Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week: Right to Work Edition


This past week, I came across several articles that dealt with "right to work" legislation in states across the country.  For those needing a refresher, right to work laws prohibit labor unions from collecting fees to pay for the negotiation and administration of collective bargaining agreements from workers who benefit from these agreements, but are not part of the union.  It should not come as much of a surprise that Democrats traditionally oppose these laws while Republicans tend to push for their passage.  But as for this week, having read several articles on the topic, I think it is appropriate to dedicate this post to right to work matters.

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.


Could New Hampshire Become the Next Right to Work State?

As The New Hampshire Union Leader writes, New Hampshire is poised to become the next right to work state, now that Republicans control both legislative chambers and the governor's office.  Governor-elect Chris Sununu recently stated that he is "fairly" confident that right to work legislation will be passed in 2017 (after prior Democratic governors in the state had opposed such legislation).  Currently there are 26 states that have enacted right to work laws...it would not surprise me to see New Hampshire become the 27th.



Missouri Lawyers Weekly recently wrote a well thought out article on the impact of a potential right to work law on employers in the state.  With the election of a new governor in the state who appears to be receptive to right to work legislation (at least more so than former Governor, Jay Nixon), it is possible, if not likely, that Missouri could finally approve right to work legislation.  Even for those readers not in Missouri, the first part of the article is worth a review which provides an overview of right to work laws.



Last month, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in Auto Workers Local 3047 v. Hardin County and upheld "local" right to work laws.  While the National Labor Relations Act has allowed state governments to enact statewide right to work laws, local governments in Kentucky attempted to pass local right to work laws...something that up until that time had been relatively unheard of.  Naturally, labor unions cried foul and argued that labor statutes grant only states, not local governments, the right to pass right to work legislation.  This article from Bloomberg does a good job breaking down the key parts of the case and just how far reaching this opinion might actually be.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum, it was noted that emplo
Post a Comment
Read more

Happening Tomorrow: Connecticut’s Minimum Wage Increases

For those employers and employees alike in Connecticut, mark your calendars as tomorrow, the minimum wage rate increases in the state from $13/hour to $14/hour. This wage hike comes after Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont had signed Public Act 19-4 into law in 2019 which progressively raised the state’s hourly minimum wage rate every year for five years.  In fact, next year, the hourly wage rate will top out at $15/hour.  Beginning in January of 2024, the hourly wage rate will be indexed to the employment cost index. For additional information:   https://portal.ct.gov/Office-of-the-Governor/News/Press-Releases/2022/06-2022/Governor-Lamont-Reminds-Residents-That-Minimum-Wage-Is-Scheduled-To-Increase-on-Friday
Post a Comment
Read more

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa
Post a Comment
Read more