A Ruling In Favor of Friedrichs Will Hurt Education

This unsigned opinion piece was published through the Institute for America’s Future of the Campaign for America’s Future [http://ourfuture.org/], which has become a driving force behind the New Populist Movement. The group’s report, Organizing to Take Back America: The New Populist Movement, is available at: http://y.ourfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/New-Populist-Movement-Organizing.pdf. Prepared by Roger Hickey, the co-director of the Campaign for America’s…

Contemplating the Friedrichs Case

Yesterday’s troubling oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association has prompted a flurry of doom-and-gloom stories in the media about the potentially devastating consequences for the union movement of a decision by the high court to overturn 40 years of precedent and outlaw “agency fee” payments…

Thinking about the Friedrichs Oral Arguments at the Supreme Court

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. Friedrichs and the other petitioners in the case argue that the Supreme Court’s 40 year precedent upholding the constitutionality of agency fees – or fair share fees – should be overruled. The AAUP filed an amicus brief in…

AAUP Responds to Friedrichs Oral Arguments

The following statement was released today and posted on the AAUP website: Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a case which threatens to reverse decades-old decisions allowing for the collection of fair share fees from public employees. The case has far-reaching consequences for American workers, students and the…

“Right to Work,” by the Numbers: Part 13: Poverty Rates in 2014

The “right-to-work” states are indicated in red, and the pro-labor states in white: Compare that map with the following maps: __________________________ Previous posts in this series have included: Right to Work by the Numbers, Part 1: Population Growth and Movement: https://academeblog.org/2013/04/03/2666/. Right to Work by the Numbers, Part 2: Immigration: https://academeblog.org/2013/04/21/right-to-work-by-the-numbers-part-2/. Right to Work by…

Solidarity Lunch

Each year the University of Cincinnati chapter holds a Solidarity Lunch to which it invites not only its own members but also the members of all of the other unions that represent university employees. At my own university, only the maintenance workers are also unionized, but I think that this sort of “solidarity” event is…

A 2016 New Year’s Message from China’s Labor Community

Dear Fellow Workers, Compatriots, and Friends from around the World: Happy New Year! Toward the end of 2015, the labor community in China experienced an unprecedented attack. A group of activists who have dedicated years to defending the rights and interests of workers were detained, monitored and interrogated by the police. It could have been…

Literally, a Singular Illustration of the Corporate Media’s Disregard, if Not Disdain, for American Labor

The following item was written by Peter Dreier for the blog Talking Union: “Fred Hiatt, the Washington Post’s editorial page editor, has fired columnist Harold Meyerson, one of the nation’s finest journalists and perhaps the only self-proclaimed socialist to write a weekly column for a major American newspaper during the past decade or two. “At…

Updates on the Detention of Chinese Labor Activists

I recently re-posted a piece by Paul Garver on the detention of labor activists in China. Paul edits the Talking Union blog of the Democratic Socialists of America, and I included the re-post of his piece in a somewhat broader article on labor activism in China: https://academeblog.org/2015/12/10/supporting-the-emerging-chinese-labor-movement-on-international-human-rights-day/. That post was then re-posted on the Facebook…

“Right to Work” by the Numbers: Part 12: Unemployment Rates in Mid-December 2015

The “right-to-work” states are indicated in red, and the pro-labor states in white: Compare that map with this map indicating the state unemployment rates reported on December 18, 2015: In the Ohio House, legislation has been introduced to impose “right-to-work” restrictions on private-sector unions, with the primary argument for the measure being the…

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