Judge Blocks Idaho Anti-Union Law

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/07/06/judge-blocks-idaho-anti-union-law/

by Mike Hall, Jul 6, 2011
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Earlier this year, the Idaho Attorney General warned Republican legislators that an anti-union bill they were pushing was likely illegal and would be overturned. But with the same anti-worker fanaticism that has infected state lawmakers around the nation, they passed the bill anyway.

The Attorney General was right.

Last week in Boise, a federal judge blocked the new state law that was due to go into effect that day, saying that it conflicted with federal labor law.

The Idaho and the Southwest Idaho Building and Construction Trades Councils, AFL-CIO, filed suit against the law that would have banned unions from subsidizing workers’ wages to help union contractors win bids, a practice known as job targeting and permitted by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill issued the injunction and said the practice that the legislation wanted to prohibit “involves activities that lie at the core of NLRA concerns: union activities seeking to protect employees’ jobs and wages.”

The Idaho ruling shows that just as we found out in many states, Republican lawmakers seldom listen to reason, especially when it conflicts with their deep-seated hatred of workers and their unions.