Posted on Apr 18, 2007 by Bret Jacobson
Through studies they commission, speeches to members, and statements to the press, union bosses extol the alternative organizing method called “card check.” It’s a process everyone knows is rife with intimidation and misinformation, but hey, these guys gotta stop their membership decline. So it’s notable that while labor leaders are trying to take away representation […]
Posted on by Jon Berry
This morning’s Rocky Mountain News repeats a frequently misused statistic, the so-called “union premium.” In its story on shifting union membership numbers in Colorado, the News reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics findings that “[f]ull-time workers covered by union contracts earned median pay of $833 a week vs. $642 for those not represented.” What the […]
Posted on by Bret Jacobson
NAM’s John Engler has an op-ed ridiculing the notion that the union bosses’ card-check bill comes anywhere close to living up to the moniker “Employee Free Choice Act.” He writes: All the well-chosen euphemisms in the world cannot put lipstick on this legislative pig. The fundamental issue remains “free choice,” whether employees have the right […]
Posted on by Bret Jacobson
We recently touched on corporate campaigns (more aptly labeled “anti-corporate campaigns”), and we’re likely to do more of that in the future given union bosses’ reliance on their negative PR campaigns to bully companies. We came across some worthwhile thoughts from an ardently pro-labor blogger who’s decidedly against this tactic. Over at galileo begrudgingly obeyed […]
Posted on Apr 17, 2007 by J. Justin Wilson
When Ann Arbor decriminalized marijuana in 1974, I doubt they ever knew the move would lead to this: It chronicles the story of PACho Libre in the fight of his life to preserve more than $20 million in funding for Michigan’s failing school system. Set in a seedy Mexican wrestling ring, PACho faces the forces […]
Posted on by Jon Berry
A few recent stories from around the country are not making teachers unions look like friends of school reform. The Kentucky Education Association, for example, managed to kill a legislative proposal to give small pay increases to science and math teachers, despite the chronic shortages in those fields. The Lexington Herald-Leader noted in an editorial […]
Posted on by Bret Jacobson
It’s something of a labor buff’s term: “corporate campaign.” All it really means is that a union or other activist group looking to extort some benefit from a company will pretty much do or say anything to keep chipping away at a firm’s reputation. When the company can’t take the heat any longer, it gives […]
Posted on by Bret Jacobson
In today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, University of Maryland professor Peter Morici says that to fight income disparity you don’t have to throw workplace democracy off a cliff. Focusing on politicians’ payback to Big Labor and the issue of secret ballot elections, Morici writes: Democrats won control of Congress, in part, by promising to address income inequality. […]
