My first post delved briefly into the history and significance of the concept of “exclusive representation” in labor law. This post will explore the even more dubious application of the NLRA (private sector) model of collective bargaining (including exclusive representation) to the public sector.
Public Union Power: A Conversation with Daniel DiSalvo
FDR observed that “The process of collective bargaining . . . cannot be transplanted into the public service.” What does it mean for taxpayers if government workers organize into unions and engage in collective bargaining arrangements? What actually checks and balances their desires for greater pay and benefits? Politicians? Engaged citizens? Will dutiful public servants voluntarily restrain their appetites for the public good? To ask these questions is to answer them with a wry smile. This episode of Liberty Law Talk with Professor Daniel DiSalvo on his new book, Government Against Itself, focuses on the dramatic growth of public sector unions in…
Don’t Pay No Union Dues
Here’s a case worth watching: this past April, the Center for Individual Rights (lead attorney Michael Rosman) and Jones Day (Michael Carvin) filed a First Amendment challenge to California’s “agency shops” for public school teachers. (An “agency shop” means that non-union members must still pay a fee to the union for activities related to collective bargaining.) Plaintiffs are teachers who have about had it with the defendant unions. The State of California will likely join the case on the defendants’ side. A recent blog on the case is here; a copy of the complaint here. This baby ought to move fast:…
Friday Roundup, November 2nd
Todd Zywicki reviews in Law and Liberty's Books section Neil Barofskys's Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street. It is now cliché to recite that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality. Reading Neil Barofsky’s Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street one keeps expecting that at some point he will draw the obvious conclusion from his sordid tale of serving as the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief (SIGTARP): that political opportunism, personal ambition, and special-interest influence will be inherent…
