All Around
WAGE-KILLER: Truth-Out and EPI Issue Stern Denunciations of Right-to-Work
Truth-Out stepped into the Right-to-Work ring yesterday offering clarity on the misleadingly named laws in Right to Work: Representation Without Taxation, authored by economist Dean Baker: The logic is straightforward. When a union is recognized as representing a bargaining unit, it legally must represent every worker in that unit, whether or not...
Protests over state budget cuts, anti-union bills spread throughout US
(AP) As the Wisconsin protests swelled to 25000, President Obama thrust himself and his political operation this week into Wisconsin's broiling budget ..
Ohio
Pro-union protests to continue Wednesday
Worker rights and collective bargaining have sparked debate in statehouses across the country, most notably in Wisconsin, where a scheduled vote on a ..
Amendment to Senate Bill 5 would end arbitration, strikes An Ohio Senate committee is poised to approve sweeping changes today to the state's collective-bargaining law, including a ban against public-employee strikes, a pay system based on merit and not longevity and a new procedure for resolving contract disputes.
8,500 union protesters rally at Ohio Statehouse over Senate Bill 5 COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Senate Republicans continued to massage a collective bargaining proposal in a Statehouse committee, introducing 15 amendments to Senate Bill 5, as public union workers again led a spirited daylong rally outside against the proposal.
LIVE VIDEO: Rally for Ohio’s Middle Class With some guests slated to appear and John Kasich’s office admitting that almost everyone calling and emailing the Governor is against SB5, today could be a turning point in Ohio. Tune in live below… Live video by Ustream...
Ohio committee to vote on bill to end state worker strike rights
A large group of union supporters gather on the steps of the Ohio Statehouse to rally against Senate Bill 5 in Columbus, Ohio, March 1, 2011.
Hoffa, in Ohio, Leads Rally to Kill Senate Bill 5
PR Newswire (press release)
"We beat back right-to-work in Indiana last week, and we're forcing Scott Walker to keep the Capitol building open to the protesters in Madison." "These governors and these lawmakers need to make Wall Street and the CEOs and the Koch brothers share in ...
Wisconsin
Protests over state budget cuts, anti-union bills spread throughout US
(AP) As the Wisconsin protests swelled to 25000, President Obama thrust himself and his political operation this week into Wisconsin's broiling budget ..GOP Governors 'Stand With Scott'
Fox News
We are a strong right-to-work state and so we do not have to deal with collective bargaining. VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Now, one of the issues, at least the union members, the Democrats have raised in Wisconsin, is they say that they have given Governor ...
GOP governors to launch ads backing Wisconsin Gov. Walker
In a sign of the ramifications the budget standoff has beyond Wisconsin's borders, the Republican Governors Assn. plans to become the latest outside group to launch an advertising campaign in the state, supporting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's effort to end collective bargaining rights for public employees.
Walker's budget cuts would touch most Wisconsinites
Gov. Scott Walker vowed Tuesday to close a $3.5 billion budget gap by remolding Wisconsin government at every level: slashing aid to public schools and local governments while setting up increases in private school aid; eliminating 1,200 state jobs; and placing the tightest limits on property taxes that the state has seen.
Michigan
Snyder asks private-sector labor to back public-sector benefit cuts
Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com
Snyder has explicitly rejected the idea of repealing prevailing wage laws that call for union-scale wages on state construction projects or making Michigan a “right-to-work” state. “Our focus is not on finding areas to fight, but on finding that common ...
'This is not Wisconsin,' Gov. Snyder tells building trades group
Detroit Free Press
He said he's encouraged that Snyder said he has no interest in bills to repeal the state prevailing wage law or to pass a right to work law. "I think the governor wants to show labor has a voice in what's going to happen in this state and be part of ...
Snyder to speak to unionized construction industry today
The Detroit News
Snyder has not endorsed some of the more contentious bills before the Legislature, such as one to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law or another to make Michigan a "right-to-work" state. He also has attempted to put distance between Michigan and ...
State to no longer collect union dues from home day-care providers
The Detroit News
... willing to call private employees 'public employees' made it all the more egregious." Wright said he is reviewing his clients' legal options. A separate lawsuit filed by the National Right-to-Work Legal Defense Foundation is pending in federal court.
Michigan Links: Debate continues over whether state legislature is pushing ...
MLive.com
Is the new GOP-controlled Michigan legislature pushing anti-labor legislation? Not surprisingly, it depends on who you ask. Michigan Laborers Council director Jonathan Byrd says bills coming from the House for Right-to-Work zones, increased control for ...
Indiana
Indiana Democrats hint at progress in deadlock
Indianapolis Star
23, two days after the Democrats walked out and the same day Republicans also agreed to kill the so-called "right to work" bill, a move Republicans openly acknowledged was a concession. But if the voucher amendment brings Democrats back from Illinois, ...
It's been nice to have a break from the House
Indianapolis Star
Tuesday morning, as has been the case in recent days, the Statehouse halls were peppered with union workers sent to protest the GOP's agenda, particularly the so called right-to-work bill, which would have prohibited nonunion workers in union shops ...
House Democratic leadership decline Bosma's offer to talk
Evansville Courier & Press
Most contentious of those was a so-called “right to work” measure that would have allowed workers to opt out of union membership. That, said Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, was “the straw that broke the camel's back.” Senate President Pro Tem David ...
Minnesota
Dayton says he's willing to compromise with GOP -- to a point
Minneapolis Star Tribune
If legislators succeed in placing a constitutional amendment on the 2012 ballot that would make Minnesota a right-to-work state "it would destroy 100 years of progress made in collective bargaining that I believe served Minnesota well," Dayton said. ...
To the Editor: Unions made this country great
Osakis Review
Here in Minnesota, the GOP is trying to push through a “Right to Work” Constitutional Amendment that would be on the ballot in 2012. I am angry over the GOP bullies rushing legislation through without the benefit of hearings or public input. ...
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania school-voucher bill passes Senate committee
A bill that would require taxpayers to subsidize the education of a public school student from a low-income family who wants to attend a different school passed a first test.
Brace yourself- Corbett cuts are on the horizon
Pennsylvanians, buckle your seat belts and prepare for them to feel tighter.
Gov. Tom Corbett might fight more for natural gas drillers than against unions
Ideological Armageddon is what's going down in Wisconsin. A budget crisis that's the result of a great recession sparked by Wall Street Ponzi schemes and the housing bubble collapse has given Gov. Scott Walker an excuse to strip public-employee unions of collective bargaining rights.
They hoped a candlelight vigil would capture Gov. Tom Corbett's attention, if not his heart. But their candles stood no better chances of surviving the windy night than did their health insurance.
Liquor, not Wisconsin, is the crux
Allentown Morning Call
The storm clouds from Wisconsin do not seem especially threatening to the labor union establishment in Pennsylvania. News stories last week said right-to-work proposals (individuals decide for themselves whether they want to join unions or pay union ...
I LIKE movies about public education & nd
Wilkes Barre Times-Leader
Nearly half of the states in our country are “right to work” states in which unions are weak. Should we continue to follow the lead of Texas, which, despite George W. Bush's “Texas Miracle” while he was governor, still ranks 47th in the nation? ...
Maine
Right-to-work legislation starts making its way around the legislature
WGME
Governor Paul LePage has made good on a promise to take on organized labor in Maine. Two right-to-work bills have been introduced in the legislature that would make it illegal for unions to require workers to join or pay dues. ...
