Below, Ilya discusses the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North in the 1940s and 50s as an example of poor people “voting with their feet.” It’s that, though it’s a bit more complicated than that, too, because federal New Deal policies set out to limit acreage farmed in the South […]
Archive | Unions
Unions Seek Changes to PPACA
The WSJ reports that the heads of three large labor unions are pushing Democrats in Congress to make changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Since last year, union leaders have complained that many of the law’s requirements will drive up costs for union-sponsored health-care plans that are managed jointly by unions and mostly […]
Fourth Circuit Voids NLRB Posting Rule
Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit joined the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in invalidating the National Labor Relations Board “poster rule.” This rule required employers to post a notice of employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act on their properties and websites. In Chamber of Commerce […]
Must Public Schools Collect Dues for Public School Employee Unions?
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided an interesting case concerning the collection of union dues for public school employees in Michigan. In Bailey v. Callaghan, a divided panel upheld Michigan’s Public Act 53 which provides: ““A public school employer’s use of public school resources to assist a labor organization […]
D.C. Circuit Voids NLRB Posting Rule
This morning, a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in National Association of Manufacturers v. National Labor Relations Board, struck down a new NLRB regulation requiring employers to post a notice of employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act on their properties and websites. Judge Randoph wrote the opinion for […]
Haymarket Revisited
On May 4, 1886, a peaceful labor protest turned violent after a bomb exploded and police fired on the protesters. Eight activists were subsequently indicted and, according to the conventional account, railroaded at trial. All were convicted and four were subsequently executed. What if the conventional account of the Haymarket protest and trial are wrong? The February […]
Right-to-Work and Libertarians – Continued
An interesting debate has broken out among libertarians and free market advocates over the desirability of state right-to-work laws. (See my prior post here.) At Cato@Liberty David Boaz rounds up links and summarizes the competing claims.
Is “Right to Work” Libertarian?
I’m not a particular fan of unions as they’ve manifested themselves in the U.S. (Exposure to union thuggery and violence as a child will do that to a chap.) And given my generally libertarian orientation, I generally oppose government policies that place a finger on the scale in support of organized labor. At the same […]
NLRB Drops Complaint Against Boeing
As expected, the National Labor Relations Board has dropped its complaint against Boeing in the wake of the machinists’ union’s ratification of a new labor agreement with the airplane manufacturer.
NLRB Back from the Brink
Today the National Labor Relations Board approved portions of a proposed rule to modify election procedures by a 2-1 vote. Only some of the (relatively) less controversial reforms to accelerate the pace of union elections were adopted, primarily those concerning pre-election appeals to the NLRB. Board member brian Hayes, who had reportedly threatened to resign […]
NLRB on the Brink
This Wednesday, the National Labor Relations board is scheduled to vote on a controversial proposed rule to streamline and accelerate the union election process. The Board is acting now because it could lose a quorum when the recess appointment of Craig Becker expires at the end of the year. Only three of the NLRB’s five […]
NLRB To Accelerate Union Elections
The National Labor Relations Board is proposing new regulations to accelerate the pace of union organizing elections. As the Washington Post reports: The board is proposing to streamline a union election process that currently has workers vote within 45-60 days after a union gathers enough signatures to file a petition, a time many companies use […]
Unions, Union-Bashing, and All That:
Gov. Daniels (R-Indiana) is surely not the only politician who would have liked to have seen the fights over public sector unions, their pensions and their bargaining rights and all the rest, put off until another day. It puts President Obama and the other leaders of the Democratic Party in a tough bind. The arguments […]