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June 3, 2009 |
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Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Employer opposition to unions has intensified
A
new study by Cornell University professor Kate Bronfenbrenner finds that employers
are now more than twice as likely to use 10 or more tactics -- including
threats of and actual firings -- in their campaigns to thwart organizing
efforts. Today’s anti-union activities include a greater focus than in the
past on more coercive and punitive tactics designed to intensely monitor and
punish union activity. For the vast majority of workers who want unions
today, the right to organize and bargain collectively -- free from coercion,
intimidation, and retaliation -- is at best a promise indefinitely deferred.
Read
more.
► In today's Wash. Post -- A war against union organizing (Bronfenbrenner op-ed) -- Illegal behavior by U.S. companies during organizing campaigns has become routine, and our labor laws neither protect workers' rights nor provide disincentives for employers to stop disregarding those rights.
►
At Huffington Post -- Romney,
EFCA opponents ignore study showing unions don't coerce -- A new study debunks a central myth of
EFCA opponents: that it would create a wave of union intimidation. In four states
that permit majority sign-up for public employees, of more than 1,000 campaigns,
there wasn't a single confirmed case of either union or employer
intimidation.
► At Huffington Post -- As Chamber lobbies, its expert says no unions, minimum wage needed -- What the Chamber of Commerce calls the definitive critique against the EFCA is written by a guy who thinks the country would be better off without unions, labor laws or the minimum wage.
► In The Hill -- EFCA compromise foes to meet with Sen. Feinstein today -- Feinstein has emerged as a key voice on the EFCA. She is not a co-sponsor, unlike two years ago when she also voted for cloture on the bill. Now, she has floated a compromise to help garner support from Senate centrists who are worried about angering the business community.
Local news:
► In today's Yakima H-R -- Wage report shows Yakima near bottom -- With an average weekly wage of $580 or about $14.50 an hour, Yakima County ranks 330th out of 334 counties where more than 75,000 people are employed. Only three counties in south Texas and one in South Carolina have lower weekly average wages. Yakima has had wage growth, rising from $539 per week in 2006, but the increase has barely allowed workers to keep pace with inflation.
► In today's Tri-City Herald -- FFTF shutdown completed at Hanford -- The 110 workers, many of whom had worked there since it began operating in 1982, gradually were dispersed to other Hanford projects over the last year as the gradual shut down has been completed.
► At SeattlePI.com -- Royer: King County held "captive" by unions -- Throwing his support to Sen. Fred Jarrett (R→D of Mercer Island) for county exec, former three-term Seattle Mayor Charles Royer says, "(The county) is captive to the unions, which pretty much get their way" and the county employs "too many people in every department except the sheriffs department."
► In today's Bellingham Herald -- Mayor offers end to store-size mistake (editorial) -- It's time for the city of Bellingham to rescind its law limiting the size of stores. Forcing Wal-Mart and other stories outside of Bellingham flies in the face of growth management efforts in our community.
► In today's Everett Herald -- You'll have to pay for prime Boeing 787 view -- The Future of Flight Aviation Center will let you watch the 787's first fight from its deck -- if you donate $250 or more.
Budget cut news:
► In today's Spokesman-Review -- Prison to shrink by half -- Officials plan to shutter one of two units at Pine Lodge Corrections Center for Women, the only women’s prison east of the Cascades. About 30 of its 100 staffers will lose their jobs, but officials will try to find new jobs for them in the prison system.
► At TheOlympian.com -- No furloughs in agencies yet -- "We haven't seen any agency yet propose furloughs. But our members have mixed feelings," says WFSE's Tim Welch. If taking time off without pay will preserve a significant number of jobs, workers may accept them, but that will have to be sorted out on an agency-by-agency basis.
► In today's Peninsula Daily News -- Sequim schools send out layoff notices -- Twenty of the district's 73 paraeducators -- assistants and tutors who help certified teachers in the classroom -- have received layoff notices as part of budget cuts wrought by the state's financial crisis.
► In today's Spokesman-Review -- Teachers will be recalled -- About 85% of the 103 teachers, counselors and librarians who received layoff notices from Spokane schools will be rehired.
► In today's Seattle Times -- Budget cuts take toll on state's adult day-care services -- The state's biggest provider of adult day-health services, will close two of its six facilities, laying off nearly 40 and leaving scores of vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities without services.
► At SeattlePI.com -- 'Hemorrhaging' King County budget threatens health services -- "Putting a Band-Aid on a hemorrhage" is how Councilwoman Jan Hague describes steps being considered to fund public health and other social-service programs in the face of a severe budget crisis.
► In today's Everett Herald -- Mukilteo council OKs cuts to narrow $1.7 million shortfall -- The biggest savings come from $240,000 in concessions by the city's four labor unions.
"Made in America" news:
► At USW.org -- 'Keep It Made in America' tour continues -- The United Steelworkers union is on an 11-state, 30-plus city bus tour with the Alliance for American Manufacturing to deliver an important message: that our domestic auto industry matters to all of us and all of us need to be in the fight to save it. Follow the tour's progress at www.MadeInAmericaTour.com.
► In today's NY Times -- The peril of 'Buy American' (editorial) -- A provision in the stimulus bill to ensure that taxpayer dollars would be used exclusively to support American jobs could make the global recession worse. Meanwhile, hundreds of municipalities and some state legislatures are signing on to a “Buy American” resolution pushed by the United Steelworkers union.
UNITE HERE news:
►
In the Las Vegas Sun -- UNITE
HERE even more split as Raynor resigns in huff --
A bitter leadership struggle within one of the nation’s most progressive
unions apparently ended when General President Bruce Raynor resigned, ceding
control of the international apparel and hotel workers union to the man with
whom he shared power, John Wilhelm. Raynor says he is taking a leadership
post in SEIU's new Workers United affiliate.
► From UNITE HERE -- Statement of President John Wilhelm on Raynor's resignation -- It is good news for all of UNITE HERE that Bruce Raynor has resigned from the union one day ahead of his internal union trial for promoting the breakup of the very union he was sworn to defend... We are under no illusion that SEIU and Raynor have given up their quest to steal UNITE HERE’s hotel, gaming, and food service jurisdictions. Raynor’s resignation letter makes clear that he intends to continue his fight, and he will do so under Andy Stern’s control inside SEIU.
National news:
► In today's Wash. Post -- President pivots on taxing health benefits -- Obama tells Democratic senators he's willing to consider taxing employer-sponsored health benefits to help pay for a broad expansion of coverage. The decision would probably anger liberal supporters such as unions, but such a tax change would raise enormous sums of money as Congress and the White House struggle to find the $1.2 trillion needed to pay for health-care reform.
► In today's Wall St. Journal -- Unions look to labor board to reverse Bush policy -- Uncertain about the outcome of their push for the Employee Free Choice Act, unions are counting on Obama's NLRB appointees to reverse Bush-era rulings they say hamper their efforts to organize workers.
► Today from AP -- U.S. private sector axes 532,000 jobs in May -- Private employers chopped more than half a million jobs last month, signaling that job conditions remain tough and dashing some hopes that the U.S. economy was not deteriorating as rapidly as thought.
► In today's Oregonian -- Washington, Oregon could lead nation out of recession, Moody's says -- Strong high-tech industries will help propel the NW out of the slump first, researchers say.
► In today's LA Times -- Chinese company may get Hummer from GM -- Tentative agreement reached to sell Hummer. Terms of the deal, which could save 3,000 jobs, are not disclosed.
Video of Saturday's historic health care rally:
WEDNESDAY,
JUNE 3, 2009
Employer opposition to unions has intensified
The following was distributed in late May by American Rights at Work and the Economic Policy Institute:
WASHINGTON, DC -- A new study by renowned labor expert and Cornell University professor Kate Bronfenbrenner reveals that private sector employer opposition to workers’ efforts to form unions has intensified and become more punitive than in the past. Employers are more than twice as likely to use 10 or more tactics – including threats of and actual firings – in their campaigns to thwart workers’ organizing efforts. Today’s anti-union activities include a greater focus than in the past on more coercive and punitive tactics designed to intensely monitor and punish union activity.
In No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing, published by the American Rights at Work Education Fund and the Economic Policy Institute, Bronfenbrenner provides a comprehensive, independent analysis of employer behavior in union representation elections supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The report also compares employer behavior data in the study’s time period (1999-2003) to previous studies conducted by Bronfenbrenner’s research teams over the last 20 years.
For the vast majority of workers who want unions today but do not have them, the right to organize and bargain collectively -- free from coercion, intimidation, and retaliation—is at best a promise indefinitely deferred. According to Bronfenbrenner, in NLRB election campaigns, it is standard practice for workers to be subjected by corporations to threats, interrogation, harassment, surveillance, and retaliation for union activity. From the 1999-2003 data:
63% interrogate workers in one-on-one meetings with their supervisors about support for the union
54% threaten workers in such meetings
57% threaten to close the worksite
47% threaten to cut wages and benefits
34% fire workers
Even when workers succeed at forming a union, 52 percent are still without a contract a year after they win the election, and 37 percent remain without a contract two years after the election.
At a briefing to unveil the results, Angel Warner, a worker with Rite Aid in California trying to form a union and get a contract with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union said: "We wanted to form a union so we would be treated with dignity and could speak up without fear of losing our jobs. Now we finally got through the harassment to form a union and we still don't have a contract. It shouldn't be like this. If my coworkers and I want a union, we should have one."
Bronfenbrenner’s study documents the increased use by employers of more punitive tactics such as plant closing threats and actual plant closings, discharges, harassment, disciplinary actions, surveillance, and alteration of benefits and working conditions. At the same time, employers are less likely to offer "carrots," such as unscheduled raises, positive personnel changes, bribes, special favors, social events, promises of improvement, and employee involvement programs.
Private sector campaigns differ markedly from public sector ones, where 37 percent of workers belong to unions. Survey data from the public sector describe an atmosphere in which workers may organize relatively free from the kind of coercion, intimidation, and retaliation that so taints the election process in the private sector. Most of the states in the public sector sample have laws allowing workers to choose a union through the majority sign-up process.
According to the report, the failure of the current system to defend workers’ rights in a timely manner multiplies the obstacles workers face when seeking union representation, adding further delays that favor employers over workers. Bronfenbrenner finds that employers appeal a high percentage of the cases and in the most egregious cases the employer can count on a final decision being delayed by three to five years.
Of the few cases in the representative sample studied where a penalty was imposed, the heaviest penalty an employer had to pay was backpay, minus the worker’s interim wages.
No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing is available at the link below.
http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/bp235/
Copyright © 2009 -- Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO