Tag: Union

Kanawha County Judge Blocks Right-to-Work Law

A circuit judge blocked the implementation of a new right-to-work law in West Virginia Wednesday.

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey ordered the injunction during a hearing in her Charleston courtroom. The decision blocks West Virginia’s right-to-work law from taking effect until the court makes a final decision on its constitutionality.

The bill became law after legislators overturned Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s initial veto during the 2016 legislative session. 

Law in 25 other states, right-to-work provisions allow employees in union workplaces to opt out of paying dues. Unions, however, are required by federal law to represent all employees in a union workplace whether they pay dues or not.  

In the lawsuit, West Virginia union leaders allege the law is unconstitutional because non-due paying employees will still be represented in contract negotiations, employment disputes and other matters by union personnel, but without paying dues, other union members will have to pay more out of pocket to make up for the lost revenues that provide such services.

The AFLO-CIO and ten other unions filed the suit against the state of West Virginia earlier this year.

During the Wednesday hearing, Judge Bailey also ruled all 11 cases could be consolidated into one. The judge anticipates the case will be resolved within 90 days.

W.Va. Dems Aim to Capture Votes from Union After GOP Flip

To regain ground in West Virginia’s Legislature, Democrats acknowledge they’ll need buyer’s remorse from unions at the polls.

West Virginians in union households only favored Democrat Natalie Tennant by 3 percentage points in her losing U.S. Senate bid against Republican Shelley Moore Capito in 2014, according to an exit poll for the AP and TV networks. The GOP also snagged legislative majorities for the first time in more than eight decades.

This year, Republicans approved a bill loathed by unions to make West Virginia the 26th so-called right-to-work state. Thousands of union workers protested at the Capitol.

The state’s Democrats face a difficult precedent. Rallying against right-to-work laws passed in 2012 didn’t work for Democrats in Indiana and Michigan in subsequent elections. Republicans kept majorities and governorships in both states.

Union Secures Funding for $2.5 Million Water Project

The town of Union has secured funding for a water project that will extend service to one of Monroe County's largest private employers.The funding package…

The town of Union has secured funding for a water project that will extend service to one of Monroe County’s largest private employers.

The funding package includes an $826,400 grant announced last week by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration and a $1 million grant earlier this year from the Appalachian Regional Commission.

Jeff Johnson with the Region I Workforce and Development Council tells The Register-Herald that United Technologies Corporation contributed $445,000 in matching funds. The project will extend water service to the company’s plant a mile north of Union.

The project is expected to ease water shortages for Union’s water system and for the plant. The plant employs more than 400 workers.

A timetable for the project hasn’t yet been set.

The Front Porch: Should We Keep the Prevailing Wage?

Should the government require wages over a certain level for taxpayer-funded construction projects?

In West Virginia, some Republicans want to repeal the prevailing wage law altogether – like Laurie Lin of our podcast, “The Front Porch”

In her Charleston Daily Mail column, she writes that the prevailing wage benefits a small group of workers and businesses:

“Under prevailing wage laws, public money is misspent on unrealistically high wages — or worse, it’s not spent at all, because the laws make labor prohibitively expensive.

“Working people pay taxes too. They use schools and roads. And they deserve to see their money spent carefully — on fair wages set by a free market,” Lin writes.

Meanwhile, the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy, which receives some union support, produced a study disputing the idea that the prevailing wage costs taxpayers more:

“The repeal of prevailing wage laws leads to less workforce training, less experience in the workforce, higher injury rates, lower health and pension coverage, and lower wages.

“West Virginia’s school construction costs are lower than its surrounding states, including Virginia, which does not have a prevailing wage law…”

Hear more on this week’s The Front Porch podcast by clicking on the audio link at the top or bottom of this page.

Subscribe to “The Front Porch” podcast on iTunes, soundcloud or however you listen to podcasts.

An edited version of “The Front Porch” airs Fridays at 4:50 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s radio network, and the full version is available above.

Share your opinions with us about these issues, and let us know what you’d like us to discuss in the future. Send a tweet to @radiofinn or @wvpublicnews, or e-mail Scott at sfinn @ wvpublic.org

Appalachian Regional Healthcare, Nurses' Union Agree on Tentative Deal

  Appalachian Regional Healthcare says it has agreed on a tentative contract with a union representing more than 700 registered nurses.

Appalachian says in a news release that the two sides agreed on the proposed deal late Wednesday.

The health care system says the Southern United Nurses/National Nurses United rescinded a one-day strike that was set for Thursday at Appalachian’s hospitals in Beckley and Hazard, Kentucky.

Details won’t be released until the union’s members have an opportunity to vote on the contract. The vote will be held later this week.

Appalachian employee and labor relations system director Julius Pearson says both sides sat down with a federal mediator on Wednesday afternoon to work through issues.

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