Posts tagged Labor relations
New federal rule could allow millions of workers to more easily unionize at big companies
November 16, 2023 // The rule only applies to labor relations. The Department of Labor sets its own joint employment standards for issues like meeting minimum wage requirements. Still, the new rule could have a major impact. Local franchise owners employ more than 8 million people in the U.S., according to the International Franchise Association. Millions more work for subcontractors or temporary agencies.
Do we all work for the federal government?
November 6, 2023 // Under the NLRB’s reasoning, the federal government is a joint employer of all workers covered by these laws. It even says that joint employers include those who exercise “reserved control” — i.e., they don’t set standards, but they have the power to do so. That expands the definition of joint employer even more. Congress has the power to draft legislation affecting essentially any part of the economy. As such, it reserves the right to set standards for all workers, making the federal government a joint employer of anyone and everyone. It’s highly unlikely that unions or the NLRB will try to apply the new rule in this way, since it’s clearly beyond the pale. (Imagine Department of Labor officials bargaining with union officials over the future of workers at your mechanic, along with almost every other business you’ve ever patronized.) Yet if it’s wrong to say that Washington, D.C., is a joint employer over the economy’s workers, it’s equally wrong to make that claim about larger companies and the workers at their independent franchisees. It defies logic — and will injure millions of small businesses and their workers.
With strike talk prevalent as UAW negotiates, labor expert weighs in
August 8, 2023 // “The biggest tool that management has in an economic strike is it can replace these workers permanently, and so the workers may never get their jobs back even if they want them back. The strike wasn’t per se illegal, but that doesn’t mean they have a permanent right to their job back if the strike ends,” Masters said. Not all workers face the same risk of replacement, however. It’s impractical to contemplate permanent replacement workers at companies like UPS, where Teamsters members are currently voting on a tentative agreement, because of the scale of that operation and the pressure to settle a contract because of the potential loss of business, Masters said. In the case of the auto industry, Detroit Three automakers can do some stockpiling of vehicles but would likely have limited capacity to prepare that way for an extended strike and would risk losing too much business to competitors as well should a dispute drag on too long. Those same factors might not favor Hollywood actors or writers, who are currently engaged in their own high-profile strikes, Masters said, noting that some of the companies involved in those sectors might be more motivated to try to break the unions. “Not all workers are equal in terms of their replaceability. I think that’s the touchstone,” he said, noting the 1981 strike by air controllers that ended in a mass firing by then-President Ronald Reagan as an example of what can go wrong for workers in a strike.
Sysco Picketing Lawsuit Hinges on Standard for Secondary Strikes
April 18, 2023 // The conflict arose earlier this month after Sysco workers in Indiana and Kentucky went on strike over wages and retirement benefits. Sysco workers belonging to Teamsters Local 117 in Washington state followed suit, exercising a clause of their contract that allows them to refuse to cross a “lawful, primary picket line,” according to court records. In a complaint filed in US District Court for the Western District of Washington, Sysco Seattle argued that the workers there couldn’t join the picket because its operation is a separate entity from Sysco Louisville and Sysco Indianapolis.
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."