Portside

Even as public employee unions fight the Trump administration’s personnel cuts, a pair of GOP senators want to ban federal employees from belonging to unions.

Public employees would have to sign a form, in 14-point type, larger than the rest of the text, stating, "Florida is a right-to-work state,” “union membership and payment of union dues and assessments are voluntary,” no employee may be discriminated against “for refusing to join or financially support a labor union.”

The annual decline in the number of union members actually slowed after the a right-to-work law in Michigan took effect in 2013. And membership grew to 604,000 in 2020 from 589,000 in 2019. 

Wisconsin working people are at a cross roads. If we are to regain workplace rights we will have to show the employer how valuable we are. In the absence of that, even with effective political mobilization, the balance of forces will not change.

Medicaid authorities have launched a new attack on unions serving home healthcare workers. Make no mistake: This is nothing but another step in a 40-year attack on public employee unions.

Internal documents obtained by the Guardian reveal a nationwide drive to persuade union members to quit and stop paying dues.

Internal documents obtained by the Guardian reveal a nationwide drive to persuade union members to quit and stop paying dues.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing workers to refuse to pay the fees would have been the culmination of a decades-long campaign by a group of prominent conservative foundations aimed at weakening unions that represent teachers and other public employees. Tuesday’s deadlock denied them that victory, but it set no precedent and left the door open for further challenges once the Supreme Court is back at full strength.