By Olivia Grady

Missouri is finally likely to become a right-to-work state in 2017, thanks to the election of Missouri Governor-elect Eric Greitens.

Missouri Republicans have worked hard over the years on right-to-work and have come close. For example, on June 4, 2015 current Democrat Governor Jay Nixon vetoed House Bill 116, the bill that would have made Missouri right-to-work. The Republican Legislature was unable to override the veto. 

By Olivia Grady

James Sherk, Labor Economics Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, authored an issue brief released on December 12, 2016 entitled “Compulsory Union Representation Would Make Gig-Economy Jobs Less Flexible.”

By Olivia Grady

Columbia University in New York City is now the first Ivy League school with unionized graduate students. This comes after a long public argument between university administrators and union leaders over whether graduate students should be considered employees.

On August 23, 2016, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that graduate students who are teaching and research assistants are school employees at private universities. This ruling allowed these students to join or form a union.

By Olivia Grady

Andrew Puzder has been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to run the Department of Labor.  So who is this man who will wield so much authority over the nation's labor market?

By Olivia Grady

On February 10, 2016, Carrier Corporation, a manufacturer of heating, ventilating, air conditioning and refrigeration equipment, announced that it was moving production of an Indianapolis, Indiana factory to Monterrey, Mexico. The result would have been a loss of 1,400 American jobs.

Leaders from the United Steelworkers Local 1999, which represents the Carrier employees, attempted to persuade the company not to move, but was unsuccessful.

By Olivia Grady

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Texas or SEIU Local 5 began organizing janitors in Houston about 10 years ago in order to expand its membership and was successful with five businesses. Professional Janitorial Service of Houston, Inc. (PJS) however refused in 2006 to recognize the union unless more than half of its employees voted for the union in a secret-ballot election.

By Olivia Grady

President-elect Donald Trump has made sixteen Cabinet and Senior White House Official choices so far, including Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary, who teachers’ unions have strongly criticized for her support of School Choice.

One Cabinet post for whom the President-elect has not settled on a nominee is Secretary of Labor.

Given his excellent choice for Secretary of Education, the next Secretary of Labor will likely similarly promote policies that help workers, not labor bosses.

By Olivia Grady

Browning-Ferris is a waste recycling facility in a small city in California that contracted with job placement agency Leadpoint to staff part of its facility and provide human resources. Browning-Ferris however had the ultimate authority to fire an employee, and Leadpoint was required to follow Browning-Ferris guidelines on who to hire, working hours, wages, etc.

This arrangement of a couple of hundred employees surprisingly led to one of the worst decisions by the politically appointed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

By Matthew Benzmiller

Union leaders were upset at the revelation that many union members voted for Donald Trump and not their favored candidate, Hillary Clinton.

By Olivia Grady

Black Friday protests in past years have been held at hundreds of Walmarts across the United States, and unions even claimed in 2014 to host protests at 1,600 places.

The protests on Black Friday, November 25, 2016, however were much smaller this year. There were smaller protests in New York, Seattle and Chicago, but the Walmart protests were gone.

Why?

The unions were just not as involved.