interests of its members.”

Kansas City Star: Dwindling union ranks shrank further in 2012, new data show

But most people don’t want to be union members, countered J. Justin Wilson, managing director of the Center for Union Facts, an organization funded by corporations, foundations and individuals.

That’s partly because today’s workers “are expressing a greater interest in autonomy and ambition on the job and want the ability to negotiate for themselves,” Wilson said.

It’s also because much of what unions fought for in the past “has now been codified into federal law,” Wilson said, pointing to standards required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and wage and hour laws.

Furthermore, federal health legislation sets health benefits standards for employers, minimizing the need for collective bargaining in that respect, he said.

“So the bargaining power of unions comes down to wages, and companies are saying it’s just not feasible to continue to pay more,” Wilson said, citing increased “givebacks” — wage concessions — by unions.

Press-Telegram (Long Beach, CA): California bucks nationwide trend of falling union membership

California is a state that is dominated by labor-friendly politicians, said J. Justin Wilson, managing director of the Center for Union Facts, an anti-union group in Washington, D.C.

“The private unions in particular spend a great deal of money and have proven they will continue to do that, and in turn they receive sweetheart deals and have a seat at the table – this gives unions power and keeps them strong, together,” he said.

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court has ruled that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) does not have the required three-member quorum because President Obama’s appointments to the Board in January 2012 violated the Recess Appointments Clause.

The opinion in Noel Canning v. NLRB, written by Chief Judge Sentelle, states that the Board’s decision against Noel Canning in February of last year must be vacated. This opens the door for the invalidation of all of the Board’s 2012 and 2013 decisions.

The Board argued that the President had the power to appoint three members in January of last year, when the Senate was holding pro forma sessions. Noel Canning, along with the amicus curiae briefs, argued that this practice was invalid because the Senate did not recess during that time.

Sentelle stated “To adopt the Board’s proffered intrasession interpretation of ‘the Recess’ would wholly defeat the purpose of the Framers in  the  careful separation of powers structure reflected in the Appointments  Clause.”

You’d be hard pressed to miss the news that organized labor suffered one of its largest one-year losses in membership in years. While the AFL-CIO is out spinning, our executive director, Rick Berman, weighed in at the Washington Examiner:

The updated membership number is 11.3 percent of the total workforce—the lowest it’s been since the 1930s. In 34 states, union membership tumbled. Among those is Michigan, which has yet to feel the effect from becoming a right-to-work state.

Across the country, state governments are starting their legislative sessions and are filing bills that would reform labor law. Pennsylvania lawmakers will be mulling a package of reforms, including right-to-work. Colorado is doing the same. Even Kansas, already a right-to-work state, is looking at labor law changes: Its legislators are looking at a public sector union paycheck protection bill.

Center for Union Facts: Continued Drop in Union Membership Levels Shows that Organized Labor is No Longer Serving its Members’ Needs

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that over the past year, nationwide union membership decreased by roughly 400,000 workers and dropped from 11.8 to 11.3 percent of the workforce.

Union leaders have failed to recognize the role that they have played in labor’s loss of power. Instances like Hostess—where the union’s demand that its members continue striking ended up costing thousands of union jobs—show that union officials and union members are often at odds with each other. And considering that union salary and benefits demands have bankrupted both companies and city and state governments, union officials should explain why their mismanagement has adversely affected not only their members’ lives, but also the lives of the general public.

NBA Players Association Releases Report On Union Director

For example, the report noted problems of self-dealing—such as when Hunter accepted $1.3 million from the union for vacation time that was not adequately tracked—and nepotism—notably his hiring of his daughter and other relatives.

The NBA players should continue digging into their executive director’s activities—or at least announce that being their union executive director is the greatest job in the world.

The president of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 5, Ron Lind, is the newest board member of CalPERS, the state agency that handles state employee pensions. Lind is the sixth board member, out of a total of 13, who is a current or former government union employee. Lind is particularly notable, however, because his union led a strike against the grocery store, Raley’s, in November.

Although plenty of politicians are effectively on labor’s payroll thanks to the massive amount of money that unions funnel into political campaigns, two Rhode Island state senators have taken things to a whole new level. Senate Majority Leader Dominick Ruggerio and Senator Frank Ciccone both pulled in six figures from the Laborer’s union, with Ruggerio taking home almost $233,000 and Ciccone’s salary and benefits totaling roughly $197,000. As New Jersey union members know, it helps to have organized labor controlling the state house.

Wisconsin’s Collective Bargaining Law Survives Seventh Circuit

A three-judge panel sitting in Chicago has ruled that Scott Walker’s collective bargaining reform in Wisconsin, Act 10, is constitutional. The Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) had sued the state to stop enforcement of the law that limits public sector employee collective bargaining. WEAC argued that the exemption for public safety unions was unconstitutional. If the WEAC’s appeal is not heard by the entire panel, then the current injunction will be lifted and Wisconsin’s labor reforms can finally take full effect.

NY1 is reporting that New York City bus company owners have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to stop its drivers and matrons from continuing the strike that began on Wednesday. Until then, the companies were responsible for getting 152,000 kids to school—at the cost of almost $7,000 per student. The city’s Department of Education wants to open up competitive bids for the routes to save taxpayer money, but the union is insisting that the city impose job protections that New York courts have declared illegal. John Podhoretz of the New York Post says that we shouldn’t be surprised by this strike and that unions will only intensify their strikes over the next decade as old deals collapse under their own financial burden.

Reuters: Unions make U.S. Ports Less Competitive

There’s a reason that the nation’s ports have, once again, become the hotbed of labor problems: human beings are less effective than machines. Reuters has a full analysis on the issue, explaining that for every 20 dockworkers used at an American port, there are five (or less) dockworkers in ports at Rotterdam or Shanghai. After the eight day strike in California and the near-miss on the East and Gulf Coast ports, shippers have become wary of what could happen next.

The News Must Go On

Rather than emulating the Baker’s Union brinkmanship with Hostess, the Guild, the labor union representing the employees of two Philadelphia newspapers, took liquidation threats seriously and agreed to renegotiate with management. Interstate General Media gave their employees an ultimatum last week: be willing to renegotiate or face shuttered doors on Friday.

Filed under “this is awkward,” the Philadelphia Daily News reports (via Philly.com) that its parent group, Interstate General Media (IGM), has given the employees of the News, Philly.com, and the Philadelphia Inquirer an ultimatum: Come to a union agreement by Friday or we’ll liquidate. Although the newsroom staff has a contract that runs until October, the company’s ten remaining unions are currently working without a deal.  We’re looking forward to some interesting reporting by these union members as they give us the play-by-play of their own fate.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), believing (correctly) that right-to-work laws are a draw for businesses, advertised as much in the Wall Street Journal last week. But not everyone is happy: Opponents of the legislation are appalled that the ad invoked the popular advertising slogan, “Pure Michigan.” MEDC’s president defended his company’s decision: “Freedom to work is now a law of the state of Michigan, and our job is to sell to the business community all the advantages they may have in doing business in Michigan.” General Motors, for one, agrees.

Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon has ordered that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) begin to accept compensation in lieu of reinstatement in all cases of unlawful discharge or layoff. Prior to this, “front pay,” as it’s known, was only done in side letters, outside the reach of the NLRB. Statistics show that this appears to be a reflection of a trend of declining rates of acceptance of reinstatement offers.