LONG post, but this one got my blood boiling a bit… The San Francisco Chronicle published a letter from David Bonior, (the chairman of American Rights at Work, a union-sponsored workers’ advocacy organization) about the San Francisco Hotel strike. It is comical on many levels. Bonior starts by saying, “the focus on the potential inconvenience to consumers obscures the public good of the collective bargaining process.” It is hard to fathom the logic that leads to asinine statements like this. Probably the same logic that encourages striking hotel workers to ask customers TO STAY AT COMPETITORS’ hotels. Without those “inconvenienced customers,” these workers won’t have jobs at all. Such tactics are short-sighted and (the airline “sick-out” or the UPS strike are recent examples) those lost customers may not come back at all. If these workers were smart, or led by someone who was interested in something other than what is institutionally good for the “collective bargaining process” (i.e. what is good for the international union) they would continue to take care of guests, even on the picket line. Boycotts just make the strikers look selfish, intimidating and stupid to customers. Bonior also says, “Beyond fair compensation, hotel workers are fighting for a say on issues such as workload increases and disciplinary processes.” Uh, no. The union is refusing to return to the table unless the companies agrees to common expiration dates, an institutional goal for labor with no care for what happens to these specific employees or their guests (I’m sure San Francisco hotel workers will be happy when 2 years from now they get to go back on strike for their brothers and sisters in Chicago). Bonior continues, “it’s the reason why 20,000 workers in this country are fired and discriminated against every year for participating in union organizing activity.” This is just the most ridiculous number bandied about by labor’s paid mouthpieces (both inside and outside the academy – Bonior counts as both). According to the NLRB FY2003 report (.pdf download). there were just under 11,000 8(a)(3)-(4) charges filed against employers for discrimination or termination in violation of the Act (about half of Bonior’s number). However, this is just the charges FILED. Complaint issued (i.e. the Board found cause to believe the charge may be true) in 1,767 of ALL THE 8(a) cases it considered (about 18% of the charges filed – remember this includes charges for bad-faith bargaining, which was more than 10,000 of the charges filed in FY2003). If complaint issued in similar proportion to the number of charges filed (the Board doesn’t break things down this way) then employers discriminated against and/or terminated employees about 900 times in FY2003, a far cry from 20,000. In the interest of fairness, it is probable that this number understates the case. Not all cases of discrimination or unlawful termination result in charges with the Board (although unions are normally very anxious to file these things during an organizing campaign), and some charges are settled before a complaint is issued (although most employers don’t settle until after complaint has issued). On the other hand, many of the complaints issued result in hearing verdicts favorable to the employer, so the 900 is probably too high. Even granting these problems with my number, it is clear that Bonior’s number is completely removed from any objective reality. Bonior states that, “Polls show that 42 million workers want unions.” That may be true (I am skeptical and am sure the source is probably as good as the one for the statistic discussed above, but I’ll grant it for the moment). However, today our economy employs somewhere around 129 million people. Assuming Bonior’s 42 million union-lovers do not include current union members and are evenly distributed among employers around the country, unions still would be unable to win a majority vote in ONE election. Now these folks are not evenly distributed and unions do win representation elections, but unions do not leap to mind when people start thinking about best practices in employment. Finally Bonior claims, “There is a strong connection between recent overtime pay cuts (see here), the steady loss of jobs to overseas (see here) and shrinking spaces for workers and employers to come together and negotiate on equal footing.” Really. There also appears to be a strong connection between Bonior’s talking points and the AFL-CIO’s. What a shill.
