INK: June 11, 2009

Labor Relations INK

Download a PDF of this issue with links here.

In This Issue:

• Insight from Phil Wilson
• EFCA Update
• Internicine Battle Rages On
• Organizing Campaign Moves To Public Square
• and more…

Labor Relations Insight from Phil Wilson

Baby Boomers the Secret Key to Engagement?

A recent study by Boston College’s Sloan Center on Aging & Work, researchers found that employee engagement among younger workers has dropped significantly during this recent economic downturn. That’s not really surprising – as I discuss in my book The Next 52 Weeks, job security is one of the keys to job satisfaction.

What is surprising is that the engagement of older workers has hardly budged during this economic downturn. Read the rest of the article here…

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EFCA Update

Big Labor ratcheted up their pressure tactics, finding a creative point of leverage to intimidate fund managers on Wall Street from speaking out against the Employee Free Choice Act. In a questionnaire, managers were asked such questions as, “Has your company made any public statements in support or opposition to EFCA?” The implied threat is that unions will move their pension monies out of these fund managers’ hands, which is basically an illegal act of coercion. Read a letter sent by one Teamsters local to their fund managers.

We’ve already written about the stacking of the National Labor Relations Board with pro-labor appointments. Meet Craig Becker in this 6 minute video to get a sense for the radical pro-union flavor these appointments will bring to the board.

Some are wondering if the 3-way conflagration between the SEIU, UNITE-HERE, and the fledgling breakaway union Workers United will hamper the efforts of Big Labor to push the EFCA forward. Not likely, but it does make for high entertainment value (see story below)!

Investors Business Daily, meanwhile, points us to a fascinating National Bureau of Economic Research study that concludes that companies typically lose 10% of their stock value after being unionized. The study found the average loss per company was $40,500 in 1998 dollars for each worker eligible to vote.

Another group of business leaders, this time an Hispanic organization in Colorado, has weighed in to lobby their senator to oppose the bill, and another Wall Street Journal editorial points to additional problems caused by binding arbitration provisions in the EFCA: union leaders will be harder to hold accountable, and it will be even harder than it is now to get rid of a union once it is in place

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FREE! EFCA Strategy Review & Vulnernability Audit

This has quickly become one of our most popular programs, in light of upcoming labor law changes. It is more important than ever to assess both the internal and external factors that contribute to your company’s vulnerability to union penetration, and formulate action plans to shore up any uncovered weaknesses.

• What are the most likely labor law changes, and how will they impact my vulnerabilities?

• What are the six strategies I can implement to strengthen my defense against union encroachment?

• When do I talk to my employees about unions? What do I say about unions?

CLICK HERE to schedule your free 30-minute consultation with Phil Wilson, LRI’s President and General Counsel.

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Internecine Battle Rages On

You will not find better soap opera on TV. As UNITE HERE begins to crumble with the recent leadership split, one former co-leader (Bruce Raynor) charges the other with tactics “more reminiscent of the Sopranos than anything I’ve ever seen in my trade union career,” then resigns, while the other side charges Raynor with using internal resources to organize a breakaway faction intending to join the Service Employees International Union, and claims to have been planning to boot him anyway. Meanwhile, it appears John Wilhelm (the surviving head of UNITE-HERE) is attempting to use the affair to combat his arch enemy, Andy Stern and the SEIU, by planting stories in the media accusing Stern of directing the entire affair as a way to sabotage Wilhelm’s union.

As the drama unfolds, Raynor and his new Workers United union are pleading to SEIU for financial assistance, claiming they are running a deficit of $300,000 a month. Raynor is also besmirching the reputation of Amalgamated Bank, whose holding company is his former union, claiming that UNITE-HERE is in “total chaos.”

SEIU continues with its own troubles. As its largest local seceded to become a separate union (the NUHW), other SEIU officials have either been indicted for fraudulent activity (we’ve covered in detail over the past year), or have resigned in disgust at SEIU practices.

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Follow The Money, Or Lack Thereof!

We’ve  reported before some of the troubles that union pension plans are having, and why this is one of the driving factors in the desperate push for the EFCA by Big Labor. Some have done the math, and calculated that the enactment of some EFCA-type bill would put upwards of $637,500,000 per year into union coffers, equating to over $35 billion in the next 10 years for Big Labor to meddle in politics and the continued degradation of Americas businesses. Additionally, the poor state of union pension funds could be turned around as fresh dues payers/pensioners pay in for the benefits of already retired workers.

Pension funds are a big issue. A recent report indicated almost half of the nation’s 20 largest unions have pension funds that federal law classifies as “endangered” or in “critical” condition due to being underfunded. In a vile travesty of moral failure, union officer pension funds remain in top shape despite this erosion of employee funds. One researcher, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, lamented, “Unions attract members by telling them they will look after them and that these plans are fully funded but they are not. Yet they are fully funding their own officer pensions. What we have are new members joining up so they can guarantee that the officers will have a secure retirement. In some cases they are giving up existing 401k pensions that do better than these underfund Ponzi schemes. The membership dues are not being used to build up assets they are being used to fund the officer’s retirements and to cover current retirees.”

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Only In A Union

Shortly after members of IBEW Local 459 went on strike near Reading, Pennsylvania, specialized electrical equipment belonging to the Pennsylvania Electric Company was vandalized, creating a minor emergency and initiating the response of crisis repair crews. The company was forced to increase security measures, and contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security to apprise them of the situation.

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Pro-Company Workers Take Action

A chain of grocery stores in Arizona has been fighting a long-running battle with the United Food & Commercial Workers, including the filing of a defamation lawsuit, and defending Unfair Labor Practice charges before the National Labor Relations Board. In a recent development, fed-up Bashas employees joined the fray and began a series of protests outside the UFCW Local 99’s Phoenix offices.

The group hopes other employees will join in the grassroots effort to protect their company against deceitful UFCW organizing and corporate campaign tactics.

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Internal Finger Pointing, Ad Naseum

Tom Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and a member of the AFL-CIO’s finance committee, stated that the AFL-CIO has used “creative accounting” to mask its dismal financial position.

The largest U.S. labor organization in the country has seen its assets decline to a negative $2.3 million as of June 30, 2008, from a $66 million surplus on July 1, 2000. “If we are not careful, insolvency may be right around the corner,” Buffenbarger’s report said.

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Organizing Campaign Moves to the Public Square

Typical scenario:

• Union wants national company to allow the organization of its employees via card check rather than secret ballot.
• Company says no.
• Labor federation begins corporate campaign against company to bring public pressure to bear.

Recently, Change To Win played this well-worn card in a 9-city “protest” against CVS Pharmacy, claiming that the company was selling products past their expiration dates. CVS is a constant target of both the SEIU and UFCW, both members of Change To Win. Change To Win denies the allegation, but an employment lawyer familiar with corporate campaigns said, “I’d be amazed if this is purely a coincidence.”

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SEIU vs. NUHW

As SEIU continues to battle the newly formed National Union of Healthcare Workers, companies currently represented by SEIU are being dragged into the fray. In the latest episode, employees of a Kaiser Permanente facility in Stockton, CA, picketed on behalf of the NUHW. Kaiser claimed neutrality, but protesters disputed the claim. “We strongly disagree that Kaiser is neutral in this. We are forced to pay dues – $72.90 a month – to SEIU, a union that is not working in the best interest of the worker. We’re here to make sure everybody knows about it,” said one protester, Robert Nevarez. Protesters want the opportunity to oust SEIU in favor of NUHW, but is claiming Kaiser is working to prevent the action because SEIU won’t push for raising wages.

Across the state in Fresno, the SEIU is working to quash a move by Fresno home health care workers to elect out of SEIU and into NUHW. At a rally held on Sunday May 31, SEIU-UHW Trustee Dave Regan told SEIU staff to “administer an old-school ass-whipping” to NUHW supporters. “In other words, what we gotta do here, my old-school friends, is we have to administer an old-school ass-whipping over the next two weeks,” he said. “I know everybody knows what that means. We gotta give a butt-whipping they will never forget,” he added. “We gotta put them in the ground and bury them.” Watch the video here.

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Transform Your Workplace!

A step-by-step guide on how to dramatically improve employee engagement at your company. Includes checklists, action-planning guides and more.

• How to determine your company’s internal and external vulnerability – and why you have to deal with both kinds of vulnerability.

• Critical training for your first-line supervisors, and how you can turn them into a key to your employee engagement strategy.

CLICK HERE to find out more about The Next 52 Weeks: One Year To Transform Your Work Environment by Phillip B. Wilson

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UAW Tanks General Motors

If you’re still wondering exactly how much GM’s high labor costs played into its demise as a viable auto manufacturer, read this quick report. Robert Dewar, author of a recent book about the auto industry debacle, in a recent visit to China shared compelling data to back his claim.

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Danger In The Shadows

In another example of the many back-channel means that Big Labor supporters are looking to reward their union funding sources, New York state legislators recently tried to slide two new labor-friendly bills quietly past the public. One bill would force employers to pay up to 50% of a union’s lost dues if “extreme provocation” led to a strike, and the second makes it easier for unions to block public employers from imposing new rules. The legislation would lead to illegal strikes by public employees.

The Mayor of New York City got wind of the ruse. “Rather than rewarding illegal behavior, our Legislature should make sure that these potentially life-threatening events never happen again,” a spokesman for the mayor’s legislative office said.

On the opposite side of the country, Oregon is attempting to become the first state to pass an employer gag law that would severely restrict what employers could say to their employees during union organizing campaigns. Washington state just defeated such an attempt, and despite the bills dubious legality, Oregon legislators seem bent on pressing the matter home.

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Win for Right-To-Work

A field-tech with Verizon, located in Tampa, FL, was part of a team assembled to work in California, but was sent home by the CWA because she was not a member of the IBEW in her home state, a right-to-work state. When she applied for a similar second work team headed to that state, she was again denied. The National Right to Work Foundation assisted the employee in a filing a suit against the company and both unions for discrimination based on union membership, in which she won compensation for lost time, and an agreement that the unions will post notices that such discrimination is illegal.

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Labor Relations INK is published semi-weekly and
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INK: February 27, 2009

Labor Relations INK

Download a PDF of this issue with links here.

 

Labor Relations Insight from Phil Wilson

Solis vs. Corruption

Hilda Solis was confirmed as Secretary of Labor this week. After a bumpy confirmation process in which her nomination was held up by questions about her role as a lobbyist for the Free Choice Act while also serving in Congress, she was approved overwhelmingly by the Senate.

Unions are happy with Solis, who served on the Board of American Rights at Work, a non-profit, union-funded lobbying organization whose purpose is to garner for the Free Choice Act. Businesses are wary for the same reason. I’m sure she is anxious to get to work. She has big shoes to fill.

read the rest of the article here…

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SEIU Attempts “Hostile Takeover”

The SEIU again displayed its true colors by launching a sophisticated and well-coordinated attack on another union, the California Nurses Association (CNA). The SEIU is apparently attempting to take over the CNA-NNOC by soliciting SEIU-allied individuals to run for the CNA-NNOC national board of directors, as well as attempting to harass and intimidate the CNA-NNOC leadership.

The strategy included the impersonation of nurses through the creation of a false “RN” group with a fake website, e-mail address, and phone number. Multiple smear mail pieces and e-mail alerts were distributed, along with phone calls soliciting recruits to run for the CNA-NNOC board on SEIU’s behalf. SEIU brought in staff from around the country for the campaign, that in true Big Labor fashion included uninvited home visits to CNA-NNOC members.

SEIU spokesperson Michelle Ringuette first denied the attack, but when faced with overwhelming evidence, admitted to the campaign, defiantly saying SEIU would do everything in its power to protect its interests.

 

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CNA on Steroids?

On Feb 18th, three nurses unions announce their intent to merge into one larger organization, calling it the United American Nurses-National Nurses Organizing Committee. The three unions involved are the California Nurses Association-National Nurses Organizing Committee, the United American Nurses, and the Massachusetts Nurses Association. Their combined membership would total 150,000.

Of their five stated goals, the one to which they have committed the majority of their operating budget is the organizing of all nonunion direct care RNs in the U.S. With the recent attack by SEIU upon the CNA, it can also be presumed that they desire to become a harder target against such attacks in the future. Thus, a majority of their efforts would seem to be spent in organizing, union in-fighting, and of course, political activism. Hardly seems there will be much time (or money) left over to work for the betterment of their members.

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CWA Attempts Stiff-Arm Tactics

Members of the Communication Workers of America (CWA) were falsely informed that they have no right to resign from formal union membership and would face hefty fines if they choose to continue to work if CWA ordered a threatening strike.

With the help of National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, two New Jersey AT&T employees filed unfair labor practice charges against the CWA Local 1101 union for such misconduct. Union officials have no legal power to punish nonmember employees for honoring their commitments to their employer, and they have attempted to confuse the issue by telling CWA union members in Washington, Michigan, Ohio and New Jersey that any attempt to resign from union membership is prohibited.

“It’s particularly despicable to threaten workers with fines if they refuse to abandon their jobs in the midst of an economic crisis,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “All workers should be free to support their families, free from ugly threats by union bosses.”

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EFCA Counter-Measure

The fight against the Employee Free Choice Act took a new turn on Feb 25th. Senator Jim DeMint (R-S. Carolina) introduced a bill, the Secret Ballot Protection Act (SBPA), that will guarantee the right of American workers to have a secret ballot election on whether to unionize. SBPA has also been introduced in the House with over 100 co-sponsors.

This is a commendable effort, but regardless of the outcome, keep in mind we have warned that Big Labor may well compromise their effort on EFCA by giving up the elimination of the secret ballot process in order to retain the mandatory arbitration provision.

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Case Against EFCA

A detailed study recently released thoroughly debunks the claims made by proponents of the EFCA. Written by noted legal scholar Richard Epstein, it addresses the EFCA’s three provisions, and soundly criticizes the justification supporters cite for the bill. It is a lengthy but readable document (download PDF).

Says Epstein, “The bottom line therefore is that the passage of EFCA will create huge dislocations in established ways of doing business that will in turn lead to large losses in productivity.”

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EFCA Awareness Problem

A new poll conducted by the Employment Law Alliance indicates that 75% of American workers are still completely in the dark about the Employee Free Choice Act. Here is a summary of the findings:

• Only one-quarter reported that they were aware of the EFCA

• Slightly over one-quarter (26%) say they support the EFCA, and nearly as many (24%) oppose it

• Fewer than one-third (30%) of those surveyed support replacing a secret-ballot election with a “card check” system to determine union representation; 35% were opposed

• Asked about the use of government-supervised, binding arbitration to settle a contract in the event of a deadlock, 37% favor this while 22% were opposed

Pro-business interests have a long way to go to get the public informed and on their side!

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FEBRUARY SCOREBOARD

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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Employee Relations tip-of-the-month

Have employees interview each other about their “highlight moments” at work – make sure that they describe in detail. Write down or record the interviews (audio or video) and start collecting them. When you have a bunch of them, bind them in a book or put them together as a movie and give them out to employees. This can have a long-lasting positive impact.

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UFCW vs. Grocers

The United Food and Commercial Workers is mixing it up with three California grocers. Last year, pharmacists voted to join what is called UFCW’s Professional Division. The union asked to sit down with representatives of Albertsons, Vons and Ralphs and negotiate a separate contract. The three grocers’ UFCW contracts don’t expire until 2011, and they don’t believe they’re obligated to negotiate until then.

In 2003 and 2004, the UFCW and the three grocers engaged in a rough-and-tumble labor battle that included a five-month strike and lockout.

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Union Pockets

Here’s a quick glimpse of some 4th Quarter union expenditures:

* Teamsters spent $373K lobbying government in 4Q

* American Airlines pilot union spent $120K lobbying in 4Q

* Southwest Airlines pilot union spent $40K lobbying in 4Q

* Air Line Pilots Association spent $230K lobbying in 4Q

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Labor Relations INK is published semi-weekly and
is edited by Labor Relations Institute, Inc. Feel
free to pass this newsletter on to anyone you
think might enjoy it. New subscribers can sign up
by visiting:

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If you use content from this newsletter please
attribute it to Labor Relations Institute and
include our website address: www.LRIonline.com

Contributing editors for this issue: Phillip Wilson, Greg Kittinger

Labor Relations Institute
7850 South Elm Place – Suite E
Broken Arrow, OK
74011
US

INK: November 5, 2008

Labor Relations INK

Download a PDF of this issue with links here.

 

Special Election Edition

Obama Wins – What about the EFCA?

It is Wednesday morning and I am beat. After staying up late to see whether there would be a call in Minnesota, Georgia, Alaska and Oregon (there wasn’t) I finally hit the sack around 1AM. Things aren’t any clearer this morning.

As I write this today it looks like there will be a runoff in Georgia. In Oregon the Republican has a slim lead with 75% of the ballots counted – still way too close to call. Minnesota is headed for a recount. It looks like Alaska will remain a Republican seat.

Based on this, it looks like Democrats will have between 56 and 58 seats when all is said and done (including two independents who caucus with the Democrats, although Joe Lieberman may be kicked out of the Democratic caucus tomorrow).

What does that mean for the EFCA?

…read the rest of this article on our blog.

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Great Depression Redo?

It took until the last weeks of the campaign, but finally several good articles have emerged showing the connection between President Franklin Roosevelt’s anti-competitive, pro-union labor policies and the unnecessary extension of the Great Depression. These two articles (here & here) include additional insight into trade policies and taxes, while this article describes the impact of the Wagner Act and the role of state right-to-work laws in finally turning the situation in a positive direction in the 1950’s.
Both warn that the passage of the EFCA is likely to cause similar damage to an already fragile economy.

 

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The Real EFCA Losers

This article in Forbes does a nice job of highlighting another impact of increased unionization, highly likely under the Employee Free Choice Act:

“A 2002 study by the Bureau of National Affairs found that…private sector workers in the 10 least unionized states earned $1,600 more annually than workers in the 10 most heavily unionized states. What’s more, between 1992 and 2002, the less unionized states generated twice as many nonfarm jobs–with better benefits–than more unionized states. “

Swelling the union roles will also exacerbate the growing tendency of unions to act contrary to the wishes of their members. “Big Labor will get more money and added flexibility to further ignore the wishes of its rank-and-file and pursue its political agenda.”

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Union Impacts Merger

The Communications Workers of America has sued AT&T over a proprosed restructuring plan, and accused the company of using “corporate shell games to avoid contractural obligations.”

AT&T has been working to meld the various business units it acquired after the breakup of the old Bell System into a single enterprise. The CWA lawsuit seeks to force AT&T to honor its obligations under collective bargaining agreements and to recognize all subsidiaries’ existing union contracts.

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The Future of Political Campaigns?

Even before Americans began entering the polling booth, the AFL-CIO was congratulating its membership for the huge expenditure of time and money during the campaign. As we mentioned in the adjacent article on union political activism (The Real EFCA losers), this litany of tactics will only compound under an EFCA climate.

 

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A Global Labor Reaction

It may be prudent to look at how the global labor movement is reacting to the economic climate, particularly with a new regime in control in the U.S.

All labor movements are driven by particular ideological viewpoints, and yet they borrow strategy, rhetoric, and tactics from each other any time it serves their purposes, especially when they can lean on “global justifications” for their prefered agenda.

It is no surprise that Big Labor in the U.S. is crying out for re-regulation of financial markets, universal health care, and huge government spending programs. Interestingly, as a part of their 8-point program, Change To Win labels the passage of the EFCA as occuring “at no cost to taxpayers.” Although the cost won’t come in taxes, as described elsewhere in this issue of INK, there will be a huge price to pay if unionization runs rampant.

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Required Reading!

An Interview with Don Wilson: The EFCA. This is a free transcript of an interview with the CEO of Labor Relations Institute on the EFCA and its impact on American businesses.

Click here to download a PDF of the transcript.

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Prepare, Don’t React

We have been sounding the alarm since the EFCA first surfaced on the legislative radar about the need for U.S. businesses to adopt new sets of practices. The worst response is a knee-jerk reaction. What is required is a purposeful strategy that will retain the trust of employees, along with a preparedness plan in the event union organizing activity surfaces. These management attorneys reinforce our position, and provide some great groundwork for building employee trust.

Our EFCA Tool Kit provides a strategic preparedness kit-in-a-box that nicely complements such proactive actions.

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Coming Soon to the U.S.?

France announced that it would impose surveillance on companies to prevent them from taking certain business actions, such as off-shoring jobs. If Big Labor continues to buy up our government, would we soon follow France’s lead?

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Sticky Fingers!

Current charges or sentences of embezzling union officials:

Karimah Bailey – AFGE: $98,802

Teresa Cora Luna- IATSE: $67,416

Louella M. Zieman – IAIW: $51,684

Michael St. John – GMP: $24,000

Christopher Ethington – UAW: $15,100

Luther L. Corey – ATU: $16,288

David Thompson – BLE: $8,767

Chad Mowery – BLE: $2,537

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Labor Relations INK is published semi-weekly and
is edited by Labor Relations Institute, Inc. Feel
free to pass this newsletter on to anyone you
think might enjoy it. New subscribers can sign up
by visiting:

http://lrionline.com/free-stuff/newsletter-signup

If you use content from this newsletter please
attribute it to Labor Relations Institute and
include our website address: www.LRIonline.com

Contributing editors for this issue: Phillip Wilson, Greg Kittinger

Labor Relations Institute
7850 South Elm Place – Suite E
Broken Arrow, OK
74011
US

INK: September 11, 2008

Labor Relations INK

Download a PDF of this issue with links here.

 

The Stench of Scandal

In a new attempt to shape up the SEIU ship, president Andy Stern has requested the help of two labor reform groups, both of which are skeptical of Stern’s proposal. The SEIU placed Tyrone Freeman, a senior manager at its biggest California local, on leave and two lower-ranking staffers lost their jobs, because of allegations that other employees were retaliated against in connection with a widening spending scandal. Disclosure of their conduct has launched a federal criminal investigation and a congressional inquiry. Part of Stern’s plan involves a new “ethics code” and an internal watchdog commission, but as Herman Benson, founder of the Association for Union Democracy said, “Why does he need a new code of ethics? People didn’t know that what they were doing was wrong? It’s preposterous.” Ken Paff of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union chastised the SEIU for not taking action sooner on the misdeads of an LA-based local. “How could they not know?” Paff said of the SEIU’s national leadership.

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$100 Million Per Day Flushed

The 27,000 plus striking workers at Boeing will cost the company $100 Million of lost revenue for every day the strike lasts. It will also disrupt the already-behind-schedule of the new 787 Dreamliner, perhaps exposing the company to demands for compensation from airlines frustrated by further delays. Scott Carson, Boeing’s head of commercial aircraft, said: “Over the past two days, Boeing, the union [International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers] and the federal mediator worked hard in pursuing options that could lead to an agreement. Unfortunately, the differences were too great to close.” In 2005, the Machinists struck for 24 days, and this is the second strike in as many contract negotiations with Boeing. The 2005 strike caused the delayed delivery of over two dozen airplanes. Thirty-year Boeing employee Ed Zvonik, said of the expected length of the strike, “It could be a couple of days, or three months. It depends on whether the company wants them to go back to work,” he said. As of July, Boeing reported a backlog of airplane orders totaling $346 billion.

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Republicans Respond to EFCA Threat

The GOP is adding a plank to their policy platform that safeguards a workers right to unionize through secret-ballot elections and protects them from corruption and intimidation. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said of the move, “I think that it’s just a principle of American democracy that you should be able to choose to be a member of a union or not be a member of a union, and you should be able to make that choice without anything rigged either way.”

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Only In a Union

Staff members of the SEIU Florida Public Service Union were forced to file a petition to gain recognition of their collective bargaining agent, the Communication Workers of America (CWA). Apparently, although Big Labor would like to force card check recognition on the rest of the country via the Employee Free Choice Act, they do not believe in giving the same opportunity to their employees.

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SEIU Sabotages Student Efforts

Andy Stern’s union torpedoed the efforts of students attempting to aid in the organizing of service workers on four campuses. In an open letter to SEIU, the students complained of being treated as “pawns.”

An agreement signed by SEIU and service employers caused the ruckus. The agreement, grants those companies the right to determine where SEIU will organize. Interesting that SEIU is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to promote the Employee Free Choice Act, stating the need for workers to have the right to individually choose whether or not they desire a union, while at the same time entering into master agreements that insure workers at certain company locations will never even have the opportunity to choose.

Nelson Lichtenstein, a professor of history at the University of California at Santa Barbara and director of the UC-Santa Barbara’s Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy, said of the agreement, “It does have a bad odor to it, absolutely.”

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ULP Charge of the Month

Concerned about mismanagement by his Steelworkers Local 386 officials, this member was forced to file 3 different ULP Charges to review phone and credit card records.

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Most Decertified Union Award

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is the winner of Union Free America’s 3rd Annual award, given to the labor union that lost the most decertification elections during the preceding 12 months.

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Sticky Fingers!

Current charges or sentences of embezzling union officials:

Donna Simpson – USW: $87,823

Kenneth Saltz – USW: $15,809

Jamie Solis – USW: $15,000

Katherine Leese – FOP: $87,000

Amy Cross – Utility Workers: $31,886

Brian Dolney – IAM: $11,565

Gerald Conaway – FOP: $5,500

Willie Chambers – Int’l Guards Union: $6,805

Rebecca Montgomery – IAM: $508

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Labor Relations INK is published semi-weekly and
is edited by Labor Relations Institute, Inc. Feel
free to pass this newsletter on to anyone you
think might enjoy it. New subscribers can sign up
by visiting:

http://lrionline.com/free-stuff/newsletter-signup

If you use content from this newsletter please
attribute it to Labor Relations Institute and
include our website address: www.LRIonline.com

Contributing editors for this issue: Phillip Wilson, Greg Kittinger

Labor Relations Institute
7850 South Elm Place – Suite E
Broken Arrow, OK
74011
US