{"id":12526,"date":"2024-09-04T20:05:43","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T20:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=12526"},"modified":"2024-09-04T20:56:45","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T20:56:45","slug":"report-unions-pursue-law-changes-to-boost-membership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=12526","title":{"rendered":"Report: Unions Pursue Law Changes to Boost Membership"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/report-unions-pursue-law-changes-to-boost-membership\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Unions see a clear path through the legislature to boost membership after several legal challenges saw workers leave in droves.<\/p>\n

This, according to a new report released Wednesday that grades public sector labor laws across the nation. The data was compiled by the Commonwealth Foundation, a policy group that focuses on fiscal conservancy.<\/p>\n

David Osborne, senior fellow for labor policy at the foundation, said during a media briefing that government privatization, changing demographics and a 2018 Supreme Court decision, Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, have caused membership rates across the nation\u2019s four largest public sector unions to fall more than 320,000 over the last five years.<\/p>\n

The decline represents $106.8 million in annual dues and fees, according to the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overarching theme is that the unions have really responded to the membership losses since JANUS to drive up union membership,\u201d Osborne said.<\/p>\n

In the JANUS decision, courts held that unions could no longer collect \u201cfair share\u201d dues from non-members who benefit from collective bargaining agreements. Follow-up litigation has challenged the cumbersome process many former members had to overcome to leave the union and recoup dues improperly withheld.<\/p>\n

In the report<\/a>, states known as union \u201cstrongholds\u201d scored lower than others that have enacted collective bargaining reforms.<\/p>\n

Illinois, Michigan and Maryland stood out for unprecedented reforms that, in some cases, have constitutionally rooted union protections and tipped the scales in favor of executives, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Illinois, for example, enshrined collective bargaining rights into the state constitution<\/a>, which extended unionizing rights to every workplace, including those once considered inappropriate. Osborne said the \u201cexperiment could have really disastrous implications,\u201d such as raising taxes to fund \u201coutrageous\u201d union demands.<\/p>\n

He pointed to recent collective bargaining negotiations with Chicago Public Schools, during which leadership asked for abortion care access, affordable housing, homeless shelters in schools and all-electric bus fleets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legislature wouldn\u2019t have any opportunity to overrule that behavior,\u201d Osborne said. \u201cIt would take a constitutional amendment to correct that balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

California, Pennsylvania and Vermont have considered similar amendments \u2013 the latter two more seriously<\/a>, he added.<\/p>\n

In Michigan, which slipped from a \u201cB\u201d to a \u201cD\u201d over the last two years, lawmakers repealed the\u201cpaycheck protection\u201d law \u2013 which prevents public payroll systems from deducting union dues and political contributions \u2013 as was the state\u2019s Right to Work provision. The state also gives unions access to employees\u2019 personal information.<\/p>\n

Some 13 other states give unions the same data collection power. In Hawaii, unions even store Social Security numbers to verify workers\u2019 identities. The report says the practice leaves information vulnerable to ransomware attacks \u2013 like one that happened earlier this year in California.<\/p>\n

Maryland, Delaware and California also offer tax incentives for union membership as way to boost recruits. While Delaware\u2019s labor laws earned a “D” in the report, Maryland and Delaware \u2013 along with Illinois, Oregon and Washington \u2013 earned an \u201cF\u201d grading.<\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s four largest public sector unions \u2013 the American Federation of Teachers; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the National Education Association; and the Service Employees International Union \u2013 collectively represent 6.6 million workers.<\/p>\n

AFSCME, according to records submitted to the U.S. Department of Labor, has lost 7.5% of its members since 2017, outpacing the other three unions between 2.8 percentage points and 4 percentage points.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think JANUS is playing a big role in this,\u201d said Andrew Holman, a policy analyst at the Commonwealth Foundation. \u201cAnd I think after the decision, people are becoming more and more aware of what their dollars are being put toward and are saying, ‘I don\u2019t want to be a part of this.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Osborne said 60% of membership fees, albeit funneled through outside organizations, support political causes. Even though members may be aligned ideologically, many feel \u201cuncomfortable\u201d with resolutions that take positions on issues like the war in Gaza or abortion rights.<\/p>\n

Unions have refuted this claim in the past, such as the Pennsylvania State Education Association, which is under review by several state agencies for alleged funneling of union dues to support Gov. Josh Shapiro’s 2022 campaig<\/a>n. The state’s labor laws scored a “D” in the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of the issues seem to relate to what it is to be a teacher, for instance, so many of the members come home feeling like my union has really taken a stance on these political matters that have divided the workplace rather than united it,\u201d Osborne said.<\/p>\n

Of the highest-ranking states, Florida \u201csets a new gold standard,\u201d according to the foundation. The most impactful reform, Osborne said, requires unions to run for \u201crecertification\u201d once membership drops below 60%. This means workers can decide whether to keep representation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a bunch of unions fail to file for reelection because they know they\u2019ll lose,\u201d Osborne said. \u201cThis ends up removing a union that never had majority support to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wisconsin and Iowa also require recertification. Unions in other states \u2013 like Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York and California \u2013 have never run for \u201creelection\u201d since organizing in the 1970s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/report-unions-pursue-law-changes-to-boost-membership\/ Unions see a clear path through the legislature to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":12528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-right-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12526"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12529,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12526\/revisions\/12529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}