Saturday, January 07, 2017

Forced Unionism

As far as unions are concerned, in the United States there are two types of states:  "right to work" states, wherein workers have a right to work without paying a union, and "fair share" or "forced unionism" states, wherein workers can be compelled to pay a union even if they choose not to be union members.

(It probably doesn't surprise you to learn that California is a "forced unionism" state.  I've got two blog labels that relate to this:  "agency fee" and "CTEN".  Click on them--currently in the left-most section of the blog--and read more.)

Forced unionism was probably going to disappear this year, and then Justice Scalia died--the remaining justices split 4-4 in the Friedrichs v. CTA case.  Still, forced unionism has probably already reached its high-water mark as yet another domino is set to fall:
Kentucky is poised to become the 27th right-to-work state in the country after the state’s House of Representatives passed legislation on Thursday evening.

The Republican-controlled House voted 58-39 to end coercive union dues just a day after a House committee advanced the bill. Though Kentucky has long sent Republicans to Washington, D.C., Democrats controlled the statehouse for nearly a century before the GOP won majorities in both houses in 2016. John Cox, spokesman for Senate President Robert Stivers, said the party sees right to work as part of the mandate it received from voters.

1 comment:

Ellen K said...

I also read how in their wisdom, the University of California system outsourced 20% of their IT needs to India using a loophole. I'm not sure what's going on in your state, but I tend to believe the majority of people are suffering from some type of shaken baby syndrome as a result of constant tremors that in turn create some of the most self-destructive decisions I've ever seen.