My colleague David Boaz surveys the views of libertarians who criticize right to work laws as a (further) incursion on free contract (Sheldon Richman, Gary Chartier) and those who by contrast emphasize its possible advantages as a second-best solution amid a national labor law regime decidedly unfriendly toward liberty of contract (David Henderson, Shikha Dalmia). To which might be added the views of Steve Chapman, who finds the issue’s importance overrated, Robert VerBruggen vs. J.D. Tuccille; Iain Murray (second best); and critic Milton Friedman.
Meanwhile, Stephen Bainbridge recommends a history of the right to work movement by George Leef, Daniel Fisher notes that unions have been quite successful in some states like Nevada that do have right to work (on which more). And Mickey Kaus notes, regarding the wider debate: “Instrumental political arguments have become the major defense of Wagner Act unionism.”
Tagged as:
labor unions
- Report: California state psychiatrist paid $822,000, highway cop $484K in pay/benefits [Bloomberg News via Dan Mitchell]
- “Florida Prison Guard Charged with $2.7 Million Workers’ Comp Fraud” [Insurance Journal]
- Agitprop video from California Federation of Teachers is educational, if only in unintended ways [Katherine Mangu-Ward]
- “California government employee unions spent nearly $100 million in the lead up to the November election” [Jon Coupal, Fox and Hounds] How San Bernardino went broke: a cautionary tale [Reuters]
- “Taxpayers funding 35 six-figure union chiefs at Transportation Department” [Examiner]
- Congress again strengthens legal hand of federal employees claiming whistleblower status [Paul Secunda] Mistrial in case of whistleblower group’s payment to government worker [WaPo]
- “Binding Arbitration’s Threat To State And Local Governments” [Ivan Osorio, CEI]
Tagged as:
California,
Florida,
labor unions,
public employment,
whistleblowers,
workers' compensation
It’s a wonder the citizens of Michigan aren’t more grateful to the United Auto Workers union for its many accomplishments [USA Today, Fox News]:
Chrysler took quick action two years ago after television news reports of workers at its Jefferson North plant in Detroit who were apparently drinking beer or smoking marijuana on lunch breaks against factory policies…. now they’re back on the job, having won an arbitration decision that reinstated them to their union jobs.
Tagged as:
autos,
labor unions,
Michigan
As lawmakers in Lansing prepare for a vote, unions are training supporters in what is euphemistically called “civil disobedience,” and state troopers are arriving in numbers to counter expected efforts to physically prevent the legislature from accomplishing its intended business. After neighboring Indiana adopted a similar law it saw a surge of incoming business relocation interest. [Detroit News, Free Press, MLive, Jillian Kay Melchior, NR; earlier]
Tagged as:
labor unions,
Michigan
- Labor/employment law: the last four years, and the next [Daniel Schwartz series: first, second, interview] “Some Thoughts on the Meaning of a Second Obama Term for Labor and Employment Law” [Paul Secunda]
- “Alcoholic Tested Without Cause Can Proceed With Bias Claim” [Mary Pat Gallagher, NJLJ]
- “The ‘I’s have it: NLRB says don’t shred those at-will disclaimers just yet” [Jon Hyman]
- “Knox Supreme Court Decision Strengthens Worker Rights” [Mark Mix, Bench Memos]
- “City Councils, EEOC Grapple with Employment Protections for Ex-Convicts” [Shannon Green, Corp Counsel]
- Leftward efforts to constitutionalize labor and employment law [Workplace Prof]
- Should this bother privacy advocates? “NLRB looks to give workers’ private contact info to unions” [Washington Examiner]
- Drama unfolds as backers push right-to-work law in Michigan [Shikha Dalmia]
Tagged as:
alcohol,
Barack Obama,
constitutional law,
criminal records and hiring,
labor unions,
privacy
Some of the company’s $2 billion in unfunded liabilities could get dumped on the federally sponsored Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), raising premiums for the many solvent companies that are obliged to participate. Worse yet, a lot of Hostess’s liability is to union “multiemployer” plans, which under a peculiarly onerous federal law follow a “last-man-standing” rule of liability under which companies still operating are made to pick up the obligations of those no longer in business. David Kaplan at Fortune quotes a Credit Suisse report to the effect that multiemployer plans “are now underfunded by $369 billion.” [Ivan Osorio, CEI]
And for wider background on the company’s decline: Scott Shackford, Reason, on who killed Hostess. Plus: “It’s a poorly evolved parasite that kills its Hostess.” [@mr_archenemy]
Tagged as:
labor unions
- Virginia voters overwhelmingly voted to curtail state’s eminent domain powers [Ilya Somin]
- “The most misunderstood Supreme Court decision of the last thirty years, Citizens United, made absolutely no difference in this election. Which is no surprise to anyone who read the case. Let’s hope we stop seeing attacks on free speech based on faulty premises.” [Ted Frank; Alison Frankel, Reuters; John Samples, Cato]
- “A Quick Round-Up on Education Policy and the 2012 Elections” [Andrew Coulson, Cato]
- By 58-42 margin, voters in liberal Montgomery County, Md. curtail county’s obligation to bargain with police union over policy changes with effects on working conditions [Gazette, earlier here, etc.]
- “Double down on social issues” advice wouldn’t have put Romney over the top, to put it mildly [Hans Bader] Medieval obstetrics expert Akin pulled less than 40 percent against Missouri’s unpopular McCaskill [Andrew Stuttaford, Secular Right]
- Entrenchment of union rights in state constitution wasn’t the only bad idea that Michigan voters rejected: they also turned thumbs down on unionization of home health aides and mandates for utility use of renewables [Conn Carroll]
- Louisiana voters strengthened protection for individual gun rights in their state constitution [Volokh]
Tagged as:
eminent domain,
guns,
labor unions,
Louisiana,
Michigan,
Mitt Romney,
police,
Virginia
- More intimidation of city councilors by Southern California police unions [Reason, earlier]
- Illinois Gov. Quinn calls for federal bailout of state pension plans [Ted Biondo, Rockford Register-Star, Ivan Osorio/CEI] Illinois Policy Institute launches campaign against idea [Frank Keegan, State Budget Solutions, IllinoisWatchdog.org]
- Former TSA Agent Says Stealing from Passengers’ Bags Is Common [Daniel Politi, Slate]
- “Chicago Teacher’s Strike Illustrates the Need for Choice” [Steve Chapman]
- California’s Potemkin public pension reform [Greenhut, City Journal] Report on political clout of California public service unions [Daniel DiSalvo, MI]
- College example shows how rules that lock in job security for some often leave others insecure [Virginia Postrel]
- Connecticut sweetheart labor deal: “Now, the governor doesn’t exactly report it that way in the press” [Zachary Janowski, City Journal]
Tagged as:
airlines,
California,
Chicago,
colleges and universities,
Connecticut,
Illinois,
labor unions,
police,
public employment
Richard Epstein on an overreaching ballot measure that would insert labor union prerogatives into the Michigan constitution (earlier here, here). The measure is flagging in polls, despite a robo-call in favor by Bill Clinton, and has drawn opposition even from the stoutly liberal Detroit Free Press [Shikha Dalmia]
P.S. The WSJ is reminding us again about the not-wholly-unrelated battle for the Michigan Supreme Court (earlier).
Tagged as:
Bill Clinton,
labor unions,
Michigan
- Maryland: “Montgomery County Police ‘Effects’ Bargaining Bludgeons Public Safety” [Trey Kovacs, CEI, earlier] Time to revisit “effects” bargaining for other employee groups too [Gazette]
- “A New Whistleblower Retaliation Statute Grows Up: Dodd-Frank is the new Sarbanes-Oxley” [Daniel Schwartz]
- Proposal for disclosure of “persuaders” would threaten many employers [Michael Lotito/The Hill, earlier]
- Judge greenlights union suit challenging new Indiana right to work law [RedState]
- “Discovery of Immigration-Status Denied in FLSA Case” [Workplace Prof]
- “Same Song, Umpteenth Verse – No Discrimination, Retaliation Worth $2 Million” [Fox/Employer's Lawyer; Ithaca, N.Y.]
- NLRB on collision course with Indian tribal sovereignty [Fred Wszolek, Indian Country Today]
Tagged as:
Indian tribes,
Indiana,
labor unions,
Maryland,
public employment,
wage and hour suits,
whistleblowers
Confidentiality rules vs. union ambitions: “A new rule that the Obama administration is trying to enact in Washington would require employers to report all contracts with lawyers or consulting firms involved in labor relations — including how much they’re being paid — regardless of what kind of work they’re doing for a particular client.” [Daniel Fisher, Forbes]
Tagged as:
labor unions,
lawyers
With prospects for the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) having fallen to zero in Congress, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been busy instead issuing rulings expanding the legal prerogatives of labor unions. One that has the business community up in arms concerns “micro-unions,” in which a union designates a bargaining unit smaller than would be considered natural under Board precedent, but within which it thinks it can muster a voting majority. We covered the issue last year, and a ruling this May confirms that the NLRB is headed down this controversial path. I summarize at Cato at Liberty.
Tagged as:
Barack Obama,
labor unions
The California legislature this term chose to pass a raft of exceptionally bad legislation burdening business and employers, and Gov. Jerry Brown, perhaps mindful of the state’s ongoing poor economic performance, last week vetoed many of them [Ira Stoll, NY Sun; Steven Greenhut, City Journal] Among the vetoes: bills widening the rights of housekeepers’, babysitters’ and other domestic workers to sue their employers [earlier here, here]; greatly widening the survivors’ benefits paid for public safety workers [earlier, update]; unionizing grad student research assistants [Daily Californian] and an ostensible farmworker safety measure [Ruth Evans, Fresno Bee]
P.S. “Starts” isn’t really accurate, since, as David Boaz has pointed out, Gov. Brown cast some good vetoes last year.
Tagged as:
California,
labor unions,
wage and hour suits,
workplace
- “Wisconsin Judge To Voters: Drop Dead” [Matt Patterson, CEI; Adam Freedman, PoL; J.D. Tuccille, Reason]
- “How much of Occupy rally shrinkage is due to unions moving on and focusing their energy elsewhere?” [@daveweigel]
- Should babysitters be legally entitled to work rules and meal breaks? California Senate approves “Domestic Workers Bill of Rights” pushed by celebs, AFL-CIO [Politico, earlier]
- Good luck in getting that “don’t disparage or defame” employment policy past the NLRB [Molly DiBianca, Delaware Employment Law Blog]
- “Hospital unionization harms the sick” [David Bier and Iain Murray, Capital Research Center]
- Penn, Columbia: we’ll use this big cash pot to discriminate in faculty hiring [Minding the Campus: KC Johnson, John Rosenberg, Roger Clegg]
- More on NLRB’s new curbs on confidentiality in internal employee investigations [WSJ Law Blog, earlier]
Tagged as:
California,
colleges and universities,
hospitals,
labor unions,
Wisconsin
