Posts tagged harassment
Washington: Worker’s story illuminates unions’ dirty little secret
August 6, 2024 // It’s demonstrably unconstitutional to recognize the workers’ rights only when you feel like it, but so far the courts have let unions get away with it. The Freedom Foundation deals with such machinations daily, recognizing them as dirty tricks meant to discourage members from ending their dues. The organization’s mission is to navigate these obstacles and ensure workers can exercise their rights at the appropriate times. WFSE, Washington’s largest state worker union, saw its membership numbers drop precipitously last year, losing about 700 members — which equates to roughly $700,000 in lost annual revenue.
Union losses Innercare election, alleges employee intimidation, harassment
July 31, 2024 // “Certainly the employees suffered from harassment but not from Innercare but from the members of the SEIU,” Gonzalez wrote on the union’s Facebook page Friday. “Not content with harassing them at work, they also had the audacity to show up at their homes and refused to leave even though they were asked to do so.” The Facebook user assured SEIU-UHW members allegedly chased patients around the Innercare parking lot to hand out brochures she considered “full of false information.” “Employees do not need to be represented by such snide and abusive people who do not show the slightest bit of respect and education,” Gonzalez wrote.
Lawmakers Should Not Let a Lame Duck Pack the NLRB
July 28, 2024 // For instance, on her watch, Chair McFerran has allowed workplace discrimination to be weaponized for pro-union activities. This decision has subjected workers to traumatizing harassment, while simultaneously barring employers from intervening. According to a report by the Institute for the American Worker, McFerran’s NLRB has used Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to excuse “racist rhetoric, sexist harassment, and vulgarity in the workplace, as long as it takes place in the context of ‘union activity.’”
The NLRB Harassment Carve-Out
May 30, 2024 // The NLRB may be fine with racism and sexism, but the Senate should oppose it. Ms. McFerran’s term expires in December, and regardless of what happens in November’s presidential election, Republicans and Democrats alike should demand a nominee who will stand against discrimination.
WAWU begins striking
May 23, 2024 // Some picket lines are designed to stop delivery trucks and other vehicles from crossing their lines. When stopped, participants hand the drivers a flyer explaining their cause and why they should not enter campus if avoidable, according to strike participant Parker Hopkins. Construction workers working on Kaiser Borsari Hall aren’t working Tuesday, according to a worker from Seattle who stepped out of his car on Bill McDonald Parkway and offered to buy coffee for the picketing student employees. Because of his own union involvement, the worker said he’s getting paid to sit in his hotel room for the day. Whatcom Transit Authority is also not running buses through Western’s campus on High Street, but rerouting them to pick up and drop off on Garden Street beneath the Viking Union, according to a post on X from Whatcom Transport Authority.
Why the hotel workers in Las Vegas might be the next big strike
October 15, 2023 // Rogers, Martinez, Buie, and their coworkers are now waiting to find out what comes next. Culinary 226 remains locked in negotiations for a new five-year contract. With the membership primed to strike, there’s no telling how long it will be before Striketober comes to the Strip. If—and when—the call comes, though, they will be ready. “I voted yes to authorize a strike because I’m fighting for my family and for our future,” Maria Sanchez, a guest room attendant at the Bellagio and Culinary Union member, said in a statement. “The workload since the pandemic has been intense, and when I get home I’m so tired and I don’t have energy to take my two kids to the park or play with them. . . . I voted yes to win the best contract ever so that I can work one job and come home to spend time with my children.”
Another union push from legislative staffers
September 22, 2023 // Last July, Senate President Karen Spilka refused to recognize a union push by staffers to affiliate with IBEW Local 2222. State law allows employees in the executive or judicial branch to unionize, but not those who work in the Legislature. Legislation filed by Sen. John Keenan and Rep. Patrick Kearney would change the law and allow legislative staff to unionize.
Wabtec sues union, seeks injunction aimed at conduct of striking workers on picket line
August 3, 2023 // Since the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America went on strike on June 22, according to Wabtec's motion, the striking workers have, among other things, used racist and homophobic slurs against non-striking employees entering and leaving the plant, damaged employees' personal vehicles, blocked the plant's gates and subjected the plant to two phoned-in bomb threats. Wabtec sued the UE in asking for the injunction. "Wabtec has made consistent efforts to address the Union's unlawful and dangerous picket activity with the Union and its counsel, but the activity has persisted and most recently escalated, amounting to an unlawful seizure of the Wabtec facility," according to Wabtec's motion.
TWO BILLS PASSED BY WA LEGISLATURE EXPOSE UNION HYPOCRISY ON PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PRIVACY
May 3, 2023 // One bill, HB 1533, creates a process for public employees purporting to be “survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, harassment, or stalking” to exempt any information about themselves from being disclosed to people seeking government records under the Public Records Act (PRA). Meanwhile, the other bill, HB 1200, requires government employers in the state to regularly turn over the personal contact information—including home addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses—of their employees to labor unions. While the two bills are at odds in their substance, the common thread is that they both advance public-sector unions’ goal of being the only nongovernmental organizations with the ability to communicate with public employees. Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 upheld public employees’ First Amendment right to refrain from joining and paying dues to a union in its Janus v. AFSCME decision, government unions in Washington and around the country have worked overtime to make signing up for membership as easy as possible while making cancelling membership unnecessarily cumbersome. Part of the approach has involved attempting to silence the Freedom Foundation’s efforts to communicate information to public employees about their rights while simultaneously increasing unions’ ability to communicate for the purposes of soliciting membership.