JUNE 5, 2009:NWLP
6/2/09
10:18 AM
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Congressional briefing
Workers face increasing abuse in attempts to form unions
By SETH MICHAELS
Labor law experts and a California
worker exposed the ugly truth about
corporate abuses of workers trying to
exercise their freedom to form unions
and bargain for a better life during a
briefing on Capitol Hill May 20.
At the center of the discussion: Kate
Bronfenbrenner’s new report, “No
Holds Barred: The Intensification of
Employer Opposition to Organizing,”
released by the Economic Policy Insti-
tute (EPI) and the American Rights at
Work Education Fund. The report
shows that the problems the Employee
Free Choice Act would address are get-
ting worse.
Bronfenbrenner has studied these is-
sues for decades as the director of la-
bor education research at Cornell Uni-
versity’s School of Industrial Relations.
This is her fourth survey over 20 years,
enabling her to put into historical per-
spective the obstacles workers face.
At the briefing, Bronfenbrenner said
weak laws and a hostile environment
have emboldened corporations, over
the past decade, to step up their abuses
against workers trying to form unions.
“The research provides a detailed
portrait of a system that has failed pri-
vate-sector workers. Workers have
come to understand what our data con-
firms: Employers are using an arsenal
of legal and illegal tactics to interfere
with workers trying to organize, and
they are doing it with impunity,” she
said.
The study is the result of an in-depth
examination of National Labor Rela-
tions Board (NLRB) documents, ex-
amination of companies, interviews
with workers and investigations of un-
fair labor practice filings, to give a clear
picture of what the process of forming
a union really looks like. And it’s not
pretty:
• 63 percent of companies have su-
pervisors interrogate workers in
mandatory one-on-one meetings.
• 57 percent of companies threaten
workers with plant closings.
• 47 percent threaten to cut wages
and benefits.
What’s more, even if they win rep-
resentation, a majority of workers still
don’t have a first contract after a year.
Angel Warner, a working mom from
California, offered a compelling story
of these coercive tactics in action.
Warner is a Rite Aid warehouse worker
who tried to form a union through the
International Longshore and Ware-
house Union (ILWU) at a large ware-
time to stand up for ourselves.”
Warner said that, as she and her-co-
workers tried to form a union, manage-
ment pulled union supporters aside for
threatening meetings and singled out
potential supporters
for harassment. Pro-
union employees
Historically, the number of unfair
were fired, and the
labor practice filings against unions is workers filed 49 la-
bor law violations
extremely low — only 42 cases of
— but the only
misconduct over seven decades —
repercussion for
while there are nearly 30,000 unfair Rite-Aid was hav-
ing to re-hire two
labor practices against workers by
employees and post
fliers saying they
companies every year.
wouldn’t do it any
more.
Warner and her
workers hoped to form a union. Wages co-workers won the election by only a
and benefits were an issue, she said, but handful of votes, even after getting
not the only issue. Mostly, they were two-thirds of the employees to sign up,
concerned about job security and im- because of the extended election period
proving safety, especially after man- and the abuses by management during
that time. The election was held two
agement imposed a quota system.
“You walk a fine line of taking a trip years after starting the process of gath-
to the hospital or a trip to the unem- ering signatures, Warner said, and even
ployment line,” she said. “We like our after a year of having won a union, the
jobs, we just want dignity, respect and a company still hasn’t offered a contract.
“Our labor laws are not working,
voice in our workplace. A person can
only take so much. We decided it was they’re not protecting the working
class,” Warner said.
Fred Feinstein, a former NLRB
counsel and a University of Maryland
professor, agrees that existing labor
law isn’t protecting workers. Warner’s
story isn’t an exception, Feinstein said
— it’s one vivid example of a perva-
sive failure of labor law.
“There’s room for better enforce-
ment and better strategies, but the law
itself is defective,” he said.
Feinstein said there is considerable
evidence that over the last decades new
tactics have been developed and weak-
nesses in the law exploited so that con-
ditions on the ground have changed.
“We need to change the legal
framework if we’re going to protect
house with 600 workers. The ware-
house was inadequately heated in the
winter and cooled in the summer, and
the work was difficult and at times un-
safe. That’s why Warner and her co-
people,” he said.
Extended delay is a powerful wea-
pon for employers, he continued, be-
cause it ensures years of litigation to
prevent remedies for their misbehavior.
Bronfenbrenner said that although
she studied many unfair labor practice
filings, many abuses aren’t even re-
ported because a climate of fear, weak
remedies and long delays prevent
workers from protesting unfair prac-
tices.
Warner said the common corporate
complaint — that workers could act co-
ercively as they campaigned to get their
co-workers to form a union — was
laughable and unsupported by facts.
“From a worker’s point of view, the
harassment and intimidation I’ve seen
has come from the company side.”
Bronfenbrenner and Feinstein both
agreed that decades of research into or-
ganizing campaigns show this to be the
case across the board. Historically, the
number of unfair labor practice filings
against unions is extremely low — only
42 cases of misconduct over seven
decades — while there are nearly
30,000 unfair labor practices against
workers by companies every year. Peo-
ple who say both sides are at fault
aren’t to be taken seriously, Bronfen-
brenner said.
“Unions wouldn’t function if work-
ers were coerced. The whole idea of
having a union, of the organizing
process, relies on workers feeling they
have a democratic process, and believ-
ing in their union,” she said. “Workers
can vote their way out of a union at
many phases — you don’t get to vote
against your boss, and employers have
enormous power over workers. They
can fire you, they control your sched-
ule, your pay, your working condi-
tions.”
(Editor’s Note: Seth Michaels writes
for the national AFL-CIO Now blog.)
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
JUNE 5, 2009