O’Malley wants Unions to seize money from non-members
Gov. Martin O’Malley wants to expand unemployment benefits to part-time workers and allow state unions to collect fees from employees not in a bargaining group – two labor items in his legislative package unveiled yesterday.
[...]
Another O’Malley labor-related initiative would give state collective bargaining groups the ability to seek “service fees” from nonunion workers. The legislation would not require the fees, but it would allow unions to ask employees to vote on the issue.
Patrick Moran, Maryland director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the largest union for state workers, said collecting service fees “would allow us to better communicate with and advocate for working families.”
He said that of the 30,000 state and higher education workers AFSCME represents, fewer than half of them pay dues. “It’s a fairness issue,” he said.
O’Malley, who was endorsed by AFSCME in 2006, proposed a similar measure in 2007. It never got a hearing in the Senate. State union members pay about $9 to $15 in dues per pay period, according to back-up materials for the 2007 legislation.
1 Comment »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
1
How about they abolish the requirement that unions represent everyone, including non-members, and then ban unions from seeking fees from non-members? That way, people who want the service pay for it, those who are don’t neither pay for it, nor receive it, and everyone is a bit happier?
Also where is the outrage over sports player unions? Why should the Detroit Lions ownership have to play out millions to the loser who generated an 0-16 season when my friends and I could have done the same for like $500 a game?
Comment by I am so wise — January 27, 2009 @ 7:43 pm