Labor Relations INK In this issue: • Union Bailout Update • Wisconsin Battle Resuscitates Big Labor • Follow The Money (The REAL Money) • Knife Cuts Both Ways • Labor Relations Insight, Sticky Fingers and more… Labor Relations Insight by Phil Wilson What Wisconsin Means to Private Sector Employers 
I’ve been on the road speaking a lot lately. The first question I get asked after a speech now is, “what do you think about what’s happening in Wisconsin?” As it turns out I am writing this month’s Insight while flying home from Milwaukee. Earlier in the day the Wisconsin Senate voted to strictly limit collective bargaining rights for public employees. Thus I am perfectly positioned to give you a report based on conditions on the ground at the epicenter of the labor movement’s “re-awakening.” Here is the report: it is still winter in Wisconsin (6 inches of snow fell in about 40 minutes this morning) and the beer is as good as ever (if you ever get the chance, try the Ballistic IPA from Ale Asylum in Madison – it is lovely). The re-awakened labor movement? It’s too early to comment on the long-term (after all, unions have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory quite a bit lately), but things are looking much brighter than they did 2 weeks ago. Wisconsin is a really interesting state (not to mention beautiful – I camp there every summer and it is just a wonderful place) and in many ways a microcosm of America. It is “blue” in its big cities (Madison and Milwaukee) but “red” in its vast rural areas. It is a critical battleground during national elections. Like several other states last fall, the Republican party swept both branches of the legislature and the governor’s office for the first time in memory. Conservative voters drew their line in the sand. As Obama famously said after his election in 2008, “elections have consequences.” Governor Scott Walker certainly took that to heart when he came into office this year. I’m not sure if Governor Walker anticipated the storm he was about to create when he proposed to limit bargaining for most public employees. Anticipated or not, Walker certainly did more to get people talking about unions the last two weeks than anyone I can remember. Who would have thought that a union issue could bring out a hundred thousand people to Madison Wisconsin. In February. (I mentioned it’s still winter in Wisconsin, right?). I think the messaging has been strange. For example, focusing so heavily on the cost of public employee pay and benefits as the justification seems odd, when the bargaining proposal doesn’t even prevent bargaining over those items. Not to mention that unions almost immediately agreed to the pay and benefit concessions Walker sought. Instead I think Governor Walker and the Republicans should focus on what their proposal really does. Limiting bargaining rights on non-economic issues, and giving employees the opportunity to vote each year on whether they wish to remain unionized are very intriguing proposals. They get at the heart of what is wrong with public sector unions (and private sector ones for that matter): their monopoly bargaining power. The problem with unions is not that they negotiate “Cadillac” pay and benefit packages. Actually their pay and benefits aren’t that much better than similarly situated private sector workers. It is somewhat amusing to watch all the union-sponsored “think tanks” and academics jumping all over themselves to prove how bad public sector union members have it. Obviously there are exceptions to this, but over the last decade or so many of these packages have been brought in line (although the legacy costs of some plans are still crippling many municipalities and states). The problem with public sector unions is all the other “stuff” that gets negotiated into these contracts. Politicians are willing to agree to these items in exchange for pay and benefit concessions and they make it nearly impossible to manage or run a government agency with any kind of efficiency. It is virtually impossible to terminate someone who desperately needs it. Vacations, holidays and other “hidden” costs to taxpayers are typically higher. Last year, because of antiquated seniority rules, the teacher of the year in Wisconsin was laid off. Does that make any sense at all? There is also the ethical issue. Unlike in the private sector, where it is illegal for companies and unions to give money to each other, unions contribute a lot of money to politicians who they later bargain with. Coupled with the fact that unions have a monopoly grip over all employees in their bargaining units (even those who do not want to be represented by the union) there are bad incentives built into the public sector bargaining environment that lead to bad deals for taxpayers. One thing is certain. Unions are energized, mobilized and doing everything they can to get the pendulum that swung so violently against them in the mid-term elections last year going back the other direction. Rest assured that Wisconsin is already the battle cry unions are using to energize their base, raise money and (they hope) win back what they lost in November. I can say this about Scott Walker. The guy can stimulate an economy. Think about what he did for the economy of Madison. Over the course of several weeks Madison has seen more than a hundred thousand visitors, most of them from out of state. Business has been booming for hotel rooms, rental cars, restaurants and, of course, pubs. Apparently there will be a lot of construction work to refurbish the capital building after it was used as a campground for 2 weeks. Who knows, Walker might have figured out the answer to the recession. ********** Union Bailout Update 
With all eyes riveted on the public-sector union debates in Wisconsin and other states, the NLRB in Washington is still toiling away to provide every possible advantage to Big Labor. We mentioned in our last issue of INK the prospect of “micro-unions,” or the ability of unions to carve out pre-determined smaller groups of employees, similar to what occurs in the healthcare industry already. In a National Review Online article, former NLRB member Peter Kirsanow outlined what the Specialty Healthcare decision (still being considered by the board) could mean to employers. In his view, the change could: • Make it much easier for unions to organize a workplace…The new standard would permit a union to cherry-pick only those employees it believes support the union • Increase the probability that a workplace will have multiple bargaining units representing different classifications of employees; e.g., one unit of, say, two set-up men, another unit of six press operators, yet another unit of three welders, a separate unit of four packers, etc. • Increase the probability that a company’s employees will be represented by — and the company must bargain with — multiple unions, e.g., the UAW in one part of the plant, the Teamsters in another, and the SEIU in a third. • Increase the probability that an employer would have to manage separate work schedules, grievance procedures, wage schedules, and benefits packages for various bargaining units in a single workplace. • Increase the man-hours a company spends on personnel matters such as discipline, grievances, arbitration, and bargaining. In the midst of the ruckus over the NFL dispute, Nancy Cleeland, director of the NLRB’s Office of Public Affairs let slip another confirmation that the NLRB may be moving toward electronic voting. NFL.com posted this from Cleeland addressing the issue of decertification elections, “Voting potentially could be done via voting booths, by mail and also over the internet, Cleeland said . . . .” In a noble attempt that probably doesn’t stand a snowballs chance of escaping filibuster, Senator Jim DeMint introduced a national Right-To-Work bill. Back in DeMint’s home state of South Carolina, Republicans introduced a measure aimed at defeating the NLRB’s proposal to mandate posting a union-favored description of workers rights under the National Labor Relations Act ( we did a teleconference on this one). Bill sponsor Rep. Alan Clemmons said of the proposed posting rule, “I have a visceral objection to employers being forced to espouse rhetoric they don’t support.” Governor Nikki Haley concurred, saying, “We are not going to post posters that encourage unions. It’s ridiculous… No, we don’t need to be posting posters up there that say, ‘Oh, guess what? There are unions our there.’ I think it sends a bad message.” ********* Wisconsin Battle Resuscitates Big Labor In the wake of protests over budget cutting measures in Madison and around the country, Big Labor is enjoying a surge of energy, unity and public approval not seen in generations. 
A number of polls taken over the past two weeks indicate growing support for public unions and “collective bargaining rights” over budget cutting measures and the governors who attempt to enact them. Clearly the unions are winning the PR war, branding themselves as the voice and last hope of the “average working American.” Unprecedented media attention of the last month has catapulted the usual union talking points out of the local newsletter and onto the front page of the New York Times — as unions go so goes the middle class — unions alone make jobs safe and pay fair — unions are the only pushback left to corporate power. As it has played out, what seemed disastrous for public unions has proven to be beyond the wildest dream of even the most well financed union communications director. The Wisconsin struggle has also redrawn the public’s image of a “union member” from surly overpaid UAW factory worker to unsung fireman, schoolteacher and nurse. In shaping public opinion, the media has generally avoided any balanced or investigative approach to the business of public unionism instead opting to lionize individual protestors and pass along union talking points as accepted common knowledge. The media has also been complicit to the unions’ pivot off of the hard cold facts of fiscal responsibility to their hyperbolic sermonizing on the value of our children and their educations. Due credit must also go to labor leaders for maintaining order and discipline over the massive crowds in Madison, keeping the protests clever, conscientious and even wholesome. This allowed the media to paint the protests as organic spontaneous grassroots uprisings of likable ordinary working folks and not the carefully orchestrated left wing mobilization efforts that they actually are. Basking in such once inconceivable positive media attention, unionistas from Hoffa to Trumka to Michael Moore were quick to grab the spotlight in Madison to declare both victory for the “American worker” and class warfare against The Haves and Corporate America. Moore told the cheering crowd “until Madison and this last month we have felt helpless against the rich.” United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts said, “People are looking at this and saying, ‘This is a struggle I want to be a part of.’” (An observation not long lost on union strategists.) By any measure the struggle has ignited a firestorm in the pro-union progressive base. A Pew Research poll from the first week of March found favorable opinions of unions outnumbering unfavorable by a 47% to 39% margin. This is unchanged from the first week in February before the protests began in Madison. However, very favorable ratings jumped sharply between the two polls, from 14% to 32%, suggesting those who once simply approved of unions have grown zealous in their support. (It remains to be seen how today’s controversial late night passage of the revised anti-union senate bill will spread and spike pro-union sentiments.) And as every union organizer knows, agitation and zeal correlate directly to phone lists and shoe leather. Seizing the moment, at the AFL-CIO winter meeting last week in Washington union leaders huddled in workshops discussing how to maintain momentum and turn the thousands of pro-union protestors into unpaid union organizers. Trumka opened the meeting with the hope that support for public-sector union workers would translate to support for organizing efforts in the private sector. And the consensus among labor leaders and pro-labor pundits was plain — quickly organize as many private sector workers as possible to capitalize on the moment and counteract the notion of unionized public workers as a privileged class. “This is our moment,” AFT president Randi Weingarten said, “The challenge for us is to take this moment and turn it into a movement.” By week’s end the AFL-CIO had announced the targeting of 20,000 T-Mobile workers by the CWA and 45,000 newly eligible airport security workers. Meanwhile, just down the avenue, SEIU simultaneously announced a mammoth SEIU-sized undertaking – campaigns in 15 cities including Detroit, Chicago and Houston to unionize tens of thousands of low-wage private sector workers under the guise of fighting foreclosures and government budget cuts. Not to be overlooked, the larger progressive movement and the Democratic Party, faced with the eminent loss of their major funding stream, have overnight become openly rabidly pro-labor. Once the thuggish embarrassing ugly step uncle (with the fat wallet) of the progressive movement, unions are suddenly cool again. Support for the labor movement is coming from Obama’s Organizing for America as well as a seemingly endless list of progressive organizations. While it remains to be seen how well everyone can play together nicely, 2011 finds Big Labor not only unified against a common enemy (all things Republican) but free of the turf wars and internal bickering that have plagued the labor movement for over a decade. Change to Win is all but dissolved back into the AFL-CIO and labor’s perpetual bully boy Andy Stern has left the union hall. Public unions have also come to the abrupt realization that they cannot survive forever without the financial clout of private sector unions and the largesse of the NLRB. After half a century of mutual indifference, the last month has shown public and private sector unions that their fates are inextricably intertwined. The coming year will no doubt prove reports of the death of unionism were grossly premature. ********* Workers Want No Scorched Earth Campaigns 
In December 2010, 1200 unionized auto workers lost their jobs when a Huntsville plant owned by the tire and car part manufacturer Continental AG stopped production. According to the company, the plant’s closing was due to rising costs, saying that it was “unsuccessful in reducing these costs through labor negotiations” with the UAW. More than 10,000 hard working Alabamians are employed by such international automakers as Honda, Toyota and Hyundai, and despite the UAW saber-rattling, one must suspect they are wary of the union that has left Michigan much like Sherman left the South on his march to Atlanta. Up in Wisconsin, employees of Kohler, the largest employer in Sheboygan county, defied UAW leaders and ratified a five-year contract that includes a five-year wage freeze, higher health care premiums, the creation of a two-tiered wage and benefit system, and also allows for the limited use of temporary workers. Although the workers had authorized a strike vote earlier, and the UAW officials declared the contract “unreasonable, unwarranted and overly severe,” the rank and file of UAW Local 833 are aware of the realities of their position. The employees are already among the highest paid in the nation relative to other manufacturing workers, and the economy is still tight. “If we go on strike there’s a ton of people out there who are ready to take our jobs, and there’s no reason for Kohler to have to stay here,” said Paul Schoening, 56, who works in the pottery division. The vote was 62% in favor of the contract, and 38% opposed. ********** Follow The Money (The REAL Money!) The conflagration in Wisconsin isn’t about workers rights. It is about money. But it is not about the payroll and benefits of union members, it is about the lavish salaries of union leadership, and their ability to continue to fund the political activities that allows them to precariously hang on to their source of income – dues from members, be they public- or private-sector employees. The Center for Public Integrity evaluated the assets, compensation and political spending of the 10 largest unions. The reports show that assets of the various labor unions run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and payrolls rival midsize companies. Dozens of top officials have salary-and-benefit packages that rank them among the top percentage of income-earners in the country. Additional benefits for these top officials can include tens of thousands of dollars for meal allowances, mileage allowances and entertainment. And the financial documents filed by unions with the DOL don’t disclose healthcare and pension contributions. “What’s very clear to union leaders is the huge threat this poses for the organizations they have built,” said John C. McAdams, political science professor at Marquette University in Wisconsin. Here is a quick snapshot of the Top 10 unions. The political spending is for the last election cycle only: National Education Association Assets: $216 Million Staff earning over $200,000: 31 President’s salary: $397,721 Political Spending: $3.7 million (98% to Democrats) Service Employees International Union Assets: $187 Million Staff earning over $200,000: 9 President’s salary: $306,388 Political Spending: $2 million (99.99% to Democrats) United Food & Commercial Workers Assets: $157 Million Staff earning over $200,000: 17 Staff earning over $100,000: 250 President’s salary: $360,737 Political Spending: $1.9 million (99% to Democrats) Teamsters Assets: $175 Million Staff earning over $200,000: 8 President’s salary: $362,869 Political Spending: $2.3 million (99.99% to Democrats) AFSCME Assets: $97 Million Staff earning over $200,000: 10 President’s salary: $479,328 Political Spending: $2.3 million (99.99% to Democrats) Laborers Assets: $134 Million Staff earning over $200,000: 18 Staff earning over $300,000: 11 President’s salary: $618,000 Political Spending: $1.7 million (95% to Democrats) American Federation of Teachers Assets: $115 Million Staff earning over $200,000: 9 President’s salary: $428,284 Political Spending: $2.4 million (99.99% to Democrats) International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Assets: $482 Million Staff earning over $200,000: 16 President’s salary: $375,767 International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Assets: $147 Million Staff earning over $200,000: 34 President’s salary: $284,975 Political Spending: $2 million (99.99% to Democrats) United Auto Workers Assets: $1.2 BILLION Staff earning over $200,000: 0 President’s salary: $173,065 Political Spending: $1.6 million (99.99% to Democrats) In a related story by the WashingtonExaminer.com, Ron Arnold introduces us to “the three most powerful Big Labor bosses you never heard of.” He is referring to the political directors of three of the most active and heavily spending Big Labor organizations, Karen Ackerman of the AFL-CIO (recently deposed by the mid-term election “disaster”), Larry Scanlon of AFSCME, and Jon Youngdahl of SEIU. Included in the article were the following charts obtained form OpenSecrets.org:
These political directors, and others at unions across the country, apparently have a new tool designed to stretch their political spending dollars. As described by Arnold, the Atlas Project “brings together supercomputerized databases tailored to the unique nature of the states and districts where the toughest battles are fought, instructions on writing a winning campaign plan, past election results, absentee voting laws, public media spending, filing deadlines, how to reach opinion leaders – a treasure trove political directors need.” ********* Favorite Top 10 Lists 
Two Top 10 lists related to unions were recently released online. Starting with a list from Human Events of Top 10 Labor Union Outrages: 1. Wisconsin on fire: When the Wisconsin legislature prepared to vote on requiring unionized government workers to increase paltry contributions to their health care plans and pensions, teachers abandoned their classrooms to protest and Democrats in the state senate fled to Illinois to avoid a vote. 2. UAW greed: While the government bailout money [used to shore up ailing US auto manufacturers] has yet to be paid back, union auto workers are getting record bonuses this year. 3. Campaign dollars: While President Obama carped during the midterm elections about all the corporate and foreign cash being spent on behalf of Republicans, he seemed to overlook the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by labor unions. 4. Government pensions: While the rest of us try to build up our 401(k)s during times of economic uncertainty, government workers are still receiving defined-benefit pensions. 5. ObamaCare waivers: Of the first 222 waivers granted by the Department of Health and Human Services, more than one-third of the workers affected were insured by union health plans. 6. SEIU thugs: Their latest favored tactic is to terrorize neighborhoods by protesting at the private residences of their targets. 7. Craig Becker: President Obama avoided a Senate confirmation battle and used his recess appointment power to install Craig Becker, the former SEIU and AFL-CIO counsel, to the National Labor Relations Board. 8. Card check: Before Republicans won back the House of Representatives, Big Labor thought it could get Congress to enact its highest priority: the misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act” bill, or card check. 9. New York snow job: When a massive storm dumped 20 inches of snow on New York City in December, Sanitation Department bosses told workers to slow down snow removal efforts because they were angry over budget cuts and layoffs among their union brethren in the agency. 10. Sports unions: Labor issues are once again threatening the upcoming National Football League’s season. And this humorous list appeared all over the web describing the top ten ways to tell if you might be a member of a public-sector union: 10.) You take a week off to protest in Wisconsin and your office runs better. 9.) On a snow day when they say “non-essential” people should stay home you know who they mean. 8.) You get paid twice as much as a private sector person doing the same job but make up the difference by doing half as much work. 7.) It takes longer to fire you than the average killer spends on death row. 6.) The worse you do your job, the more your boss avoids you. 5.) You think the French are working themselves to death. 4.) You know by having a copy of the Holy Koran on your desk your job is 100% safe. 3.) You spend more time at protest marches than at church. 2.) You have a Democratic congressman’s lips permanently attached to your butt. 1.) You pay more in union dues than you do for your healthcare insurance. David Letterman would be proud! ********* Knife Cuts Both Ways 
One union blogger in New York, a member of UFCW Local 1500, recently asked fellow union members to boycott non-union stores in solidarity with the unionists in Wisconsin, and posted a list of unionized stores to patronize, and non-union stores to avoid. In support of fair play, here is the list, should you want to use a bit of “reverse psychology” and avoid unionized stores, in support of the brave midwest politicians attempting to bring sanity back into public-sector union relationships. ********* Rosselli Turns Tables On SEIU 
The former head of SEIU-Healthcare Workers West has filed a lawsuit against Andy Stern, Mary Kay Henry, and three other current or former SEIU officials. After the SEIU trusteed the huge California localand ousted Sal Rosselli, Rosselli founded the National Union of Healthcare Workers and began to compete for union members with SEIU in that state. SEIU responded by filing a $25 million lawsuit against Rosselli and 15 former SEIU members, resulting on a $1.57 million judgment against Rosselli and company. Angela Alioto, attorney for the plaintiffs, said SEIU employees “crossed the line” by intimidating, battering and threatening the plaintiffs. The lawsuit accuses the SEIU of using physical intimidation, threats, racial and ethnic epithets and other tactics against its “enemies.” Steve Trossman, spokesman for SEIU-UHW said, “We in no way whatsoever condone any kind of intimidation or any other tactics,” Trossman said. ********** Teamsters Bad for Business 
Grocer A&P filed a lawsuit against the Teamsters seeking a million dollars in damages for harassing and threatening customers and suppliers at 20 of its locations in New Jersey, New York and Maryland. The picketing erupted when Bankruptcy Court cancelled a grocery-hauling contract of Teamster Local 833 and awarded it to a competitor, which had won the court-approved bidding process. ********* Truth Revealed 
In a letter to the editor at the Las Vegas Sun, union supporter Dave Newton stated what many know intuitively to be true about Big Labor leadership, and the impact of unions on the American workplace. He first admits that Big Labor is stuck in a 1950s paradigm. He laments that unions’ activities are more about “protecting incompetent employees, compensation policies that offer no reward for excellence, fighting productivity increases from restructuring jobs, and resisting innovation” than helping its members. He continues,
“Instead of finding ways to be more attractive to members and less unattractive to employers, their strategy has been to find new ways to coerce people to join (i.e., corporate campaigns and the Employee Free Choice Act) and to spend millions on political campaigns that could have been spent in ways that directly benefit their members. As a result, union growth has been limited to the public sector, where the lack of both competition and management accountability allowed their counterproductive policies to go unchecked.”
We couldn’t have said it better. ******** Sticky Fingers Current charges or sentences of embezzling union officials: Phillip Akins UMW $9,500 James Drury CWA $306,757 David Russi IBT` undisclosed Brenda Olson UBC $19,350 James Correll SPFPA $22,278 Jo Ann Duffy IBT $13,738 Poutoa Tuiolemotu GMP undisclosed Kim Hirschkorn APWU undisclosed http://www.nlpc.org/union-corruption-update
