Labor

Beck rights and abstention: The ways around a toxic union

Beck rights and abstention: The ways around a toxic union

A recent Google Consumer Surveys poll shows that a third of union household members would quit their union if it weren’t for the fact that doing so would cost them their jobs. Because Illinois lacks a Right-to-Work law, thousands of workers are forced to pay dues or fees to a union that they don’t believe...

By Paul Kersey

Bill Daley acknowledges depth of union politics

Bill Daley acknowledges depth of union politics

by Paul Kersey Possible gubernatorial candidate Bill Daley said something interesting at his “pension plan” news conference Monday morning. It just wasn’t really what he wanted to emphasize. Though he summoned the media for the occasion, the former White House Chief of Staff had little to say about why pensions in Illinois are in the...

Chicago Public Schools: the layoffs begin

Chicago Public Schools: the layoffs begin

This afternoon Chicago Public Schools officials announced layoffs of teachers and other staff. Overall 855 school district employees will be let go: 663 employees from 49 schools that are slated for closure and another 192 staff from schools that are slated for “turnaround.” CPS currently employs 41,500 staff, including more than 23,000 teachers. While the immediate cause...

By Paul Kersey

Illinois lawmakers scale back progress in ‘management bill’

Illinois lawmakers scale back progress in ‘management bill’

by Paul Kersey Last year the Illinois General Assembly decided that up to 3,580 supervisors in state government would not be subject to unionization. Passing this legislation, dubbed the “management bill,” meant that Illinois would restore a well-established principle of labor law – that supervisors need to be strictly accountable to policymakers and the people...

Lawmakers fail to act on government collective bargaining legislation

Lawmakers fail to act on government collective bargaining legislation

by Paul Kersey In the wake of the end of spring legislative session, it has become clear that the General Assembly left itself a lot of unfinished business for next year. Aside from failing to act on pensions and passing another budget with numbers that don’t add up, Illinois lawmakers also failed to make the...

Congress Hotel strike shows how union representation can leave workers worse off

Congress Hotel strike shows how union representation can leave workers worse off

by Paul Kersey The 10-year strike by housekeepers at the Congress Hotel was not actually the longest in U.S. history. Teamsters at Diamond Walnuts in California staged a walkout that lasted 14 years before agreeing to a contract. But the length of the strike and the sad way the Congress Hotel strike ended demolishes a fond...

Budget Rush — Haste makes waste, and secrecy makes more waste

Budget Rush — Haste makes waste, and secrecy makes more waste

by Paul Kersey So, here we are again, scrambling at the last minute to evaluate a complex document that accounts for billions of dollars of state employee wages. In March of this year it was the tentative agreement between Gov. Quinn and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31.  The challenge...

Where there’s a government union, there’s bound to be big government debt

Where there’s a government union, there’s bound to be big government debt

by Paul Kersey So what exactly do government worker unions do? Along with negotiating contracts and lobbying politicians, they help create loads of debt. The Massachusetts-based Beacon Hill Institute has done some sophisticated analysis of state-level economic performance, and the results indicate that government unions tend to go hand in hand with high government debt....

Open bargaining essential to avoid government corruption

Open bargaining essential to avoid government corruption

by Paul Kersey In governments all across the country, there’s a need to open up collective bargaining to more public scrutiny. Union contracts in particular need to be released to the public before they are ratified. But even when you have the contract in hand, you don’t necessarily know everything you need to know. The dirty little...

CPS school closings: teachers union demands added pressure to an already-buckling district

CPS school closings: teachers union demands added pressure to an already-buckling district

by Paul Kersey Sometimes decline is a reality that must be dealt with before it can be reversed – and that’s the situation that the Chicago Public Schools board faces. With shrinking enrollment in traditional public schools the CPS board had little choice but to close down some school buildings and redistribute students to new...

The IRS scandal and a partisan union

The IRS scandal and a partisan union

by Paul Kersey National Review Reporter Andrew Stiles recently pointed out another group that may have had a hand in using federal tax law to persecute conservative and free market groups – the National Treasury Employees Union, or NTEU. This group represents Internal Revenue Service employees, and has strong partisan preferences. Stiles wrote: The union endorsed Obama...

Cleveland teachers’ contract: It’s better than the one we got

Cleveland teachers’ contract: It’s better than the one we got

by Paul Kersey In my last post, I called attention to the contract between the Cleveland Teachers Union (an affiliate of the American Federation, just like the union that represents Chicago teachers) and the Cleveland Municipal School District. The union and the district both deserve credit for releasing their contract to the media just two days after reaching...

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis wins second term

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis wins second term

From NBC’s Ward Room: Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis on Friday earned a second three year term. The union said Lewis received an “overwhelming 80 percent of the votes” cast, according to a preliminary tally of the votes. “[Union members have] spoken … saying that they appreciate the direction that the union has gone in...