Res. No. 190
Title
Resolution calling on the United State Supreme Court to protect public sector collective bargaining in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
Body
By Council Members Torres, Miller, Lander, Rivera, Dromm, Kallos, Treyger, King and Constantinides
Whereas, Collective bargaining is the process in which working people, through their unions, negotiate contracts with their employers to determine terms and conditions of employment, including factors such as pay, benefits, and job health and safety policies; and
Whereas, In 1962, President John F. Kennedy granted federal employees the right to collectively bargain by signing Executive Order 10988, leading to a rapid increase in public sector union membership; and
Whereas, According to a 2016 news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 7.1 million public sector employees in the United States belonged to a union, representing 34.4 percent of public sector workers; and
Whereas, According to the Union Membership and Coverage Database created by Barry T. Hirsch and David A. Macpherson, which uses Current Population Survey (CPS) data, New York State, in 2016, had 967,889 workers in the public sector that were members of a union and/or covered under a collective bargaining agreement, representing 70.2% of all employed workers in the public sector; and
Whereas, According to Ruth Milkman, Academic Director of the Joseph F. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies, using CPS data for 18 months spanning January of 2016 to June of 2017, there were 359,255 public sector workers that were members of a union and/or covered under a collective bargaining agreement within New York City; and
Whereas, The State of the Unions 2017 report by Ruth Milkman and Stephanie Luce states that New York State's Taylor Law requires every New York State public secto...
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