Viewpoint: Boss Can’t Be Janus Fix
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Janus decision, a new approach to financing unions called “direct reimbursement” is gaining traction with Democratic politicians, academics, and even the New York Times editorial board.
It boils down to this: rather than public sector workers paying dues, their government employer would pay an equivalent amount directly to the union.
Before It All Melts Away
Will this spring’s wave of teacher strikes lead to stronger unions? Not if their unions return to business as usual.
The motor force behind the strikes in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, Colorado, and North Carolina is teachers’ deep frustration. Educators are feeling the pinch from decades of funding cuts that their unions have been unable to stop.
Here's How Arizona Teachers Organized Their First-Ever Statewide Strike
Feature: Teacher Uprising Grows
Massive Crowds Flood Capital as Arizona Teachers Stage First-Ever Statewide Walkout, by Jonah Furman
The Alligator and the Auto Worker
Income inequality is higher today than any time since the Great Depression. One reason why is the widening gap between pay and productivity—a graph that resembles an alligator’s mouth.
Rising productivity is due to more than just robots. Work has intensified through lean production, where fewer workers are pushed to perform more work in shorter times. Workers are electronically monitored so that companies can squeeze maximum profit from every second.
Viewpoint: Don’t Fall for the Members-Only Unionism Trap
One of corporate America’s next big goals might surprise you: passing legislation to prevent unions from having to represent workers who don’t pay dues. This is just the latest of many business-friendly labor law reforms proliferating across the country.
Jersey Day Spooks Kroger Management
According to Kroger, sports partisanship on the job is OK but union partisanship is not.
The grocery chain has long allowed employees to wear team jerseys of their choice on designated “game days.” NASCAR and NFL teams are among the honorees.
But when Kroger workers in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio began wearing UFCW Local 400 jerseys to work on game day, as part of their campaign for a new contract, the company abruptly announced that only Kroger uniforms were allowed—nationwide.