Union On Hook for Non-Member Worker’s Back Pay After Refusing to Represent Him

A discharged Cummins, Inc. plant worker who wasn’t a union member may be entitled to have the Machinists union pay his lost wages after the union refused to arbitrate his complaint contesting the firing. Machinists Talbot Lodge No. 61 represents all of the production and maintenance employees at a Tennessee Cummins plant, but a union…
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Unions Continue to Convince Themselves They’re Better Off Long Term with Trump in the White House

Maybe a profoundly anti-worker Trump administration is just what American labor needs – a galvanizing force, and a defined target – is the thought process coming from many in the labor movement today. They then start to list the many areas of labor law that changed under President Obama and that are ripe for changing…
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Unions Adapt to Right to Work Laws to Increase Membership

The United States now has more right to work than compulsory unionism states. In right to work states, employees are not forced to be in a union just to work at a union company. Employees, instead, choose whether to join the union and pay union dues or not pay union dues. Regardless of their decision,…
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Local Right to Work Laws Not Preempted by National Labor Relations Act Paving the Way for Counties and Municipalities in Compulsory Unionism States to Go Right to Work

In an effort to have one cohesive labor law that governs the country, the National Labor Relations Act generally preempts labor regulation on the state and local level. There are exceptions, however, including the ability for states to adopt “right to work” laws. Surprisingly (and thankfully) the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals just ruled that…
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Right to Work is Reserved for States to Decide, not Counties

About half of the states in the United States are what is called “right-to-work” states where employees do not have to join a union to work at a unionized company. Section 14(b) of the National Labor Relations Act specifically states, “Nothing in this Act shall be construed as authorizing the execution or application of agreements…
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Ohio Not Likely to be Right to Work Anytime Soon

I am often asked these days whether I think Ohio will become Right to Work. My answer is unequivocally the same each time. No. While I am a supporter of employees having the right to decide whether they want to be in a union, early results from Indiana’s recent foray into being right to work…
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