Posts tagged union election
Commentary: The NLRB’s “Laboratory Conditions” Are Overdue for Inspection
October 7, 2024 // In several lines of precedent since the passage of the 1947 Taft-Hartley amendments, courts have ignored or glossed over this textual problem and have allowed the NLRB to police campaign misconduct quite closely. Most relevant here is the doctrine first announced in General Shoe Corporation. The Shoe Workers Union objected to its election loss at a plant in Pulaski, Tennessee, and charged the employer with co-extensive unfair labor practices. The employer’s president was shown to have lectured employees personally about their union support. Finding that no unfair labor practice had been proven, the Board nevertheless set aside the Union’s loss,
US labor watchdog pressures Trader Joe’s to bargain with New York union
September 26, 2024 // The general counsel of the US’s top labor watchdog is seeking an order demanding that Trader Joe’s recognize and bargain with the union, Trader Joe’s United, amid allegations that employees were threatened and disparaged from unionizing. Under a framework introduced by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last year, employers can be ordered to bargain with a union if they commit unfair labor practices that would set aside the results of a union ballot.
OPINION Why don’t unions have to stand for reelection?
September 16, 2024 // The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 7.4 million workers in the private sector belonged to labor unions in 2023. Yet according to a new study from the Institute for the American Worker, which promotes market-oriented labor reform, fewer than 400,000 of those unionized employees — about 5 percent — have ever voted in an election for the union that represents them. Like me, the vast majority of employees in unionized workplaces were hired after the union had already been voted in. Most unions have never been required to confirm that they have the support of current workers by winning a recertification election. In some workplaces, a lifetime has elapsed — that isn’t hyperbole — since the union was first certified. The United Auto Workers organized General Motors’ Michigan plants in 1937 and has represented the employees who work there ever since. Never once has it had to stand for reelection. What kind of “workplace democracy” is that?
Marijuana dispensary employees in Escanaba work to form union
September 5, 2024 // There are 290 cannabis dispensaries nationwide in the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Lume Escanaba would be the first UFCW shop in the U.P.
Unions Need Democracy: 95 Percent of Union Workers Never Voted for Their Union
August 29, 2024 // Ninety-five percent of private sector union workers under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) are represented by a union they have never voted for. Read more in the latest I4AW report.
Innercare staves off unionization for now
August 21, 2024 // The fight to unionize 14 Innercare facilities in the Imperial and Coachella Valleys fell short last month, as the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West lost a unionization election in a 214-132 vote last month.
SkyWest Airlines facing federal lawsuit over alleged ‘fake company union’
August 14, 2024 // SkyWest Airlines, the largest regional airline in North America, is facing legal action over an alleged “fake” company union that the airline operates and the allegedly retaliatory firings of flight attendants who were engaged in union organizing efforts. A lawsuit was filed by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) in October 2023. The US Department of Labor also filed a lawsuit last month against the company over the “company union”, alleging SkyWest Inflight Association (SIA) did not perform its legal duties as a representative agency and barred two employees from running in an election for leadership positions due to their support for an independent union at the airline.
Union losses Innercare election, alleges employee intimidation, harassment
July 31, 2024 // “Certainly the employees suffered from harassment but not from Innercare but from the members of the SEIU,” Gonzalez wrote on the union’s Facebook page Friday. “Not content with harassing them at work, they also had the audacity to show up at their homes and refused to leave even though they were asked to do so.” The Facebook user assured SEIU-UHW members allegedly chased patients around the Innercare parking lot to hand out brochures she considered “full of false information.” “Employees do not need to be represented by such snide and abusive people who do not show the slightest bit of respect and education,” Gonzalez wrote.
Ranking Member Cassidy Demands Accountability from NLRB for Abusing Authority, Influencing Union Elections on Behalf of Labor Organizers
July 19, 2024 // In early 2023, a whistleblower came forward with information and documents alleging that NLRB regional officials in St. Louis, MO improperly coordinated with Starbucks Workers United (SWU) to tip union elections in favor of SWU. Following an investigation into the claims, the NLRB Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that NLRB officials in St. Louis engaged in “gross mismanagement” in an attempt to promote a union election victory at a Starbucks retail location. Similar allegations of improper election management have also been made at the NLRB’s Buffalo, NY office. On June 6, the NLRB OIG released another report detailing serious issues in the NLRB’s mail ballot election system, including the Board’s failure to ensure that all employees received a ballot in a union election. Specifically, OIG found that a staggering 49 percent of elections audited had instances of at least one voter not receiving a ballot. This gross mismanagement undermines the union election process, preventing all workers from having a voice on whether they want their workplace to be unionized.
Compass Coffee union election on hold over challenged ballots
July 18, 2024 // More than 100 workers from seven Compass Coffee shops voted Tuesday on whether to unionize, but after all the ballots were cast, nothing was resolved in this contentious battle between union organizers and the Washington-based company that has been accused of hiring dozens of new employees to dilute the vote. All 22 workers whose ballots went unchallenged voted in favor of a union, according to tallies from the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday. But union organizers and Compass representatives challenged 101 ballots, which puts the issue in the NLRB’s hands.