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Missouri Voters Overwhelmingly Reject ‘Right to Work’

Chris Brooks and Alexandra Bradbury Labor Notes
After an all out effort by the labor movement, voters in Missouri rejected "right to work" legislation by a 2-1 margin. This reprised a labor victory from 40 years ago when voters rejected similar anti-worker legislation.

labor

I Work with Mark Janus. Here’s How He Benefits from a Strong Union.

Donnie Killen Labor Notes
I’m nervously awaiting the Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, which would weaken public sector unions by letting workers receive the benefits of representation without contributing toward the cost. But I’ve got a unique vantage point: I work in the same building as the plaintiff.

labor

How to Grow a Union in an Anti-union State

Jana Kasperkevic marketplace.org
Union organizers in states like Tennessee are hoping to change that. Since 2010, the number of union members in Tennessee has grown from 115,000 to 155,000. Still, only 5.7 percent of Tennessee workers are members of a union.How To Patrick Green, even one new member is a big deal. Green is a president of Local 1235, which is part of the Amalgamated Transit Union in Nashville, Tennessee. In the three years that he has been leading the union, the local’s membership rate went up by 36 percent, despite being in a right-to-work state.

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Canadian, U.S. Unions Push for Wage Hike Amid NAFTA Talks

Ginger Adams Otis New York Daily News
Labor leaders in the U.S. have made it clear they are supportive of a NAFTA overhaul — but only if it helps eliminate the wage gap with Mexico and includes Canada’s long-shot demands for labor reform.

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Labor Unions Appear Set for More State-Level Defeats In 2017

Todd Bookman and Brett Neely All Things Considered, National Public Radio
If New Hampshire, Missouri and Kentucky succeed in enacting "right-to-work" bills, it would be the most states rolling back union power in one year since 1947, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Success in New Hampshire would also make it the first state in the Northeast with a "right-to-work" law. The bills are a further reflection of organized labor's falling clout. Just 10.7 percent of American workers belonged to a labor union in 2016.

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WorkZone: Right-to-Work Laws Gain Momentum Following Election

Daniel Moore Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
That states can pass laws banning mandatory union dues is not new. Congress amended labor law in 1947 to allow individual states to pass right-to-work laws. “How it affects the workforce is really simple: It lowers wages,” said Stephen Herzenberg, executive director of the Keystone Research Center. “If you strip it to its core, this is about reducing the power of workers to bargain for a decent living.”
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