Posts tagged Secret Ballot
Commentary: The Teamsters nonendorsement is an opening for Republicans
September 26, 2024 // This fact has been clear since Trump’s first term. He and his fellow Republicans repeatedly pursued policies that union leaders loathed but union members loved. He protected the rights of independent contractors, which has the support of 67% of union households. Sixty-four percent backed his protection of franchise small businesses from union control. Trump also sought to increase transparency and disclosures of union finances, which 81% of union households support. A second Trump term could see the GOP make further progress on union-member priorities. Polling shows that union members want guaranteed secret-ballot voting, protections for worker privacy, and right-to-work laws — all Republican policies. Yet union leaders oppose these same priorities. The Teamsters president made this fact clear in his speech to the Republican convention this summer, railing against the very policies his own members support. Republicans should ignore union leaders’ far-left demands. They should also ignore union-curious “conservative” groups that want Republicans to compromise on their principles.
The Union Members Who Never Voted for Their Union
September 10, 2024 // Reform federal labor law to require a secret-ballot election for unionization, as the Employee Rights Act would do. A 2022 survey showed that 70 percent of Americans — and 76 percent of union households — support this concept. At present, unions can succeed without support from a majority of its workforce when only a tiny portion of eligible employees vote in the election. For example, the NLRB is considering certifying an election in California in which just three employees out of 24 voted to unionize. A fourth voted against the union, and the rest did not vote. Federal labor law should require a quorum — such as two-thirds of all eligible voters — in order for an election result to be upheld. Such a requirement is popular: Eighty-four percent of Americans support this idea.
Workers at GM battery plant agree to unionize
September 6, 2024 // The unionization majority at Ultium Cells — a joint venture of General Motors and LG Energy Solution. It was the first time workers at an automaker other than the Big Three had unionized in the South. Earlier this year, 30% of workers at a Toyota factory in Missouri said they had signed union authorization cards. It was the fourth non-union plant to join a growing movement of autoworkers who are attempting to replicate the record contracts the UAW won from the Big Three Detroit automakers last year, including 25% wage bumps.
AT&T Employees Nationwide Continue Winning Efforts to Remove Unwanted CWA Union Bosses Imposed Through ‘Card Check’
September 5, 2024 // Michael Swift, an In-Home Expert for AT&T Mobility, filed the “decertification petition” with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on behalf of his coworkers across four AT&T Mobility locations in Mississippi. Marquita Jones, a Louisiana-based In-Home Expert, did the same for her colleagues across four Louisiana locations. If the AT&T Mobility In-Home Experts win their decertification efforts, they will join well over 800 AT&T employees from across California, Texas, and Tennessee, who have also successfully challenged CWA card checks. Under card check, union organizers bypass the secret ballot election process and instead collect cards face-to-face from employees that are then counted as “votes” for the union.
Labor Relations Radio E145: Did you know that 95% of unionized employees NEVER VOTED to unionize? I4AW’s Vinnie Vernuccio explains.
September 4, 2024 // As Americans, every two, four, or six years, we head to polls to cast our ballots for who we want to represent us. For unionized workers in the private sector, the vast majority never voted to unionize. According to a new study [in PDF] by the Institute for the American Worker (I4AW), 95 percent of private sector union workers under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) are represented by a union they have never voted for.
Commentary: Workers of the World, Vote!
September 3, 2024 // Labor Day is the traditional start of the campaign season, which means labor unions will soon hold get-out-the-vote efforts among their members. Yet a new study from the Institute for the American Worker finds that 95.1% of private-sector union members never voted to join their union. Worse, unions are getting more unrepresentative. Based on one estimate, the percentage of private-sector union members who have voted in a unionization election at their workplace has declined by 2 points since 2009. The lack of workplace democracy isn’t an accident. As unions have acknowledged, they have sought to organize more workers through card check, a process by which they can pressure workers into supporting unionization. Card check—a public form of signature gathering—deprives employees of secret-ballot elections, which would allow them to express their preferences without fear of being ostracized.
Hadley, MA, Trader Joe’s Employees Seek Vote to Remove SEIU-Backed Union Officials from Store
August 13, 2024 // Employees at the Hadley, MA, location of grocery chain Trader Joe’s have submitted a petition seeking a workplace election to remove the Trader Joe’s United union, an affiliate of the large Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Trader Joe’s employee Les Stratford submitted the petition to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 1 in Boston with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.
DOJ Civil Rights Lawyers Try to Unionize Amid Uncertain Future
August 5, 2024 // The employee organizing committee is aiming to hold a representation election by October 2024—a secret ballot process requiring majority approval for certification. Although that’s a compressed schedule compared to typical union drives, the committee said that in their first week after launching, they’ve already collected signatures of support from more than 30% of the 365 lawyers they estimate are eligible for the bargaining unit. That would meet the minimum legal threshold to apply for a representation election, but organizers are waiting to do so until they reach 50% support.
Op-Ed: Rep. Tim Walberg and Vinnie Vernuccio: Republicans must give workers a voice
August 2, 2024 // Union organizers can easily abuse this system, focusing on a small number of workers who can ensure a union victory. Trader Joe’s employee Michael Alcorn testified before Congress in May that “after an organizer realized I wasn’t on board, they told me that they couldn’t answer any more questions and were going to devote their attention to those who would help them ‘win.’” Alcorn also said an NLRB agent told him that “it makes sense that the organizers would only talk to people who already support the union.” Under current law, that smaller number of workers can ensure a union victory if they’re the only ones who vote.
Hundreds of AT&T Employees Across California and Texas Petition for Votes to Remove Union Installed Through Coercive “Card Check”
August 2, 2024 // “If Ms. Cain and Mr. Gonzales had filed their decertification petitions just a few weeks later, hundreds of AT&T Mobility workers across Texas and California would be summarily denied their right to vote out union officials who seized power over them in a hasty and coercive manner,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “This is yet another example of the Biden-Harris Administration’s effort to heap legal privileges on its union boss political allies, all at the expense of workers who just want to exercise their free choice when it comes to deciding who should speak for them in the workplace.