"Whadda'ya mean youse don't wanna join the union?"
The below message comes to me from Mark Mix at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which I enthusiastically support.
"Dear Gary,
Top union bosses like the AFL-CIO's Rich Trumka continue to demand power grabs from their allies in Congress in a special "lame-duck" session later this month.
But Big Labor's "Plan B" for more government-granted special privileges may be even more dangerous.
You see, union bigwigs still want payback for unleashing their forced-dues political machine to put Barack Obama in the White House.
And what they can't ram through Congress, they're asking President Obama to quietly sneak through administratively, hoping the American people won't notice.
But National Right to Work Foundation attorneys are prepared to fight back.
In fact, just this week, Foundation attorneys filed legal briefs urging the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to uphold a landmark Foundation-won decision intended to counteract the intimidation waged by aggressive union operatives during card check organizing campaigns.
Union lawyers seek to deny workers access to a secret ballot vote after they have been swept into union ranks through the abusive card check organizing process.
Foundation attorneys have also renewed their request that Member Craig Becker recuse himself from the case because he co-authored a union brief in the original case in 2007.
Earlier this year, a bipartisan vote stalled Becker's nomination in part because he believes that the NLRB should ignore Congress and make massive changes to federal labor law by fiat.
And now he's in position to do just that.
Becker has even already used his time on the Board to suggest that union bosses face too many federal financial disclosure requirements...
...even though a whopping 72 percent of rank-and-file union members think union bosses should be held more accountable to workers, according to our new poll.
In its first two years, the Obama Administration has gutted the budget of the DOL agency tasked with policing union corruption and imposed new rules to keep workers for federal contractors in the dark about their right to refrain from union membership.
Now that the union bosses are more desperate than ever for hidden paybacks, what could be next?
If you can, please chip in with a tax-deductible contribution of $10 or more to help Foundation attorneys combat a likely bureaucratic assault on employee freedom."
Sincerely,
Mark Mix
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The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, is assisting thousands of employees in more than 200 cases nationwide. The Foundation's mailing address is 8001 Braddock Road, Springfield, Virginia 22160. Its web address is www.nrtw.org/.
To help the National Right to Work Foundation grow; please forward this to a friend.
Reference to dues funding of union political action funds was, until a year ago, an outright lie. Now, thanks to the Supreme Court decision which gutted campaign finance laws, both the insidious corporate backers of the Right To Work For Less Foundation AND unions are free to spend all the money they want. Don't blame President Obama, blame Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Kennedy, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito.
ReplyDeleteEmployers, for whom Right to Work for Less is fronting, have open ended opportunities to indulge in intimidation of their employees. The strident rhetoric presented here is simply whining and posturing to prevent workers from exercising their right to form unions, free of employer intimidation. I worked for a company that devoted hundreds of hours to paid time in mandatory meetings haranguing workers about why they had better vote NO in an NLRB election. Getting a union in, in the first place, took a months long battle with massive picket lines by workers fed up with arbitrary treatment.
I hope Trumka gets everything through congress that he's asking for, and more. Solidarity forever!
"The strident rhetoric presented here is simply whining and posturing to prevent workers from exercising their right to form unions, free of employer intimidation."
ReplyDeleteAre you talking about the days of John L Lewis? What about the right not to join a union free of union intimidation?
Do you think workers should have the right to a secret vote on establishing a union in their workplace? Or do you favor the card check idea?
If a majority of workers have signed cards, what need is there for an election? Of course I favor the Employee Free Choice Act. I hope to see it enacted in early 2013. If only 20-40 percent have signed cards, an election is in order. If less than 20 percent, then there is no basis to even hold an election.
ReplyDeleteThere are workplaces where nothing like a majority want a union. There is no certified bargaining unit at such places. Generally, when a union certification election is scheduled, employers whose behavior inspired workers to form a union go into overdrive, hiring expensive scab law firms to run massive campaigns of intimidation. If a majority sign cards, why should they have to endure such terrorism?
As to the minority of individuals that objects on principle to joining a union, even where there is a certified bargaining unit, they are allowed by law to opt out. They do pay a fee in lieu of dues for the benefits of the union contract (such as significantly higher wages than they would be earning without one), none of which goes to the Committee on Political Education.
Incidentally, the insidious propaganda of the Right to Work for Less crowd has not changed since the days of John L. Lewis. But yes, I would like to see labor leaders get off their duffs and ORGANIZE on the scale Lewis did. On that basis, I would join in criticizing union leadership, for doing too little.
"If a majority of workers have signed cards, what need is there for an election?"
ReplyDeleteSiarlys,
What you fail to mention is that under Card Check, union reps
(Vinnie and Sluggo) can walk right up to workers and ask them"if they want to sign".
That is not free choice. That is intimidation.
That is a convenient fantasy Gary, but Vinnie and Sluggo have very limited access to most workplaces. Employees are far more afraid of retaliation by their employers, who hold most of the legal cards as it is, than the remote possibility that Vinnie or Sluggo are lurking nearby. In most states, absent a union contract already in place, an employee can still be fired for "any reason or no reason." That's what inspires workers to join unions.
ReplyDelete