INK: July 22, 2010

Labor Relations INK In this issue:

• EFCA Update
• Corruption Runs Rampant In Carpenters Union
• Organizing Tactics Never Die…
• Scoreboard, SEIU Watch, Sticky Fingers and more…

EFCA Update Enthusiasm does not seem to be dissipating on either side of the EFCA struggle. The Big Labor/Dem camp had to duck hard as a national campaign strategist prophesied the loss of the House in the upcoming elections, inspiring incentive for pushing labor-agenda bills through the lame-duck Congress later this year. Big Labor has been flexing its muscle with expanding use of shareholder resolutions, and it is expected to continue with such assaults, especially as a fall-back tactic if an EFCA-type bill fails to pass Congress. The latest “financial reform” bill added additional strength to their ability to wield this weapon by making it easier for unions to put their representatives on the boards of corporations across the country. And don’t rule out the use of “snap elections,” especially if the NLRB continues down the road of electronic voting. Business groups continue to coalesce around the issue of labor law, and are becoming increasingly involved in state and local politics, attempting to force candidates to make clear their position on EFCA and similar labor legislation. Businesses in Kentucky recently joined the fray with the release of a new video to inform the Kentucky populace about the EFCA. “Those seeking federal office in Kentucky owe citizens an explanation of whether they stand with Kentucky’s workers or Big Labor bosses,” said Scott Jennings, state director of the Coalition to Protect Kentucky Jobs. Click here to view video. The newly formed Granite State business alliance in New Hampshire announced similar opposition to the EFCA, calling the bill “a job killer.” ********** Card Check Cannibals I had to “steal” the title for this post directly from the author, as the analogy was just too good. Let me quote directly several passages of this lucidly written editorial by Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.:

Like many people, I oppose unions on principle. That principle is: never negotiate the dinner menu with cannibals. American workers overwhelmingly reject unionism. According to a 2010 study by university researchers Barry Hirsch and David Macpherson, only 7.2% of private sector workers belonged to unions in 2009. 93% prefer to work union-free. But union bosses, like socialists everywhere, do not recognize the will of the people; they claim to embody the will of the people. Unions protect incompetents from the consequences of their own actions, and force those consequences onto others – observe the Milwaukee Public Schools and General Motors. Individualism breeds exceptionalism, and exceptionalism is intolerable to the union collectivist. Under Card Check, unions would have been imposed upon those workers by their own government without any election. Pause for a moment to reflect on the obscenity of that proposition: the right to remain union-free will be denied by the very government [under EFCA] tasked with protecting that right. We can now add government and education to the list of American industries devoured by the union cannibals: mining, shipbuilding, logging, steel, automobiles, appliances, electronics, textiles, airlines, machine tools, consumer products, furniture, musical instruments – the list is too long to recite. To a cannibal, success is being the last one in his tribe to die of starvation. His union campaign is your invitation to dinner; Card Check lets the government RSVP on your behalf. Fight back now, before it is too late.

The article is a great read. ********** SEIU Update Wilhelm says no deal with SEIU It appeared that “settlement” talks between SEIU and UNITE HERE were rolling toward a conclusion, with SEIU reportedly offering cash and real estate in an attempt to placate UNITE HERE for SEIU’s aggressive take over attempt under former head Andy Stern. The offer was SEIU’s attempt to earn its way back into the good graces of the labor movement. However, John Wilhelm, head of UNITE HERE, promptly issued a statement on the heels of this report, “There is no agreement with SEIU, despite rumors to the contrary. While we continue to talk, and make some progress, difficult issues remain unresolved.” Wilhelm appears willing to fight a protracted war, much to the chagrin of Mary Kay Henry, who was elected the new head of SEIU partly on the promise of a quick settlement between the two unions. ********** SCORE BOARD Who are the winners (and losers) of the labor movement? Don’t guess, just check the LRI Scoreboard

View this month’s scoreboard (archives also located here).

Download a PDF of this month’s scoreboard

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12 Union Myths Exposed In our final installment of The Cato Journal’s January 2010 “Are unions good for America?” issue, we cover the twelfth myth. Here is The Homeland Stupidity web site’s synopsis of this myth, and a link to each of the 12 Cato articles.

Myth Number Twelve: Unions currently operate in a free market. Fact: Unions are heavily dependent on the government to provide them unfair leverage over employers and control over their members. It is possible for unions to exist and provide valuable services to their members in a market free of government-sponsored violence and control, but those services would likely have to be geared toward helping employees improve themselves, rather than extracting undeserved compensation from employers. Charles W. Baird, professor emeritus of economics at California State University, East Bay, examines what constitutes a free market, how existing labor laws destroy freedom, and what a union might look like in a true free market. It won’t happen any time soon, though, he says: “It is politically impossible, at this time in America, to repeal the Norris-LaGuardia Act and the National Labor Relations Act and replace them with any sort of free-market union law. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to prepare the ground now for doing so in some future, more enlightened time.” If you’re wondering why you’re out of a job, why Detroit is a wasteland, and why the economy is on the verge of collapse, don’t be so quick to blame Wall Street: Some of the blame belongs to the labor unions.

Download the PDF here. Check out the Cato Journal and access all 12 PDFs here. ********** FREE 2009 NLRB Elections Report With the NLRB bending over backwards to make it easier for unions to attack your company, now more than ever it pays to have solid intelligence about what unions are up to. LRI has created a new NLRB Elections Report that will provide a bird’s-eye view of union activity. Filled with colorful, easy-to-read charts and graphs, and broken out in a variety of ways, the information is easy to digest. We want to send you this free 22_ page report for 2009 as a thank you for being an LRI INK subscriber. Head to this page to see more details, and to download your free report. https://lrionline.com/elections-report ********** Organizing Tactics Never Die… …they just change with the times. In many of our interviews with former union organizers, one of the chief tactics that many of them used during card signing campaigns was the use of a survey or poll, asking employees what things they would “change” about their jobs. The tactic is a subtle attempt to make the employees believe that they will have more say in the collective bargaining process than is ever actually the case, and is just one more deception on the part of union organizers. The Transport Workers Union has moved this tactic online during their recent organizing campaign for Virgin America flight attendants. The tactic is skillfully executed, and should be studied so proper counter-strategies can be designed during an organizing campaign. Take a few minutes to check out the link. ********** Fact or Fantasy? John McElroy, pundit for the auto industry, has an interesting piece about the chances of the United Auto Workers (UAW) to overcome decades of declining membership. Among some of the facts in the article:

• The UAW currently has 350,000 active members and 600,000 retirees (wow – how will they continue to fund those pension/retirement/health benefits?). • The UAW will not grow substantially without organizing foreign automakers and parts suppliers. • The UAW now faces competition from other unions for auto industry workers (Teamsters, Steelworkers, and Electrical Workers have all entered the fray). • The UAW (and all of Big Labor) has a friend in the White House. Among those items bordering on wishful thinking: • The UAW will experience some growth simply because the American auto industry is currently operating at the lowest levels ever, and an economic rebound will soon give rise to the need for expansion. (At this point, recovery is anybody’s guess). • The UAW could make inroads with older Toyota factory workers who are concerned about retirement (average age is now 43).

Although the past several leaders of the UAW had pledged themselves to grow their membership (to no avail), McElroy posits that current union president Bob King understands how vital this objective is to the very survival of the union. McElroy sums up succinctly, “the union is desperately aware that this is its last chance,” and proposes, “If the UAW were able to crack even one of the transplants, chances are that it would have a good chance at organizing all of them. After that, getting the suppliers to fall in line would be fairly easy to achieve. And that could easily double the UAW’s membership.” Nothing like a little fantasizing to keep one’s hopes alive. ********** Employee Relations Tip Of The Month Em-Power To The People! Work is most motivating to employees when they have a say in determining how it gets done. Besides being more motivating, it’s also more developmental for employees when they are allowed to bring their own experience and expertise to bear on a situation. When employees are clear about the goal and desired results you’re after, you’ll get their best thinking and effort by empowering them with the autonomy and authority to decide how to achieve it. As the 28th U.S. President, Woodrow Wilson, once said, “I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow.” Here are some specific actions you can take now to increase engagement by providing your employees with greater autonomy and authority:

1. Identify a project to delegate to members of your team. Meet with these individuals and communicate what you expect from them. For example, what does the outcome look like? What is the timeline? What is the budget? What resources are available to them? What is their decision-making authority? How will you measure successful completion of the project? Communicate, establish clear expectations and goals, and get out of their way. Be approachable for help if needed, but don’t micromanage. 2. Sit down and evaluate each of your team members individually in terms of their skills and capabilities. Then consider tasks or projects that you could delegate to them by matching the size and complexity of the project with the capacity of the person. Try to identify “stretch” assignments for each team member that contain activities they have not done before. These will force them to go a bit beyond their current capability and promote growth and development.

To learn more about how to improve the morale and engagement of your employees, click here and check out LRI’s Online Supervisor Training. Hat tip to Eric Vanetti at Vantage Point Allliance. ********** Corruption Rampant In Carpenters Union The running story of the racketeering case against New York Local 608 of the Carpenters Union continues to unfold, revealing widespread corruption and bribery going back 15 years. In addition to the five former members already sentenced, two more were added to the list in recent weeks. Michael Brennan, who was a union shop steward, pleaded guilty on July 6 specifically to racketeering acts involving the acceptance of cash bribes and obstruction of justice. John Greaney, former president and business manager, has pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to all 13 counts against him. According to the North Country Gazette account:

“Between 1994 and their arrest in August 2009, Greaney and his co-conspirators engaged in a racketeering conspiracy to enrich themselves and others and maintain control of the Carpenters Union through, among other things, the unlawful acceptance of cash payments and other things of value from owners of construction contractors who had signed collective bargaining agreements with the Union. In exchange for the bribes, Greaney and his co-conspirators allowed and helped certain contractors to defraud the union and its benefit funds out of millions of dollars by permitting the contractors to, among other things, pay union members cash at below-union rates, without benefits, employ illegal aliens and non-union workers on their job sites; and avoid payment to the union benefit funds in violation of applicable collective bargaining agreements. Greaney and his co-conspirators helped the contractors to conceal the scheme by, among other things, filing false shop steward reports, issuing union cards to the illegal aliens who worked for those contractors for cash, giving false testimony, and destroying documents.

Greaney would face 155 years in prison on charges, but prosecutors will ask for leniency if he fully cooperates to help them nail two of the remaining defendants, former Local 608 president Michael Forde and former business agent Brian Hayes. ********* Social Media Strategy Tutorial A young entrepreneur known for providing highly useful union organizing content on the Web has released a new resource that will soon be in the hands of organizers near you, so be prepared! The next iteration of using the Web for organizing goes beyond information dissemination, or even research. Following the overall trend of focusing on Social Media, Jason Mann has released a video tutorial with accompanying worksheets that explain the art of using the key social media sites to find and/or organize groups of employees, and how to then effectively enter the conversation in such a way as to gain the trust of the audience, and hopefully move a union organizing effort forward. There are lessons to be learned for those on the management side, and as much as I hate to give money toward any union effort, I believe the $10 that goes to this young individual is an extremely fair price for the valuable insight. Armed with the information he provides, you will be more adept at both entering the conversation with your employees on their terms (online social media venues), and countering the efforts of organizers looking to do the same. Study the material, and you will likely avoid the common faux pas most business executives make when trying to engage their employees in such venues. ********** By Hook Or By Crook A recent editorial out of Michigan exposes the attempt by the state’s legislators to again team up with unions and create a “shell” state organization through which to force another group of home health care workers into paying dues to various unions, such as SEIU and AFSCME. We have discussed the ploy by Big Labor and several state governments that has pushed family home-care providers into dues-paying union members, and in Michigan this occurred in 2006, benefiting the UAW and AFSCME. That state’s human services department has yet to adequately explain its role in that development, which has led to a legislative inquiry and a lawsuit. This new law takes a new class of health care providers who work with the elderly and disabled and accomplishes the same thing. According to the article,

The National Federation of Independent Business-Michigan says Rep. Johnson’s House Bill 6195 would continue the flow of $6 million in taxpayer money each year from the state health department to the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) as dues for home care contractors. The suspicion among opponents such as the NFIB, which is raising the alarm, is that SEIU wants to firm-up the arrangement to make it harder for next year’s new governor and legislature to undo it.

*********** Fat Cat Union Bosses This is a great 2 minute Fox News video exposing the exorbitant salaries and benefits that union bosses around New York are drawing, while their union locals are languishing. Examples:

• Hector Lopez, president of Metal Polishers Local 8A-28A – the union is running a $330,000 deficit in 2008 while Lopez took $148,000 in salary… $40,000 more than union rules allow! • Rocco Miranti – head of Local 223 for Toy and Novelty Workers – his union is a half-million in debt with an almost non-existent pension fund, while he and his family took in more than $400,000 last year (while he worked about 8 hours a week- that’s about $1,000 per hour!). • Bill Duffy – boss of Operating Engineers Local 138 – which has less than 20% of its membership employed, while Duffy, his brother, son, and nephew took in over $679,000.

Read more from the NY Daily News here. ********** Head On Collision In California California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has indicated she is not afraid to roll up her sleeves and take on Big Labor, particularly the huge and politically active California Nurses Union. The CNA-NNOC took the initiative during the primary campaign when they launched a “Queen Meg” actress dressed as Whitman to hound her on the campaign and fund-raising trail. Whitman recently sent nurses in the state a four-page letter inviting nurses to join an advisory panel. She is positioning herself as pro-nurse, but is against unions, which she says symbolizes California’s undisciplined spending, political gridlock and inefficient, outdated operations. The nurses union has already spent upwards of $300,000 opposing Whitman, and will spend heavily as the election approaches. They continue to fight back at Whitman, most recently by sending protesters to her house. “I think it’s important for us to be able to communicate to our patients and the community just what California’s in for if they get a corporate CEO in charge of California,” said CNA co-president Deborah Burger. Easy to understand that a union would prefer a career politician or other celebrity who doesn’t understand running a profitable organization, than a business- person who understands budgets and profit and loss statements! It is refreshing to see someone in the political sphere not afraid to go toe-to-toe with Big Labor, and one can only hope to see more of it. ********** Sticky Fingers Current charges or sentences of embezzling union officials:

http://www.nlpc.org/union-corruption-update