The post-Janus world, first legal response
Abood did not abide.1 As I explained elsewhere,2 teachers unions and union activism will survive the Janus decision that ends mandatory representation fees for public employees who are not members of unions that represent their bargaining unit.3 When I was thinking about the post-Janus world, I thought primarily of the broader strategies of unions that could no […]
Happy Labor Day!
As Reg from Life of Brian might say, apart from the eight-hour day, the weekend, overtime pay, sick leave, paid vacations, child labor restrictions, minimum wage, Social Security and pensions, workers’ compensation, Medicare, written evaluation procedures, and due process in disciplinary procedures, what have the unions ever done for us?!
University strikes and unforced errors by administrators
From news reports in the past week, it looks like the University of Oregon administration is making some foolish decisions in how to respond to striking graduate students. If the news sources I have read are accurate (see reports from Inside Higher Ed, Oregon Live, and December 6 and December 9 reports from the philosophy […]
Whither adjunct and graduate-student unions at public colleges and universities?
Last Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that home health-care attendants in Illinois do not have the right to form a union, or at least that any such union has no right to charge representation fees (or agency fees) from non-members. While the case gave the court the opportunity to overturn a 1977 decision that allowed agency […]
Do your friends suffer from AUDS?
It has now been decades since the wiser and more humane adults in this society identified the injustice of stigma for all sorts of conditions. We have gone from cancer being the unspoken disease to having well-known charity drives for cancer research and treatment. We have the Americans with Disabilities Act and a solid push […]