Posts tagged intimidation
Public Funds Shouldn’t Bankroll Union Coercion
March 29, 2023 // These tactics can be overwhelming. One employee testified, “It wasn’t enough that employees were being harassed at work, but now they are receiving phone calls at home. The union’s organizers refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer. The only way, it seems, to stop the badgering and pressure is to sign the card.” In another instance, an employee was told to sign the card or risk the union coming to “get her children” and “slash her car tires.” Even more galling, taxpayer dollars can be used to perpetuate these tactics. Card check occurs in some Tennessee workplaces that receive taxpayer-funded state economic incentives. Last year, Tennesseans voted overwhelmingly to support a right-to-work constitutional amendment, ensuring that workers can’t be fired for not joining or paying a union.
PRO Act puts union leadership ahead of workers
March 6, 2023 // Despite its name, the PRO Act fails to “protect the right to organize” — a right that exists under current law and is respected by people on both sides of the aisle. Rather, the legislation would undo existing reforms adopted under the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which helped to curb union violence, coercion, and other criminal activity that plagued labor unions at that time. Unfortunately, the PRO Act would empower union leadership to engage in the same reckless, short-sighted, and dangerous tactics that have disrupted our economy, making it more difficult and costly to invest in our workforce. Research from the American Action Forum has even found that if the PRO Act becomes law, employers could face more than $47 billion in new annual costs, further jeopardizing the economic recovery following the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has exposed weaknesses in our supply chain, and the PRO Act would only further weaken resiliency and could result in more shortages and bare shelves. The special interest bill would also undermine the fundamental rights of workers. Rather than empowering workers, the bill would force them into one-size-fits-all union contracts and subject both workers and job creators to union harassment, infringing on workers’ individual rights. First, the bill allows union leadership to access private information from employees without their consent, giving them free rein to contact, harass, and coerce their workers. It also limits the rights to a secret ballot — a core tenet of American democracy — which will further endanger workers who may have reservations about joining a union. Privacy, secret ballots, and flexibility should all be expected and guaranteed in the 21st-century workplace. Additionally, the bill would abolish right-to-work laws in 27 states,
Tennessee workers deserve a private vote on union representation
March 6, 2023 // But even with right-to-work protections in place, employees still face union intimidation when it comes to how workers decide whether they want to unionize. Union organizing campaigns can be stressful on a worker. House Bill 1342, Senate Bill 650
Trader Joe’s challenges union vote at Louisville store
February 8, 2023 // Trader Joe’s is challenging last month’s vote by workers at its Louisville store to form a union, alleging that pro-union workers “created an atmosphere of fear and coercion and interfered with the laboratory conditions necessary to conduct a free and fair election.” The privately owned grocery store chain filed its objections Wednesday with the National Labor Relations Board, according to a copy of the filing shared by the Trader Joe’s United, the union seeking to organize the Louisville store. Trader Joe’s’ Louisville workers voted 48-36 in favor of the union during the Jan. 26 election, according to Trader Joe’s United. If the tally holds up, it will become the third Trader Joe’s in the nation to unionize.
Forgery Cases Give Supreme Court Opportunity to Hold Unions Accountable for Shady Tactics
January 18, 2023 // aken collectively, the forgery cases clearly suggest a coordinated strategy on the part of unions panicked into breaking the law at the prospect of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in dues money when members they’ve spent decades preying on discover that the power to decide about workplace representation has always been in their own hands. The Supreme Court made its intentions in Janus crystal clear. Public employees have an iron-clad First Amendment right to keep their jobs even if they choose to have nothing to do with a union.
Unions want it to be ‘game over’ for the secret ballot
January 17, 2023 // The Employee Rights Act is a worker-centric bill that will make sure people considering unionization are able to do so without the intimidation and coercion associated with card check organizing. If the CWA is offering good value for potential members, it should not be afraid of a private vote.
PARSIPPANY NJ: Taxpayers Strike Back: Calls for Repeal of Project Labor Agreements
November 7, 2022 // During the meeting, multiple speakers saying they represented the town’s Indian-American community stated they were intimidated by the large presence of union members at the previous two meetings and were hesitant to speak out then. Some residents also expressed they couldn’t get into the meeting held on October 11.
Op-ed: Worker freedom and choice are still under attack
August 23, 2022 // In one dispute that reached the NLRB , an employee was told if she did not sign an authorization card, “the union would come and get her children and it would also slash her car tires.” In a 2012 United Auto Workers union drive in Chattanooga, Tennessee, workers claimed organizers said that signing cards would only indicate their interest in the union. But this was not true: Signing the card meant they authorized the union to represent them. Unions prefer the card check approach because it allows them to bypass the protections of a secret ballot election and helps them organize more dues-paying members. If an organizer threatens a worker to sign a card, the worker may comply just to get the organizer to go away.
Apple union push faces setback as Atlanta organizers withdraw vote bid, citing alleged intimidation, rising Covid cases
May 30, 2022 // Earlier this week, Apple announced that it was increasing starting pay for retail employees to $22 per hour. In the message to co-workers, the Cumberland Mall organizing committee said that the unplanned raises were a direct result of its organizing drive.
Labor Board Seeks Unionization at Starbucks Where Union Lost Election
May 23, 2022 // The National Labor Relations Board is seeking to order Starbucks to recognize a union at a Buffalo-area store where the union lost an initial vote last year.