INK: May 6, 2011

• Union Bailout Update
• Puppets Run Amok
• What Union Democracy Looks Like
• Just Another May Day
• SEIU Watch, Sticky Fingers and more…

Union Bailout Update In the most recent chapter of the Boeing vs the NLRB saga, House Republicans have demanded the Becker Board provide them information on the Board’s decision to file a union-retaliation complaint against Boeing for building an airplane factory in South Carolina. The House Education and Workforce Committee gave the Board until May 19 to submit documents and communications between the national NLRB office and the regional office that investigated the case. That decision came on the heels of this statement issued last week by Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN).  “It appears an activist NLRB is more concerned about protecting certain special interests than the rights of all workers to compete for jobs. This action will have a chilling effect on businesses looking to expand operations, create jobs, and hire employees here in the United States. This kind of federal overreach helps demonstrate why so many workplaces have closed their doors and moved overseas, and is an unprecedented attack on the American workforce.” The committee’s action is only the latest in a chorus of objections to the Board’s April 20 complaint against Boeing.  As we reported in the last issue of INK the IAM argued that Boeing’s new South Carolina facility would impinge upon their Puget Sound members’ “right to strike.” (Something the IAM repeatedly offered to bargain away from those same members in return for a nationwide neutrality agreement.) Former NLRB Chair Peter Schaumber called the complaint “unprecedented” and added,  “The workers don’t have any claim to the work. If the workers don’t have any claim to the work, it wasn’t retaliatory to open a new second production line… (Boeing) is simply expanding its business operation.” National Association of Manufacturer’s VP Joe Trauger wrote the complaint “would effectively set a national standard of prohibiting companies with some union representation from expanding in right-to-work states. By pursuing this case, the NLRB is reversing 45 years of its own precedent and Supreme Court rulings to advance its agenda to expand unionization.” Unfortunately, according to the National Review, the charges against Boeing actually don’t directly contradict any precedent or the murky wording of the Act itself. However it remains unclear whether an employer is forbidden to “discriminate” against unionized plants, as opposed to individual workers who’ve engaged in protected activities. Forbes called the complaint against Boeing “national economic suicide” making the point that never before has an agency of the federal government told a company it may not relocate within the United States. The new South Carolina assembly line would be in addition to, not a replacement of, the Puget Sound line that has been unable to keep up with orders. (In no small part due to frequent work stoppages.)  And those orders for American built planes will soon be lost if the NLRB does not back down.  The company could argue that, given the lessons of Sendai, it’s unwise to concentrate a company’s production capacity in one area especially in a tsunami zone on a fault line surrounded by active volcanoes.  And certainly if Boeing were attempting to open the same production line in Canada or China the NLRB would not even whimper. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley weighed in through the Wall Street Journal calling the complaint “nothing less than a direct assault on the 22 right-to-work states across America.”  She also called out Obama for his silence on the mess.  Her remarks were followed up by a letter signed by the Attorneys General for Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, Texas, Virginia and South Carolina, many of whom have had their own run–ins recently with the over-reaching claws of the Becker Board.  The letter called upon the Board to immediately withdraw the complaint against Boeing calling it “an assault upon the constitutional right of free speech, and the ability of our states to create jobs and recruit industry. ” This week Boeing issued its first official statement on the complaint, a scathing response to the Board’s general counsel, blasting him for making false accusations, misquotes and mischaracterizations. But perhaps Ed Morrissey summarized it all best in Hot Air.  “Workers have the ability to collectively bargain for wages, benefits, and working conditions in the private sector if they desire.  If they make their labor too costly and businesses can conduct their operations elsewhere, then they have the right to do so, too.  The government has no legitimate role in forcing business owners to be hostages to their workforce.  If the workers price themselves out of their jobs, then they need to deal with the consequences. The ability to collectively bargain does not include a guarantee of a job.” ********* Social Media Spotlight Those still wondering why the NLRB has taken such interest in social media policy should review a recent SEIU’s blog entry titled #WIunion Social Media Highlights.  The post lists twelve “social media milestones” achieved during the Wisconsin budget battle and provides a glimpse into what might await an employer still unprepared for an assault by a Twitter savvy union. Many social media and net tactics explored in Wisconsin have been employed in corporate leverage campaigns and traditional organizing drives for some time.  And the SEIU list includes adolescent old-school tactics like the Walker/Koch prank call and revelations about a state senator’s mistress.  What’s new is how pranks and smears were quickly lofted into the mainstream media by a determined cadre of progressive bloggers unfettered by even the pretense of journalistic integrity.  SEIU also credits progressive bloggers with tirelessly refashioning and “humanizing” the Wisconsin story using photo diaries, independent short films and real time updates. But the top Wisconsin social media story is the maturation of Twitter into an explosive, expansive organizing tool.  Twitter was used not only to motivate and move boots on the ground but also to craft a sense of global support for the Wisconsin protestors.  Even if only a few hundred people around the world (out of six billion) responded to a Twitter blast, those few respondents legitimized, globalized and granted historic significance to the protests, especially when tied to Twitter driven protests in the Middle East.  Twitter was also the preferred vehicle to immediately blast phone video of any attempts to remove or constrain protestors, effectively cowing law enforcement.  Unions also fully capitalized on the moment by using Twitter, Facebook and other on-line tools to conduct political fundraising, instantly and dramatically tightening their financial grip on flight weary Democratic legislators. New on the horizon, union strategist Alex White offers even more sophisticated uses of social media for his fellow unionistas in Five useful and free tools to measure your union’s social-media impact Now unions can go beyond Twitter organizing and email blasts to analytics that gauge the effectiveness of a messaging campaign while monitoring the effectiveness of their competitors and targets. To anyone who has yet to connect the dots – social media organizing is, like the NLRB, rewriting all the rules for future union efforts.  Be very afraid. ********** Forget Walmart – the UFCW Targets Target The 23,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500 has filed for a union election at a Target store in Valley Stream, L.I., the first filing in what is expected to be an aggressive, extended organizing campaign for 27 Target stores in the New York city area.  For nearly a decade the UFCW has attempted to leverage Walmart into neutrality, using its political muscle to block the retail giant from building stores in NYC market.  Meanwhile, the union ignored Target as it established itself in and around the city. Bernie Hesse, political director of UFCW Local 1189 in Minnesota, Target’s home state, explains the tactical shift this way — “We have to organize Target stores, or we’ll soon be irrelevant.” You said it, Bernie. ********** Just Another May Day To listen to the build-up you’d have thought the first post-Madison May Day would be apocalyptic.  And instead it was another May Day yawner with union staffers and staff wanna-bes marching to demand the usual – higher wages, more jobs, cheaper benefits and an assortment of intangibles including justice, fairness, equality and “workers’ rights.”  And, as usual, these demands were made without offer of any coherent plan for actually achieving them beyond taxing the rich, creating more government, reading more Chomsky and chanting really loud. The AFL-CIO promised/threatened an unprecedented turnout but protests here in the U.S. were dwarfed by those overseas:  in Turkey, 200,000 protestors flooded the plaza of Istanbul; in Germany, 420,000 people took to the streets to demand fair wages, better working conditions and sufficient social security; in South Korea, police said 50,000 people rallied in Seoul for better labor protections; and thousands of workers also marched in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines.  Even folks already living in communal bliss got in the act with the Castro government reporting that hundreds of thousands of jubilant Cubans marched through the streets of Havana on Sunday to show their approval of the recent economic changes made by the Castro government. Meanwhile, back in the US, apparently either there wasn’t that much to protest about or workers were too busy actually working.  (Or shopping?) Three thousand made it out to the immigrants’ rights rally in LA and a thousand or so showed up for union rallies in a half dozen other major cities. Fortunately we have a historical record of events as The Live Twitter Coverage of May Day Workers’ and Immigrants Rights Rallies on the AFL-CIO NOW BLOG has received over 40 tweets in five days, only 300 less than Lady Gaga’s May 3 appearance on Oprah generated in five hours.  Viva la revolucion! ********** What Union Democracy Looks Like During organizing drives and state budget protests, unions like to preach a great deal about democracy and what it should look like.  Here’s the real story – when it comes to union run elections “democracy” generally means you pay dues for the right to vote for whoever’s running unopposed.  Still, when unions do decide to allow competitive elections it sure is fun to watch! Unfolding in California, that perennial hotbed of union democracy gone wild, warring factions are fighting over who should control UAW local 2865, which represents 12,000 grad students and adjunct faculty on nine campuses in the U of C system.   Since the vote on April 26, both sides have accused the other of voter intimidation, ballot tampering and other behavior unbecoming an academic.  And the battle got so ugly and public, including mutual sit-ins, that the vote count was suspended until calmer heads could prevail. Several labor professors weighed in (And inadvertently said a mouthful!) calling on both sides to resume counting ballots because not doing so, in the current climate, “contributes to the public perception that unions are corrupt and outmoded forms of representation for working people.” (And don’t forget, it’s just a perception!) Ironically, this call for union decorum may or may not have been appropriate or legal, seeing as these faculty members supervise bargaining unit members and were thus, technically speaking, “the boss”. “How they choose to stand up and fight — through a decentralized or a centralized approach — is, in many ways, at the philosophical heart of the conflict at UC,” said Adam Hefty, election committee member and a seventh-year doctoral student in the history of consciousness at Santa Cruz.  Adam also presents us with the most perplexing philosophical question in all this – what the hell does one do with a doctorate in the history of consciousness? ********** Puppets Run Amok On April 26, Massachusetts house Democrats voted overwhelmingly to limit the bargaining power of the state’s public unions. Unions are already working with the legislature on amendments and there are no guarantees it will pass the state’s senate or be signed by Governor Patrick.  However the story raises interesting questions beyond the “dog bites man” angle of Democrats voting to curb union rights. First, the story has received little media coverage and has been virtually ignored by progressive bloggers and union PR machines when compared to the media firestorms that enveloped Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana.  And with little if any provocation Governor Patrick almost immediately called on both sides to “dial down the rhetoric” even as no union voice has yet to accuse Boston Democrats of “union busting,” teacher hating, Tea Party pandering, slave trading or any other U.N. human rights violation. In contrast, Robert J. Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, pretty much called it like he saw it.  “It’s pretty stunning,’’ Haynes said. “These are the same Democrats that all these labor unions elected. The same Democrats who we contributed to in their campaigns. The same Democrats who tell us over and over again that they’re with us, that they believe in collective bargaining, that they believe in unions… It’s a done deal for our relationship with the people inside that chamber.’’ So, there you have it – when Republicans limit the power of public unions they are despicable puppets of the Koch brothers and when Democrats do the same they are ungrateful union puppets run amok – a subtle but significant difference. ************** A Review of State and Local Pension Plans As reported by the UCLA Faculty Association, the Congressional Research Service has issued a report on state and local pensions that looks, in part, at the question of whether or not governments can change the pension plans of current employees. “The report indicates that while in the private sector it is clear that already-accrued benefits cannot be taken away, employers can terminate plans going forward or reduce future accrual formulas for current workers. It indicates that the ability of state and local governments to make such changes for current workers is uncertain and provides discussion, but not a definitive answer.” The full report is available here. ********** SEIU Watch In fairness to these kids, times are pretty tough right now for liberal arts post-grads. (And it’s no secret SEIU is always hiring!)  We’re only embarrassed for Labor Notes that, as serious journalists, they didn’t suspect any connection between the earnest young rebels of the United Students Against Sweatshops and that despotic peasant crushing war machine, SEIU. Labor Notes would have us believe that free thinking, bleeding-hearted USAS members on five campuses (Emory, Tulane, William and Mary, Rutgers and the University of Wisconsin) in some moment of concurrent collective higher consciousness spontaneously rose up to take over their college presidents’ offices in protest of the brutal treatment of university food service workers by… Sodexo. Grant you, it all must seem more grassrooted and affirming to Labor Notes if these kids thought this all up themselves and were truly only motivated by the desire to rescue the downtrodden lunch ladies of the world from disrespect and unliving wages.  Unfortunately, it turns out the USAS “Kick Out Sodexo” campaign was fully funded and organized by SEIU (Surprised?) we can only assume with utter disregard for how Mom and Dad might feel about paying tuition so Junior can risk his college career carrying water for Mary Kay Henry. For those with a son or daughter at Tulane, you may want to check out this video.  Suddenly that second mortgage seems so worth it! [flashvideo file=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIchVv2IRCk /] Be sure to visit the LRI Union Free YouTube Channel to view this and other entertaining and informative videos. ********** CWA Goons Join the Rat Race Last May the National Legal and Policy Center reported on two CWA local 1101 members who were threatened, harassed and physically assaulted by their fellow union members for reporting a union time-padding scheme to Verizon security.  The union not only failed to take action to protect the two whistleblowers, union vice presidents Joe McAleer and Mike Luzzi allegedly encouraged the retaliation.  “We have to deal with these spies on a personal level,’ they allegedly told a meeting of members, “like take them outside of the yard, off the company property and off company time and take care of them, because we can’t be ratting each other out.”  McAleer and Luzzi have since been named as defendants in a civil complaint that goes to trial later this year. Now it appears the two are on the other side of that whole rat issue as both have come forward to charge the local’s president and executive VP with double dipping, expense fraud and other financial improprieties. McAleer and Luzzi have accused Joseph Connolly and Angel Feliciano of collecting forty hours pay from both the union and Verizon, collecting $156,000 in undocumented expenses and pinching the local for $225 meals and $600 hotel rooms while not necessarily on union business. The investigation is stalled awaiting DOL action while the alleged double dippers refuse to turn over tax records and Verizon refuses to cooperate with the CWA’s internal investigator.  Meanwhile, it remains unclear if McAleer and Luzzi suddenly developed a conscience or were attempting to appear more conveniently rat-like before the suit against them goes to trial.   ********** Sticky Fingers Current charges or sentences of embezzling union officials:

http://www.nlpc.org/union-corruption-update