How Jewish Employees can Defend Themselves Against Anti-Semitic Unions
Tue, Jun 18
|Webinar
Learn more about addressing problems with antisemitic unions. The National Right to Work Legal Foundation specializes in labor and constitutional law. The Foundation provides free legal aid to employees who are fighting some form of compulsory unionism.
Time & Location
Jun 18, 2024, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
Webinar
Guests
About the event
We are watching in real time as many labor unions abandon their role as protectors of employees’ workplace rights, unable to resist the pull of partisan politics. Unions all over the country have shifted their focus away from filing workplace grievances or negotiating workplace protections and, instead, have organized protests, passed resolutions, and literally set up encampments in support of an anti-Israel and pro-Hamas agenda. Old line unions like the UE (electrical workers) or the UAW (autoworkers) have seen precipitous declines in their traditional industrial membership, so they have searched for low hanging fruit to organize -- and that is typically young people like graduate students, medical residents and interns, and legal aid lawyers -- white collar workers with idealistic worldviews but no experience with unions. This is especially true for the teachers unions and other public sector unions, many of which were founded (ironically) by Jews. Though unions have long pursued political agendas, most Jewish employees were not directly and adversely affected -- until after October 7, when support for Hamas and “violent resistance” against Israel became the progressive and “intersectional” cause du jour. At many workplaces and college campuses, union funds, organizing resources, and stewards’ time have been redirected to supporting the anti-Israel agenda, including the boycott-divest-sanction (BDS) movement.
Glenn Taubman and Heidi Schneider will discuss ways that Jewish (and non-Jewish) employees can protect themselves from funding these activities, including how they can disassociate from the union, cease financially supporting the union, defund the union, and even try to decertify the union.
Glenn Taubman is an honors graduate of Emory University Law School in Atlanta, and he also has a master’s degree in labor law from Georgetown University Law School. Right out of law school Glenn clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Warren Jones in Jacksonville FL, and for the past 41 years has worked for the National Right to Work Legal Foundation, specializing in labor and constitutional law. The Foundation provides free legal aid to employees who are fighting some form of compulsory unionism, and Glenn has litigated many reported federal and state cases for individual employees in both the private and public sectors.
Heidi Schneider has worked for the National Right to Work Legal Foundation since 2018, where she has litigated constitutional, administrative, and labor law cases on behalf of employees in the public and private sectors. Before joining the Foundation as a Staff Attorney, she worked as a legal assistant for IRIS: Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services in New Haven, Connecticut; as a Legal Intern for the United States Attorney’s Office in Hartford, Connecticut; and as a Summer Law Clerk at the Institute for Justice. She is a graduate of University of Connecticut School of Law and Fordham College Lincoln Center. Most importantly, she is an unapologetic and devoted Swiftie and Pug owner.