Beyond the UAW strike: Busting The Unionbusters

[marmar]

from HuffPost:



Art Levine
Beyond the UAW strike: Busting The Unionbusters
Posted September 25, 2007 | 07:01 PM (EST)




The labor movement is taking the expected smears from the right-wing that it's an archaic relic of the industrial past. National Review's Henry Payne derides the "anachronistic union cultures which hold that guaranteed jobs and benefits are an entitlement."

But with half of all people who don't have a union saying they want one, the need for unions to improve the lives, working conditions and benefits of working people has never been more necessary. Unfortunately, widespread union-busting, as I learned for In These Times when I went undercover to attend a seminar offered by a "union-avoidance" law firm, works to block organizing by using current pro-corporate labor laws to block workers' rights to form a union.

As the AFL-CIO labor blog summarizes my findings:

Polls show most Americans are unaware of the extent to which some employers will go to stop workers from exercising their freedom to form a union. But a chilling new article, by journalist Art Levine, exposes the dirty details of these often sinister actions.
In the October issue of In These Times, Levine gives us a blow-by-blow account of a seminar he attended in Las Vegas led by two attorneys from Jackson Lewis, one of the major law firms in the field of union-busting. Union-busting--the so-called "union avoidance" industry--is a multibillion-dollar industry involving more than 2,500 lawyers.

In "Unionbusting Confidential," Levine exposes the techniques these lawyers teach their clients to keep unions out of their workplace. The first suggestion to employers: Act respectful of workers' concerns to prevent union sympathies from growing. They even suggest writing out--but not adhering to--a mission statement that includes treating workers with dignity.

The lawyers then give seminar participants a litany of tricks to derail the efforts of their workers to do what the law says they have a right to do: join together to form a union and bargain for a better life. The Jackson Lewis lawyers encourage the employers to be proactive, to take a leading role in denying their workers their freedom to form a union.

Here are just a few of the comments of what the lawyers told Levine and the other seminar participants:

* If a supervisor sympathizes with the workers who want to form a union, one of the lawyers jerks his tie upward against his neck to suggest a hanging.
* Tell employees stories about other workers in a union going on strike and losing their jobs to replacements because "It's lawful. What happens if this statement is a lie? They didn't have another strike, there were no replacements? It's still lawful: The labor board doesn't really care if people are lying."
* Firing workers for seeking to form a union is illegal under current labor law, so Jackson-Lewis encourages employers to make sure they fire union supporters for other reasons.

Levine also shows that these actions have human consequences. They hurt families and communities. He cites the story of Bill Lawhorn, who was fired the day after he and his fellow workers narrowly lost an election to join a union and bargain for better wages and working conditions. Five years later he is still without a steady job.

Lawhorn, 51, worked 12 years at the Consolidated Biscuit Co. in McComb, Ohio, before he was fired:

"It's always right there in my mind," Lawhorn says. "My children thought I got really mean, and I did for that first year." Back then, everyday, after a fruitless search for a new job, he would drink beer heavily. "I'm definitely a victim of union-busters," he says. "They're the ones who told what to do."


Of couse, the fragile state of the labor movement is back in the news again with the risky -- if necessary -- national strike against General Motors by the United Auto Workers designed to preserve benefits for retirees and protect jobs. Yet, the need to organize workers who want unions -- but are blocked from doing so -- is underscored at today's Change to Win convention of seven allied unions, including the Teamsters and SEIU, in Chicago. As a Chicago paper reported:

"Two years after its controversial birth, Change to Win labor federation is making good on its pledge to reinvigorate the labor movement with more expansive and comprehensive organizing targeting tens of thousands of workers, its leaders contend." The highlights of their organizing goals:

The seven-union affiliates of Change to Win labor federation have a long-term goal of organizing 50 million workers. What have they done to help achieve that? • Targeted industries that can't be outsourced, including construction, retail, hotels and hospitality, food production, manufacturing, transportation, health care and real estate. • Committed 75 percent of the federation's resources to organizing through the establishment of a strategic organizing center. • Each affiliate has developed an organizing plan to bring about net growth in each of their core industries by next year. That would translate into 250,000 newly organized workers next year.< • Affiliates have committed more resources to strategic research and training more organizers. • Put in place capital stewardship programs focused on using union pension funds to help pressure employers. • Focused on organizing through majority card-check instead of National Labor Relations Board secret ballot elections. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-levine/beyond-the-uaw-strike-bu_b_65855.html

[Jack Bone]

1. K&R..for the cause

:patriot:

[Purveyor]

2. Hardball had this Cramer asshole on tonight screaming, as the corporate shill

does, that GM had to 'bust the UAW' to succeed and that if they did, GM stock would quadruple...

"Bust the Union"...thats the ticket Cramer, eh?

It was not but a month or so ago Cramer was crying that the Fed needed to cut interest rates because 'his people' were losing their jobs because of the mortgage crisis and "needed help now".

These bastards better put Blackwater on a good retainer because they are going to need it when this country plunges into a serious depression.

The '30 mindset doesn't exist in this country anymore...

[Blue_Tires]

5. yeah, the corporate media has been NO friend of the union worker

[Blue_Tires]

3. thanks for posting this

k+r

[iaviate1]

4. Domestic union jobs can indeed be outsourced.

"The seven-union affiliates of Change to Win labor federation have a long-term goal of organizing 50 million workers. What have they done to help achieve that? • Targeted industries that can't be outsourced, including construction, retail, hotels and hospitality, food production, manufacturing, transportation, health care and real estate."

I work for an airline and we have outsourced many of the jobs our union members once did... like fueling, deicing, loading bags, cleaning airplanes, preparing food, building up cargo, etc. We've even hired many other airlines (over 5) to paint their aircraft in our colors and fly under our name! With such a large extent of work being oursourced, including the main product of an airline, who's to say unionized people with jobs that must stay in the US can't be outsourced and their unions busted? It happens all the time.

[provis99]

6. Just wait til US media jobs are outsourced

Maybe Tweety will get a little more righteous when he finds out he's being replaced by a lower paid political pundit in India. Its going that way: some local news in the US is being reported on by reporters in India already.

an example: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003583803