Alt Labor

by | Jan 26, 2018 | News

Traditional union organizing hardly works anymore. We’ve known this for a while. That’s why we’ve seen the development of worker centers and an increased interest in low-wage (namely, fast food) employees. But what’s interesting is that, in their efforts to reach their bottom line, unions are doing exactly what they proclaim to rally against. That is, taking advantage of labor laws. From a recent Forbes article:

The term sounds innocuous enough, but it’s legally significant. Worker centers aren’t bound by the same behavioral restrictions and transparency requirements as labor unions–allowing them to operate in a similar fashion to a union while dodging rules that were put in place to rein in excesses. Secretary Acosta has said he wants to examine this labor loophole, and the scrutiny couldn’t come soon enough.

It will be interesting to watch how these alt-labor endeavors develop over the course of the next year as we continue to have a conservative majority sitting on the NLRB Board. For anyone interested in a pro-labor perspective on the changing approaches to union organizing, check out this podcast interview with David Rolf, one of the most well-known union organizers of our time.

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