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In this issue:
Union Bailout Update Bill Would Permit Merit Pay in Union Shops Machinists Striking Once a Member Always a Member Labor Relations Insight, Sticky Fingers and more…
NOTICE: You can make a PDF of this issue of INK directly from the post. Click here for instructions on how to do so.
http://lrionline.com/easy-way-to-make-our-posts-and-ink-issues-into-pdfs
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Labor Relations Insight by Phillip Wilson
What have we learned in the first week of the “ambush election” rules?
There are two questions I’ve been asked a lot over the last couple of months, and especially in the last week:
Will petitions increase after the new “ambush election” rules go into effect? How far will election times decrease under the new “ambush election” rules?
Here’s what we’ve seen
Continue reading INK May 10, 2012
 The NLRB’s inspector general Dave Berry released exhibits last week from his ethics investigation of newly appointed Board member Terence Flynn. Included were copies of about fifty email exchanges between Flynn and former Board members Kirsanow and Schaumber while Flynn was serving as chief counsel to Schaumber and later current Board member Brian Hayes. The exhibits also include a transcript of Flynn’s March 15 interview with investigators and Flynn’s formal response to the accusations.
The March 15 transcript includes verbal sparring between Berry and Flynn’s legal counsel over the legitimacy of the investigation. Flynn’s team has characterized the behavior in question as “innocuous” (and most likely typical for Board staff) and the information passed along by Flynn “non-substantive.” They also accused the IG of cherry-picking
Continue reading Union Bailout Update
 Unions have been yowling about the Citizens United decision since the election of Scott Walker was attributed by Democrats to pro-business Super Pacs and big donor bundlers like the Koch brothers. What rarely gets mentioned is the power the controversial decision gave to labor unions that they will only first fully exploit this election year.
Citizens United gave unions the power to spend union resources attempting to politically influence the general public. Before Citizens United, unions could only campaign for or against a political candidate to their own members. The decision removes that restriction granting unions the same freedom of political speech the new law grants to corporations.
And it appears labor intends to take full advantage of the gift; the AFL-CIO has announced it
Continue reading Unions Made More Powerful by Citizens United
 AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka was in Los Angeles last week to celebrate the signing of collective bargaining agreements between the Steelworkers and
the Vermont Carwash and Nava’s Carwash in South LA. The two carwashes have agreed to pay their carwash attendants $8.16 an hour with 2% raises per year that should come close to covering the USW union dues.
That makes three unionized carwashes in the country, with Santa Monica’s Bonus Carwash becoming the first last year, and to President Trumka those victories signal an end to decades of union decline. “This is the future of the labor movement,” Trumka said, waving his hand towards a few dozen mostly undocumented carwashers and their families holding signs in English and Spanish. “This
Continue reading Trumka: Undocumented Carwashers are the Future of the Labor Movement
 Now for some fun. The AFL-CIO has completely renovated its old tired boring web presence, and just in time for this November’s election! And the key words in this transformation are “connection” and “interactivity”.
In a breathless briefing with reporters last week, AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Liz Shuler said the federation wanted to create “a fresher and more user-friendly website for all workers, not just union members.” So the revamped site features inactive links galore – to learn all about the “union advantage”, contact your congressperson, keep a watchful eye on corporate evil doers, and contact a union organizer – all against the backdrop of gigantic headshots of hard-working real Americans who apparently all have jobs – just like us. Get it?
The point (we think)
Continue reading AFL-CIO Launches New Web Site
 The Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its 2011 Union Members Survey late last week calling the percentage of unionized workers “essentially unchanged” from 2010 to 2011. 11.8% of the American workforce was unionizing in 2011, a new post-WWII low, down slightly from 11.9% in 2010. The bureau reports 14.8 million union members in 2011 with another 1.5 million working under union contracts as non-members. Public sector workers were more than five times more likely to be unionized than private sector workers (37% and 6.9% respectively).
The report showed a loss of 61,000 public sector unionized jobs (due to local and state government cutbacks) while unions picked up 110,000 dues payers in the private sector. Unions gained the most in construction, healthcare, retail, metal production, hospitals and
Continue reading Perspectives on 2011 Labor Stats
The morning after Mitch Daniels signed Indiana Right to Work into law it’s uncertain if or how Big Labor will screw up Super Bowl events in response. One thing is certain, with Right to Work rumblings now in at least three surrounding states (Kentucky, Michigan and Minnesota) we won’t be rescued from union Right to Work hysteria any time soon.
“It’s a union-busting tactic all the way,” said protesting carpenter Mike Coomes. “You just create more poverty. They want us to go back to slavery. We’ve worked 150 years to get here and they wiped it out in one vote.”
And it borders on unconscionable how Big Labor is whipping up the membership into a froth about a measure that only requires union locals make member service a top priority just like any other business. But never mind that. According to the unions, Indiana Republican lawmakers just blew us
Continue reading Quotes on Occupy Super Bowl
In this issue:
• Union Bailout Update • Yes, America, the Unions Are Killing Your Twinkies • Will the Unions Screw Up the Superbowl? • Laborers Vow Never to Forget Keystone • Picket Line Do’s and Don’ts • Teamsters Watch, Sticky Fingers and more…
NOTICE: You can make a PDF of this issue of INK directly from the post. Click here for instructions on how to do so.
Union Bailout Update
The NLRB held a “meet and greet” on Jan. 12 between lawmakers and the three newly sworn in Board members at the center of the latest NLRB firestorm. Members of Congress were denied the chance to question or even scan the resumes of Richard Griffin and Sharon Block as the two Democrats’ names were only first
Continue reading INK January 19, 2012
 The AFL-CIO is launching a $1.5M ad campaign designed to improve the public perception of unions. Observers note the federation may be trying to capitalize on the Occupy movement and reflect some Occupy energy towards unions that have been steadily sinking in the public’s opinion for the past two decades. The ads fall back on the fanciful notion of unions as representatives of all working people and the only remaining check on corporate power.
One 30-second TV ad scheduled to air in Pittsburgh, Austin, Texas, and Portland, Ore., features close-ups of archetypical union workers — firefighters, airline pilots, teachers — with a voiceover saying, “Work doesn’t separate. It’s what binds us together. I teach your kid, you fix my car, he builds my
Continue reading AFL-CIO New Ad Campaign
In this issue:
Union Bailout Update Insight by Phil Wilson News From the Global War on Employers Teamsters in Vegas: “At least no one is getting beat up this year” The PLA Squeeze on State and Local Budgets SEIU Watch, Scoreboard, Sticky Fingers and more…
The bottom of each story contains a link to the individual post on our site.
View the web-based version of this newsletter (including links and graphics) by visiting:
http://lrionline.com/ink-july-21-2011
NOTICE: You can make a PDF of this issue of INK directly from the post. Click here for instructions on how to do so.
http://lrionline.com/easy-way-to-make-our-posts-and-ink-issues-into-pdfs
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Insight by Phil Wilson
Click to View LRI's Comment on the DOL Rulemaking
I hate to be a nag, but have
Continue reading INK: July 21, 2011
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