‘Stay Union-Free’ Pushed by Target, Michaels as Obama Law Looms

[DainBramaged]

Target Corp. retooled a training video to warn workers against a bill that would make union organizing easier. Michaels Stores Inc. told investors “our businesses could be impacted” by the measure. Enrollment in Jackson Lewis LLP’s “How to Stay Union-Free” seminars tripled.

Companies are rallying to fend off a so-called card-check law sought by labor leaders and backed by President Barack Obama. While the bill stalled in Congress this year as health- care legislation dominated debate, anti-union groups say they expect the president and Democrats to deliver next year on a compromise version of the legislation.

“As we approach the 2010 elections, the unions are really going to want their pound of flesh,” said Randy Johnson, who handles labor issues for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobbying group. “Even if we defeat the card-check bill, it’s entirely possible that other changes to the National Labor Relations Act will come up, and some of those will likely make it easier to organize the workplace.”

Companies have added anti-union videos to training programs, required employees to sit through anti-union meetings and hired outside labor-relations consultants as a pre-emptive strike against a union organizing campaign.

“The whole culture that currently allows us to be a low- cost producer while paying top wages would probably be destroyed” by the legislation, Craig Milum, president of Milum Textile Services, a Phoenix-based linen supplier, said in an interview.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aWEQS_CInpY0&pos=14

[Unvanguard]

1. This is good news. It means that they're afraid EFCA will pass.

Which means it has a decent shot of doing so.

[Selatius]

4. Yeah, until it gets into the fucking Senate where Republicans are sure the filibuster...again.

Then, I worry that in order to round up another 60 votes, major concessions will have to be given to right wing Democrats such as Ben Nelson or several others. They removed the Public Option from the health care bill just to get the 60 votes necessary, yet strong majorities favor a Public Option to compete with private insurers in poll after poll after poll.

[Unvanguard]

9. Well, yeah, I thought it would be blocked or gutted too.

But if the employers are scared...

[Selatius]

12. The same way health insurance companies were worried?

The health insurance industry dropped a record-breaking 1.4 million PER DAY just to lobby congressmen and print/radio/tv ads against "Obama Care." If fear makes corporations shit money like that, then you can bet the Chamber of Commerce is going to be on the toilet shitting next when Big PhRMA and the health insurance industry is done.

[Selatius]

2. I'm really afraid of what "compromise" will look like for the Employee Free-Choice Act.

I am truly afraid of what the Democratic leadership will do if the goal is simply to sign any piece of paper into law regardless of what is written in the damn bill.

[asdjrocky]

3. You can be in a Union if your name is Bob or Lenny.

It was the only compromise the blue dogs would vote for.

[burning rain]

16. It almost wouldn't surprise me if they passed a national "right-to-work" law, & called it EFCA.

.

[niyad]

5. michael's?// sheeesh, NOW where do I go for crafting stuff? hobby lobby is out of the question.

[Brickbat]

6. Yup. It's a constant at almost all of the big-boxers.

And lots of other companies, too. It makes me sick. This country would look very different if the playing field were level.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. The people will want one thing, the political class will cave

watch and weep.

It is well beyond past time for the people to learn what was learned decades ago (and forgotten)... you want something, you DEMAND IT.

[Selatius]

10. Well, you know, I learned one thing from my professor about democracy in action.

Our International Relations class was bitching about how the Student Association was essentially stacked by members of the Greek Council, and they tended to be very close to the school administration. As a result, the Student Association was basically just an organization in name only. It wasn't a real functioning student union or any organ that represents the views of students on campus. It was dominated by the school administration as a result.

I, as well as several others, suggested that we could try to establish a true student union organized in a much more representative fashion. We were talking about forms of direct action or collective action involving things not too different from workers' councils that are found in major labor co-ops. Our professor replied along the lines of, "Well, we tried that already once before, and when we did, they called in the riot police and the national guard troops, and a bunch of students got beaten and shot down."

We really didn't have much of a response to that.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. You went to Kent State I take it

and yes, the answer to that is... watch what is going on in Iran. they are now firmly in the same pattern that brought down the Shah... and people ARE dying.

We are not hungry or desperate enough.

[Selatius]

15. Nah, my professor did. We went to Miss. State Uni. The National Guard came for different reasons.

Mainly, to desegregate schools in Mississippi under direct orders from guys like JFK and LBJ. Yeah, that period is not exactly a bright spot for many Mississippi colleges and universities.

At least the Iranian citizens rebelled when they saw their election was just a farce. They almost pulled a French Revolution at one point. We never got that close. I applaud the citizens of Iran for that. I was hoping they would succeed; maybe there wouldn't be a war with Iran if it were democratically run.

In a way, the Iranian citizens are ahead of us: They realize they're living under an oligarchy. The leadership of Iran was stupid enough to destroy the carefully crafted illusion of democracy that allowed them to control their subjects. With that illusion gone, Iranians rebelled. Americans have not come to that point, and the corporate propaganda is making it harder for them to realize that. No matter where you go, corporate power seems to exercise itself through every facet of daily life. If workers cannot gain a measure of self-determination in the workplace, we shouldn't expect much success either with college students and student unions. Both would just become arenas for the establishment to further propagate their viewpoint and omit the views of the alternative.

[Selatius]

8. I bet we could ram it down their fucking throats by tacking it onto a defense appropriations bill.

The Military-Industrial Complex will have its money anyway, and there has never been a defense spending bill Republicans didn't vote for, but if you tack on such a bill onto a defense spending bill, you can bet defense contractors and arms manufacturers are going to go head-to-head with service sector corporations if they get in the way of their war money.

[Bill McBlueState]

11. “our businesses could be impacted” by the measure

If it will really hurt your business for your employees to exercise some self-determination, then you flat-out suck at running a business. It's that simple.

[Brickbat]

14. Damn straight.

Plenty of businesses manage to be profitable -- even obscenely so! -- enterprises with union employees.