Following a leadership shakeup last fall, members of the 37,000-member New York State Nurses Association voted overwhelmingly Thursday to approve bylaw changes that will transform the organization from a professional association into a more traditional labor union.
Members opted Thursday to give more power to elected leaders to set the course of the union; to ban supervisors from serving as union leaders; and to replace the position of CEO with an executive director.
The association traditionally had a board that included supervisors, which limited its ability to discuss union issues. A delegate assembly made up of non-supervisory nurses had only an advisory role.
Vice President Joe Biden didn’t seem too worried about the auto workers who lost pensions and benefits because of the restructuring that the auto bailout required:
“Some of them got hurt,” Biden flippantly says. But he added: ”The vast majority, because of the federal pension board they have out there to make up differences when companies go under like this. Most did fine.”
“We don’t control the [pension] board any more than we control the Fed,” Biden also said. “And so we’re wide open to listen to anything we can do to help, but that’s an independent board.”
A funny thing happened on the way to the recall. Government unions organized Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s (R) recall in retaliation for limiting their collective bargaining powers. But the Democratic candidate, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett, barely mentions the collective bargaining law on the campaign trail. That is probably because—now that they have seen its benefits—most Wisconsin voters want to keep it. By a 53 percent to 38 percent margin, independent voters favor the limits on collective bargaining in government. It turns out that closing a $3.6 billion deficit without raising taxes or laying off teachers is popular after all.
So Governor Walker’s opponents have instead attacked his handling of the Wisconsin economy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) conducts two surveys of the job market. One surveys households and measures unemployment; the other surveys employers and reports jobs losses and gains. Over the past year, these surveys have painted very different pictures of the Badger State’s economy.
The household survey has shown a steadily improving Wisconsin economy. Since Walker took office, the state unemployment rate has fallen from 7.7 percent to 6.8 percent— well below the national average of 8.1 percent. The establishment survey has been much more pessimistic. It showed Wisconsin lost almost 34,000 jobs last year, more than any other state. Walker’s critics have used this statistic to argue that his reforms have failed.
Jack Spencer, capitol affairs specialist for Michigan Capitol Confidential, was a guest on “The Frank Beckmann Show” on WJR AM760 this morning. Spencer discussed his latest story, which outlines how the SEIU is paying for a shell corporation to remain open after it was defunded by the Legislature. The Michigan Quality Community Care Council that was set up as the dummy employer in a scheme to skim millions of dollars from Michigan’s most vulnerable families operates three hours a month. In short, the union is paying the employer of the people it is supposed to represent so it can continue to operate and funnel dues money back to the union.
Michigan’s Court of Appeals is hearing arguments today in a lawsuit challenging a vote that kept the fate of the state’s emergency manager law off November’s ballot.
Stand Up for Democracy will make its case this morning in Detroit.
The UAW is urging its members to show their support by gathering outside the Cadillac Place at 9 a.m. where the hearing is scheduled to begin an hour later. http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/detroit
The first court appearance in the union lawsuit to halt hiring decisions at 24 turnaround schools ended with the judge telling the city and unions to resolve their dispute out of court.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Joan Lobis urged the city and teachers and principals unions to resolve their contractual disputes through arbitration, rather than litigation. If the two sides would agree to let an independent arbitrator hear their case, then she would not need to rule on the unions’ request for an injunction to halt hiring at the schools.
Union and city lawyers both said they wanted to resolve the dispute quickly because schools would be harmed if hiring decisions are not well before the end of the school year.
The U.S. Postal Service will start consolidating its mail sorting facilities in August and spread the closing of 229 locations over the course of the next two years.
When completed, the consolidations will eliminate 28,000 jobs and save the Postal Service $1.2 billion a year.
The Postal Service will close 140 facilities through February 2013 and an additional 89 facilities in 2014.
After nearly three years of stalemate and delay, public pension system boards, retiree groups, worker unions and state senators grudgingly swallowed a bitter pill: generous benefits are no longer sustainable in the face of retirees living longer and stock market gains lagging.
The Ohio Senate on Wednesday endorsed a massive overhaul of the state’s four biggest public pension systems. The senate passed two pension reform bills overwhelmingly, one on a 30-3 vote and another on a 31-2 vote.
However, the bills face an uncertain fate in the Ohio House, where a vote may not occur for months.
Connecticut Comptroller Kevin Lembo sided with unions in demanding that health insurer WellPoint Inc. offer greater disclosure of its political contributions.
WellPoint’s annual meeting Wednesday in the company’s hometown of Indianapolis was disrupted internally by activist shareholders and by dozens of people gathered outside. At issue is money that WellPoint and other insurers have given to organizations that first opposed federal health care reform in 2009 and contributions to politicians intent on scuttling the collection of laws approved by Congress in 2010, which are often called “Obamacare.”
In the May 15 letter Lembo wrote to Wellpoint CEO Angela F. Braly, he said, “As the state’s chief fiscal guardian, I was deeply concerned by recent reports that a significant and growing portion of your company’s revenues are utilized to fund political expenditures which may be in direct conflict with the interests of the state and your policyholders.”
The editorial staff of the San Diego Union-Tribune Saturday announced their support for Proposition A, which would ban government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on city funded construction projects in San Diego.
This support comes despite union claims that if Proposition A is adopted, the city risks losing future state construction funding due to a new state law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last week.
Here are the highlights from the Union-Tribune‘s editorial announcing the paper’s support for Proposition A:
We acknowledge that Proposition A puts state construction funding at risk. Former Councilwoman Donna Frye points out that Mayor Jerry Sanders’ administration considered the funding threat significant enough that it was mentioned in a disclosure document for an upcoming bond offering.
