LaborPains.org

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.

In the aftermath of the Wisconsin recall election, many public sector unions are still licking their wounds—and apparently leaving their internal documents out in the open.

In an internal memo obtained by the Center for Union Facts, the Wisconsin Education Association Council outlines the communications strategy for messaging against “Walker and his right-wing allies.”

A few interesting “Dos” and Don’ts” (emphasis added):

DO

Stay focused on students – voters care about schools because they care about students.

Use parents as messengers when possible – while educators themselves can also be good messengers, parents’ motives are seen as less self-interested.

DON’T

Use cuts to teacher/education support professional benefits or pay as an example of the negative impacts of cuts – many voters still view educators’ benefits as overly generous.

Use the “union” entity as a messenger – making this about WEAC vs. Walker causes many voters to tune out and dismiss communications as “politics as usual.” Keep a face on this issue by featuring members/parents to tell about the impact of cuts.

You can view the document below in its entirety. Enjoy!

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.

Photo credit: David Greg Katechis

Since the governors of Wisconsin and Ohio put an end to doing business-as-usual with public-sector unions, nearly 750 bills have been introduced by fiscally responsible legislators (or at least those trying to be) in almost every state. Most reports suggest the obvious: that this is a bad thing for unions and their lockstep members, of course.

The Los Angeles Times is by no means a cheerleader for these predominantly Republican state legislators, but the Times did manage to mention a few noteworthy facts on their behalf (via information it gathered, in part, from the National Conference of State Legislatures):

• Nearly half of states are considering legislation to limit public employees’ collective bargaining rights.
• A number of states are considering bills that would limit unions’ ability to collect dues from public employees.
• Other bills would eliminate a requirement that workers covered by union contracts pay union dues or fees.
• [P]roposals to roll back pensions are gaining steam.

We wouldn’t say that the days of public officials and workers being bullied into submission by union leaders are coming to an end, but the tide may just turning in favor of the taxpayers who’ve been footing the bill.

Small business owners in southeast Wisconsin have been given an ultimatum by a local public sector labor union: Proudly display our pro-union sign in your storefront windows or we’ll boycott.

“Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business,” states a letter to businesses from the Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24. “And sorry, neutral means ‘no’ to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members.”

Reluctant business owners say they prefer to remain neutral in a battle that should be settled in the Capitol and not on Main Street. Rev. Jesse Jackson defended the union’s boycott effort to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel stating that it’s merely a “nonviolent tactic used to get attention to the steamroller tactics” of Wisconsin Republicans and Gov. Walker.

Call these anti-small business threats “non-violent” all you want. That doesn’t mean they won’t do a lot of damage to innocent bystanders if and when the union follows through.