INK: November 4, 2010

by | Nov 4, 2010 | Labor Relations Ink

inkquill22 Labor Relations INK   In this issue:

  • EFCA Update
  • CNA Delusional?
  • Trial Underscores Mob/Big Labor Connection
  • Labor Relations Insight, ER Tip Of The Month and more…

  Labor Relations Insight by Phillip Wilson The Republicans gave the Democrats a spanking in the mid-term elections this week. Voters rebuked Democrats in an unprecedented manner. The election results raise a number of perplexing questions. What are Democrats planning to do about the Tea Party movement? For that matter, what are Republicans going to do about them (after all, in retrospect the Tea Party probably cost the Republicans control of the Senate by nominating a couple of nit-wits in the Nevada and Connecticut races)? What is going to happen to health care and financial reform? For our readers a more important question is probably top of mind: what impact is this election likely to have on labor policy and labor unions? Here is our take: 1. EFCA is dead. In case you haven’t heard, unions REALLY wanted EFCA. Unions managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on that by not forcing Obama to allow a Senate vote as a condition of supporting health care. Big Labor has been rattling its sabers ever since including during the campaign season where they threatened action during the lame duck session. I’m not saying EFCA won’t come up, but it has zero chance of becoming legislation any time in the next 2 years. That includes compromise versions. It’s just not going to happen. Heck, almost nothing is going to happen in the next 2 years other than campaigning for President. Anything that does pass is NOT going to be sweeping labor law reform. 2. DOL rulemaking will attempt to put pressure on employers. The Department of Labor just announced this week that they will issue their final rules on the “persuader” reporting requirement revisions sometime in November. It is a given that these rules will expand what is considered reportable activity to include most services provided by law firms and consultants during union organizing campaigns. That is likely to have a big impact on legal services and, to a lesser extent, on consulting services. More important, we believe that the new rules will also include a requirement for employer reporting. That will be a major regulatory change. This new employer requirement will certainly face legal challenge (after all, the law explicitly exempts payments to bona fide employees). In addition the DOL may want to avoid over-reaching now that the Republicans have a solid majority in the House. During the Clinton Administration the DOL and NLRB were de-funded to prevent enforcement of decisions or regulations that the Congress didn’t approve of. That is very likely to happen again over the next couple of years on all kinds of issues. 3. NLRB decisions and rulemaking will also turn up the heat on employers. We are already seeing the NLRB ask for 21-day elections and see no reason that they won’t just make that policy sometime soon. The only real deterrent is the risk of de-funding discussed above. This would let the Administration argue to unions that they threw them a bone. Democrats need union support now more than ever. Even though unions couldn’t overcome the energy of the Tea Party in this election, things have a way of changing quickly in politics. Look no further than this week’s election – if you argued on November 3rd 2008 that Republicans would take over the House in 2010 you would have been put in a straitjacket. The NLRB is also likely to make decisions or rules that will tilt the playing field in favor of unions. They’ve already asked for proposals to do electronic balloting (essentially card-check by computer) and recently made a decision requiring electronic notice-posting. They have announced their intention to litigate in federal court when employers terminate workers during union campaigns (one might ask why they don’t instead just speed up their own process given the substantial reduction in NLRB filings over the last few years, but I guess that is just asking too much). At the most extreme they might even issue rulemaking on members only or minority bargaining units. 4. Self-help by unions will increase. We are seeing more and more “self-help” activity (sabotage, job actions, corporate campaign activity, strikes) by unions now than in years. Unions are very frustrated by the events in Washington and are beginning to feel powerless to stop it. They are already trying to do to Democrats (think Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas) what the Tea Party is doing to the Republican party. But rest assured they will not go down without a fight. This means employers need to be prepared not just for run of the mill organizing activity, but thinking very clearly about their strategy to deal with things like anti-corporate campaigns and negative PR. Our advice? Relax, but keep a wary eye out. Unions may still get some Washington support for a bit longer, but now that the sun is setting on their ownership of the administration, they will look for other ways to survive. One solid strategy is to focus more on offense than defense now. Do the things you can to strengthen your employee relations environment – get feedback from your employees about how you’re doing, and how they’re feeling; put some effort into training your line supervisors and managers; find innovative ways to reward and motivate employees (flex scheduling, shared leadership, company-sponsored training). You’ll get double dividends from these efforts – a more productive workforce and a decreased vulnerability to whatever tactics Big Labor tries next. ********** EFCA Update As a follow-up to our Insight article, this Update article will highlight some of the results from this week’s election, and Big Labor’s response. Pat Cleary writing for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sums up Big Labor’s political predicament nicely:

Imagine waking up today as a union leader, having just burned $90 million of your members’ money, and having to tell them that you came up empty-handed. Oops! Well, that’s the situation in which unions find themselves today. Figure AFSCME spent about $90 million of their members’ hard-earned dues to support candidates that a whole bunch of the members don’t support. The National Education Association took a break from thwarting education reform to pour $40 million of their members’ money down the same rat hole. Not to be outdone, the SEIU burned $44 million or so, too. Nice. But worse yet for labor, 41 anti-democracy candidates who had voted for, cosponsored or endorsed the “Card Check” bill were defeated, including at least 31 who co-sponsored the bill in the 111th Congress. In the Senate, eight candidates who supported card check lost while West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, who came out against the bill, won. See a pattern here? Worse yet for labor, South Carolina, South Dakota, Arizona and Utah, overwhelmingly passed constitutional amendments requiring a secret ballot election in organizing drives. Of the $4 million spent by the SEIU, they endorsed 29 House candidates, with only 7 winning. The AFL-CIO lost 15 Senate races and 59 House races. Ouch. No wonder they don’t like secret ballot elections. Coercion works so much better.

Further denting Big Labor’s EFCA hopes were four state ballot initiatives requiring the secret ballot election for union elections (South Dakota, Utah, Arizona, South Carolina) – all of them passed. And in perhaps a more devastating blow to unions, a ballot initiative in San Diego County, CA, passed by almost 2 to 1, forbidding unions from negotiating Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on construction projects financed by the county government. Several other California cities took similar action earlier this year, and if this rolls across the country it could be a sledgehammer blow, particularly to construction-industry unions. What is Big Labor’s spin on the election results? One favorite Obama phrase we’re not likely to hear from them is “elections have consequences.” Mary Kay Henry, after boasting on the manpower resources that SEIU members drained from American companies during the election season in order to do Big Labor’s politicking, had this to say, “We are looking to the new leaders elected tonight to show up in January ready to work for the American people — not for the agenda of the nameless, faceless corporations who poured hundreds of millions of dollars into our political process.” Trumka further boasted of all the manpower unions diverted to political objectives, while conceding that not even 65% of “union voters” voted for union-friendly candidates! It is apparent that neither Henry nor Trumka understand that the “nameless, faceless corporations” and small business are who create jobs, and for some reason still tend to believe job growth comes from government intervention in the marketplace. ********** CNA Delusional? When the California Nurses Association (CNA) threatened Watsonville Community Hospital with a strike, hospital management made contingency plans to divert emergency room traffic to a neighboring hospital, for the safety of the patients. Ludicrously enough, the union doesn’t see it the same way. Lisa Harlow of the CNA said that reducing emergency room services was more of a danger to patients, and amounted to “holding the community hostage.” Who is holding whom hostage? It is disingenuous for the union to continually say they are fighting for greater nurse/patient rations, but that if they walk out on strike, patients needing ER services will be better served at a hospital with a contingent of nurses walking the sidewalk than across town at a fully-staffed facility. Perhaps the CNA is not really about ratios after all, but about dues… ********** Future Forward? France provides a glimpse of what could be in our near future, if Big Labor continues to receive the largess of its friend in the White House. The plight of union-led multi-employer pensions plans has been highlighted several times in the last few months, along with AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka’s plea to nationalize all private pension programs. With the rise in membership of public (government) unions, and migration of more of the population into shaky union-managed pensions plans, it is not difficult to foresee similar rioting in the streets of the U.S.A. ********** Employee Relations Tip Of The Month: Developing Others “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.”  Goethe Today’s employees want to develop skills that will make them more marketable. They view learning and development as currency for helping them get ahead in their professional careers. Because most development occurs on-the-job, it is important that you allow your employees to participate in work experiences or activities that support the acquisition and learning of new skills. Providing employees with such opportunities can be a powerful motivator because they are able to enhance their skills while increasing their contribution and value to the organization. Here are some specific actions you can take now to increase engagement by promoting the learning and development of your employees:

1. For your top performers, give them a choice of potential stretch assignments, or identify opportunities for them to make a presentation to higher-level management. 2. Talk to each of your employees about their interests and skills. Discuss career options and ask them where they want to be in three to five years from now. Discuss potential next jobs or development strategies to help them get there. Collaborate to put together a development plan focused on both their current job and the desired future role. Track their progress vs. the plan and coach them along the way. 3. Make arrangements for each of your employees to get feedback from multiple people, including yourself, about what matters most for success in desired future roles. For example, help the employee schedule time to meet with others who are currently in these roles. Recommend that they ask their fellow team members or customers for feedback on what they should stop doing, start doing, and keep doing to be more successful.

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 of Vantagepoint Alliance. ********* Nurses Union Keeps Head In Sand Big Labor looks at the world through very heavily tinted economic glasses, and refuses to acknowledge the basics of marketplace realities. In Northern California, the standard union reaction to management market-driven survival strategies are playing out again, as the CNA voices opposition to a hospital selling off several service units in order so save the company $11 million a year. The nurses union is reacting to the “personal” loss of the dues associated with the potential 69 nurses who may lose their jobs at the hospital due to the move. The CNA is couching its opposition to the move in terms of the loss of services to the community, but according to CEO Bob Merwin, “Hospitals throughout Northern California and the country are exiting renal services and skilled nursing. It has been demonstrated that other community providers who focus exclusively on these specialized services can offer high quality care more cost effectively.” Reading between the lines, the nurses union has priced themselves out of the work. ********* BRAND NEW! Many of our clients have benefited from our TripwireTM Training for supervisors and managers. Front line managers learn how to detect signs of union activity, often long before a petition is filed, and what to do about it. NOW – this valuable training is available online, as a part of our Online Active Interval Training system. In less than an hour, those who are in the best possible position to detect the early warning signs of union organizing will learn how to pick up on these subtle behavioral signs. Their skills will be honed through pre- and post-training questions, engaging lessons, and interactive experiences. And – the training can be reviewed as often as necessary to keep their senses sharp! Test drive the module today. Click here to get set up for a free 15-day trial. If you haven’t yet checked out our entire 8-module Online Active Interval Training system, click here. ********* Union Members Not Happy With Their Leader’s Political Spending In an interesting side bar to this week’s elections, a survey by conducted by long-time pollster Frank Luntz indicated that the majority of union members are dissatisfied that their union leadership chose to spend so much dues money on the political campaigns. Among the findings:

• 60 percent of union members oppose their union bosses’ political spending in the 2010 midterm elections • 60 percent believe that a mostly even balance of power between Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill is best for America • 59 percent of union membership would actually vote to replace their own “union leadership” if given a secret ballot election to do so

Download a PDF of the 18-page survey here. ********** Union-Instigated Voter Shenanigans With Big Labor pinning their survival on political prowess rather than winning hearts in the marketplace, it is inevitable that a little “rule-bending” is sure to occur in most major elections, and this week’s midterms are no exception. First on the list, this tale of union-member mental health workers taking their mentally disabled charges to the voting booth – and voting for them. Watch the video testimony here. We already reported on “faulty” election machines in Nevada, serviced by SEIU-members, that had the Democratic candidate pre-selected on the ballot. Watch the video here of this discovery, with the tale of a similar “peculiarity” occurring in North Carolina. In Arizona, it was reported that Mi Familia Vota, Border Action, and Faith.Hope.Vote! who have direct ties to SEIU, attempted to influence the elections in Yuma County through fraudulent means. Although some attempted to refute the claims , in an interesting twist, the DOJ sent an army of “monitors” to Arizona a day after Mi Familia Vota appealed to the feds. The monitors will intimidate poll watchers from scrutinizing the legality of the voters too closely, making it easier for fraudulent activity to continue. Lastly, there is the issue of foreign money being used by unions to fund political campaigns here in the U.S. Marc Thiessen, columnist for The Washington Post, sketches out the details:

The SEIU claims 100,000 members in Canada. According to SEIU’s 2008 constitution, dues include $7.65 per month per member that must be sent to the SEIU International in the United States. This means that the SEIU takes in nearly $9.2 million per year from foreign nationals — almost 100 times the amount the Chamber receives from its affiliates abroad. Is any foreign money being used to fund the SEIU’s anti-Republican campaign efforts? According to the Wall Street Journal, “The Service Employees International Union, one of the nation’s fastest-growing labor unions, acknowledges that it can’t be certain that foreign nationals haven’t contributed to its $44 million political budget to support pro-labor Democrats.” The SEIU is not the only union that takes in money from foreign members. According to the Canadian Department of Human Resources and Skills Development, the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers has 280,000 Canadian members; the United Food and Commercial Workers has more than 245,000; the Teamsters has more than 108,000; the Laborers’ International Union of North America has more than 68,000; and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has more than 57,000. How much do these foreign union members send to the United States? If the constitutions of their unions are anything like SEIU’s, it could be tens of millions of dollars. Is any of that money being used to help elect Democrats this November?

**********

Trial Underscores Mob/Big Labor Connection

 

Although most Americans seem to think that the mob has been out of business for decades, one of the places mob activity seems to surface most often is in its intersection with the operations of unions and union locals, particularly in the northeast. Union operative Joseph Olivieri was found guilty the last week of October of perjuring himself by denying his ties to the Genovese crime family, and still faces four other charges, including conspiracy and fraud. Olivieri, ex-executive director of the Long Island-based Association of Wall, Ceiling & Carpentry Industries (WC&C), was the alleged point man in a racket enabling union officials and mobsters to siphon around $10 million from scheduled contributions to benefit plans sponsored by New York City-area unions. Olivieri’s Genovese associations included deceased capo Louis Moscatiello, and the mob-murdered Ralph Coppola. Apparently, efforts to obliterate union presence in some parts of the country equates to diminishing mob influence and corruption as well. **********

Union Calls This A “Win” at Wynn?

 

In 2006, the Wynn Las Vegas instituted a tips-sharing policy that angered some of the dealers. The result was a union organizing drive by the Transport Workers Union, which landed the dealers in negotiations with the company beginning in 2007. Now, 3 years after contract talks started, the members approved a 10-year contract that retains the supposedly egregious tips-sharing rule! The agreement is identical to the “last and final offer” submitted by the company almost a year ago. How did the union spin the contract vote? According to Kanie Kastroll, president of Transport Workers Union Local 721, “They [union members] have demonstrated that they truly understand the value of union protection, brotherhood and a labor contract.” Many of the members saw through the discrepancy of union promises vs. what they delivered, and have filed with the NLRB to decertify the TWU. ********** Sticky Fingers Current charges or sentences of embezzling union officials:

Gilbert Woods CWA $25,465
Brian Wilson AFSCME $10,500
Connie Ball BCTGM $7,554
Anthony Green GMP $3,100
Caleb Gray-Burriss NASPSO $100,000
Gregory Sims IBEW $800,000

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

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