The Battle For California
(view as PDF here: LW0212) California voters may soon get to decide whether to change the state’s public employee pension system. Supporters of a pension reform ballot…
Labor Watch
Labor Notes: January 2012
The drop in the national unemployment rate from 9 to 8.6 percent in November was hailed by many as a welcome bit of good news. A closer look at the…
The Union Difference: A Primer On What Unions Do To The Economy
(From the January 2012 publication of Green Watch, PDF here) Everyone knows that unions try to raise…
Police Officer Union Organizes a Mob
In New York City, 16 police officers have been arraigned on charges ranging from fixing parking tickets to drugs and grand larceny. One officer, Jose R. Ramos of the 40th…
Unions Heart Occupy Wall Street
Unions have provided Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protestors with resources including office space, photocopying services and food, in exchange for the activists “…pitching in to help unions ratchet up action…
Tobacco Workers Reject Unionization
A majority of plant workers at the second largest American cigarette company have voted against union representation, reports the Associated Press. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.’s preliminary count was 686 out…
Labor Department vs. Employers: Rewriting Advice Exemption to Benefit Unions
The Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (“LMRDA”) says labor relations consultants and lawyers must report to the government on their activities if they attempt to persuade employees in a…
Battleground Ohio: John Kasich’s Collective Bargaining Reform Goes Down
Upon taking office in 2005, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels identified the power of state employees’ unions as a root cause of his state’s fiscal woes. Daniels issued an executive order…
‘Occupy Wall Street’ Steadily Becoming Just Another Big Labor Protest
Big Labor is taking over Occupy Wall Street, Lachlan Markay writes in an insightful item up at the Foundry blog. Meanwhile, Greg Sargent of the Washington Post‘s Plum Line…
Official Time
(Labor Watch, November 2011, PDF here) Title V of the U.S. Code allows federal government employees to do union work while on the job. This…