Posts tagged work-site inspections
OSHA tries to walk union officials into workplaces
April 9, 2024 // This change is something that unions have long pushed for. OSHA’s official notice for the rulemaking includes numerous statements submitted by unions arguing they should be able to accompany federal inspectors. For example: “The United Steelworkers Union (USW) noted that it has brought in technical experts to serve as designated employee representatives in OSHA inspections.” Not coincidentally, gaining direct access to worksites where management might otherwise try to bar them is a classic union organizing tactic. Granted, OSHA’s new rule would require a worker to invite the union in. That isn’t likely to be a great hurdle for unions thanks to the practice of “salting.” That’s when a union has an organizer covertly apply for an open position at a worksite for the express purpose of organizing.
Commentary: Biden pursues organized labor’s agenda through regulation
March 14, 2024 // The OSHA “walkaround” rule flies in the face of a regulation that stipulates that people who accompany an OSHA inspector must be employed by the company under inspection. Under the proposed rule, OSHA representatives would have to simply state that a union official was “reasonably necessary” to the inspection to bring that individual to the site. The walk-around rule presents an opportunity for union organizers to collect information or otherwise infiltrate nonunion workplaces, a clear attempt by OSHA to give unions a leg up in organizing drives. Another example is the Securities and Exchange Commission’s universal proxy rule, which forces companies to include management and dissident shareholder nominees on a single proxy card in contested elections. The rule enabled a coalition of our nation’s largest and most militant unions to extract new concessions from Starbucks by threatening to mount a hostile takeover attempt of the coffee company’s board. Unions will continue to exploit the universal proxy rule to bring other publicly traded companies to the table with threats of a hostile takeover.