Opinion
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Government Boost to Small Business Could Do More Harm Than Good
Opinion -President Obama has signed into law the ceation of a $30 billion fund for small business lending, but a prominent economist at George Mason University says there is no good reason to give small businesses special favors. -
Bleak Jobs Report Indicates More Pain to Come
Opinion -Commentators across the political spectrum had similar reactions to dismal jobs numbers released by the government in August but markedly different prescriptions for solving the problem. -
Feds Don’t Believe Stimulus Spending Will Create Jobs
Opinion -The idea behind the $787 billion stimulus bill is that government can create jobs by spending money. For now, let’s ignore fact, history, and economic theory and assume government spending can actually create jobs. -
Green Jobs Picture Mostly Shades of Gray
Opinion -“Green jobs” have been touted as the silver bullet for the nation’s growing unemployment problem, jolting the economy out of recession, ridding dependence on foreign oil, and making the environment cleaner. -
Unions Fail to Provide Financial Transparency
Opinion -After a series of reforms under the Bush administration increased financial transparency of labor union activities, the new administration appears to be scaling back the effort. -
Rhode Island Cuts Pensions for New Judges, Cops
Opinion -Rhode Island lawmakers have passed a nearly $7 billion budget that includes new pension eligibility rules and benefit cuts for judges and state police officers hired after January 1, 2009. -
Supreme Court Affirms Free Speech for Employers
Opinion -Employers across the nation now have confirmation of their constitutional right to free speech as the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a California law that hampered employers' ability to speak out about union organizing efforts in the workplace. -
Researcher Says ‘Raucous Showdown’ with Government Unions Is Ahead
Opinion -To guarantee continued delivery of public services at a reasonable cost, local, state, and federal lawmakers will soon be forced to stand up to government employee unions, according to a new study by Lewis M. Andrews, Ph.D. -
Supreme Court to Consider Union Political Funds Collection
Opinion -Taxpayers across the nation will soon know whether states can prohibit local school boards from collecting political contributions for teacher unions, as the U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing such matters in a case from Idaho. -
Iowa Governor Stops Expansion of Union Benefits
Opinion -Iowa Gov. Chet Culver (D) has vetoed a bill aimed at expanding the matters subject to collective bargaining for public school teachers throughout the state. -
Backlash Brewing Against Prevailing Wage Expansion
Opinion -As the share of the construction workforce that is unionized continues to decline, state laws requiring payment of prevailing wages on public works and other government-funded construction projects are becoming more controversial. -
Brazen Contempt from Union Firefighters? Or Attitude We Should Emulate?
Opinion -What do you see when you look at the Boston Firefighters Union? Do you see brazen greed and naked contempt for the taxpayer? That's what I used to see, too. But maybe we've been too hard on the firefighters. -
Colorado Right-to-Work Initiative Qualifies for Ballot
Opinion -A right-to-work initiative in Colorado has qualified for the November ballot. The Colorado Secretary of State's office confirmed initiative proponents had gathered 94,546 valid signatures, thousands more than the 76,047 necessary for qualification. -
Union Numbers Are Accurate Nationally, Less So by State
Opinion -The modern era of the Current Population Survey (CPS), on which the Bureau of Labor Statistics' union membership numbers are based, began in 1983 when the survey methodology was changed. -
Prevailing-Wage Rules Cost Taxpayers $8.6 Billion Annually: Study
Opinion -Biases in the measurement of the federal "prevailing wage" force U.S. taxpayers to spend $8. -
Iowa GOP Defeats Pro-Union Amendment
Opinion -House Democrats in Iowa tried to undermine the state's Right to Work law in March. Democrats disguised House File 2645 as an uncontroversial set of amendments to Iowa's collective bargaining law. -
New Job Loss Figures for Michigan Confirm the Need for Policy Reforms
Opinion -Figures recently released by the national Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show Michigan is in dire need of transformational policy reform. -
Unions Retooling Message in Effort to Organize Nurses
Opinion -Employers in health care have seen a significant increase in union efforts to organize nurses during the past few years. The national rate of unionization among nurses now exceeds 23 percent, whereas in 1998 it was less than 17 percent. -
Labor Union Density Shows First Uptick Since 1983
Opinion -The Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) annual report on union membership in the United States has logged the first increase in union membership as a share of the U.S. workforce in nearly 25 years. -
Public-Sector Unions Must Disclose Financial Dealings, District Court Rules
Opinion -A U.S. District Court judge has ruled federal financial transparency laws apply to certain public-sector unions, traditionally exempt from such regulations. -
Unions Allowed Back Into Utah’s Payroll System
Opinion -Big Labor struck back against Utah's Voluntary Contributions Act by convincing the state's 10th Circuit Court unions have the right to collect political contributions of members through the state and local payroll systems. -
Michigan Moves to Collect Union PAC Money
Opinion -Michigan's Office of the State Employer (OSE) wants state agencies to have the power to deduct political action committee funds from the paychecks of state employees who are union members. -
Colorado Moves To Public-Sector Collective Bargaining
Opinion -Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) has signed an executive order recognizing labor unions and permitting them to negotiate with the state. The order allows the state and public employee unions to negotiate for the first time. -
Corruption Sparked Disclosure Law
Opinion -In 1959, after extensive hearings into labor union corruption, Congress enacted the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), also known as the Landrum-Griffin Act.
