The percentage of hourly and salaried workers in a union decreased in 2023, continuing a trend of ongoing decline in the past few decades.
The decline in 2023 was small, from 10.1% of the workforce to 10% even, but the trend is significant. In 1983, about 20% of hourly and salaried workers were in a union, meaning U.S. union membership has halved in about four decades.
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A report at the German-owned Politico Monday stated Democrats are now claiming Republicans have failed to provide evidence that the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), led by Randi Weingarten, exerted extraordinary influence over government school reopening policy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Democratic staff said in a memo obtained by Politico,” the news outlet stated, that “[d]espite a lengthy investigation, Republicans still can’t prove one of the nation’s largest teachers unions had undue influence over the Biden administration’s school reopening guidance.”
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U.S. Representative Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI-05) introduced a bill that would check the power of the National Education Association (NEA).
The Stopping Teachers Unions from Damaging Education Needs Today (STUDENT) Act aims to reform the NEA’s federal charter and “rededicate the organization to the pursuit of increased student learning and quality education in schools across America,” according to the congressman.
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U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced Wednesday that American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten is among 20 new members appointed to his Homeland Security Academic Partnership Council (HSAPC), which seeks to advise the DHS secretary on “campus safety and security, improved coordination, research priorities, hiring, and more.”
“The newly appointed members are a diverse group representing higher education associations, campus law enforcement, two- and four-year colleges and universities, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Tribal Colleges, and Asian American and Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions,” DHS said in a press statement about the new appointments.
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The St. Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) is encouraging teachers to ignore a letter from the Freedom Foundation notifying them of their right to opt out of Education Minnesota, the state’s teachers union.
Caitlin Reid, lead organizer for SPFE, sent an email with an “anti-union postcard alert” telling members to toss the letter from the Freedom Foundation “in the garbage” and let their building organizers know if they received it, according to a copy of the email obtained by Alpha News. Reid did not respond to a request for comment.
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A lesser known document created in 2015 by the National Education Association (NEA), a group of LGBTQ activists, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) laid the “groundwork” for the gender ideology movement in schools years before the recent increase in the numbers of transgender young people, reports the Freedom Foundation.
NEA, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, provides a “toolkit” website page that features “NEA LGBTQ+ Resources,” the purpose of which appears to be to offer “support to transgender and non-binary students,” to indoctrinate all students with “LGBTQ+ history in their classrooms,” and to engage students in a political agenda that includes stopping “LGBTQ+ bias and intolerance in our public schools.”
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American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten is drawing fire from many sides for her denial before a congressional subcommittee that she pressed the Biden administration to keep government schools closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, even as U.S. private and religious schools, and public schools in Europe, reopened.
CNN contributor and Kentucky parent Scott Jennings confronted Weingarten Thursday night for pushing the Biden administration to keep schools closed during the COVID crisis but claiming to the House COVID subcommittee she had always wanted to reopen schools.
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American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten, who was unhinged as she ranted and raved on the steps of the Supreme Court over the prospect that Joe Biden’s student loan handout could be declared unconstitutional, is drawing rebukes for being the height of hypocrisy.
Weingarten, joined by other far-left proponents of student debt relief, screamed on the steps of the Supreme Court Tuesday as oral arguments were heard in challenges to Joe Biden’s plan to cancel student loan payments, claiming the move is essential to “make good with the students of America.”
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Pennsylvania public-sector unions cannot compel state workers to join a union, and many workers have exercised their right to leave in recent months.
Over a nine-month period in 2021, almost 1,200 workers left AFSCME Local 13, which represents state and local government workers in Pennsylvania, according to public records obtained by the Freedom Foundation, a group that educates workers about their right to leave government unions.
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A press release from the Washington, D.C. based Freedom Foundations says that a union for Ohio’s retired teachers improperly received COVID-19 relief funds for which they were ineligible.
“The Ohio Retired Teachers Association alone received over $36,000 in COVID funds,” that press release said.
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The Small Business Administration-administered Paycheck Protection Program paid out millions of dollars to ineligible unions, according to a new report released by the Freedom Foundation.
The Freedom Foundation investigated the SBA’s database of PPP loans, and concluded approximately 226 loans totaling $36.7 million were distributed to labor unions and affiliated organizations. The first round of PPP loans explicitly states such entities were ineligible for the government funds prior to March 11, 2021.
“The Small Business Administration knew as early as July 2020 that Paycheck Protection Program loans were being approved for unions that weren’t eligible to receive the funds,” Maxford Nelsen, Freedom Fund director of Labor Policy, told The Center Square.
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Four mothers have filed a lawsuit against California Gov. Gavin Newsom over his coronavirus education plan, claiming adverse effects including anxiety over poor grades and lack of special education access.
The lawsuit was filed Sept. 10 in Shasta County Superior Court by the Freedom Foundation on behalf of the northern California families. The complaint is available here.
The plaintiffs allege the plan that requires students to be in classes part-time denies them their constitutional right to a quality education as enshrined in the California Constitution.
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