Articles

A gift? You shouldn’t have!

June 06, 2018 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

Public employee unions and sympathetic legislatures in many states have combined to perpetuate union power. One way they do this is by getting government employers – like a school district – to pay union leaders to work for the union. They negotiate a contract that gives certain teachers “release time” – basically, excusing them f ...

Articles

Arizona Supreme Court : Taxpayers must subsidize public employee union lobbyists

September 13, 2016 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

More than two years after oral argument, a majority of the Arizona Supreme Court today sided with Phoenix unions to require taxpayers to pay for union lobbyists ostensibly employed by the police department.  The court split 3-2 in the case, Cheatham v. DiCiccio. Justice Clint Bolick—former Goldwater Institute counsel for the plaintiffs, William ...

Articles

Arizona Supreme Court to decide if taxpayers must pay the salaries of union employees

April 12, 2016 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

The City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association (PLEA), the police officers’ union, negotiated a contract whereby the city pays full salary and overtime for six full-time and 35 part-time employees who report to the union, and do the union’s work, including lobbying. This is called “release time.” The union b ...

Articles

Arizona constitution prohibits cities from forcing taxpayers to pay the salaries of union employees

August 14, 2015 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

The City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association (PLEA), the police officers’ union, negotiated a contract whereby the city pays full salary and overtime for six full-time and 35 part-time employees who report to the union, and do the union’s work, including lobbying.  The union received $1.7 million, and the city receiv ...