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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.
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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
 “Spring training” was scheduled to begin on April 9, 2012 for the 100,000 activists that union/Occupy/socialist leaders have promised us would begin the daunting task of overthrowing our capitalist system for us. Perhaps to pour salt in the wounds of the shrinking minority who actually do pay taxes, the spring protests are focused on April 17, 2012 Tax Day with “Tax Wealth Not Work” protests to be held around the country.
The TWNW protests will target 40 evil corporations including Verizon, GE and Wells Fargo, and in something dubbed “Shareholders’ Spring,” activists will rewrite the social contract by holding crudely crafted signs across the street from shareholder meetings, perhaps sometimes (We hope!) even in hilarious costumes.
The UFCW announced last week it is part of a
Continue reading The Other Spring Training Scouting Report
 With the future of their jobs hanging in the political balance, workers in a dozen Los Angeles medical marijuana shops have joined UFCW Local 770. Pot workers believe the union will be able to apply enough political pressure to avert a citywide ban on dispensaries and the end of their jobs.
Councilman Jose Huizar has pushed for a ban since community activists from his district complained about the neighborhood’s high number of dispensaries. Unfortunately for Councilman Huizar, he was once a good friend of Big Labor and enjoyed the endorsement of the UFCW and AFSCME.
Rick Icaza, the president of UFCW Local 770, said the union will work towards an ordinance that stops short of a total ban on dispensaries, and that unionizing
Continue reading Pot Workers Unionize to Save LA Dispensaries
 Since 2009, a Change to Win campaign, Warehouse Workers United, has been running attacks on employers in California’s “Inland Empire.” WWU is a joint venture of SEIU, UFCW, and the Teamsters. This week, Labor Notes gives us a glimpse into how corporate campaigns are built and, more importantly, why certain employers and not others are in the crosshairs.
In what is certainly no coincidence, the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement has been investigating cases of wage theft by employers who just happen to employ WWU activists. The campaign has also solicited workers into class-action lawsuits against those same employers to collect “stolen” wages. (Suits are based on the charge that workers paid by the piece were
Continue reading A Peek Into Inland Empire Corporate Campaign Tactics
You may have noticed the recent spate of negative press about allegations of abysmal working conditions in Chinese Foxconn factories that produce Apple iPad and iPhone. Setting aside for another day a more balanced perspective on working conditions in an emerging economy we turn our attention to working conditions here, in an Apple retail store.
Apple’s retail stores, which turned 10 years old last month, have been ranked in the top 50 best places to work by job tracker Glassdoor.com for three years running. Apple has even admitted that it’s easier to get a job at its corporate headquarters than one of its retail stores because the draw is so great and the turnover so low.
 That didn’t stop disgruntled Genius Cory Moll from forming the Apple Retail Workers Union last year and launching
Continue reading The Burdens of Non-Transformational Employment
 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 • Occupy Does Union Bidding in Port Protests • UAW Not Targeting Nissan, Much • Teamster $150K Club • Scoreboard, SEIU Watch, Sticky Fingers and more…
Union Bailout Update
Breaking News:
President Obama announced late Wednesday evening that he plans to nominate two lawyers to the National Labor Relations Board. The Board will no longer be able to issue decisions or create major new rules without a three member quorum and Craig Becker’s recess appointment ends on Dec. 31.
The president will nominated Sharon Block, deputy secretary for congressional affairs at the Department of Labor, and Richard Griffin, who is the general counsel for the International Union of Operating Engineers. Both would be considered
Continue reading INK December 15, 2011
 As giant retailer Target is finding out, even if the election results go the employer’s way, that doesn’t mean the battle is over. Even though their Valley Stream location on Long Island turned down the UFCW, in a recent election, the union filed a host of ULP charges against the company in an attempt to get another bite at the apple.
And with a union-friendly NLRB managing such affairs, it is increasingly likely that among the spurious charges filed, the board will find sufficient evidence to call for a reelection.
Regional board director Alvin Blyer cited evidence that supervisors interrogated employees, instructed them that they couldn’t campaign for the union in non-work areas, and threatened that the facility would close if unionized. He also mentioned language in the
Continue reading Election Not The Final Say
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
 When police arrested the president, former president, and treasurer of UFCW Local 348, they could have picked them all up at a family reunion. Anthony Fazio Sr., John Fazio Jr., and Anthony Fazio Jr. were charged with racketeering, extortion, money laundering, and witness tampering.
According to the indictment, the trio extorted businesses at $1000 a pop or more by threatening to harm their businesses unless they paid up.[2] Over their 16-year tenure of the union, the Fazio family stole or extorted over $2.4 million from union members and employers.
  
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