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
is edited by Labor Relations Institute, Inc. Feel
free to pass this newsletter on to anyone you
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Contributing editors for this issue: Phillip Wilson, Greg Kittinger

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Labor Relations INK

Download a PDF of this issue with links here.

In This Issue:

• EFCA Update
• SEIU Red Ink
• IAM’s Suicide Solution
• PLUS May Scoreboard and more…

PDF with links: http://lrionline.com/ink/images/052909/ink_052909.pdf

EFCA Update

In a nice op-ed piece, Bret Jacobsen highlights another coup of the EFCA proponents in controlling the language of the debate: using the word “compromise” to denote what will end up being the bill they will push through into law. We have taken to calling it the “EFCA or derivative,” rather than suggest that any change to the current law is validly required via some type of compromise with Big Labor. As former NLRB member Peter Kirsanow has suggested, none of the “compromise” options being floated are really a compromise at all, including mail-in ballots.

Another reason for the desperate drive for Big Labor to have an easier time organizing (and pushing for mandatory arbitration) was exposed: the need to strengthen drastically underfunded union pension plans (see also here and here).

Meanwhile, Andy Stern calls Democracy an “ugly thing” and continues to push for a degradation of democracy in union elections via coercive card-check, and Senator Harkin threatens to back some Democrats against the wall (who have been wavering on EFCA) via a straight-out vote on the bill. On another front, 16 states are in various stages of using legislative action to instruct their Washington Congressional contingent to vote “No” on the legislation. In one such skirmish, the Attorney General of Arkansas struck down one such proposal. Keep in mind the “compromise” label – it may allow Democrats (and others) to follow the union lead by saying they were “against” the EFCA, but believed in labor’s (false) need for equity, and thus voted for the derivative bill.

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SEIU Red Ink

The aftermath of SEIU’s big campaign spending is a mountain of debt. The SEIU basically financed its part of the “buying of the administration,” but even though their balance sheet in physical terms is looking rather shoddy, you can’t claim that the money was misspent when you review the political assets purchased (former SEIU operatives now in positions of power within the administration). They gambled big – and it looks like it paid off.

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IAM’s “Suicide Solution”

It is likely that the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers may be poised to committed harakiri at a Harley Davidson plant near Baltimore. Following the UAW legacy of fighting for wages and benefits over job security, Harley may close the plant and move to another state where the climate is a lot more “non-union.”

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Only In A Union

In another fancy scheme designed to defraud union members using ambiguous fines, the notoriously corrupt New York City carpenters union is trying to force members to sign a card authorizing such fines or forfeit their vacation pay. Members are wary of their corruption-ridden leadership, yet fear reprisals. “What sort of ‘voluntary’ organization is it where the members are afraid of the very organization that claims to be speaking for them?”

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Deck-Stacking Continues

In yet another move to cement a bureaucracy in Washington sympathetic to Big Labor concerns, Obama has appointed a former SEIU legal counsel to the Federal Election Commission. The appointee, John Sullivan, has questioned the need for disclosure rules on advertisements aimed at influencing voters. J. Gerald Hebert, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, contends that Sullivan’s stance was “so radical that not even the most visible, well-known opponents of campaign finance restrictions supported it.” Sullivan is on record as questioning rules on coordinated communications between candidates and outside groups, such as unions.

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SEIU Takes A Punch

When the largest SEIU local left the fold to form an independent union, Stern & company fought hard to prevent the loss. The National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) won the latest round as workers at a hospital in San Pablo voted overwhelmingly to join the new union.

Almost 100,000 SEIU members are currently waiting for an opportunity to leave SEIU and join NUHW instead. SEIU is spending millions on advertising and direct mail to prevent the loss, but if the vote at San Pablo (158 to 24) is any indication, and SEIU’s financial woes continue, SEIU may see quite an exodus.

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Insight Into SEIU/CNA Collaboration

The truth is beginning to emerge about the “kiss and make up” effort between the Service Employees International Union and the California Nurses Association-NNOC. According to this assessment by a labor-movement side observer, a huge impetus for the truce is likely an SEIU maneuver against the rogue California SEIU local that spun off into a new union, the NUHW (see story above).

As the leadership of the NUHW was extracting itself from the local that had been placed under trusteeship by Andy Stern, CNA stepped to the plate to pay the health benefits costs of the new union’s staff. However, as a part of the new pact between the CNA & the SEIU, CNA will cut off all funding help to its former natural ally, the NUHW. With the battles between the CNA & SEIU currently on hiatus, more cash will now be left in the strained coffers of the SEIU to continue to fight the fledgling NUHW.

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SCORE BOARD

Who are the winners (and losers) of the labor movement? Don’t guess, just
check the LRI Scoreboard

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

Download a PDF of this month’s scoreboard.

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Employee Relations Tip Of The Month

If you must downsize, it is important to help maintain the dignity of those being laid off, as it will effect the remaining employees. Follow these tips:

• Notify each employee in private

• Allow them to say goodbye to their friends and transfer their responsibilities in an orderly way

• If possible, provide them with outplacement services

• Do not escort them off the premises as if they are criminals (unless absolutely necessary)

Hat tip to HRTools for the suggestions.

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It’s About the $$$

CNA has blocked every effort by nurses at Fremont-Rideout Health Group to oust the union using both Unfair Labor Practice charges and the courts. Now that the union has used the courts to force management back to the bargaining table (for now), the CEO is sure that the union “security clause” will not be up for debate.

The CNA seems willing to gamble the loss of the entire facility rather then give up the ability to force nurses to pay dues, even if the nurses don’t want to be a part of the union. Doing the math, CNA stands to glean $600,000 a year in dues (almost $2 million over a 3-year contract). It’ll be interesting to see how their “all or nothing” strategy will pan out.

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RAISE Act: Don’t Hold Your Breath

Congressman Tom McClintock (R – California) will introduce a bill that would allow employers in a unionized company to recognize employees who achieve outstanding performance or innovation, or in some other way make a stellar contribution to the success of the business. The piece of legislation is called the “Rewarding Achievement and Incentivizing Successful Employees” (RAISE) Act, which would amend the National Labor Relations Act and eliminate the de facto pay cap imposed on working Americans through stifling collective-bargaining agreements.

One estimate indicates that this act would provide union workers the opportunity to earn an additional $2,600 to $4,300, which is three to five times higher than the middle-class tax cuts promised by the Obama administration. It would obviously increase the incentive for employees within unionized companies to actually be more productive. Big Labor will never stand for it. It will be too much of a threat to their status quo seniority system, which completely stifles worker productivity, as this personal testimony attests.

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Sticky Fingers!

Current charges or sentences of embezzling union officials:

Brian McLaughlin – IBEW/NYCCLC: $2,200,000

Belinda K. Woods – CWA: $10,988

Dianne Drawdy – SPFPA: $18,000

Monica Smalls – AFGE: $500

Robert and Theresa Ann Carr – UA: $45,000

Kevin Welch – CWA: $1,000

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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

NOTE: if you are using Internet Explorer v. 6, read the text version,
as the html will not load properly in IE6. We recommend upgrading to IE7.

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

Labor Relations INK

Download a PDF of this issue with links here.

SEIU / UHW-West Conflict Erupts

SEIU’s Andy Stern final pulled the trigger and put the large (150,000 member) California-based local into trusteeship. United Healthcare Workers-West president Sal Rosselli, and 17 other elected officers, were ousted, and SEIU and moved to seize control of the local’s offices.

In what some observers called “trench warfare,” the UHW-West leadership first refused to vacate their offices, and then opened a new union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers, to rival SEIU for the membership of the local, petitioning for elections in 62 hospitals and healthcare facilities.

The west-coast dispute was mirrored in the east, as the UNITE side of the UNITE-HERE union took the HERE side of the executive committee to court over violations of its constitution.

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OLMS Teeth To Be Pulled?

Since the start of fiscal year 2001, the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards cumulative enforcement results include 1,004 indictments, 929 convictions, and payments or orders of restitution of $93,110,576. However, the mission of the OLMS to protect union members from financial abuses and other crimes by those who serve in positions of trust may be jeopardized, as Labor Secretary designate Solis will not commit to funding, and in fact parried the direct question into a comment antagonistic to business, rather than the unions officials OLMS is designed to monitor.

Watch the video on YouTube at this link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m55fyIT5q84

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Obama Begins Union “Dues” Payments

Whether or not the Employee Free Choice Act moves through Congress swiftly, Big Labor will have plenty to thank Obama for. He has already begun the process of tossing bones to his biggest backers. Several Executive Orders were signed giving unions preferential treatment in Federal contracts and making it harder for workers to understand their rights. Additionally, power is granted to the Secretary of Labor to blacklist union targets from federal contracts.

Meanwhile, Big Labor is keeping the heat on the newly elected Congress, and President. Andy Stern of the Service Employees International Union threatened to “hold people accountable” for their campaign promises. Keep you eyes open – Big Labor’s $450 Million election debt won’t be satisfied with just a few bones. They’ll want substantial meat, whether packaged in the EFCA or not.

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UFCW Thugs Intimidate Worker

At a Rite-Aid store in Niagara Falls, NY, an employee working in the stock room was approached and pressured by three representatives from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. The worker had filed a petition on behalf of his co-workers to have the union removed. According to the police report filed, the union representations tried to coerce him into an after-hours meeting, and he feared they were trying to harm him.

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Employment Law Changes

Beyond the impact of the new administration on laws related to union issues, there are more changes coming that employers will have to keep abreast of. The workload of HR personnel will increase dramatically, and pity the small business owner who doesn’t have an HR manager! The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act are the first two among the plethora to come.

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Pro-Business Advocacy

Americans For Job Security is a pro-business, pro-markets issue advocacy group that has joined the fight against the Employee Free Choice Act. Among their key issues are:

- tax reduction

- free markets & free trade

- energy

- transportation

Check out their web site.

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ULP Charge of the Month

Download a PDF of this ULP here.

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Teamsters Latest Corporate Campaign

Hoffa has instructed Teamster locals across the country to sever any relationships with Cleveland-based KeyCorp bank, and move their banking business elsewhere. Why? Because Key is the primary lender for Oak Harbor Freight, an Auburn, Wash., company where more than 600 Teamster members had been on a lengthy strike.

Teamster-owned assets to be moved could run as much as $18 Billion. Just another example of Big Labor’s strategy to drag a third party into a labor squabble.

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Sticky Fingers!

Current charges or sentences of embezzling union officials:

Kenneth Campbell – IUOE: $290,000

Carl White – IATSE: $86,000

Gerald Conaway – FOP: $5,500

Stephen Snyder – USW: $78,893

Rick Radek – BLET: $6,700

Joseph Johnson - IBB: $102,519

Richard Klemser - IAM: $60,000

Jeffrey Baker - IAM: $16,050

Danny Tilley - TBCTC: $9,719

Linda Peterson - APWU: $6,505

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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