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The United States District Court for the District of Columbia just ruled that the NLRB lacked a valid 3-member quorum to adopt its “ambush election” rulemaking in December 2011. You can read the decision here. Since Member Brian Hayes refused to participate in the actual vote on the rule, the Court ruled that this prevented the Board from achieving a valid quorum. While the new NLRB can re-vote the rule (although whether this Board constitutes a valid quorum is also under question in separate litigation), the District Court denies the Board’s authority to operate under the new rules. As always, we will keep you posted on developments.
  
SEIU dues members were miffed when they found out that their dues were going to pay for the $4000/per month DC office space rent for the protest group Occupy.
“We’re not happy,” SEIU member Kandy Gonzalez told Fox News. “When you pay dues, you think you’re paying for a better work environment.”
SEIU reportedly agreed to pay for at least 6 months of rent for the DC Occupy group, when they were told in February that they had to vacate their rat-invested illegal camp on McPherson Square.
Occupy still refuses to acknowledge their relationship as a puppet for SEIU. According to occupy protestor John Zangas, “We’ve got full control of how we allocate space, time, resources, access. Nobody’s telling us what to do. We still have our own brand name. We continue with unbridled decision making.” As long as SEIU holds the purse strings, this appears a bit idealistic.
Continue reading SEIU Dues Money Pays Protesters DC Office Rent
In this issue:
Union Bailout Update Bill Would Permit Merit Pay in Union Shops Machinists Striking Once a Member Always a Member Labor Relations Insight, Sticky Fingers and more…
NOTICE: You can make a PDF of this issue of INK directly from the post. Click here for instructions on how to do so.
http://lrionline.com/easy-way-to-make-our-posts-and-ink-issues-into-pdfs
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Labor Relations Insight by Phillip Wilson
What have we learned in the first week of the “ambush election” rules?
There are two questions I’ve been asked a lot over the last couple of months, and especially in the last week:
Will petitions increase after the new “ambush election” rules go into effect? How far will election times decrease under the new “ambush election” rules?
Here’s what we’ve seen
Continue reading INK May 10, 2012
There are two questions I’ve been asked a lot over the last couple of months, and especially in the last week:
Will petitions increase after the new “ambush election” rules go into effect? How far will election times decrease under the new “ambush election” rules?
Here’s what we’ve seen in the first 8 days under the new “ambush” rules.
Have petitions increased? Maybe. There was a year over year increase in petition activity over the first week of May. The chart below shows a comparison of petition activity from May 1-8 during the last 5 years.
If you just compare to last year, it looks like a pretty big jump (a 46% increase).
Continue reading Labor Relations Insight by Phillip Wilson: What Have We Learned In The First Week Of The “Ambush Election” Rules
 The NLRB’s ambush election rules went into effect last week and it’s still too soon to gauge the impact. There has so far been no surge of petitions and it may be several weeks before we have any real understanding of the new length of the average election period.
The ambush rules went into effect on Monday April 30 after a U.S. District Court in D.C. denied a request by the Chamber of Commerce to temporarily enjoin implementation. The court is expected to rule by May 15 on the merits of the Chamber’s case, before any elections would likely take place under ambush rules. (Earlier this month the U.S. Court of Appeals enjoined the NLRB poster rule until September.) This all comes as a pointless legislative effort
Continue reading Union Bailout Update
 President Obama addressed the AFL-CIO Building Trades Conference in D.C. last week, reminding his (last remaining) base that he’s been hard at work trying to create (only) union jobs for the past three years using the double-edged sword of federal PLAs and (unfunded) infrastructure spending.
Obama reminded the packed ballroom of union officers, staff and crazies that his administration has removed all federal bans on PLAs (making them then essentially mandatory). The President also promised “as long as I’m your president I’m going to keep it up” presumably referring to his bountiful favors for his very favorite special interest.
Obama went on, amid cheers and thunderous applause, to accuse Republicans of setting their sights on dismantling “unions like yours.” (Gee. Ya think?) He also credited collective
Continue reading Obama Goes Courting
 Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) recently introduced legislation that would amend the NLRA to permit employers to offer merit increases while under a collective bargaining agreement. Similar legislation, called the RAISE Act, was introduced in the House the previous week. The measures would insert language into the NLRA to allow employers to pay better wages or offer other compensation for any reason, regardless of representation or the language in a CBA.
Sen. Rubio said in a press release: “It is a sad day in America when no matter how hard an employee works, he or she is blocked from higher earning potential,” adding, “This bill fixes this arbitrary ceiling placed on these workers and allows the free market to function as
Continue reading Bill Would Permit Merit Pay in Union Shops
 Workers at GM’s assembly plant in Moraine, Ohio had the opportunity to join the UAW in 1981, when the factory was first converted from making Frigidaire refrigerators to assembling vehicles. At the time they were members of the International Union of Electrical Workers, and they voted to stick with the IUE. For decades the Moraine workers simply agreed to the language of the UAW master agreement and there was never any labor tension in the Moraine plant. In fact, in 2007, the plant won recognition as the nation’s most efficient midsize-SUV plant from The Harbour Report™, a measure of manufacturing productivity. Not long afterward that award however IUE leaders made the mistake that would later cost all Moraine employees their jobs – they made concessions at the start of
Continue reading UAW Freezes Workers Out of Recovery
(This article incorrectly stated that IAM members at the Caterpillar plant in Joliet were part of an IAM multi-employer pension plan, and has been corrected.)
800 unionized workers at the Caterpillar plant in Joliet, IL went out on strike last week, the second major strike declared by the Machinists union in just over a week. On April 23, 3600 Lockheed workers went out on strike in Fort Worth, Maryland and at Edwards AFB in California.
Caterpillar’s last offer would have kept wages flat and doubled the existing health insurance contribution over six years.
“The company’s last offer would have kept wages flat for six years while health insurance contributions would have doubled,” said Steve Jones, business rep for IAM District 8.
“Also, the company wants
Continue reading Machinists Striking
 In the last issue of INK we reported on the Operating Engineers claim that Right to Work legislation in Indiana violated that union’s constitutionally protected right to forcibly collect dues to spend on politics. Now the OE has amended their suit against state political leaders to now claim the union has constitutional rights under the Thirteenth Amendment — which outlawed “slavery” and “involuntary servitude” — that are violated whenever its members are forced to work alongside nonunion employees.
The new lawsuit suggests that when nonunion employees earn higher salaries and better benefits because of the union’s negotiation on behalf of its members, the union has been forced to work for those nonunion employees for
Continue reading Union Equates Right to Work with Slavery
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