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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
 “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
 Russ Brown, a vice president at LRI and adjunct analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, co-authored an article for the American Spectator with Ivan Osorio, editorial director and labor policy analyst at the CEI. The article dealt with the recent election rule change made by the National Mediation Board. Quoting from the article:
Last year, the National Mediation Board (NMB), the government agency charged with overseeing labor relations in the railroad and airlines industries, changed voting rules to favor unionization. On Friday, December 16, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia upheld the rule change as consistent with the Railway Labor Act (RLA).
However, as dissenting Circuit Judge Karen Henderson explained, the NMB failed to provide any justification for changing a
Continue reading LRI VP Addresses NMB Rule Change in American Spectator
 As the NLRB is preparing to pass a somewhat watered down version of the quickie election rule, the Supply Chain Digest contacted LRI’s Phil Wilson for comment:
“The new resolution is not as far-reaching as it could have been, but it still gets unions their key goal, which is to cut the average election time down substantially,” said Wilson.
  
 The National Labor Relations Board announced a resolution it plans to move on tomorrow to shorten the time that elapses between a petition being filed for a union election, and the actual election. Industry has been anticipating the move for some time, but it appears the NLRB plans to rush the measure through before they lose a quorum.
Bloomberg turned to LRI president Phil Wilson for comment:
“The new resolution is not as far-reaching as it could have been, but it still gets unions their key goal, which is to cut the average election time down substantially,” Wilson said.
UPDATE: now that the rule has been established, and the time frame announced for it to go into effect, you can get the details on our webinar here.
 The sole remaining Republican member of the National Labor Relations Board sounded the alarm that his Democratic colleagues were planning an end around to push through a short elections rule before they lost quorum at the end of the year. Board member Brian Hayes sent a letter outlining the threat to Representative John Kline (R – MN), chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee.
Phil Wilson, president of LRI, commented that the Nov. 30 vote is an effort by the board to “jam through the rule prior to the end of the year.”
UPDATE: Watch our webinar describing the final rule, and what you can do about it.
 JetBlue Airways Corp. is one of the only U.S. airlines to remain completely non-union, and after the latest drive by the Air Line Pilots Association, will remain so for the foreseable future.
Even under the new NMB rules which only count votes cast, 58% voted to remain union-free.
JetBlue CEO Dave Barger thanked the pilots for choosing to retain their “direct relationship with the company.”
The Machinists union walloped IKEA Wednesday in an NLRB election held at the Swedish retailer’s only U.S. manufacturing plant in Danville, Virginia. The vote was 221 to 69 and came after years of contentious union organizing at the plant. Since the plant was opened in 2008 the union has repeated demanded card recognition and brought negative international attention to IKEA. IKEA has responded only that the plant meets the same standards as its other 26 Swedwood manufacturing facilities. All are in Europe and already unionized.
Wednesday night, GoDanRiver.com interviewed Swedwood workers at a union victory party. Forklift operator Greg Chandler said, “I got tired of all the favoritism. People see it. They just don’t speak up.” Another worker said she saw no problems at
Continue reading Workers Share Reasons for Swedwood Union Landslide
 LRI Vice President Russ Brown testified today on proposed changes to the NLRB election process. Brown raised a number of issues not previously addressed including concerns about the potential for fraud and abuse with electronic signatures and the efficiency of the current election process when compared to the Board’s torturous slow processing of ULPs.
“Increasing efficiency is a worthy goal. But these changes seem explicitly designed for the sole purpose of reducing the time to election. Pushing most unit decisions until after the election disenfranchises voters and is counter to the purposes of the Act. Any rule change needs to be about what is best for workers, not what is best for unions. The proposed rule is counter to the purposes of the Act and impairs the
Continue reading LRI VP Brown Testifies at Quickie Election Hearings
 The Federal Labor Relations Authority began mailing new election materials Monday to 43,000 TSA eligible voters. The security screeners will have until June 21 to cast their votes online or by phone in a runoff between the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union.
45% of those eligible to vote participated in the initial six week election that ended April 20. The AFGE received 8,369 votes, the NTEU 8,095 and 3,111 screeners voted against union representation, triggering a runoff between the two unions. Given the length of the voting period, the ease of voting and the energy both unions put into the campaign the low turnout in April suggests little enthusiasm for either union.
Both unions are predicted to get even uglier with each other
Continue reading Ugly TSA Campaign Gets Uglier
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