Does giving workers the freedom to choose whether to join a union make a difference? A new report from the Mackinac Center – our sister think tank in Michigan – says yes, it does. Ball State University professor Michael Hicks teamed up with Mackinac’s Fiscal Policy Director Mike LaFaive to produce a sophisticated analysis of employment, income...
With college football starting up on this Labor Day weekend, it’s the perfect time for a Top 25 list of the most highest-compensated government union officials in Illinois. Unlike the football polls, there’s no argument over who’s No. 1; it’s all pretty cut-and-dried. The big question is: What exactly have they done to earn these...
The fallout from the Biogenesis scandal in Major League Baseball – New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez fighting a long suspension, a dozen other players accepting 50-game suspensions – reveals a big problem with U.S. labor law: how unions deal with disciplinary problems. How far should a union be willing to go to protect a member...
About a year ago, the city of Chicago released its 2012 Annual Financial Analysis. Back then I noted that many of the city’s challenges, especially high employee costs and growing pension debt, were aggravated by a heavily unionized workforce. With a new year comes newer, more disturbing financial figures – and the same old union problem...
Not all workers view technological innovation the same way. Earlier this week, the Tech Crunch blog, which covers trends in information technology businesses, examined how different types of workers view technological innovation. New technology has always had the ability to upend the workplace, and tech workers themselves are not immune. But tech workers are much more...
by Paul Kersey How did Detroit get to be the urban disaster area it is today? One tipping point come in 1978, when a union got a “win” that cost the city, and eventually its own members, dearly. This “win” came in the form of a raise concession granted to a powerful police union, which...
A mother's struggle to keep SEIU away from her finances and out of her home.
Chicago Public Schools plans to layoff more than 2,000 Chicago Teachers Union members on Friday. CTU released a statement saying CPS plans to lay off nearly 2,100 total employees, including “veteran teachers, teacher assistants, clerks, technology coordinators, instructional aides, lunchroom workers and security guards.” “Once again, CPS has lied to parents, employees and the public...
by Paul Kersey CNBC released its rankings of the friendliest states for business last week. Illinois dropped further down the list, but one nearby state is climbing, in large part because its elected officials passed a Right-to-Work law. CNBC’s Scott Cohn took notice, reporting that the Michigan moved from 33rd to 29th. CNBC’s rating of the state’s...
by Paul Kersey Plans to reopen Hostess Brands bakeries, including one in the Chicago suburb of Schiller Park, are going forward. The company has announced that the Twinkie will make its glorious return on July 15. But while the reorganized Hostess is making what it calls “the sweetest comeback in the history of ever,” the bakers...
Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request from Americans for Limited Government, the Internal Revenue Service revealed that 200 of its “employees” actually work full time for the National Treasury Employees Union, or NTEU. The special union arrangement, known as “official time,” means that rather than working on investigating and collecting taxes, public workers whose...
Earlier this week I wrote about Pam Harris, the Western Springs, Ill., mother who is at risk of having a union siphon off state aid money meant to help her care for her disabled son. So how is it that Harris, and so many like her, found themselves treated as employees by the state? Why don’t...
Illinois resident Pam Harris has a son, Josh, who is 24 years old and suffers from Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome, a rare genetic malady that leaves him moderately handicapped mentally and at the same time affects his joints so that he is prone to dislocations. Josh can move around the house and do simple chores. He’s also...
by Paul Kersey Barring a dramatic shift, more than 800 Chicago Public Schools employees, many of them dues-paying Chicago Teachers Union members, will be without jobs when schools open in the fall. But CTU, having collected more than $1,000 in dues per year from these people before pricing them out of their jobs, has made plans to help...