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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (July 4, 2008)
...Employee Free Choice Act under attack (From Page 3) Members of the union committee have no proof, but are convinced that known union supporters were laid off and terminated in much greater pro- portion than others. And rumors circulated that Dunkin would close the plant if workers unionized. By January, the campaign to col- lect union cards had largely dried up. Some of what Rogue Valley Door did — interrogating and surveilling workers, prohibiting union talk while allowing other discussions, disciplin- ing union supporters for talking about the union — violated federal labor law. The law forbids employers to “in- terfere with, restrain, or coerce em- ployees” who are exercising their rights to “form, join, or assist labor or- ganizations.” The union filed charges, and the National Labor Relations Board investigated. The federal agency issued a formal complaint May 30, naming the company owner and 12 managers. A federal adminis- trative law judge is scheduled to hear the case the week of Aug. 5-9 in Med- ford. The judge may rule that Rogue L EGAL P ROBLEMS ?? For $16 a month coverage includes: ❖ Unlimited toll-free phone consultation with attorneys. ❖ A comprehensive will with yearly updates is included. ❖ Representation for traffic tickets, accidents, criminal, and civil suits. ❖ Coverage on IRS tax audits. ❖ Divorce, child custody, bank- ruptcy and many more benefits.* THESE LEGAL SERVICES ARE PROVIDED BY THE VERY BEST LAW FIRMS IN OREGON & WASHINGTON. * Some services not 100% covered For more information, call 503-760-2456 or toll-free at (888) 252-7930 www.prepaidlegal.com/info/randallnix Valley Door broke the law, but the law doesn’t provide for any penalty or fines. At most, the judge can order the company to post a notice spelling out employees’ rights, and promising not to violate those rights again. The union hopes such a notice will em- bolden workers and revive the card- signing drive. But the notice can’t re- store the momentum the campaign enjoyed when it began, or undo the fear and distrust sown by the manage- ment crackdown. Any union organizer in America will tell you that what workers experi- enced at Rogue Valley Door was typi- cal, and followed a cookie-cutter union avoidance script advised by anti-union consultants. Union-busting has be- come a multi-million-dollar industry in the United States, with firms hired by employers to provide training for supervisors and managers, legal mat- ters, and other services. In some kinds of workplaces, em- ployer conduct makes organizing a union next to impossible. Wal-Mart is a good example, where no employees in the country have succeeded in forming a union, despite their sup- posed legal right to do so. Jeanie Carpenter, a union organizer with Communications Workers of America Local 7901, says six times a year she gets a call from a worker at a nonunion call center. “There’s nothing I can do for them,” Carpenter said. “I hear their story and tell them it’s impossible. They’re too closely monitored. Union campaigns take months, and usually, the pro-union committee crumbles un- der the stress.” The non-profit group American Rights at Work commissioned a study of employer behavior during union campaigns. The study, published De- cember 2005, found that 91 percent of employers forced employees to attend one-on-one anti-union meetings with their supervisors; 49 percent threat- ened to close the worksite if workers formed a union; and 30 percent fired pro-union workers. In 2007, NLRB involvement resulted in 2,456 workers being offered reinstatement and back pay after being fired for union activity. Because of the difficulties in proving employer motive, the number fired for union activity is likely higher than the number reinstated. The Employee Free Choice Act is intended to stop these abuses. The bill would provide for fines of up to $20,000 per violation against employ- ers who willfully or repeatedly violate employees’ rights during an organiz- ing campaign, and triple back pay awards to workers who are fired for supporting a union drive. It would re- quire the NLRB to seek a federal court injunction against an employer that discharges or discriminates against pro-union employees or other- wise tramples on employee rights dur- ing an organizing drive, and authorize the courts to grant temporary restrain- ing orders in such cases. Finally, workers could unionize simply when a majority signed union cards over the course of a year. That process, which used to be termed “card check,” is coming to be called “majority signup” among union organizers. Employers can legally recognize unions via ma- jority signup under current law, but aren’t required to do so. The Em- ployee Free Choice would require them to. That’s the part of the law that union opponents are focusing on. Center for Union Facts, creator of the anti-union ads, says nothing about the mountains of cases in which employers intimi- date union supporters, but claims to be concerned that majority sign-up will lead to unions intimidating workers into signing cards. The Employee Free Choice Act would replace the employer-domi- nated election process with a majority sign-up process that gives unions the initiative. Which workers signed or didn’t sign the cards would still be se- Roger G. Worthington, P.C. leads the fight to find a cure for Mesothelioma cancer caused by asbestos exposure Since 1989, we have been dedicated to helping asbestos cancer patients get justice in the courtrooms and help in the hospitals. 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Last month, the national AFL-CIO announced a “million-member mobi- lization” in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. The federation has set up a Web site, www.freechoice- act.org, and wants to get a million sig- natures on an online petition in sup- port of the law. Organized labor is going to put just about everything it’s got into electing politicians who support the law this November, and passing it when it comes up again in Congress next year. We’ve helped hundreds develops 20 to 60 years after the first asbestos exposure. Each year about 3,000 new cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed in the U.S. of patients find the best doctors, coast to coast and we’re known for providing up-to-date medical information and patient education. Asbestos lawyers for life. 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