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]
Posts Tagged ‘labor unions’
Labor and employment roundup
- 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]
Hostess’s pension liabilities
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]
More election notes
- 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]
Public employment roundup
- 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]
The threat from Michigan’s Proposal 2
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).
Labor and employment law roundup
- 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]
NLRB and labor law roundup
- Union at City of Detroit water department (of “horseshoer” fame) strikes, defying court order [MLive, more]
- Furor over administration’s “don’t WARN of sequestration layoffs” message to defense employers [Charles Cooke, NRO]
- “Now the NLRB says employers can’t regulate threatening or offensive speech (this is getting ridiculous)” [Jon Hyman] Contrasting (yet somehow consistent!): “workplace bullying” docket on the rise [Corporate Counsel]
- More on NLRB, social media and employers [Tim Eavenson, Todd Sarver]
- John Stossel on government job centers [Coyote]
- “The Worst May Be Yet To Come From Obama’s Labor Board” [Fred Wszolek, Workforce Fairness Institute]
- “Should We Unionize the Grad Students?” [George Leef, Minding the Campus; Brown Daily Herald]
“New Labor Dept. Rule Would Require Employers To Out Their Own Lawyers”
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]
NLRB welcomes “micro-unions”
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.