Posts tagged union salt
Big Labor Is Getting an Assist From Far-Left Activists | Opinion
August 1, 2023 // From Connecticut to California, these groups are rolling out the pernicious practice of "salting" in the hope of turning employees against their employers. Salting involves paid union organizers applying for jobs and acting as employees of non-union companies. The "salt" then surveils the targeted company, collecting employees' personal information, stirring dissent, isolating non-union employees, and filing unfair labor practice claims. The claims mire employers in frivolous and costly administrative charges.
House GOP probes union over Starbucks barista who kept labor ties from Congress
July 17, 2023 // Eisen, who represented herself to lawmakers only as a Starbucks worker, disclosed in a labor organization form that she was paid $49,734 by the Service Employees International Union affiliate in 2022, The Post exclusively revealed in May. “On her Truth in Testimony form, Ms. Eisen represented herself exclusively as a Starbucks barista,” Foxx wrote to Workers United International President Lynne Fox. “Members of the Committee and public observers would have benefitted from knowing whether Workers United was paying Ms. Eisen as an organizer at the time of the hearing.”
Pittsburgh Starbucks Workers Seek Vote to Remove Unwanted SBWU Union
July 14, 2023 // A contributing factor to the growing worker dissatisfaction with SBWU union officials may be the controversial practice of “salting,” which according to news reports is a tactic the SBWU union employed to install union power at New York Starbucks locations. “Salting” involves union officials surreptitiously paying union agents to obtain jobs at non-union workplaces to agitate for union control. “Salts” generally hide their union-allied status from both managers and their coworkers, and may quickly depart the workplace once a union has been installed. The New York Post reported that one SBWU union agent was paid nearly $50,000 to “salt” a Buffalo Starbucks location, and concealed her affiliation from both her coworkers and Congress.
Trojan Horse Alert: Teamsters Using Dirty Tricks to Unionize CT Businesses
July 12, 2023 // The Teamsters Local 671, of Bloomfield, is teaming up with the Connecticut Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) to recruit individuals to infiltrate businesses with the explicit objective of unionizing the workplace. In a June 23 email, the organizations invited their “comrades” to a virtual meeting, posing questions such as “Are you looking for a job?” and “Do you want intensive organizing training?” They then emphasized “that it is the right time” to engage in “SALTING” — the act of intentionally taking a job at a workplace with the goal of unionizing. The meeting — called “Salting Information Session” — was held on Thursday (June 29) where organizers covered the basics of salting and union organizing; why socialists should salt; and how socialists are currently salting in Connecticut (but they did not specify where).
Biden Labor Board May Have Just Opened The Door For Union Activists To Infiltrate Private Companies
July 6, 2023 // David Osborne, fellow at the Institute for the American Worker, told the DCNF that non-competes are a valuable tool for businesses. “Eliminating noncompete agreements would make it easier for union ‘salts’ to infiltrate American businesses; eliminating noncompete agreements would allow them to move more freely from business to business pushing unionization on other employees,” Osborne said. “But the more immediate effect is to put the government’s thumb on the scales of union organizers by removing a perfectly acceptable tool—noncompete agreements—that American businesses have long used to protect valuable intellectual property.” As for how the efforts will affect workers, Osborne said that inevitably, “unionized employers will have to be less trusting of employees, less generous, and stricter about who receives access to valuable intellectual property, knowing that employees can immediately secure a job with their closest competitors at any time.”
Congressman Rick Allen Introduces Legislation to End Union ‘Salting’
June 27, 2023 //
Op-ed: Trader Joe’s union is not what we bargained for
June 13, 2023 // First, as reported by the Freedom Foundation, SEIU and Workers United have also targeted my previous employer, Starbucks, with a multimillion-dollar unionization campaign featuring some of the very organizers involved in the Hadley Trader Joe’s campaign. Untold numbers of paid union “salts” — many fresh out of college with little to no work experience — have been deployed to get jobs at targeted employers and covertly organize them from the inside. Second, few resources are available to workers skeptical of or opposed to unionization. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) staff I’ve contacted have shown they only care about workers that want to unionize.
The Undercover Organizers Behind America’s Union Wins
April 5, 2023 // The practice of joining a workplace with the secret aim of organizing it is called “salting.” Westlake was addressing recruits at the Inside Organizer School, a workshop held a couple times a year by a loose confederation of labor organizers. At these meetups, experienced activists train other attendees in the art of going undercover. Speakers lecture and lead discussions on how to pass employer screenings, forge relationships with co-workers and process the complicated feelings that can accompany a double life. Most salts are volunteers, not paid union officials, but unions sometimes fund their housing or, later, tap them for full-time jobs. Workers United, the Service Employees International Union affiliate that’s home to the new Starbucks union, hired Westlake as an organizer around the time the coffee chain fired him last fall.
Big Labor’s Astroturfed Unionization of Starbucks
January 10, 2023 // It’s unclear the degree to which the Starbucks campaign has featured salts, but Brisack isn’t the only one. Articles in union and socialist publications Jacobin, In These Times, and Labor Notes all reference the organizing role played by employees who “consciously took jobs at Starbucks to organize.” Outside the workplace, Workers United also funded an array of consultants, organizers, and attorneys to support the campaign. When organizing her co-workers, Brisack would introduce them to professional organizers such as Bensinger “to show the baristas that she had a real union backing her,” according to the Washington Post.