Posted on Jul 01, 2015 by LaborPains.org Team
The Supreme Court just agreed to take a major labor union case for its 2015-2016 sitting, titled Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. At stake is the power of public-sector unions like Randi Weingarten’s American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to collect forced dues—so-called “agency fees”—from non-members forced to accept their representation in at least 25 states. […]
Posted on Mar 24, 2015 by LaborPains.org Team
What if one day of teaching could earn you a five-figure-per-year taxpayer-funded pension? One retired Illinois Federation of Teachers lobbyist is trying to turn this pipedream into reality. Retired lobbyist David Piccioli taught as a substitute for one day, which under Illinois’s extremely generous union-backed state pension rules entitles him to $31,485 per year from […]
Posted on Oct 07, 2014 by LaborPains.org Team
Since last Thursday, members of Lake County Federation of Teachers Local 504, an affiliate of Randi Weingarten’s American Federation of Teachers (AFT), have shut down schools in Waukegan, Illinois in an ongoing strike. The district has roughly 17,000 students, for whom parents must now make childcare arrangements. The teachers union is demanding across-the-board raises of […]
Posted on Aug 21, 2014 by LaborPains.org Team
There is a saying among lawyers that if both the facts and the law are against you, the correct strategy is to jump up and down and bang on the table. Facing a public that is increasingly skeptical of her failed education status quo, it seems Randi Weingarten has adopted that model. But her latest […]
Posted on Jul 17, 2014 by LaborPains.org Team
Earlier this year, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT)—an affiliate of Randi Weingarten’s American Federation of Teachers (AFT)—got almost all that it wanted—including billions of dollars in “back pay”—in its negotiations with New York City and Mayor Bill de Blasio over a new contract. UFT heavily backed de Blasio’s election with $250,000 in “independent expenditures” […]
Posted on Jul 16, 2014 by LaborPains.org Team
Teachers unions in Massachusetts have tried before to obscure their involvement in political races: The Boston Teachers Union (BTU), an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) led by Randi Weingarten, was criticized by the Boston Globe for a shady political scheme designed to elect BTU’s favored mayoral candidate. Now, Massachusetts legislators are trying […]
Posted on Jun 10, 2014 by LaborPains.org Team
Randi Weingarten likes to claim people who call her out are ultra-right-wing Tea Partiers, education privatizers, or agents of libertarian activist-philanthropists Charles and David Koch. In an interview with the Washington Post, Randi claimed that “the Koch brothers and deep-pocketed conservative activists” are behind “an anti-public education agenda of vouchers, privatization, and attacks on teachers […]
Posted on May 21, 2014 by LaborPains.org Team
The conventional wisdom on the recent deal between New York City and Michael Mulgrew’s United Federation of Teachers (UFT) is that it was a good compromise for both parties. Mulgrew agreed to some concessions on work rules and the UFT got some (but not all) of the “back pay” it wanted. However, when the UFT […]
