Labor Relations INK In this issue: • EFCA Update • Union Fat Cats • Overflow Crowd At Organizing Bootcamp • SEIU Watch, ER Tip of the Month, and more… EFCA Update 
A healthcare bill has passed. That is probably the most significant statement to make about the Employee Free Choice Act and labor law change this week. Although Big Labor had a dog in the healthcare fight, the energy consumed diminished progress on Labor’s more pressing objectives. “The attempt to get a health care bill sort of sucked all the oxygen out of the room,” asserts David Zonderman, a labor history professor at North Carolina State University. “I don’t think anyone would disagree — whether you’re in favor of or against [health care reform] — that it has taken up a phenomenal amount of legislative time.” Now that the healthcare bridge has been crossed, Big Labor is hopeful and business interests are nervous about what may happen next on the labor law front. “I think that fairly quietly things are happening,” observes Robert Trumble, professor of management and director of the Virginia Labor Studies Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. “These things are not necessarily pro-union, but they’re pro-worker.” Watch out for that twist of wording! As Democrats fight to hold their seats in the November elections, many have weakened their position with constituents in the healthcare fight, and can’t afford to rile them further. Since the public’s opinion of unions has been on the decline, these vulnerable Dems may attempt to change the nature of the conversation, so as to appear on the workers’ side, not necessarily the unions’. It will be interesting to watch the election races of those congressmen and women Big Labor threatened and vilified during the healthcare fight. One of the heaviest campaign contributors, the SEIU, drew lines in the sand, calling out “defectors” by name. Whether those congressional members feel they can redeem themselves by siding with Big Labor on further labor legislation, or can take the heat in their districts if they don’t, may end up being the tipping point on their labor-law positions. Big Labor will not let up as many believe this is their best opportunity in the last 40-50 years to make changes to labor laws in favor of unions. Obama may also be a wild card. Now that he has achieved his “legacy” objective, he may very well thumb his nose at detractors and proceed, “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” This could mean union-friendly recess appointments to the NLRB, among other possible actions. ********** Union Fat Cats We recently mentioned the amazing growth of union staff salaries. Labor insiders are beginning to hop on the same bandwagon, highlighting the top echelon of the pay scale for scrutiny. When Labor Notes took a look at data filed under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), they found that between the years of 2000 and 2008, the number of union staff earning more than $100,000 and those earning more than $150,000 a year both tripled!
Labor Notes bemoaned the payment of excessive salaries at the expense of funding organizing efforts at a time when union densities have been plummeting. According to their calculations, placing a salary cap of $150,000 on total compensation (many officers double their salaries or better with reimbursable expenses, car allowances, etc.) would provide $143 million per year for new organizing efforts, and a cap of $100,000 would free up over $500 million! Our bet is that Big Labor ignores its own advice, and continues to soak dues-payers for exorbitant salaries. **********
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Over 600 Teamster members gathered in Covina, California for the largest yet in a series of organizing boot camps. Union General President Jim Hoffa was on hand to greet the crowd. “You’re here, you’re enthusiastic and you want to be a part of something,” Hoffa said. “This boot camp is standing room only on a Saturday morning. You have the commitment it takes to organize and a vision for growing the Teamsters Union.” Director of Organizing Jeff Farmer commented, “while other unions are retrenching, we are aggressively organizing. In these tough economic times, Teamsters are fighting back – and winning! The best defense is a good offense.” For 2009, nearly 1200 Teamsters attended the 22 boot camps, which included organizers from 170 Teamster locals, surpassing Hoffa’s goal of 1000 new organizers last year. ********** 12 Union Myths Exposed: In our fourth installment of The Cato Journal’s January 2010 “Are unions good for America?” issue, we cover the fourth myth. Here is The Homeland Stupidity web site’s synopsis of this myth, and a link to each of the 12 Cato articles. Myth Number Four: Prevailing wage laws are good for competition, improve safety and quality, and help train new workers. Fact: Prevailing wage laws stifle competition, have no effect on job safety and quality, and do nothing to help train new workers. The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, signed into law by President Herbert Hoover, mandates that on federal construction projects, workers be paid the so-called “prevailing wage” for similar local workers. In practice, the wage is set far higher than the actual prevailing wage, closely mirroring union pay scales. This virtually locks out nonunion construction workers from federal contracts. George C. Leef, director of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, finds that all of the arguments for prevailing wage laws fail to stand up to even the slightest scrutiny. Download the PDF here. Check out the Cato Journal and access all 12 PDFs here. ********** SEIU Watch 
Andy Stern and the SEIU continue to be the lightening rod for undemocratic tactics within Big Labor itself. At a recent speech to the AFL-CIO, UNITE-HERE President John Wilhelm highlighted Stern’s divisive role in the labor movement, and bemoaned that Stern has Obama’s ear as a “spokesperson” for Big Labor.
When you look at the pattern of SEIU activity it becomes very clear that we cannot let SEIU define or speak for the labor movement. First we see a disturbing pattern of corruption… Second, SEIU has managed to create a myth around its organizing program that does a disservice to the labor movement. The reality is that SEIU has utterly failed to organize in the private sector… Politically, under Andy Stern, SEIU has become a willing participant with Democrats who engage in divide and conquer… Stern’s scorched earth tactics in California have kicked up a swelling backlash throughout California labor and the progressive community. SEIU is blackmailing Central Labor Councils across the state…
And to close, Wilhelm commented,
I began in the labor movement 41 years ago. It took me a while to accept that our union had to focus on this destructive force in the union movement. But if one of the final chapters in my career is to help stop this attempted takeover of the American labor movement by SEIU, I will be content to see it through.
SEIU’s troubles in the west continue, as 10 more nursing homes determined to boot the SEIU and move to the National Union of Healthcare Workers, the new union born of the former SEIU local that Stern had attempted to manipulate and control. Stern was also forced to give up the fight at Doctors Medical Center San Pablo, when a judge dismissed the SEIU request to set aside election resultss after a bargaining unit there also decided to leave SEIU for NUHW. ********** 
SCORE BOARD Who are the winners (and losers) of the labor movement? Don’t guess, just check the LRI Scoreboard
View this month’s scoreboard (archives also located here).
Download a PDF of this month’s scoreboard.
********* Public Lever For Private Organizing The Change to Win labor federation recently charged CVS Caremark Corporation of not offering the lowest possible drug prices to Kansas public employees. This looks like a typical ploy out of the Big Labor corporate campaign playbook. According to CVS spokeswoman Carolyn Castel, Change to Win has ”recklessly and deliberately distorted” information about the company. She said the union is angry that CVS won’t agree to card check recognition in organizing campaigns, but instead continues to insist on secret ballot elections to protect the privacy of employees. The 3-year contract to provide the pharmacy services expires in December, and as the Kansas legislature seeks bids for contract renewal, Change to Win is interjecting its accusations into the process. ********** Machinists Shown the Door in Pittsburgh 
Despite the fact that it is very difficult to decertify a union, the employees of Pittsburgh Precision Turned Products booted the local 623 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE). Kathleen Lobodinsky led the effort, and had to overcome blocking charges filed by the union attorney. When the National Right To Work Legal Defense Fund helped Lobodinsky compile evidence to dispute the union’s charges, the union tucked its tail and withdrew their allegations. Upon securing signatures from at least 30% of the employees, an election was held and the union was declared decertified. “Instead of defending their presence in the workplace, union bosses often resort to frivolous legal schemes to stop employees from voting out an unwanted union,” said Patrick Semmens, Legal Information Director of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Fortunately, Kathleen Lobodinsky and her coworkers weren’t intimidated by the union’s legal maneuverings and prevailed in their efforts to eject unwanted United Electrical bosses from their workplace.” ********** Employee Relations Tip Of The Month: Balancing Act Here are some specific actions you can take now to increase engagement by helping your employees achieve a greater balance between their work and personal lives: 1. Allow one of your best performers to take time off as a reward for an outstanding job in completing an important project. Consider giving them an afternoon off, an extended lunch hour, or a bonus day of vacation if company policy allows. Talk to the employee about what would be most meaningful to him/her. 2. At an upcoming team meeting, brainstorm with your employees ways to increase the flexibility of work hours. For example, they might arrange with other team members to cover for them during times when they need to be away from work. Put the power of your team’s creativity to work to identify sensible ways to improve their overall work/life balance. 3. Use 1-on-1 discussions with your employees to coach them on achieving greater work/life balance. Ask them to write down their top five priorities at work, then identify non-priority activities that they are spending too much time on. Encourage them to drop the non-priority activities, or to get help from others, so they can focus on what’s truly most important. They can apply this same strategy to evaluating the priorities in their personal lives. To learn more about how to improve the morale and engagement of your employees, click here and check out LRI’s Online Active Interval Training for supervisors. Hat Tip to Eric Vanetti of Vantage Point Alliance. ********** Phoenix or Effigy? 
Bob King has a rough road in front of him. King is the likely heir to the United Auto Workers throne. Although lauded as an effective organizer and strategist, the UAW suffered enormously through the demise of the auto industry, and has a huge hole to climb out of. The UAW has shrunk from a high of 1.5 million members to its current historic low of about 470,000. The union shared in the blame for the demise of the auto industry, but came out of the debacle owning 17.5% of GM and 67.7% of Chrysler through its pension trust fund. King’s strategy appears to focus on community interest and savvy media promotion. Whether that will be enough to overcome the inertia of the languishing American auto industry, and a good amount of internal dissention, remains to be seen. Many are calling on the union leadership to use 2011 auto contracts negotiations to get back the concessions lost in recent years. ********** Corporate Campaign Tactics Move To Personal Level An astute blogger identified another potential unintended consequence of the recent healthcare legislation: the use of supposedly private medical data by unions as another organizing tactic:
As my readers are aware, I write for BigGovernment.com and I cover SEIU as one of my specialty areas. They don’t much like my reports, I’m sure. But I don’t care – it’s information that needs to be exposed. (as former AFL-CIO, I am well aware of the inside corruption that occurs). So, it was not a surprise when, as I tweeted the information related to the Medical Device Registry and my concerns over privacy, who should jump in but a Director from SEIU, with a veiled threat implying SEIU might be interested in abusing such access in retaliation for my views. Remember, SEIU is considered by this administration to be one of the major organizations that will contribute to the health, safety and workforce research to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and other government agencies. They are expected to be provided access to most of these new systems, as well as designated to contribute to much of the health care decision making.
It is a long post, but suggested reading, to shed light on a new potential tactic that may soon be a part of Big Labor’s arsenal.********** ********** Sticky Fingers! Current charges or sentences of embezzling union officials: Timmy Peltier- ILSEU: $6,237 Jeffrey Ver Meer- AFGE: $5,000 Milton Smith- ATU: $21,000 Angela Jones- LIUNA: $5,000 Peter Maisel Jr.- BMWED:$10,124 Melissa King- LIUNA: $40 million Donald Spell- UNITE-HERE: $16,422 Hugo Vargas- IAM: $106,293 ********** Labor Relations INK is published semi-monthly and is edited by LRI Consulting Services, Inc. Feel free to pass this newsletter on to anyone you think might enjoy it. New subscribers can sign up by visiting: https://lrionline.com/free-stuff/newsletter-signup/ If you use content from this newsletter please attribute it to LRI Consulting Services and include our website address: www.LRIonline.com Contributing editors for this issue: Phillip Wilson, Greg Kittinger, Shaun Fanning You are receiving this email because you subscribed to receive our labor relations newsletters and updates. You can manage your email preferences by clicking the link at the bottom of any of our email communications. NOTE: if you are using Internet Explorer v. 6, read the text version, as the html will not load properly in IE6. We recommend upgrading to IE7.
