Tag Archives: Union Dues

News

Florida Republicans ban automatic deduction of union dues

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From the Orlando Sentinel.

Excerpt:

After a largely party-line vote, the Florida House delivered a major blow to public employee unions, approving a bill that would ban automatic dues deduction and require members to sign off on the use of their dues for political purposes.

Democrats and Republicans fought over the legislation for just under two hours. Democrats and labor unions have accused conservatives of “union-busting” and for trying to weaken Democrats’ political power because unions are a major backer of Democratic candidates.

Rep. Chris Dorworth, R-Lake Mary, said this was simply the state’s movement to get out of the dues deduction business and let the unions take care of their own business.

“It’s a bill that empowers membership of labor unions,” Dorworth said.

The bill passed 73-40, with two Republicans siding with Democrats. Rep. Ed Hooper, R-Clearwater and Rep. Ana Rivas Logan, R-Miami broke ranks with Republicans and sided with Democrats for the vote.

This is the way to beat the Democrats. Cut off all of their funding. A federal right-to-work bill and a federal voucher program should be the top priorities of the Republicans in 2012.

News

Michigan DHS deducts union dues from home-based day care subsidies

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Story here from the Wall Street Journal. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

Michelle Berry runs a private day-care service from her home on the outskirts of this city, the birthplace of General Motors. “The Berry Patch,” as she calls the service, features overstuffed purple gorillas, giant cartoon murals, and a playroom covered in Astroturf. Her clients are mostly low-income parents who need child care to keep their jobs in a city that now has a 26% unemployment rate.

Ms. Berry owns her own business—yet the Michigan Department of Human Services claims she is a government employee and union member. The agency thus withholds union dues from the child-care subsidies it sends to her on behalf of her low-income clients. Those dues are funneled to a public-employee union that claims to represent her. The situation is crazy—and it’s happening elsewhere in the country.

A year ago in December, Ms. Berry and more than 40,000 other home-based day care providers statewide were suddenly informed they were members of Child Care Providers Together Michigan—a union created in 2006 by the United Auto Workers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The union had won a certification election conducted by mail under the auspices of the Michigan Employment Relations Commission. In that election only 6,000 day-care providers voted. The pro-labor vote turned out.

Many of the state’s other 34,000 day-care providers never even realized what was going on. Ms. Berry tells us she was “shocked” to find out she was suddenly in a union.

This is why the state of Michigan is a dump – it’s not just Detroit, it’s Lansing, and Governor Jennifer Granholm.

News

How much are federal government employees being paid during the recession?

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Story from USA Today. (H/T National Review via ECM)

Excerpt:

Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months — and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.

The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, the most recent figure available.

When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.

The average private sector salary is about $40,000. The average federal worker makes over $71,000.