Labor Relations
In this issue:
- EFCA Update
- UAW Scorched Earth Policy
- Change To…What?
- Labor Relations Insight, Only In A Union and more…
Labor Relations Insight by Phillip Wilson
Will The SEIU Survive?
Sometime tomorrow the results of one of the most important union elections in history will be announced in California. The survival of the SEIU in California (and perhaps everywhere) hangs in the balance. The election will decide whether 43,500 Kaiser Permanente workers will remain SEIU members or will switch to the renegade NUHW that split from the SEIU last year.
No matter what the results, the case is likely to last a while longer. Even if NUHW loses the election tomorrow it is very likely they will challenge the results. After all, earlier this week the NLRB asked a federal court to enjoin Kaiser from withholding wage increases from NUHW members, which was the main argument the SEIU used to go after NUHW in the Kaiser election.
In a real way this election is a fight for the SEIU’s soul and future. The implosion of the the SEIU in California was presided over by former SEIU President Andy Stern, who needed to protect his political position and could not stomach the renegade local in California criticizing his organizing strategies. By placing the local in trusteeship in January 2009 and expelling its former leader Sal Roselli, Stern effectively imploded the SEIU in California. Ironically Stern left the presidency later last year, but the damage in California was already done.
The election campaign in California has already cost both unions millions of dollars. Should SEIU eventually lose the election (I predict they will, either through the vote or through objections later) they stand to lose millions more each year in dues income. The SEIU will remain quite powerful even if they lose this revenue stream, but it will be devastating to them in California. An emboldened NUHW could eventually begin picking off big healthcare units elsewhere in the country and that eventually could jeopardize the SEIU.
We will keep our readers posted as the ballots are counted and of course will follow the story of the aftermath, no matter who wins. The bottom line: watch this one carefully whether you are involved in healthcare or not. You may be witnessing the beginning of the end of America’s most powerful union.
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EFCA Update
As predicted, the Senate failed in its attempt to overturn the recent National Mediation Board election rule change, so it will remain open season on airline organizing.
Across the hall at the NLRB, the agency is promising to sharpen one of the tools in the Big Labor’s organizing arsenal. From the moment an organizing campaign begins, it is almost impossible for a company to fire an employee without the union filing an Unfair Labor Practice charge. The union will always claim that the employee was fired due to his or her organizing efforts, or even attitudes toward the union, whether true or not. The NLRB announced it will expedite investigations into such claims.
It appears even Senate Democrats are tiring of the endless parade of former union lawyers finding their way into Presidential appointment slots. John Sullivan, a former SEIU attorney linked to several union scandals and the 2nd largest fine in Federal Election Commission history, had been appointed to the FEC by President Obama over a year ago but still awaits confirmation. When a Democrat Senator sought for unanimous consent for a long list of held-up appointments earlier this summer, Sullivan was left off that list.
In California, State Senator Darrell Steinberg has moved to push a Trojan Horse through the legislature, in the form of Senate Bill 1474 that would eliminate secret ballot elections in unionization drives for agricultural workers. Governor Schwarzenegger has vetoed similar attempts before, and will likely do so again.
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UAW Scorched Earth Policy
UAW members in Indiana decided to give the finger to Indiana and force the closure of a former GM plant rather than agreeing to pay restructuring (and a $35,000 cash bonus to boot). A buyer for the plant was prepared to keep the 650 workers employed, as long as they agreed to bring their pay scale in line with industry averages. The employees would still have retained the option to transfer to another GM plant within two years, and were offered the $35,000 cash payout as a way to soften the pay cut if they decided to stay local. The UAW’s answer – screw you!
The buyer anticipated ramping the plant up to 2000 workers eventually, so not only did the UAW stiff Indiana for the 650 existing jobs, they eliminated 1350 potential jobs as well. The cost to the local economy includes $1.8 million loss per year in tax revenue to the county, and a payroll of about $40 million of consumer spending that just evaporated.
State officials are not happy. Indiana Secretary of Commerce Mitch Roob summed it up this way, “We’re exasperated by this …. The taxpayers of this country bailed out General Motors and their workers. Now, those workers here turned their backs on future generations of people who might have had their jobs in Indiana.”
“This whole process has been corrupted by the international (union),” said Jeff Klingerman, 56, an Indianapolis tool-and-die maker. Some industry analysts are concerned that the vote could complicate the sale of 16 additional GM factories and other assets left behind in the GM bailout.
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Change To… What?
One must wonder when the other shoe will drop. What does Change To Win provide, other than positions of “authority” for possible resume enhancement? It is no longer the “alternative” that it purported itself to be at inception, and in fact is now pledging to cooperate with the AFL-CIO in political and legislative action. It was against such priorities that Change To Win was conceived in the first place.
Nevertheless, even as the Laborers announce their re-association with the AFL-CIO, Change To Win elected UFCW President Joe Hansen as its new chair, and Teamsters President James Hoffa as its new Secretary-Treasurer. Hansen replaces Anna Burger, who recently resigned from her post at Change To Win simultaneous with her resignation as secretary-treasurer of SEIU. Hoffa replaces Edgar Romney, whose union, UNITE-HERE, had already left Change To Win to rejoin the AFL-CIO.
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Keeping Law Enforcement Employed
One thing can be said about the state of New Jersey: it provides job security for those in law enforcement who target union corruption. In August, Nunzio LaGrasso, secretary-treasurer of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Local #1478, and three others were arrested on charges ranging from commercial bribery to extortion and money laundering. In September, two members of the Production Workers Union Local #148 were arrested for embezzling more than $375,000 from the union members they purported to serve. Secretary-treasurer David Ciavano and union president Stephen Arena are accused of stacking board seats with members who provided no accountability and doctoring minutes of meetings in order to give the appearance that raises, bonuses and paid vacations were authorized.
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Union Squeeze Play On Bank
The UAW, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, and several Detroit area churches and ministers are cutting up their Chase credit cards and withdrawing their funds from Chase banks. Supposedly, the effort is aimed at Chase’s refusal to issue a moratorium on Detroit-area foreclosures, and because the bank has ties to R.J. Reynolds. Reynolds is accused by the group of exploiting tobacco workers in North Carolina.
The ministers are asking area churches and their members to remove their funds from the New York-based bank. Including the UAW strike fund, hundreds of millions of dollars are reportedly involved. Since financial institutions are under increasing union organizing pressure, ulterior motives should be considered for the squeeze play.
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Stern Under The Microscope?
The FBI and DOL investigators have suddenly taken an interest in the activities of Andy Stern, the former president of the SEIU. Two issues are being scrutinized: first, a book publishing deal that saw the union bite the bullet for thousands of copies, and second, Stern’s role in the approval of the salary of Alejandro Stephens, a corrupt SEIU leader in California who apparently performed no work.
The SEIU and its locals bought thousands of Sterns book after it was released by Simon and Schuster, and paid thousands to fact-check and promote the book, although Stern pocketed the full $175,000 advance.
Stephens is on his way to jail for stealing $52,000 from a voter outreach program, while narrowly escaping additional embezzlement charges. Prior to his conviction, the disgraced labor leader had been displaced from his role as president of an SEIU local when his local was merged with another. Shortly thereafter, he was engaged as a “consultant” to the SEIU under a secret agreement Stern allegedly approved. However, Stephens apparently did little to no work in exchange for the salary, and federal law prohibits labor unions from creating what amounts to “no–show” jobs that pay someone for work they do not perform.
Upon the disclosure of the investigation, Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government, called on President Obama to fire Stern from the National Debt Commission and to cease meeting with him in the White House. Included in Wilson’s issued statement,
“Stern has no business sitting on a presidential commission while the FBI is investigating him, or meeting with top White House officials, including Obama.
“If the White House will not fire Stern, then members of Congress must urge Obama to do so. Congress has a vested interest in the findings of the debt commission not being tainted by a union corruption scandal, and assuring that White House appointments are properly vetted.”
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CNA Disruption Tactics Fail
After two years of stalling by the California Nurses Association at the negotiating table, the NLRB ruled that the California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) acted appropriately when it implemented a new health care plan for all its employees. During the time, the union negotiators constantly cancelled bargaining sessions, and disrupted many of those they did attend. CPMC finally declared an impasse and moved ahead with the implementation of its proposed health care plan.
The CNA attempted to argue that negotiations were not at an impasse and that CPMC was bargaining in bad faith, but Judge Gerald A.Wacknov of the NLRB dismissed the claims.
In Napa Valley, the CNA lost another round when nurses at Queen of the Valley Medical Center voted 236 to 193 to reject the union’s organizing attempt.
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Only In A Union
Although the SEIU thinks nothing of illegally encamping hundreds of union members on a bank official’s front lawn and terrorizing his teenaged son, they get a bit nervous when a lone angry housewife shows up at their office in Arizona to protest the SEIU “boycott” of her home state.
View video by clicking here.
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Social Media Impacting Labor Law
How you as a business owner or manager react to employee posts and comments on Facebook pages may set off unfair labor practice charges. Although it may seem that businesses have a right to protect their reputations in the online space, unions will attempt to make the case that employee online activity is a protected right under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. Additionally, attempting to monitor employee online activity can violate the NLRA prohibitions against surveillance.
The NLRB’s Division of Advice issued an advice memorandum in December 2009, addressing whether a Sears Holdings Corp. social media policy violated Section 8 of the NLRA. In this case, the board held in favor of the company, based on a 2004 Bush-era board decision (Lutheran Heritage Village — Livonia, 343 NLRB 646). However, with the composition of the current board, this is likely to be challenged soon, and reversed. At the same time, the 2007 Register Guard decision that allowed companies to prohibit the use of company email systems for non-employment activities could also see reversal.
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Sticky Fingers
Current charges or sentences of embezzling union officials:
| Jimmie Leo Miles | IBEW | $93,284 |
| Elizabeth Mills | LIUNA | $7,721 |
| Joe Ann Duffy | IBT | $13,738 |
http://www.nlpc.org/union-corruption-update
