Labor Relations INK In this issue:
- EFCA Update
- CWA Assaults Members
- UAW Booted, Quality Boosted
- SEIU Watch, Only In A Union, Scoreboard and more…
Preview what is in this issue: 
EFCA Update 
The union-friendly administration is not sitting still. This month, the NLRB invited amicus briefs in two groups of pending cases. One group relates to penalties assessed against businesses (no mention of penalties against unions, of course), and whether those penalties should be increased via the addition of compound interest. Over at the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), a public meeting was held to discuss possible changes to attorney and consultant reporting under section 203 of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA). More significant perhaps than the impact on consultants and labor attorneys is a change being considered that would impact “regular officers, supervisors and employees.” Imagine the reporting nightmare if any company officer or employee were required to report when they spoke about unions during organizing campaigns, orientation meetings or even casual conversation. An LRI representative attended the meeting, along with others from the business sector, to echo comments made by U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Michael Eastman,
The statute was designed to provide disclosure when employers engage third parties to interact with and persuade employees because employees may not otherwise know such individuals are agents of the employer – this is not true in the case of the employer’s supervisors, managers, and officers. The practical difficulties of accounting and reporting under the so-called split-income theory cannot be justified.
In another example of the devious way the administration is pursuing union objectives, an attempt is being made to add an amendment to a federal supplemental appropriations bill that would force every state or city government to collectively bargain with all “public safety employees,” creating a federalized collective bargaining system.
Senator Bob Casey
In the summer of 2007, a CWA Local 1011 union manager told a Verizon work crew that they only needed to perform 3 “fiber to premises” jobs each day, and they could file for a full work day no matter how much time it actually took. Two employees, Salvatore DiStefano and Sebastian Taravell, refused to participate in the rip-off scheme, and informed other workers, supervisors and union management that the scheme was illegal. The reward for good business ethics? The two men were bombarded by a physical and psychological campaign of abuse. Union officials encouraged other union members to “do whatever you want with those two guys,” and allegedly announced that company corporate security was never to be called about such issues. “I don’t care if somebody comes to work with a gun saying they’re going to shoot people, you don’t say anything … we have a lot of problems here due to the fact there are ‘spies’ in the room,” said union vice president Joe Macaleer, referring to DiStefano and Taravell. ********** 12 Union Myths Exposed In our eighth installment of The Cato Journal’s January 2010 “Are unions good for America?” issue, we cover the eighth 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 Eight: Public sector unions work for the general prosperity of their members and all Americans. Fact: Public sector unions dramatically increase the cost of government to unsustainable levels. The cost of employee wages and benefits accounts for half of the $2.2 trillion that state and local governments spent in 2008, and that number is set to grow dramatically as employees retire and generous pension packages kick in. Though, calling them generous is an understatement. Moreover, according to Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, those pension obligations are grossly underfunded, which will make the fiscal crisis even more acute this decade. Businesses can and do mitigate the inefficiencies of a unionized workplace, but governments are much more constrained and have less incentive to do so, driving up taxpayer costs even further. And public sector unions use their large war chests to buy influence and protection. “So the problem with public sector unions is not just that they block compensation reforms, but that use their privileged status to control broader policy debates.”
Download the PDF here. Check out the Cato Journal and access all 12 PDFs here. ********** Like GPS For Your Company: Three Questions Reveal Your Union Vulnerability 
Our new Pulse Survey tells you with pinpoint accuracy whether your employees are engaged (or not) and whether they’ll fall for a union organizer’s promises. Once your employees answer just three simple questions (it takes about 30 seconds) you’ll know if you’re doing OK, or if you need to act to diminish your vulnerability to a union campaign. We want you to experience this for yourself, so we’re giving it away! Click here to head to the Free Pulse Survey web page that provides the details of the offer. ********** ONLY IN A UNION : 
I cannot make this stuff up, and this is so good, I’ll quote the original blog post verbatim:
The Teamsters in Oakland, California filed a grievance against Mills College, complaining that the school had violated its collective bargaining agreement by hiring non-union workers to clear brush. The Teamsters demanded that the college either (1) award backpay to the union members who lost out on the work or (2) require the 500 non-union workers to join the union. The only problem? The 500 non-union workers were — and we’re not making this up — goats. “If the college opts to have the goats become members,” said a Teamsters spokesperson, “we intend to represent them in the same aggressive manner as we do every member.” (Source: Education Intelligence Agency)
********** SEIU Watch: 
Even with the controversial Andy Stern stepping aside, the SEIU is still more exciting to watch than a good Fourth of July fireworks display. Probably the biggest online media splash was caused by their terrorization of a 14-year-old boy in a weekend assault on a private residence. The aim of what’s been called a “Ku Klux Klan”-style rally was to intimidate Greg Baer, a senior Bank of America executive, and make him an example to all those who might oppose the Democrats’ new finance bill now headed for conference with the House and Senate. 
Although 14 bus loads of SEIU and National Political Action activists totaling around 500 people engaged in a non-permitted and illegally executed protest, they were escorted to the event by D.C. Metro police! Of course, mainstream media has been totally quiet about the assault. Unfortunately for the protesters, Greg Baer’s next-door neighbor is Fortune journalist Nina Easton. Knowing that Baer’s 14-year-old son was alone in the house, she called to check on him, and subsequently called the police. The assault intimidated even the law officers who responded (adding to the D.C. cops already on the scene), who were afraid arrests might “incite” the mob. Easton’s take:
Targeting homes and families seems to put SEIU in the ranks of (now jailed) radical animal-rights activists and the Kansas anti-gay fundamentalists harassing the grieving parents of a dead 20-year-old soldier at his funeral (the Supreme Court has agreed to weigh in on the latter). But that’s not a conversation that SEIU officials want to have. When I asked Stephen Lerner, SEIU’s point-person on Wall Street reform, about these tactics, he accused me of getting “emotional…” SEIU has said it wants to organize bank tellers and call centers — and its critics point out that a great way to worsen employee morale, thereby making workers more susceptible to union calls, is to batter a bank’s image through protest. (SEIU officials say their anti-Wall Street campaign has nothing to do with their organizing efforts.) Complicating this picture is the fact that BofA is the union’s lender of choice — and SEIU, suffering financially, owes the bank nearly $4 million in interest and fees.
Andrea Tantaros of FOX News said this about the assault:
These protests, the ones storming Wall Street bank lobbies and now the private homes of bankers, are likely being carefully coordinated with the White House to increase their profile against the financial fat cats and help pass disgraced Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd’s financial regulatory bill.
Tantaros concludes:
Unsurprisingly, the SEIU has made no apology for their behavior toward Baer’s family. Their spokespeople argue that the protest was over home foreclosures under Bank of America’s watch, but that still doesn’t give them the right to break the law. It also doesn’t allow them a carve out like they demanded in the health care bill for their costly Cadillac insurance plans. It’s absurd that in a recession, the unions feel they deserve special treatment because they are connected to the party in power… We now know, there is nothing they won’t do, nobody the unions won’t intimidate. And the president, who promised to preside over an administration free from special interest influence, should be held accountable. As long as we continue to feed the unions, the country will continue to decline. It’s time to stand up to this behavior with the same muscle they’ve used to bully our country all these years and send a message loud and clear: we will not be intimidated.
SEIU is not afraid to throw their muscle around, or withhold it in the pursuit of their objectives. Mary Kay Henry, the new SEIU head, announced that her union would not support Democrat Blanche Lincoln in her bid for re-election to the Senate. Instead they spent millions on her primary opponent and have vowed millions more in the upcoming runoff election. All this due to her stands on EFCA and health care reform. SEIU had already announced its intention to start a third party in North Carolina as an effort to make democrat lawmakers more “reliable on issues.” Three North Carolina lawmakers voted against health care reform – the most of any state. SEIU is still in “ramping up” mode on the organizing front, as evidenced by announcements to take on the fast-food industry which we mentioned earlier, and this advertisement for paid organizers. Although attempting to present a strong external front, SEIU faces turmoil internally. A judicially-sanctioned panel has found SEIU VP Bruce Raynor guilty of accepting a salary from UNITE HERE while working actively to deprive his union of bargaining rights in favor of a competing union – the same behavior that SEIU found so wrongful that it spent over $10 million to punish NUHW in a lawsuit. Henry will either move to remove Raynor, or “expose SEIU’s new ethical standards is a joke and SEIU’s legal and public relations campaign against NUHW as a hoax.” The battle between UNITE HERE and SEIU continues despite Henry’s recent hints at movement toward a settlement. According to John Wilhelm, head of UNITE HERE, “there is settling and there is settling on fair terms,” as he decried SEIU’s treatment of the ILGWU retirees’ claims as a “disgrace to the union.” The ILGWU was a former SEIU affiliate, now affiliated with UNITE HERE. ********** UAW Booted, Quality Boosted 
After a 3-year strike with the UAW, a maker of sought-after musical instruments was able to make major enhancements to production after the union was decertified. At the Vincent Bach trumpet plant in Elkhart, IN, pre-decertification compensation was based on piece-work quantity with no relation to quality. Becoming unencumbered with the union-driven plan has allowed inventory levels to remain at a just-in-time 3 to 4 day window, rather than an aisle-clogging and capital-consuming 12 months. Quality has risen significantly as a result, since defective parts are detected within 3-4 days, and production issues are pinpointed immediately. The change also allows the manufacturer to quickly fill orders for custom horns. ********** Airline Industry Fights Back 
We reported that the National Mediation Board implemented rule changes making it easier for unions to organize workers in the rail and airline industries. The Air Transport Association of America trade group did not take the rule-change sitting down and filed suit against the NMB, calling the rule change a violation of law. Other organizations joining the lawsuit include Delta Air Lines Inc, FedEx Corp, AirTran Airways, JetBlue Airways and Alaska Airlines, a unit of Alaska Air Group. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also joined the fray, filing a motion to intervene as a third-party plaintiff in the Air Transport Association’s suit. ********** Union Power Goes To His… Groin? Barrette Green’s exploits have now cost the state of Washington (and thus the taxpayers) over $3 million (plus attorney’s fees). The former Western State Hospital official was accused of sexually abusing at least 15 female employees before he was fired in 2003. Green used his position as president of a Washington Federation of State Employees union local to threaten and intimidate the hospital workers. During his tenure he was even given a raise and promotion, becoming the hospital’s risk manager. One of the victims, Jackie Delgado, accused Green of harassing her repeatedly between 1989 and 2003, pressuring her into a sexual relationship and at one point holding an unloaded gun to her head, pulling the trigger and saying “See how easy a person can die?” Several employees finally reached their limit, and filed suit against Green. All were settled out of court, and along the way a lawsuit Green brought against the state over his firing was dismissed in 2005 by an appeals board that found that three women had made credible accusations against him. ********** 
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 scoreboar
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Sticky Fingers! Current charges or sentences of embezzling union officials: Paul Wyatt-IATSE: $35,000 Antonio Jordan- CWA: $8,767 http://www.nlpc.org/union-corruption-update ********** 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.
