Posts tagged Decertify
Despite more ‘salting,’ labor unions are getting pushback in their drive to organize restaurants
January 24, 2024 // While unions "salt" more restaurants with organizers posing as employees, a countermovement is building among the already-unionized to end their representation by groups like Workers United, as this week’s episode of the Working Lunch podcast attests. The broadcast features a guest appearance by Mark Mix, president of the Right to Work Committee. The group helps organized employees across all industries to vote on whether to remain in their unions, a process known as decertification. He spoke a day after Workers United, the parent of the union that’s organized 375 Starbucks units, decided to end its representation of an Ultimo Coffee café. All but one employee of the store had signed a petition asking federal regulators to permit a vote on whether to oust the labor group.
Labor Board will hear union complaints against Trader Joe’s on Tuesday
January 16, 2024 // Recently, some workers have started an effort to decertify the union. One of the union opponents, Leslie Stratford, said in an email that almost half of the employees at the Hadley store have signed a petition to disband the union.
Buffalo Starbucks Baristas Blast National Labor Relations Board’s Move to Trap Workers in Union at Court of Appeals
November 29, 2023 // “Given the biases of the current Board, it is disheartening ― but not surprising ― to see the NLRB claim Cortes’ petition is the product of Starbucks’ alleged unfair labor practices,” the brief states. “Its own records show that nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, Cortes collected her petition because of the Union’s anti-employee behavior.” The employees’ brief also contends that the relief NLRB lawyers are seeking from the Second Circuit – a 10(j) injunction under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) that will force Starbucks managers into working with SBWU union bosses to craft a monopoly bargaining contract – is extreme. Such injunctions can only be ordered when the harm done to workers in their absence would be “irreparable.” Foundation attorneys argue that the fact that Cortes and other employees have attempted to decertify does not make any injuries suffered by the union “irreparable.” “The NLRB’s argument it needs an injunction to suppress decertification efforts already underway―which have already garnered majority support―is a tacit admission it is seeking to alter the status quo, not preserve it,” states the brief.
Workers vote to remove union at Capitol Hill’s Glo’s Diner
November 6, 2023 // The decertification process, according to the National Labor Relations Board, is straightforward. “Employees may file a petition for decertification (RD) if they believe support for a union has diminished, after collecting signatures from at least 30% of workers in a unit,” the documentation reads. “A majority of votes decides the outcome.” The Glo’s decision is, meanwhile, a significant blow to the nascent efforts of Restaurant Workers United which has reported only a handful of members in recent annual reports as other efforts like increasing union representation at big chain Starbucks have grown. Ben Reynolds, a representative for the RWU group, declined to comment on the vote at this time citing solidarity with the Glo’s workers who are “taking a minute to recover emotionally from the strain of this election.” CHS will update our reporting when we hear back.
Opinion: Unions’ deceptive ‘salting’ loophole leaves a bad taste
November 3, 2023 // Workers United — a Service Employees International Union affiliate — hired labor organizers who got jobs at Starbucks, then pushed for unionization on the coffee company’s dime — while also collecting a union paycheck. These “salts” start by building trust with workers. As one Starbucks salt told a group of fellow organizers, it’s best to do “thankless chores” that gain the appreciation of peers and “make the company less suspicious of you.”
Vibrant Coffee Roasters baristas and bakers want to unionize
October 18, 2023 // Korshak Bagels, which was the first workplace to unionize with Local 80, closed last month. Theirs was the only Local 80 bargaining unit that had ratified a contract. Others are still bargaining. Employees of Korshak Bagels told Billy Penn that they had pushed for changes in the store’s process and practices that would have allowed greater profits, but the store’s owner resisted those changes. Owner Phil Korshak has said the proposed changes, like automating doughmaking and using computer kiosks for orders and payment, would not be “on brand for Korshak Bagels.” Caiside Ní Chuinn was part of the organizing committee at Good Karma, where they worked for a year-and-a-half, and is now working at Vibrant. Ní Chuinn worked at the Good Karma location that closed in January.
Piscataway L’Oreal Employees Demand Vote to Remove RWDSU Union Officials from Facility
September 21, 2023 // Mark Mix. “RWDSU is still trying to impose itself on workers at the large Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama, despite those workers voting not once, but twice to reject the union’s presence.” “Unfortunately, the Biden NLRB is trying to make it easier for union officials who seek to undermine worker votes to cling onto power, but Foundation attorneys will continue to defend Ms. Hoyos Lopez and any other employee who seeks to exercise their individual right to vote out unwanted union officials,”
Wisconsin Spartek Workers Successfully Force Out UE Union Officials as Labor Board’s Policy Shift Looms
September 14, 2023 // The repeal of the Election Protection Rule will also let union officials shut down worker attempts to obtain a secret ballot decertification vote for a year after union officials install themselves in a workplace via the so-called “card check” process. This move will be particularly dangerous to workers’ rights now that the Biden-appointed majority on the NLRB has voted to mandate card check recognition. Under the abuse-prone card check process, union officials bypass the NLRB’s traditional secret ballot vote procedures and instead use cards collected directly from workers – often through coercive or intimidating tactics – as “votes” for unionization. “Workers across the country are successfully exercising their right to kick out unwanted union officials, especially with Foundation aid,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “This trend is a threat to the Biden Administration’s union boss political allies, and the Administration has been pursuing a radical agenda to trap workers under unions’ so-called ‘representation’ and increase the influence and dues revenue of its favorite special interest.”
After unionizing last summer, some Utah Starbucks workers now want out
August 4, 2023 // Before a petition can be filed, federal labor law says a year must pass after a successful union vote and 30% of a location’s workers need to support decertification. The National Right to Work Foundation, which is providing free legal representation to the workers who support the petition, said a contingent of the store’s workers don’t want the union to have “monopoly representation powers” when negotiating with the company. “They called us,” said foundation president Mark Mix. “They walked through this process and we [are helping] them get an election. That's the goal, not to put our thumb on the scale one way or the other, but just get the election so that their voices can be heard in the workplace.”
Seattle Mariners Retail Employees Vote Out UFCW Union, Defeat Union Boss Attempt to Block Election Using “Card Check”
July 27, 2023 // Over the objection of UFCW union officials, the NLRB Regional Director in May ordered a union decertification election at the request of the Seattle Mariners’ retail employees. Union bosses subsequently filed a Request for Review at the NLRB in Washington, D.C., seeking to halt the election. They argued that a so-called “voluntary recognition bar” should be imposed to block the Mariners’ employees from exercising their right to vote on the union’s removal. However, the NLRB denied the union’s Request for Review on July 25. After NLRB Region 19 certifies the 50-9 vote result, the Seattle Mariners’ retail employees will finally be free from the unwanted UFCW union. The retail workers were able to challenge union officials’ card check drive thanks to the Election Protection Rule (EPR), a reform to the election rules enacted by the NLRB in 2020 following Foundation advocacy. While union officials pre-EPR were able to manipulate the so-called “voluntary recognition bar” to block employees from voting out a union for at least a year after an employer recognized a union’s supposed card check victory, the EPR granted employees a 45-day window in which to petition for a secret ballot election to challenge the card check result.