Posts tagged Neutrality Agreement
Podcast: Rich Lowry with guest Vinnie Vernuccio; How Unions Are Failing American Workers
July 31, 2024 // National Review's Rich Lowry is joined by Vinnie Vernuccio, President of the Institute for the American Worker, to discuss how unions have reduced worker freedom, the underhanded tactics unions use to gain power and stifle dissenting voices, how the government enables unions, and how Americans can use free market principles to restore workers' rights and bring about positive labor reform.
Georgia’s Secret Ballots and Union Hypocrisy
March 14, 2024 // Unions are fine with conditions on taxpayer funding if it gives them an unfair advantage. They can’t credibly claim it’s wrong when states go the other direction and level the playing field for workers. Instead of believing the union fearmongering, more states should do what Georgia has done, and put workers’ rights ahead of union demands.
600 Activision QA workers unionize, Microsoft voluntarily recognizes
March 13, 2024 // “Now under Microsoft with the neutrality agreement they signed with CWA, it’s a lot easier,” Fannon said. “We don’t have to be concerned about any form of union-busting tactics. Microsoft made sure all managers were trained on neutrality. We knew that if we encountered union busting, we could bring it up so it’s addressed.” The other positive is that neither Activision’s QA workers nor Microsoft management have to go through the union election process with the National Labor Relations Board, which can sometimes take a while. Instead, Activision QA workers have been voting since Feb. 22 with either a union authorization card (a document, physical or digital, indicating approval of the union) or a confidential vote through an online portal.
Activision QA workers form the largest US video game union yet
March 11, 2024 // Organized with the help of the CWA, Activision Quality Assurance United has 600 members across Texas, California, and Minnesota.
Opinion: Protect workers by preventing union neutrality agreements
February 21, 2024 // A neutrality agreement is a contract between a union and an employer that typically forbids employers from communicating with employees about the unionization effort or the union behind it. This includes not discussing with workers the viability of any promises the union makes, the accuracy of information provided by the union, or details about the union’s record. Employers that sign neutrality agreements are even precluded from answering employees’ basic questions about how the bargaining process works. So in short, these deceptively named neutrality agreements are anything but. Employers are not actually asked to be neutral, but instead to leave employees in the dark about the choice they face.
Commentary: States should protect workers from Democrats’ latest assault on their rights
January 19, 2024 // Ending the secret ballot is just one of the ways these Senate Democrats are trying to deprive workers of their rights. They ultimately want automakers to sign a so-called neutrality agreement. As I’ve documented, such agreements typically do three things. The first is to gut the secret ballot in favor of card check. Second, they give unions the personal information of every worker at a company — another violation of privacy and another invitation to intimidation. Finally, neutrality agreements put a gag order on companies, prohibiting them from talking to their workers about unionization. Yet that violates workers’ right to the full information they need to make the best choice. And that’s exactly why unions want to shut companies up — because it makes workers easier to control.
Dem Demands On Automakers Could Backfire On Their Own Climate Agenda And Americans’ Wallets, Experts Say
January 17, 2024 // “EV cars require fewer workers to build,” Higgins told the DCNF, noting that greater union membership in the auto industry is probably not possible with a corresponding transition to EVs. “That’s just a fact. But that may not matter as much as you might think to the UAW. Believe it or not, only about 150,000 of the UAW’s 400,000 or so members actually work for Detroit automakers. The union has branched out into other areas, such as education, and those areas are growing… So fewer auto workers will hurt the union but not kill it.”
VIDEO: Microsoft tries to address AI labor concerns with new AFL-CIO pact and ‘neutrality framework’
December 13, 2023 // The AFL-CIO and Microsoft said the agreement includes a “neutrality framework” that will apply to future efforts by workers to organize under affiliated unions. They said the framework confirms “a joint commitment to respect the right of employees to form or join unions, to develop positive and cooperative labor-management relationships, and to negotiate collective bargaining agreements that will support workers in an era of rapid technological change.” AI has emerged as a wedge issue in a wide range of labor negotiations over the past year, including the now-settled strikes by Hollywood screenwriters and actors.
AFL-CIO And Microsoft Announce Deal For AI Training And Labor Neutrality
December 12, 2023 // The agreement will provide formalized training opportunities for union members and students on artificial intelligence beginning in the winter of 2024 and conducted by Microsoft’s AI experts. These trainings will give participants a deeper dive into the use of AI in specific careers, enabling them to utilize the technology rather than be replaced by it. The agreement also provides the AFL-CIO the opportunity to influence and participate in the development of new AI offerings from Microsoft.
Starfield Testers Had To Unionize To Get A Copy Of The Game
December 12, 2023 //