{"id":7747,"date":"2012-07-03T15:06:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-03T20:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=7747"},"modified":"2012-07-03T15:06:00","modified_gmt":"2012-07-03T20:06:00","slug":"ok-labor-unions-politically-active-politically-challenged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2012\/07\/03\/ok-labor-unions-politically-active-politically-challenged\/","title":{"rendered":"OK Labor Unions: Politically Active, Politically Challenged"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Oklahoma labor unions are smaller but have remained active in the 12 years since voters signed off on right to work legislation, <a href=\"http:\/\/journalrecord.com\/2012\/07\/02\/experts-things-could-get-tougher-for-oklahoma-unions-capitol\/\">reports<\/a> <em>The Journal Record<\/em>&#8216;s M. Scott Carter.<\/p><p>But state and national political trends could foretell trouble.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The problem is the tea party and the extremists. They are trying to pick us off one by one,\u201d Moore Association of Classroom Teachers President Jill Dudley tells the paper.<\/p><\/blockquote><p><!--more--><\/p><p>State lawmakers proposed a measure to eliminate the payroll deduction for teachers unions and public employee associations. An amendment allowed the deduction \u2014 on the union&#8217;s dime \u2014 which would have cost Dudley&#8217;s union more than $9,000 had it passed, she tells the paper.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;We believe it\u2019s political retribution; they are trying to shut down our right to free speech.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote><p>But a lot of manufacturing has moved overseas, and Oklahoma unions have also had trouble organizing workers in Indian casinos, Carter reports. Oklahoma&#8217;s strong economy and low unemployment rate also frustrate union recruitment, employer attorney Byrona J. Maule tells the paper.<\/p><p>But there&#8217;s some promising news for Oklahoma unions. The number of organizational drives has been outpacing the number of decertification elections, Tulsa labor attorney Steve Hickman tells the <em>Journal<\/em>.<\/p><p>And Jimmy Curry, president of Oklahoma AFL-CIO, says the union is faring well in some sectors \u2014 particularly construction and the trades.<\/p><p>Curry also cites headlines in Muskogee, where city councilors voted last year to end collective bargaining with its non-uniform employees. But workers there helped elect new, supportive city council members, and the city now has an ordinance that gives those workers the right to reorganize, <a href=\"http:\/\/muskogeephoenix.com\/local\/x136108719\/Council-mulls-change-to-union-measure\">according to<\/a> the <em>Muskogee Phoenix<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oklahoma labor unions are smaller but have remained active in the 12 years since voters signed off on right to work legislation, reports The Journal Record&#8216;s M. Scott Carter.But state and national political trends could foretell trouble. &#8220;The problem is the tea party and the extremists. They are trying to pick us off one by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[300,15],"tags":[297],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7747"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7750,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7747\/revisions\/7750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}