Busted!
A sampler of recent charges of employer labor law violations at
the local office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Vancouver Hilton to be converted to office space
If workers vote to boycott the Hilton Vancouver and Convention
Center, it will go bankrupt, shut down, lose the Hilton flag, and be
converted to an office building. That’s a remarkable claim consider-
ing that the facility is publicly owned. But that’s what workers —
members of UNITE HERE Local 9 — were told by management
in the days leading up to a boycott vote, according to charges the
union filed Dec. 2. Local 9 accuses Hilton management of interfer-
ing with its internal process — a vote on whether to boycott the ho-
tel, nearly six months after the union contract expired. Managers
threatened unspecified reprisals, scheduled employees to work dur-
ing the boycott vote, escorted them to the vote and remained there
while they voted, and even gave workers donuts for voting “no.”
The boycott proposal, recommended by union leaders, lost 57-49.
Since then, one outspoken union activist at the hotel, telephone op-
erator Lucas Fielder, was fired Dec. 21, a day after he spoke out at a
protest vigil.
Crackdown at St. Charles
St. Charles Medical Center in Bend sounds like a dictatorship in a
case filed last month by Service Employees International Union
Local 49. Workers at St. Charles — Central Oregon’s largest hospi-
tal — voted in January 2011 to join Local 49. Since then, manage-
ment has tried to impose new rules without the consent of the work-
ers or their union, including no-solicitation rules, no-talk rules,
no-access rules, and rules against the wearing or distribution of
union insignia. Union activists have resisted, says spokesperson Fe-
lisa Hagins, but have also been targeted for warnings of potential
discipline for carrying out union activities. Management has also
interfered with workers’ right to have a union rep present at discipli-
nary meetings. And employees attending union activities have been
surveilled by management. Hagins says workers are uncowed, how-
ever. In November, they voted down a contract offer from manage-
ment that the union was not endorsing. Bargaining continues, with
dates set for late January.
Union? What union?
At Tidewater Barge Lines in Vancouver, workers are represented
by the Inland Boatmen’s Union, a division of International
Longshore and Warehouse Union. But of late, the employer has
been acting as if the union is out to sea, according to charges filed
Dec. 19. Tidewater has been bargaining directly with workers about
disciplinary matters, working out “return to work” agreements with
disciplined workers, and without notifying the union. In September,
a worker was fired for allegedly failing to comply with such an
agreement. That’s out of line, says IBU in the charge.
New NLRB union election
rule to take effect April 30
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new
rule on the way union elections are con-
ducted will take effect April 30, the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
announced late last month. The rule will
help alleviate the delays, inefficiencies,
abuse of process, and unnecessary liti-
gation which plague the current system
for workers who want to vote on
whether to have a union.
AFL-CIO President Richard
PAGE 12
Trumka says it’s “good news” that the
NLRB “has taken this modest but im-
portant step to help ensure that workers
who want to vote to form a union at
their workplace get a fair opportunity to
do so.”
The new rule, says NLRB Chairman
Mark Pearce, gives workers who have
petitioned for an election the “right to
vote in a timely manner and without the
impediment of needless litigation.”
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
JANUARY 6, 2012