Highlights: MUST WATCH VIDEO: MI GOP use Emergency Manager authority for first time, as efforts to recall Snyder begin; MN bill would change public employee union dues collection; Ind. bill on teacher union rights heads to gov.; Kasich says JobsOHIO constitutional, while suggesting fellow GOP deserve pay raise; Oklahoma Votes To End Collective Bargaining For City Workers; NH awaits R2W vote; full Scrooge Alert here http://dailyscroogealert.blogspot.com/

All Around

A rude awakening for two union families
A recently passed Ohio Senate bill restricts collective-bargaining rights, while the governor's budget further affects state labor by proposing to privatize five prisons, create more privately operated charter schools and roughly halve the money local ...

US: GOP push agenda in nation's statehouses
In state after state, Republicans are moving swiftly past blunted Democratic opposition to turn a conservative wish-list into law.

US: Unemployment rate falls in 34 US states in March
WASHINGTON -- Job creation picked up across the U.S. last month, helping to reduce the unemployment rate in 34 states. With the jobless rate across the U.S. retreating a percentage point to 8.8% in March from 9.8% in November, the improvement in labor market conditions has become more widespread, data released Tuesday by the Labor Department shows.

Michigan

MUST WATCH VIDEO: Governor Snyder and Michigan GOP implement Emergency Managers bill for the first time. Rachel Maddow tells the story best

Group begins effort to recall Gov. Rick Snyder A recall effort is organizing against Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.

Right to Work debated in Grand Rapids
WZZM
GRAND RAPIDS - The issue of making Michigan a Right to Work state drew a large crowd to Monday's meeting of the Economic Club of Grand Rapids. Right to Wor

Let's not emulate the Badger state
The Detroit News
In another test, three separate right-to-work (for less) bills seem bottled up in the legislature for now, but on the other hand we have the emergency manager law. The EM situation is a direct attack on collective bargaining (as well as the powers of

Ohio

Ohio Gov. John Kasich responds to lawsuit, tells critics of JobsOhio to 'put up or shut up'

Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Tuesday responded to a lawsuit against his JobsOhio plan by telling his critics to "put up or shut up."

Celeste: Senate Bill 5 'slap in the face,' should be repealed
Delaware News
The state rep. says strikes were more frequent in Ohio before collective bargaining rights were enacted. By MARK DUBOVEC State Rep. Ted Celeste (D-Grandview Heights) has a family history tied to collective bargaining. In 1983, his brother,

SB 5 foes get chance for a citizen vote
Aurora Advocate
by MARC KOVAC | RPC's CAPITAL BUREAU Columbus -- Opponents of collective bargaining reform passed by Ohio legislators and signed by Gov. John Kasich have been given the green light to begin collecting signatures to repeal the new law

Prevailing-wage challenge argued to Ohio justices

The Ohio Supreme Court will decide whether taxpayers can sue their local school district for requiring prevailing wages to be paid on a school construction project.

Schools rally support to fight cuts in state funds proposed by Gov. John Kasich

ROCKY RIVER, Ohio -- A wave of rallies about Gov. John Kasich's proposal to cut millions of dollars in state aid from school budgets continued Tuesday night.

Kasich, GOP lawmakers playing well together

Gov. John Kasich says he has developed a "beautiful relationship" with Republican legislative leaders, and he even suggested that lawmakers might deserve a pay raise.

Kasich says JobsOhio is constitutional

Gov. John Kasich says he will not be distracted by a recent lawsuit that argues his new JobsOhio economic development entity is unconstitutional.

Governor Kasich Uses His Fox News Know-How to Take on Ohio's ...
Bloomberg
Kasich grew up in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, and came to the Buckeye State in 1970 ... Besides the law curbing collective bargaining, the creation of the

Pennsylvania

PA GOP let gas companies have their way

Union questions raises for some at Pa. university system

While Gov. Tom Corbett is asking for a pay giveback from 45,000 state workers, including 3,500 at the State System of Higher Education, 1,327 of the system's 1,350 non-union workers are collecting merit raises they got in January, just before Mr. Corbett took office.

Some at Pa. schools get raises

While the state universities' lowest paid workers are gearing up to fight a proposed 4 percent pay cut in July, their bosses already are putting extra money in their own pockets.

Minnesota

Education Minnesota rips union dues proposal Education Minnesota is blasting a bill in the state Senate that would change the way public employee unions can collect dues.

Minn. bill would make it harder for public employee unions to use dues for politics, magazines

A Minnesota lawmaker wants to block public employees' union dues from going to support political activity, foundations and magazines unless employees ask to contribute to those items.

Minn. bill would limit use of public employee dues

A Minnesota lawmaker wants to block public employees' union dues from going to support political activity, foundations and magazines unless employees ask to contribute to those items.

Indiana

RCS superintendent's support of bill stuns union
Palladium-Item
The bill, which would limit collective bargaining to wages and benefits, was approved Friday by the Indiana House by a vote of 52 to 40 but requires approval from the state Senate before it can be signed into law by the governor

Ind. bill on teacher union rights heads to gov.

A bill to restrict Indiana teachers' collective bargaining rights has cleared its final legislative hurdle, becoming the first part of Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels' sweeping education agenda to make it to the governor's desk.

State may join push for presidential hopefuls to submit birth certificates

State Sen. Sue Landske, R-Cedar Lake, has asked legislative leaders to assign a review of the qualifications of presidential candidates to a General Assembly study committee she will preside over this summer.

Bill restricting collective bargaining for teachers headed to gov ...
INDIANAPOLIS — A bill to restrict Indiana teachers' collective bargaining rights has cleared its final legislative hurdle, becoming the first part of Gov

New Hampshire

'Right-to-Work' bill faces vote in NH Senate

‎A controversial collective bargaining bill is up for a vote in the New Hampshire Senate Wednesday. The bill would do away with a requirement mandating that

Public Sector Pushback
New Hampshire Watchdog
The House proposal on collective bargaining would make all public workers at-will employees once an existing labor contract. It's not all setbacks in New Hampshire though. The Senate Commerce Committee passed bill on April 12 to end the practice of

Senate To Vote On Collective Bargaining Bill - New Hampshire News ...
CONCORD, N.H. -- The New Hampshire Senate is considering whether to end the practice of requiring non-union members to pay a fair share of collective

Don't be duped
Concord Monitor
Why would we - New Hampshire voters and New Hampshire legislators - buy the spin that the proposed budget will benefit working people? HB 1 and HB 2 along with HB 474 (Right to Work for Less), HB 519, HB 580, SB 2 and CACR 6 will benefit only the

Oklahoma

Oklahoma Votes To End Collective Bargaining For City Workers
The Business Insider
The bill is the latest blow to union supporters, although labor debate in Oklahoma - a right-to-work state - has been markedly subdued compared to the heated protests in more heavily unionized states like Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana

Oklahoma set to repeal collective bargaining law
Reuters
In Oklahoma, a right-to-work state in which workers are not required to join a union to hold a job, a majority vote is required before municipal workers can be represented by a union and engage in collective bargaining

Wisconsin

Scott Walker looking to replicate Michigan emergency planner law ...
The Washington Independent
Well there is more to this story. The Right To Work carpetbaggers were in Lansing, MI last week organizing another assault, this time on Michigan's teachers

Louisiana

LA: Gov. Jindal will sign 'birther' bill if it reaches his desk
Gov. Bobby Jindal would sign a bill requiring presidential candidates to provide a copy of their birth certificate to qualify for the Louisiana ballot if it reaches his desk, a spokesman said Monday.

Missouri

Hoffa: Mo. lawmakers waging 'war on workers'
Westport-News
Although it has received only limited debate, another Senate proposal would make Missouri a "right to work" state in which union fees could not be required

Teamsters Leader Tells Lawmakers To Back Off
KTTS
The most contentious of those would make Missouri a "right to work" state in ... that includes the much-publicized anti-union efforts in Wisconsin and Ohio.