Do we really need more union thugs in American workplaces – right now during the Bush Depression?
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“Whether you label it the “card check” bill or the Employee Free Choice Act, you can also call it something else — in deep trouble. Key senators this week appeared to cripple prospects for passing the highly polarizing measure, the labor movement’s top priority in Congress, which is aimed at making it easier for workers to join unions,” according to the L.A. Times.
Hooray! There is NO good reason to take away a worker’s right to privacy in union elections. This was an obvious attempt by unions to force their way into more companies. To do this during the worst economic recession in our lifetimes is crazy – but that is how greedy the union thugs amongst us are.
“Last week, the executives of three companies known for their progressive images — Costco, Starbucks and Whole Foods — offered what they called a “third way.” It would eliminate the binding arbitration provision and preserve management’s right to demand a secret-ballot election when workers seek to form bargaining units. But it would also shorten the period management would have to campaign against unionization.”
That certainly sounds reasonable. But of course the union hacks don’t like it. But California Senator Diane Feinstein doesn’t like the card check bill – and she sounds like she is open to a compromise/
“This is an extraordinarily difficult economy, and feelings are very strong on both sides of the issue,” Feinstein said in a statement. “I would hope there is some way to find common ground that would be agreeable to both business and labor.”
Go Feinstein! For once common sense has prevailed in Washington, D.C.
Way to motivate, Art. Study hard, get a degree and get into a good company; suck up to top brass, and make it to the top 5%. Make a lot of money, spend some on politics for favorable laws, and spend some on media to convince the lower 95% that trying to protect themselves from you is unpatriotic.
Among the developed countries, the U.S. has the largest disparity of income between managers and workers, primarily because US corporations have been so successful in destroying labor unions. The great, great majority of my students are going to be these workers. I’m beginning to suspect your concern for the common man is a sham, Art; that you really want to be in that top 5% climbing up there on the backs of my graduates from SAHS by keeping them divided and vulnerable to intimidation by their employers.
C’mon, Art … you’ve exposed a lot of real corruption in O.C. … hats off to you for that. Now let’s have an article on a “union thug”. Show his picture, name his name, describe his thuggery, and the victims of his abuse. Your “union thug” is a phantom, Art, a bogey man created to scare people into voting against their own interests.
The U.S. corporate class has always been notorious for its ferocious opposition to unions. And true to form, business leaders reacted with collective hysteria to the introduction of legislation in the House and Senate on March 10th that would make it just a bit easier for workers to unionize.
The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would allow unions to win recognition once a majority of workers at a given workplace signs a union card, rather than allowing managers to force their workers to suffer through a drawn-out union election by secret ballot. Employers typically prefer to force a union election because it allows them to delay the decision by months while they fire union supporters and force their workers to endure “captive audience” meetings with managers who threaten to close down the company or move elsewhere in the case of a union victory.
EFCA would also compel recalcitrant employers to bargain with unions, by imposing binding arbitration if there is no agreement reached 120 days after a union wins recognition. This is necessary because roughly half of all new unions never get a contract due to their managements’ refusal to bargain in good faith.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2009/03/democrats-abandon…
“card check” sounds a lot like the voting system the BOS wants to implement. Except the Registrar would collect your card or ballot after review by your employer, etc. and then announce the winner – probably not somebody prounion. Good thing the BOS is out-in-front in eliminating secret ballots.
#1 – and Red,
Is card check legislation REALLY necessary, particularly in this economy?
The unions are now targeting retail stores. Is that really a long term career, for anyone?
Haven’t the unions already chased enough jobs overseas?
Unions won’t save us. We have to save ourselves. To do so we each have to keep learning and figuring out how to be useful. There are thousands of global denizens waiting to replace us, otherwise.
Red.
Did I read what you stated correctly? Suffer and secret ballot?
Do you “suffer” when you vote in our traditonal elections where that vote is in “secret?”
While I do not oppose unions, and in fact my dad was a card carrying member of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, I would submit that unions had their time and place.
Perhaps you might suggest that every nation allow their workers to join organized labor with the thought process that “a rising tide lifts all boats”. In that approach the wages and benefits of all workers around the world would become equal and balanced so that future outsourcing of jobs might be discouraged.
Until that fantasy can be realized we must accept globalization realities and not put more pressure on increasing operation costs to companies such as Walmart where their average shopper is on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder.
PS: Walmart does not put a gun to your head when they advertise job openings.
Mr and Mrs America. If you are not happy with their employee package no one forces you to apply.
Good, lengthy LA Times Edtorial today on this proposed federal legislation. The secret vs. not secret ballot issue is only part of the picture. The Liberal Times comes down on the no side on this proposed legislation, a shocker in itself.
Art, are you really serious? Your advocating that people individually figure it out? I think it takes no genious to understand that there is a wide agreement that bosses and big corporations (ahem AIG) have taken advantage of the American worker way too long. My mother can tell you what it is like to work in a factory for so many years without a union. Yeah, I could just imagine you telling her while her boss harassed her, “figure it out individually”. LOL You can be such a joke. If there were a union, there would atleast have been a more level playing field between my mom and her boss. She mustered up the courage to challenge him, despite her fear. Do you know how many sleepless nights workers have to have in order to do something like that? If my mom would have had a union, at the very least she would have had an organized way of challenging her boss with her coworkers support. You have no clue what workers go through.
The Employee Free Choice Act is about stopping years and years of corporations having an upper hand. Aren’t you for supporting working families?
hey art, are you going to respond or hide?
New York CWA Local Dissenters Victimized by Union Terror; File Complaint
Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Fri, 05/28/2010 – 16:58
Email to friendPrinter-friendlyAnyone who believes labor unions have forsaken menace as a tool to be used against internal dissent hasn’t hung around Communications Workers of America Local 1101 lately. A civil complaint filed in Brooklyn, N.Y. federal court against the Staten Island-based union this past February provides apparently damning evidence that the labor organization is run by thugs and thieves. Salvatore DiStefano and Sebastian Taravella, union members and longtime heavy equipment operators for Verizon, allege they were continuously subject to harassment and violence after reporting an illegal union time-padding scheme to the Verizon security team. The pair is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
According to the complaint, DiStefano, an employee of Verizon’s Staten Island Garage, in the summer of 2007 was in the presence of a first-level union supervisor, Bob Rios, who told crew members that if they performed three “fiber to premises” jobs in a given day, they could falsely put in for a full day’s pay regardless of how early they finished. DiStefano openly refused to participate in this scam. He then voiced his disapproval to fellow union members. Taravella, also a garage employee, expressed the same view. In May 2008, the pair went to Verizon’s corporate security staff, informing them of the scheme. Corporate security, however, did not keep the resulting report confidential. Big mistake.
Outsiders might have seen DiStefano and Taravella as whistle-blowers; CWA Local 1101 saw them as rats. The union hierarchy proceeded to subject the pair to unrelenting abuse. Bosses brought them up on phony charges of “harassment” and “discrimination” against fellow members. As punishment, during or about November 2008 DiStefano and Taravella were terminated from employment at the Staten Island Garage and relocated to other garages, demoted in rank, and given “final warnings.” When the pair complained to union officials Pat Lascala and Richard Meltz, they allegedly were told, “You guys did it to yourself.” In March 2009, shop steward Manny Rincon allegedly put a dead rat in Taravella’s locker. A month later, union member Chris Tremble called DiStefano a “rat” while hitting his face and head, and leaving him with two herniated disks. DiStefano complained about the incident to union officials, who promptly accused him of “starting a fight.” DiStefano eventually was terminated in July 2009. In October 2009, a union member, Joe Sedita, threatened Taravella with death for allegedly getting a fellow employee fired. All the abuse took its toll. Taravella and DiStefano since have been undergoing counseling.
Union officials not only took no action against acts of wrongdoing, they openly encouraged them. In November 2008, the aforementioned Richard Meltz allegedly told members to “do whatever you want with those two guys.” And at an August 2009 garage meeting, two local vice presidents, Joe Macaleer and Mike Luzzi, told rank and file that Verizon was “having a lot of problems right now ‘due to a couple of troublemakers'” and that “We have to learn that we can’t call corporate security because we don’t want those people getting involved in our business.” Macaleer allegedly stated: “I don’t want nobody in this room to call corporate security any more. [And] I don’t care if somebody come to work with a gun saying they’re going to shoot people, you don’t say anything…we have a lot of problems here due to the fact there are ‘spies in the room.'” He then added, looking directly at the plaintiffs, “You know who you are.” Finally, the complaint alleges that Macaleer told members, “(W)e have to deal with these spies on a personal level, like take them outside of the yard, off the company property and off company time and take care of them, because we can’t be ratting each other out.”
These allegations carry more than a ring of truth. It is the nature of any racket to protect participants by creating a wall of silence and exacting vengeance upon those in their ranks violating it. Some 40 years ago New York City cops operated in this manner, inadvertently supplying the raw material for such movies as “Serpico” and “American Gangster.” All evidence strongly suggests that Communications Workers Local 1101 leaders operated an illegal featherbedding ring. That one or more Verizon employees may have taken part can’t be ruled out either. DiStefano and Taravella’s only crime was standing tall in the face of corruption and intimidation. Their lawsuit hopefully will yield a measure of justice for themselves and integrity for unions everywhere.
Communications Workers of America (CWA)Joe MacaleerRichard MeltzSalvatore DiStefanoSebastian TaravellaUnion Corruption UpdateVerizonCarl Horowitz’s blog