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 Not to be out-done by the dramatics over at the NLRB, Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has approved a series of motivational posters for DOL employees (Jealous?) that elevate Solis from lifelong do-nothing political appointee to transformational leader in the war to stop the capitalist re-enslavement of all mankind.
The poster is raising more than a few eyebrows in Washington for what seems a fairly inelegant attempt to radicalize a government agency that should at least at times appear even-handed. In a letter to Solis complaining about the posters, Rep. Joe Walsh, R-IL said some department employees have complained to him about the posters’ bald-faced politicizing of their work and the veiled call to civil disobedience.
The first poster features a backlit close-up
Continue reading Taking it to the Streets, DOL Style
DOL documents appear to point to an August 2012 implementation of new persuader reporting rules. The changes to the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act will put every employer in the country under a “gag order” by forcing them – under threat of criminal penalty – to report things like money spent on supervisory training, attendance at seminars and even employee opinion surveys. This proposed rule dramatically limits the so-called “advice” exception and means that most discussions about unions between company managers and their attorney or consultant will be subject to public reporting requirements.
  
 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
 Union propaganda. There’s an app for that!
A quick search of the Apple app store has turned up five interesting union related apps.
Most intriguing, an app called “Labor News” does not appear sponsored by any one union entity and much of its content seems to come straight from the Department of Labor. However blog posts read like union press releases and the news feed seems to pull from a range of sources nothing but positive stories about unions, in both English and Spanish. And yet there is no logo, other than that of the app developer. We are slowly reaching right now for our tin foil hats.
The “UFCW 5” app allows members access to union news stories, job postings, enrollment cards, negotiation updates, ways
Continue reading Social Media Spotlight
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
In this issue:
Union Bailout Update Disability Fund “Rail Roaded” Pelosi Admits Anti-Boeing Bias SEIU Decert At California Hospital Teamsters Watch, Only In A Union, 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
Union Bailout Update
The groundswell of blowback against union hubris continues to rise, as both state and national legislators and executives work to reign in Big Labor. As the game of political tug-of-war continues, much of the energy will lapse into rhetoric, but there may be enough momentum now to see some benefit for American businesses come out of the bottom of the funnel.
Cantor
Last week, the House Committee on Education
Continue reading INK November 3, 2011
The groundswell of blowback against union hubris continues to rise, as both state and national legislators and executives work to reign in Big Labor. As the game of political tug-of-war continues, much of the energy will lapse into rhetoric, but there may be enough momentum now to see some benefit for American businesses come out of the bottom of the funnel.
Cantor
Last week, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved the Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act (H.R. 3094). House majority leader Eric Cantor is determined to bring the bill to the floor this winter. Among other things, the bill would:
Undo the criteria used to determine an appropriate bargaining unit established by the National Labor Relations Board’s recent Specialty Healthcare decision
Continue reading Union Bailout Update
 The DOL has postponed for two months enforcement of a new wage rate standard for H-2B guestworkers.[1] The postponement was in response to a barrage of legal challenges from small businesses that rely on guestworkers to meet seasonal demands. The new standard will require employers pay guestworkers a “wage that meets or exceeds the highest of the following: the prevailing wage, the federal minimum wage, the state minimum wage or the local minimum wage.”
The catch is this. The “prevailing wage” is then defined as the highest of three measures; a wage rate established under Davis-Bacon; the mean (not average) wage for the occupation in the area; or wages established by a union contract. Put simply, the cost of guestworker labor would be set by any isolated union contract
Continue reading Union Bailout Update
In this issue:
Union Bailout Update Guilt By Association UAW On The Ropes Union Shell Games SEIU Watch, Sticky Fingers, Insight and more…
The bottom of each story contains a link to the individual post on our site.
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
Labor Relations Insight by Phil Wilson
You have to hand it to Wilma Liebman. In the final two weeks of her tenure as the Chair of the National Labor Relations Board she clearly decided to go out with a bang and not a whimper. On August 25th the NLRB released its final rule regarding the notification of employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act. Just this
Continue reading INK September 1, 2011
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.
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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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Not to be out-done by the dramatics over at the NLRB, Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has approved a series of motivational posters for DOL employees (Jealous?) that elevate Solis from lifelong do-nothing political appointee to transformational leader in the war to stop the capitalist re-enslavement of all mankind.
