Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace
"Troubling." "Notorious." "Deeply disturbing." You would have thought that the sky was falling.
However, no, this is how some members of Congress feel about employees’ right to vote out an unwanted union after a coercive "card check" unionization drive, as evidenced by today’s Joint Subcommittee hearing regarding the National Labor Relations Board.
Dominating the hearing was talk about the National Right Work Foundation’s Dana/Metaldyne victory, which won this right for employees. NLRB Chairman Robert Battista made an analogy that the right for employees to vote out and unwanted union after a card check was a way for them to "speak now or forever hold their peace."
Too bad for America’s workers, many times it is only union and company officials that say "I do" to card check/neutrality agreements, and they are left without a say.
That Carpenters Union Local is a ‘Mismanaged Mess’
Over 4,500 rank-and-file workers have been hung out to dry by their union local in New York City.
The Village Voice had an intriguing editorial about the Carpenters Local 157 union. Apparently the local is infested with corruption, and not just recently either. The editorial reports:
“…the Carpenters union has been unable to climb out of a 30-year-long quagmire of corruption.”
But just as troubling, William Callahan, the union’s court-appointed independent investigator, had this to say to Carpenters union chief, Douglas McCarron:
“…Local 157 as ‘a mismanaged mess where [business agents] come and go as they please, following few, if any, rules.’”
Sadly, in an instance like this when the union hierarchy turned its back on its own, it goes to show that union bosses are more concerned about their own well-being than actually respecting the rights of the workers they claim to “represent.”
Floridian Triggers Elimination of Nationwide IAM Union Policy
After a four-year legal tangle, Floridian Robert Prime prompted the National Labor Relations Board to strike down an IAM union nationwide policy requiring employees to object annually to paying forced union dues for politics. Prime received free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation.
Union officials commonly use such tactics to hamstring employees from exercising their rights under the Foundation-won Communications Workers v. Beck U.S. Supreme court victory.
Under Beck, employees under the National Labor Relations Act can withhold forced union dues not used for collective barganing, including those used for union political activities.
Though Florida is a Right to Work state, Prime works on an "exclusive federal enclave" where state law does not protect him.
Secret Ballots? Who Needs ‘Em?
As union chief John Sweeney continues to whine over the National Labor Relations Board’s recent workers’ rights victories, Big Labor bosses are meeting with Democrat officials today to press for passage of the horribly misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act.”
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The Wall Street Journal covered the story, stating that labor officials from around the world have convened in Washington as part of a global push to make it easier for unions to corral workers into union ranks by imposing the “card check” instant organizing scam.
The card check instant organizing process is opposed by most Americans because it curtails employees’ freedom to choose whether or not to unionize and strips workers of the limited protections of a government-supervised secret ballot election.
For more information about the harmful affects of in-your-face card check schemes on employees, check out these studies conducted by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research.
Floridian Spurs Elimination of National Union Policy Requiring Annual Objections to Forced Dues for Politics
Pensacola, FL (December 11, 2007) – After nearly a four-year delay, a Florida worker has prompted an administrative law judge of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to strike down a nationwide policy of a major international union that requires employees to object annually to prevent union officials from spending their compulsory union dues for political activities. The policy is a pervasive tactic used by union officials to prevent dissenting employees from reclaiming forced union dues used to promote political causes they oppose.
National Right to Work Foundation attorneys helped Robert Prime, an employee of L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace, LLC at the Naval Air Station, file unfair labor practice charges in December 2003 against the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union Local Lodge 2777. The charges alleged that union officials violated Prime’s rights by forcing him to renew his objection to funding union political advocacy every single year.
NLRB administrative law judge Michael A. Marcionese issued a ruling from the bench yesterday at the conclusion of a hearing in Pensacola. Marcionese found that the IAM policy was arbitrary, discriminatory, and bordered on being irrational. Although Foundation attorneys have asked for refunds for any objecting employee nationally within the last four years, the scope of the remedy will remain unclear for the next few weeks until the judge issues a supporting written ruling.
In November 2003, Prime filed an objection with IAM union officials to funding their political activities, as the Foundation-won Communications Workers of America v. Beck decision permits. The Beck decision recognized that workers have the right to refrain from formal union membership and cannot be forced to pay for activities unrelated to collective bargaining. However, when Prime asked union officials to honor his request as a “continuing objection,” IAM officials refused, claiming that Prime and his coworkers must object annually because they are not subject to the Railway Labor Act (RLA).
IAM union officials already accept “continuing objections” from railroad and airline employees covered by the RLA due to favorable rulings in prior Foundation cases. However, union officials arbitrarily refuse to abide by those rulings for employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act.
“America’s workers may have one fewer hoop to jump through to reclaim their forced dues used for politics,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. “However, this lengthy legal battle underscores why no one should be forced to pay dues to an unwanted union in the first place.”
Florida’s highly-popular Right to Work law, on the books since 1944, is one of 22 state laws that secure the right of employees to decide for themselves whether or not to join or financially support a union. However, because Vertex Aerospace employees work on federal property under “exclusive federal jurisdiction,” the state’s Right to Work law does not protect those workers from being forced to pay union dues to keep their jobs.
Nonunion Need Not Apply
Following up on this post, today’s Worcester Business Journal contains this editorial which highlights the problems with so-called “project labor agreements,” which often harm both workers and taxpayers. The article states:
“Fair and open competition in public bidding is the American way. Labor unions should compete on the same playing field as anyone else.”
The editorial continues that the U.S. Department of Labor notes 80 percent of the construction workforce in Massachusetts is nonunion. Yet, because the City of Worcester and other Massachusetts communities award only union contractors these public projects, public officials are denying the lion share of the state’s construction workforce a chance to work.
Read about the other multi-million (and sometimes multi-billion) dollar public projects Massachusetts taxpayers have been forced to overpay as a result of PLA’s, here.
Wall Street Journal: Right to Work Laws Fuel Economic Growth
The Wall Street Journal today has a piece recognizing that Right to Work laws are among two vital public policies that:
"…stand out as perhaps the most important in attracting jobs and capital."
WSJ continues:
"States that permit workers to be compelled to join unions have much lower rates of employment growth than states that don’t. Many companies say they will not even consider locating a factory in a state that does not have a right-to-work law."
Interestingly, as visible in the graph below, the bottom 10 economicly competitive states are all forced unionism states, while 9 of the top 10 are long time Right to Work states.
Philly Rejects Union Blockade Against Minority Contractors
The Philadelphia Inquirer today reports:
Accusing trade unions of standing in the way of minority hiring objectives, City Council yesterday declared the $700 million Convention Center expansion open to nonunion contractors and workers – an unprecedented gesture in a city dominated by organized labor.
Union officials commonly shut out minority and nonunion contractors from such projects through so-called "project labor agreements." These cynical pacts require all contractors, whether they are unionized or not, to subject themselves and their employees to unionization in order to work on a government-funded construction project.
For more information on the harmful effects of PLAs, see this study from the National Institute for Labor Relations Research.
He Just Said What?!
Of course, from time to time public figures will spew some pretty surprising statements to the media. This can be especially true when union bosses put their own needs in front of the American workers they claim to “represent.”
Here’s what some union officials had to say about their liking to compulsory unionism:
- Pushing Big Labor’s “card check” organizing scheme over the employee-preferred secret ballot elections, Mike Fishman, SEIU Local 32BJ chief, said: “We don’t do elections.” –Wall Street Journal
- Speaking against Iowa’s 60 year-old Right to Work law, Jan Laue, a top official of the Iowa AFL-CIO said, “If you don’t want to be a part of it, then you ought to go work somewhere else.” –River Cities’ Reader
- The National Right to Work Foundation hired 24-hour security detail after United Auto Workers union militants distributed driving directions to a dissenting employee’s home. UAW union Region 8 boss Gary Casteel claimed to disavow use of vandalism or physical threats to those who opposed unionization. Yet, Casteel seemingly encouraged the reprisals when the labor boss said this about the dissenting employee, “He did put himself in limelight.” –High Point Enterprise
- Tim Welch, spin doctor for the WFSE union, speaking about employees’ right (or lack-thereof in Washington state) to choose: “You can choose to be a member of the union, you can choose to pay a fee. But ultimately, if you do not like that, you can choose to be unemployed.” – Spokesman Review
- Former chief of the United Mine Workers union, Richard Trumka, implied that employees who work during a strike deserve whatever happens to them. In 1993, he had this to say after a heavy equipment operator was shot in the back of the head as he drove past militant UMW strikers: "I’m saying if you strike a match and put your finger in, common sense tells you you’re going to burn your finger." –Washington Times
Forced Dues Campaigning in California
The employee-led uproar over forced union dues taken by SEIU Union Local 1000 in California has prompted a top union official to campaign in favor of forced dues.
The article states that a "majority of the employees that attended the event disagreed," citing "non responsiveness" on behalf of the union hierarchy. As we’ve noted before, aside from protecting freedom of choice, Right to Work laws promote accountability of union officials to rank and file workers.
The article also states:
Also, employees were not happy that although state employees recently received a three percent pay raise, the Union countered with a 1.5 union fee increase taking away almost fifty percent of the wage increase.
No wonder these employees aren’t happy, almost half of their raise was swallowed up by forced union dues!
