The newsmagazine reports on the “stunned” reaction of the business community to the complaint, and editorially calls on President Obama to condemn the “loony-left complaint against America’s biggest exporter.” Earlier here and here.
Posts Tagged ‘labor unions’
“NLRB’s Boeing attack is a strike against economic reality”
“If the NLRB succeeds, a federal official will command a private corporation it may not produce in one place and must produce in another. Never mind what makes business sense. … And you wonder why Ayn Rand’s novel ‘Atlas Shrugged’ is selling briskly?” [Steve Chapman, D.C. Examiner] A contrasting view: Jeff Hirsch, Workplace Law Prof.
More: George Will, Hans von Spakovsky and James Sherk, related, ShopFloor.
Court: Canadian charter mandates bargaining with teacher’s union over class size
Canadian courts in recent years have ruled that the nation’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms creates an enforceable right to collective bargaining, that is, compels employers to bargain with unions rather than with individual workers over terms of employment. Now the Supreme Court of British Columbia has ruled that the Charter prohibits the provincial government from reserving class size and teacher-student ratios, among other topics, as matters of government policy ruled out of bounds as subjects of bargaining with the teacher’s union. [British Columbia Teachers’ Federation v. British Columbia, 2011 BCSC 469 via Bales, Workplace Prof; related 2009 (Alberta court constitutionalizes mandatory dues checkoff)]
April 22 roundup
- Furor as NLRB issues complaint against Boeing for planning to open S.C. plant [Wichita Business Journal, Costa/NR “Corner”, Wood/ShopFloor, more, Tom Bevan/RCP, Ira Stoll, Hirsch/Workplace Prof, Megan McArdle, Jonathan Adler]
- Perp meanwhile declared not criminally responsible and awaits release: “Jury orders Nordstrom to pay $1.6 M to Bethesda stabbing victims” [WaPo]
- Not so reliable: how eyewitness and confession testimony can result in convicting the innocent [Brandon Garrett, Slate]
- Trying to pin down who merits label of “patent troll” [Michael Risch, Prawfs, and followup] “Digital Innovators vs. the Patent Trolls” [Peter Huber, WSJ]
- Publishers as targets in pharma suits? Philadelphia product liability case names as defendant the company that put out drug fact sheet [Beck]
- Regulate-Google schemes: “If search neutrality is the answer, what’s the question?” [Manne/Wright, TotM]
- Hey, John Boehner’s tweeting about my blog post [@johnboehner]
Introducing “micro unions”
New plans at the National Labor Relations Board alarm some employers.
International human rights law roundup
Recent clips on a subject treated in much more detail in Schools for Misrule:
- Claim: Wisconsin Gov. Walker’s reforms to public sector labor law violate international human rights [HRW, Mirer/Cohn, FoxBusiness (views of Marquette lawprof Paul Secunda)] Related: UAW threatens charges against automakers [ShopFloor]
- Per some advocates, “right to health” has emerged as an “established international legal precept” even if it is “still to be fully embraced in the United States” [Friedman/Adashi, JAMA]
- GWB at risk of arrest if he visits Europe? Or are some of his enemies just posturing? “Bush trip to Switzerland called off amid threats of protests, legal action” [Atlantic Wire, WaPo, Daily Dish and more, Frum Forum, more and yet more]
- Oh, good grief: Tennessee solon “proposes law to make following Shariah law a felony” [Tennesseean] More states prepare to join unsound “ban all recogition of international law” movement [Ku, OJ] Background: Volokh.
- For those interested in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recently given a favorable nod by the Obama administration, a copy of the text is available here [CWB]
- “Conceptualizing Accountability in International Law and Institutions” [Anderson, OJ]
- Human rights initiative in UK: “Rapists and killers demand right to benefits” [Telegraph] European Court of Human Rights, Human Rights Acts “merely pretexts for judicial activism, argues Alasdair Palmer” [Telegraph]
- Claim: U.S. is odd-country-out in international law. Reality check please [Bradford, Posner et al, OJ]
- Opponents charge trying Pennsylvania 13 year old for murder as adult could violate international law [AI]
“Collective Bargaining and Social-Worker Abuse”
Last week the New York Times ran a chilling investigative account of what goes on at New York group homes for the developmentally disabled, where employees in hundreds of cases appear to have abused or mistreated residents with impunity. Per the Times:
…in 25 percent of the cases involving physical, sexual or psychological abuse, the state employees were transferred to other homes. The state initiated termination proceedings in 129 of the [399] cases reviewed but succeeded in just 30 of them, in large part because the workers’ union, the Civil Service Employees Association, aggressively resisted firings in almost every case.
Revelations like this should be front and center in the unfolding debate over public employee unionization, but often aren’t. [h/t: James Sherk, NRO “Corner”]
March 15 roundup
- “A conversation with class action objector Ted Frank” [American Lawyer]
- Reviews of new Lester Brickman book Lawyer Barons [Dan Fisher/Forbes, Russell Jackson] Plus: interview at TortsProf; comments from Columbia legal ethicist William Simon [Legal Ethics Forum]
- “Collective Bargaining for States But Not for Uncle Sam” [Adler] Examples of how Wisconsin public-sector unionism has worked in practice [Perry] Wisconsin cop union: nice business you got there, shame if anything were to happen to it [Sykes, WTMJ] “Union ‘rights’ that aren’t” [Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe]
- “Minnesota House Considering Significant Consumer Class Action Reform Measures” [Karlsgodt]
- 10,000 lawyers at DoD? Rumsfeld complains military overlawyered [Althouse via Instapundit]
- “Are Meritless Claims More Prevalent in Copyright?” [Boyden, Prawfs]
- Claim: availability of punitive damages reduces rate of truck accidents. Really? [Curt Cutting]
- Now with improved federalism: “The Return of the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act” [Carter Wood, more, earlier here].
Update: “Milwaukee teachers drop Viagra suit”
“The Milwaukee teachers union has dropped a lawsuit seeking to get its taxpayer-funded Viagra back.” [Madison.com, earlier]
March 3 roundup
- EU imposes unisex insurance rates [BBC, Wright]
- Law blog on the offense? TechnoLawyer asserts trademark claim against Lawyerist over “Small Law” [Lawyerist]
- “Pro-business Supreme Court” meme strikes out yet again as SCOTUS backs “cat’s-paw” bias suit theory by 8-0-2 margin [Josh Blackman, Schwartz, Fox; Lithwick locus classicus]
- Subprime CDO manager sues financial writer Michael Lewis over statements in his book The Big Short [AW, Salmon, Kennerly]
- Police in Surrey, England, deny advising garden shed owners not to use wire mesh against burglars [Volokh, earlier]
- Patterns of intimidation: protesters swarm Speaker Boehner’s private residence [Hollingsworth, Examiner] Unions fighting Wal-Mart in NYC plan actions at board members’ homes [Stoll] Report: GOP lawmakers in Wisconsin fear for personal safety [Nordlinger, NRO] White House pushing street protests [Welch, Nordlinger] Age of Civility short lived [Badger Blogger, Althouse, Sullivan]
- In clash with trial lawyers, Cuomo proposes pain and suffering limits in med-mal suits [NYDN, more: NYT] “Bloomberg looks to Texas for ideas on changing medical malpractice laws” [City Hall News]
- Hey, should we seize his drum set? Infuriating video on cop raids and forfeiture laws [Institute for Justice, Michigan]