This Labor Day the good news is that I have been appointed as an adjunct professor of economics at George Washington University. I’ll be teaching a seminar in labor economics and public policy.
The bad news is that as a condition of my employment, I must become a card-carrying, dues-paying member of the Service Employees International Union Local 500 — or pay the SEIU an agency fee in order to get out of membership. The letter from Provost Forrest Maltzman tells me that “failure to pay dues or agency fees may result in termination.”
My hiring letter includes a form that I am required to sign. On the form, I must give the SEIU my home address, home phone, alternate phone, and e-mail address. In addition to paying dues, I have to give the union personal information such as where I live and how to contact me.
Further, I need to “authorize and request my Employer, the George Washington University, and any successor Employer, to deduct from wages hereafter due me, and payable on each available pay period due me, such sums for Union dues, fees, and/or assessments to the Union at times and in a manner agreed upon between the Union and the Employer.”
Not only do I have to give George Washington University permission to deduct dues from my wages, but I also have to give successive employers — whoever they might be — the power to deduct these dues.
The SEIU, with almost 2 million members, is one of the largest political players in terms of political donations, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. So far, SEIU’s PACs and committees have spent $10 million on the 2016 election cycle opposing Republicans and supporting Democrats.
The SEIU has spent $5 million against Donald Trump and $4 million for Hillary Clinton. It spent $307,000 each against Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Democrat Katie McGinty, who is challenging Republican senator Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, received $400,000, and Ted Strickland, who is running against Ohio senator Rob Portman in Ohio, netted $900,000.
The Local 500 branch had 8,703 members and almost $4 million in assets in 2013 — the latest data available from unionfacts.com. With me, it will have at least one more.
Of course, the SEIU will say that I am not forced to join the union and pay the $36 monthly dues. Instead, I can pay a monthly agency fee of $29.38. But I have to do one or the other.
The SEIU might also say that in return for the dues or agency fees, they bargain on my behalf with George Washington University. I have no need for anyone to represent me. I can represent myself. If GW does not offer me enough to make it worthwhile for me to teach, I can look elsewhere or find other employment.
Unfortunately, while the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is shrinking the time to vote to join a union, getting out of a union is not an easy matter. In order to decertify the SEIU Local 500, 30 percent of the part-time faculty of George Washington University (the represented group) would have to sign a petition for a decertification election. This can only be presented to the National Labor Relations Board 60 days before the end of the contract or after the contract has expired.
Should a new contract be ratified before a decertification petition is filed, then the clock is reset and no petition can be filed until the end of the new contract. As the GWU union contract expires on June 30, 2018, it means that a decertification petition cannot be considered before May 1, 2018.
Once in place, unions are not required to hold elections for decertification. A union could have been chosen to represent workers in 1980 and still exist today — even though all the workers who voted for that union have died or quit. That is one reason, according to a new report by Heritage Foundation scholar James Sherk, that 94 percent of workers in union shops never voted to join the union. Sherk concluded that only 478,000 of America’s 8 million unionized private-sector workers have chosen to join their union.
If the NLRB truly had workers’ interests at heart, the agency would make it as easy for workers to leave unions as it is to join them. Just as is the case with public-sector employees in Wisconsin, workers should be allowed to vote once a year to determine whether they want to be represented by a union — instead of being automatically signed up based on the votes of those who are no longer around.
GWU students have an opportunity to learn from professors in classrooms. The SEIU adds nothing to the education of these students, but it subtracts from the compensation of teachers. It’s a bad deal for the students and faculty to enrich the SEIU. If new faculty members want to represent themselves, they should be exempt from all payments to the union.
— Diana Furchtgott-Roth is senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a part-time faculty member at George Washington University. She will soon be a member of the SEIU Local 500.
I ended up being an “unwilling” union steward who actually read the laws and got suspended by management for filing a grievance for a worker in an insubordinate manner.
The Union refused to defend me and I used the NLRB on my own to sue and win. However, I learned more than I ever needed or wanted to know about corrupt behind the scenes handshakes between government agencies and union leaders.
Did I mention the Union is ALWAYS in bed with management?
That’s right Maggie, that is exactly right, they are in bed together and always have been.
Here is another take on unions…
I was hired by a major firm to maintain complex electrical and electronic systems. Within 6 months, my employer was able to eliminate the use of contractors. I had brought the repair operations “in-house” thereby saving my employer a considerable amount of money.
My employer decided to reward me with a substantial “raise”. All went well until my “union” (who I was FORCED to belong to) found out about it. My “union’s” position was “if he gets a raise, everyone else in the bargaining unit must get a raise”. My “raise” was promptly rescinded. Efforts by my employer to create another “bargaining unit” job classification was met with hostility by my “union”. Here I am, FORCED to pay “union dues”, to a “union” that is keeping me down.
It took TWO YEARS, upon the expiration of the “contract” , for me to get my “raise”.
I have NO USE for unions and can stand on my own two feet to get ahead.
P. S. I know about the “Beck” decision…most unions make it extremely difficult to utilize it…
Right-to-work legislation is the best thing to happen here in the USA. It’s a shame that it cannot be nationwide…
As a former union member, I can tell you that withholding dues requires contract language to that effect, otherwise withholding dues is against federal law. The best way to attack these parasites is to hit them in the wallet. Easiest method, employers don’t withhold and send the money to the union. It’s called paycheck protection. Works well. AFSCME or something to that effect, the mother ship of my former union lost 66% of their easy money in one year after the state of Wisconsin passed a law that required the union to collect its own dues. Actual numbers 22,000 members, 7,100 paying members after one year.
I have over the years had unions try to organise my plants. I immediately tell them I will NEVER withhold dues for them. Never. At that, they all went away. Amazing, right?
What the hell I will repost this story.
When I was 5 I had heart surgery at Childrens Hospital of Pittsburg. It was open heart with a full machine bypass to repair a hole in the lower chambers of the heart. Successfull beyond measure as “blue babies” like me did not often become blue children.
Fast foreward to the presidency of bill clinton and the first go around for government health care. My father the local 12 uaw guy is wearing a universal health care now shirt. Me being a card carrying independant pfft his shirt and the fight started. Soon it spilled into unions and really exploded. My dad was as mad as I had ever seen him and I was the one who got him there. He stormed out of his own house and left for a while to cool off.
Mom comes downstairs and tells me in the no argument way moms have to follow her. We go into the master bedroom and I sit down on the bed. She brings out a case and some folders and tells me to read up a little and I would understand why my Dad was so pissed.
It was about me. And my dad. And his local UAW.
It had stories about fund raisers for me for travel and expenses to go to Pittsburg. They talked about a possible strike if the yearly cap for coverage was not raised. And the one that shoved it home was the 200 hours of vacation time donated to my dad so he could stay with me for the 5 weeks my surgery took. 50 of those hours came from the Jeep plant that was not local 12. The UAW said make it work.
Yes unions have problems but my hard working dad who put 31 years into Dana and Spicer would have lost his pension when they got bought by zepf. I would not be here to raise my son and comment on this fine blog.
A broad brush paints wide. Most union people want to work and go home.
But, unfortunately, union leadership needs more and more of those hardworking union people to support their lavish union meeting resorts.
Most unions are part of the democratic party and are corrupt to the core. I Hate those son of a bitches. The Teamsters that is.UPS is unionized by them .Before going with Fedx I was off a subcontractors position with them but the Teamsters caused problems from day one .I never took the offer. I was / am not ever going to pay dues to those Damn thugs.Got in a rather loud verbal exchange with one of them.Never been back.
Many, many moons ago I supervised teamsters at what was then the nation’s largest trucking company. I really came to hate the Teamsters Union. I once caught one of my Teamster employees stealing. Knowing the union would help him keep his job, theft or not, I tricked the bastard into resigning from the company with a prepared resignation letter and a fellow Teamster employee witness.
A few days later the big shot union goons barged into my office raising hell and admitting that if I wasn’t such a sneaky bastard they would indeed have gotten the thief his job back on my payroll. They were the stereotypical union thugs right down to the big cigars and big black Lincoln Towncar. They were pissed to the max calling me names and threatening me. I finally told them they could kiss my union-hating ass and get off the property. Bargaining for wages and working conditions is one thing, but when they want to bargain to keep a low life thief’s job there is no conceivable rationale for that action. I have zero respect for anyone that would take that position and for unions in general, effin’ zero.
I had my own uncomfortable brush with the union leadership when I was forced to sue the company as a union steward without IAW support. The union leaders are scumbags to the hilt.
@bb, funny you should mention UPS. My old man worked for them for man many years. He left the union(mandatory) warehouse many years ago and worked in their corporate headquarters, where there is no union. They had a strike in a few places, and he wasn’t yet high enough up to not get sent from corporate to fill in for the striking workers, and he got sent to (i think) Alabama to drive a package car. He got chased, had his truck shot at with BB guns, and had rocks thrown at it as well. All by striking drivers and their families. Changed his(and my) perspective on unions big time. To Jimski above, sounds like your old man worked with some real stand up guys, and Im glad they came through for you like that. But thats not the norm, at least from what Ive seen.
I would find work elsewhere. The day of where Unions did any good have past.
I was forced to join a union in one of my earlier jobs. After being there and paying dues for 10 months I was reclassified as “seasonal-labor” and laid off the same day with the Christmas seasonal labors that were hired two months back. The following week there were 2 of the Christmas labors were called back for permanent positions. The jab was I paid dues, seasonal workers were exempt, and the shop steward said, “tough shit”.
I have never paid union dues since. I learned that lesson early in life.
In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey. Butane in my veins I’m out to cut the junkie.
With the plastic eyeballs, spray paint the vegetables. Dogfood stalls with the beefcake pantyhose.
Kill the headlights and put it in neutral, stock car flaming with a loser and the cruze control.
Baby’s in Reno with the Vitamin D. Got a couple of couches, sleep on the love seat!
Someone keeps saying I’m insane to complain about a shotgun wedding and a stain on my shirt.
Don’t believe everything that you breathe, u get a parking violation and a maggot on your sleeve.
So, shave your face with some mace in the dark. Saving all your food stamps, burning down the trailer park.
U can’t write if you can’t relate. Trade the cash for the beef for the body for the hate. & our time is piece of wax, falling on a termite, that’s chocking on the splinters!
Soy, un perdodor. I’m a loser baby, with a 12.5k property tax headache!!
We were members of the Carpenters Union in Florida and my employer (Acousti Engineering) won the contract for the Thiokol Plant in Brunswick Ga. One day on the job, a local union thug showed up and demanded we pay him dues our company had already paid. We refused so he called a strike and the other subcontractors walked out. We had to give him cash which he put in his pocket. Unions are Communist.
If you aren’t in a “right to work” State I don’t think there is anything you can do about it but join or pay the Union Jizya tax for not joining it.
FWIW, I think successive employers refers to anyone taking over the employer or a contractor that contracts your job and keeping you in the position, I don’t think it means any unrelated job you work for in the future.
Unions are usually political organizations that use the guise of being collective employee representatives to gain their power and status, they usually don’t do much for their members other than token representation. Most non Union jobs now are usually as good, sometimes better, for ambitious and competent workers than counterpart Union jobs.
There have been some lawsuits I’ve read about being filed over just this issue, but I haven’t seen published follow ups and don’t know the results (or if they would be State or case specific only).
2 reasons for unions , the people are no good or the company is no good ! Having had to work both sides in my 42 years of working , I will pay my dues , professor wait till you are sued by a shit bag student your Union with all the faults will generally be in your corner . I worked for a profitable non Union company with a 401 k plan offered thru a profit share plan and every year the percentages just weren’t there to get this plan funded to start it up it would always be next year since it was never officially started no government oversight oh but there was just enough money for the owners and family members to be driving new company vehicles and using fuel from equipment stoarge tanks but not enough to spread the wealth around . A union would have been helpful
Union orginizations built the middle class consumer in America and union busting and trade deals killed them with the tax base and the economy , don’t listen to me or Washington open your fucking eyes we are done as a nation because the backbone tax base was the middle income people and borrowing to make up shortfalls only made things worse for most Americans but not the privileged few in some control some connections .
Unions no longer serve the same purpose they did when they originated.
Today they are a political tool, and government Unions -the largest in numbers from what I’ve been told- represent what is effectively the management working with the management against the interests of the people, not the workers working against management polices they deem detrimental.
Times have changed.
“— Diana Furchtgott-Roth is senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a part-time faculty member at George Washington University. She will soon be a member of the SEIU Local 500.”
Once this article makes the rounds she’ll likely be let go before her probationary period ends.
maybe the union will protect her job/her yob?
A number of years ago, the NLRB offered unions a choice on whether to represent all members of a “bargaining unit”, whether they pay union dues or not. The unions rejected the proposal. There is still value in numbers. Unions still want to represent as many people as possible, whether they pay union dues or not.
Many people have a mistaken assumption about “right-to-work” legislation. “Right-to-work” laws merely invalidate only one “itty-bitty” clause in union contracts–the “union security clause” which mandates union membership or the payment of “agency shop fees” as a condition of employment–nothing else. The rest of the “collective bargaining agreement” remains in force. In fact, unions fought the NLRB, demanding that they still represent all workers in a “bargaining unit”, whether they pay union dues or not.
The old “shut up and pay your union dues” no longer works in right-to-work states.
I was a member of the Teamsters union for just shy of 20 years. I have a really nice pension coming, if there’s any money left in the pension fund to pay me when I retire. They pay out more money then they take in so I’m not holding my breath.
For example; The Midwestern States Pension Fund pays out $3.62 in benefits and pension for every dollar they receive from the remaining dues paying members. Obviously, they are bankrupt, and ALL the retired members are taking a radical haircut in their benefits due to a Federal Bankruptcy Court ruling. Something on the order of 50%. I’m in the New England Pension Fund, and they aren’t doing much better.
Now to my case……..I was an owner/operator. I owned my own tractor and pulled the company’s trailer. I got paid with a 1099 and was an independent contractor, but I had to be in the union to work there. While the average guy who didn’t own a truck had to pay his book and X amount a month (Usually 2.5 times his hourly wage), I had to pay those useless bastards 5% of my gross earnings……..for the same bene’s and pension.
I made tremendous money in those days for a (Heh) poor dumb truck driver. I grossed $140K a year. So you can see what it cost me and my employer, who had to match my contribution.
And all that for a pack of corrupt union scumbags who were totally in bed with the company’s management. The only people a union protects are the incompetent, the lazy and the thieves. I went along with it all those years and I’m not proud of it.
It would be nice to get the sweet pension, though. But I rather doubt it.
I was working nights at the JM Fields-Foodfair Warehouse in Jacksonville Fl as a Pricer when a Black dockworker next door at the Winn-Dixie Warehouse was caught peeing in a side of beef. Management fired him but the union threatened to strike so they took him back. Later, the Florida East Coast Railroad went on strike to keep unneeded Firemen on engine crews; I went to Miami and was hired as a strikebreaker. One night in the switch-yard, a bullet just missed me and ricocheted down a parallel string of boxcars sending sparks flying for 50 yards. Our motel was attacked by thugs and several strikebreakers beaten. A car was traveling alongside an engine and the engineer was shot dead. Thugs would hang heavy objects like cement blocks at night across the tracks at windscreen height. Bottom line, the union lost because we ran the railroad just fine without them and we made their big bucks.