Highlights: Judge may delay anti-union bill in WI up to 2 months; OH repeal efforts begin; MO considers changes to state minimum wage; Federal Judge stands up for collective bargaining in IL; anti-union efforts move forward in Florida, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Maryland; Full Scrooge Alert here http://dailyscroogealert.blogspot.com/

All Around

This week in the war on workers, and how you can fight back
A proposed "right to work" bill (see here) drew this: Labor Commissioner George Copadis said he has met with over 2000 business owners and not one has ever lobbied for the state to adopt Right to Work. Perhaps New Hampshire's Republican leadership will

Indiana

Unions plan protest rallies across Indiana
FOX19
AP - April 4, 2011 4:04 AM ET INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Labor unions are planning rallies at the Indiana Statehouse and around the state as part of continuing protests against Republican-backed legislation that Democratic lawmakers say prompted their

Right-to-work law would have dire consequences for us all
nwitimes.com
Some suggest right-to-work states are prosperous and Indiana should become one. Income in these states supposedly grew faster over the past decade than in Indiana. However, of the 22 right-to-work states, only four rank among the top 20 in household

Wisconsin

WI: Judge's order may delay union law for nearly 2 months
A Dane County judge on Friday kept in place a restraining order against a controversial collective bargaining measure, a ruling that could keep the law from going into effect for nearly two months.

WI Supreme Court Justice Election Now A Collective Bargaining Fight
FOX 21 Online
By Tracee Tolentino & photojournalist Kristian Tharaldson, FOX 21 News SUPERIOR- All eyes will be on the Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice election on Tuesday, April 5th, as the election has taken on a whole new meaning. Crowded phone banks, all for the

Wisconsin Legislature to take up bill fixing state budget gap
Greenfield Daily Reporter
The Wisconsin Legislature plans to pass a bill Tuesday that would plug a projected $137 million budget shortfall. The measure proposed by Gov. Scott Walker includes portions of the bill stripping public workers of most collective bargaining rights that

Wisconsin judge vote turns into proxy fight over unions
KFOR
Little noticed most years, the election of a Wisconsin state Supreme Court judge has become a proxy fight over collective bargaining restrictions approved last month. The judicial candidates themselves are bystanders, according to Mordecai Lee,

Rev. Jesse Jackson marches in Milwaukee
Chicago Tribune
Marchers Saturday were also protesting Wisconsin's controversial law that is stalled in court proceedings that would strip most public workers of most of their collective bargaining rights. Among them were Baxter Leach and Elmore Nickleberry

Ohio

Opponents Begin Push To Repeal Ohio Union Law
NPR
by AP Opponents of an Ohio law to limit public workers' collective bargaining rights have started gathering signatures to get a referendum on the measure. Gov. John Kasich signed the measure Thursday. It bans public worker strikes, eliminates binding

A long, hard fight awaits Ohio over Senate Bill 5: editorial
Plain Dealer
John Kasich signs Ohio's new collective bargaining law. Ostensibly, Senate Bill 5, which Republican Gov. John Kasich signed Thursday night, rebalances -- in favor of taxpayers -- the collective bargaining laws that govern 360000 public employees in

Conservative group denies it masterminded drive to restrict public employee unions
Plain Dealer (blog)
By Sabrina Eaton, The Plain Dealer WASHINGTON, DC — A nonprofit Washington-DC based association for conservative state legislators is being touted as the brains behind efforts in Ohio and other states to curb the collective bargaining powers of public

New Hampshire

Teachers, at rally, decry House budget plan
The Union Leader
Bob Sinclair of Rochester, who introduced himself as a retired teacher, Air Force veteran "and taxpayer," said the New Hampshire House "has lost its moral compass." Collective bargaining creates a level playing field, Sinclair said

In the House, a demolition derby
Concord Monitor
In a big move, probably not anticipated by many who voted for them, they portrayed public employees as public enemies and passed legislation that would essentially destroy their unions by stripping their members of the right to collective bargaining

Missouri

MO Senate Considers Business-friendly Change to State's Minimum Wage Law
Kansas City Citizen
Business Lobby Backs Right-To-Work Legislation While the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry is now backing efforts to make Missouri the 23rd right-to-work state, labor groups vow to fight legislation

McCarty: Right to work plan is wrong for Missouri
News-Leader.com
Shane Schoeller believes that right to work will create jobs. He suggests we have a problem due to bordering RTW states that possess more hospitable worker climates. Wages in RTW states are 3.2 percent lower than for similar workers in a non-RTW state

Minnesota

In Minnesota and across US, GOP looks to make its mark
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Those include pay freezes, fewer state workers, school vouchers, reduced public pensions and making Minnesota a "Right to Work" state. "Minnesota is in line with a number of other states that are looking at what we would consider very reasonable

Editorial: Support teaching, but not status quo
Minneapolis Star Tribune
A wholesale attack on educators and collective bargaining in Minnesota will not solve our most intractable education issues any more than would protecting ineffective teachers and programs. The state must attract and retain the best and brightest

Maryland

Collective Bargaining Under Attack in…Maryland!? It may seem unlikely. But it’s true. IBEW-trained activist and leader of the Young Trade Unionists, Cory McCray, has laid out the on-going struggles in several Maryland counties on his blog: In Anne Arundel County, the County Council voted unanimously to remove a third party arbitrator from binding arbitration and place themselves to be..

Illinois

Federal Judge Rules that Illinois Can’t Interfere with Collective Bargaining

In a ruling that has far-reaching implications for Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Maine, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri, a federal judge threw out labor law reforms at Chicago’s McCormick Place that the Illinois state legislature enacted in 2010 following supplication from the convention industry.

Louisiana

Misclassification, Wage Violations and Undocumented Workers Rampant in New Orleans

New Orleans City Business has reported on an investigation into the widespread use of illegal, underpaid and misclassified workers in Louisiana. The practice, commonplace thanks in part to unscrupulous contractors who place an ever-plummeting bottom line above not only the safety of their workforce

Idaho

ID: Idaho school bill passes
Idaho lawmakers have sent the final piece of a plan to reform the state's public schools to the governor's desk, following three months of fierce debate that dominated the 2011 legislative session.

Oklahoma

Labor union debate heats up in Oklahoma Legislature
NewsOK.com
In Oklahoma, organized labor in the private sector is weak due to the state's right-to-work laws. And in the public sector, state workers don't have collective bargaining and are not unionized. Public employee unions here are mostly comprised of city

Florida

Is Florida about to become Wisconsin with a suntan?
MiamiHerald.com
And Florida is already a right-to-work (for less) state, where no worker can be required to join a union or to pay union dues if he or she chooses not to. TWU members are proud to be part of the Florida labor movement, fighting every day for

FL: On jobs, abortion, teacher pay, Florida Republicans rule
In the next 30 days, Florida lawmakers are poised to make it easier for insurance companies to raise rates, make it more difficult for women to receive an abortion and hand over control of prisons to private companies.