Posts tagged Labor relations
The House Passes a Bill to Give VA Medical Employees Greater Union Rights
December 20, 2022 // The VA Employee Fairness Act would grant medical professionals the right to bargain over scheduling and official time, and to file grievances over pay disputes. Physicians, dentists, registered nurses and physician assistants at the VA are hired under Title 38 of the U.S. Code, which prohibits collective bargaining over care and competency issues, as determined by the department’s secretary. During the Trump administration, that exception to collective bargaining was vastly expanded—and labor leaders and Democrats say, exploited—to include issues such as shift scheduling. Then-VA Secretary Robert Wilkie used it to ban Title 38 union officials from accessing official time altogether.
Why Teachers Are Going on Strike This Fall—and What Could Come Next
September 21, 2022 //
COMMENTARY America’s seeing a historic surge in worker organizing. Here’s how to sustain it
September 7, 2022 // Likewise, strikes by public-sector workers in the 1960s produced state-level statutes endorsing collective bargaining. Similar policy changes will be needed to sustain contemporary worker efforts, both by fixing the basics of existing labor law to ensure that workers who want collective bargaining are successful in achieving contracts, and by opening up labor law to new forms of worker voice in workplace affairs and corporate governance. But legal changes won’t lead the process. As in the past, policymakers will respond to pressure for change coming from the workforce, a broad base of public interest groups, and ultimately some in the business community.
We need better unions
September 5, 2022 // They need to leave behind the model where they treat all members as oppressed cogs and move to a model where they provide valuable services to their members and find ways to make union membership valuable for companies. It would be better to shift to an approach where unions serve as professional organizations, advocating for their members’ interests and providing tools for members to collaborate. Unions could train their members, award voluntary certifications, offer insurance, and provide assistance to employees negotiating their own terms and conditions of employment. In short, unions need to step forward into the 21st century.
Opinion: AMERICAN WORKERS DESERVE BETTER FROM NLRB
June 15, 2022 // Recently, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel announced the NLRB will issue charges asserting employers are violating federal law if they conduct informational meetings with their employees to discuss unionization. The GC’s pejorative characterization of these meetings as “a license to coerce” is as false as it is dangerous. These collaborative employer-employee meetings are very similar to meetings that employers routinely schedule during employees paid working time. These can include meetings about employee benefits as well as anti-discrimination and harassment training. Employees are no more “captive” in these meetings than they are in any other workplace setting. And in fact, employees want the information. EVAN ARMSTRONG, false promises, threats, coercion,
NLRB General Counsel Calls for Union Organizing Through ‘Card Check’
April 22, 2022 // "In my experience, the card-signing process often is not an accurate indicator of actual interest in or support for a union," Pryzbylski said. "Many employees are peer pressured or coerced into signing cards, but if and when permitted to vote in a secret-ballot election, [they] vote against union representation."
A Zipper Clause: Why Agencies and Unions Fight Over It
January 31, 2022 // A Court of Appeals has overturned a policy statement from the FLRA on the role of a zipper clause in federal labor relations.