Earlier this month, the Wall Street
Journal reported that even as union leaders press for card-check
legislation in Washington, more local unions already are turning to the
controversial method of organizing and making some gains.
Current law allows
unions to organize workers by having them check a box on a card, as opposed
to holding an election, if a company approves. Unions are pushing hard for
a law, the Employee Free Choice Act, that would allow card check without an
employer's sign-off, a measure that many large employers and business
lobbying groups oppose.
New statistics suggest card check is the
preferred method of organizing. The number of unionization elections in the
U.S. fell 16% in the year ended Sept. 30, continuing a long term trend,
according to preliminary data from the National Labor Relations Board.
Business groups said they expected a drop in elections because
unions increasingly favor the card check method. Unions say 80% or
organizing is done through that method. The Employee Free Choice Act
has stalled in Congress, though several Democratic law makers recently said
they could still pass a version this year.
Justices Decline Nursing
Home's Request For Review In Strike Replacement Case
The Bureau of National Affairs
reports that the U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to consider whether a
Connecticut nursing home/assisted living facility violated federal labor
law by failing to reinstate approximately 100 service and maintenance
workers who engaged in an economic strike in 1999 and later made an
unconditional offer to return to work.
The National Labor
Relations Board initially ruled 2-1 in 2004 that Church Homes Inc., which
operates the Avery Heights facility in Hartford, Conn., did not violate the
National Labor Relations Act by secretly hiring permanent replacements and
refusing to reinstate all the strikers upon their unconditional offer to
return to work. Under Supreme Court precedent, an employer that refuses to
reinstate economic strikers violates NLRA Section 8(a)(3) unless the
employer shows that it had a legitimate and substantial business
justification, such as hiring permanent replacements to continue
operations.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
reversed the board's ruling and remanded the case, finding that the
decision to hire permanent replacements was evidence that Avery had an
unlawful motive to deprive the New England Health Care Employees of
majority support.
On remand, the board ruled that Avery
illegally failed to reinstate all the strikers, and the Second Circuit in
an unpublished decision upheld the board's decision in December
2008.
The National Labor Relations Board In The Obama
Administration: What Changes To Expect
For the last several years, most of the
policy discussion related to labor-management relations and union
organizing has properly been focused on the Employee Free Choice Act
(EFCA), legislation that would radically alter the rules for union
organizing and collective bargaining in ways that would ensure that labor
unions would have the upper hand, to the detriment of both employees and
employers.
However,
the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has the power to significantly
increase union power and leverage without intervention by Congress. The
President has nominated three individuals to the vacant seats on the NLRB.
Assuming they win Senate confirmation, the stage will be set for sweeping
policy changes that have received scant attention compared to the debate
over EFCA.
The following publication will provide an
overview of how the law administered by the NLRB is likely to change during
the Obama Administration. The vast majority of this analysis is focused on
cases decided by the Board in recent years that Democratic Members of the
Board dissented to and that organized labor has
criticized.
Chamber Criticizes Proposal Requiring Employers To Post
Notice of Employee Rights
The Bureau of National Affairs reports
that the description of employee rights under the National Labor Relations
Act contained in a proposed Labor Department notice that federal
contractors and subcontractors would be required to post has sparked
criticism from the business community, which calls it unbalanced and an
inaccurate statement of the law.
The notice, which is part of a
proposed rule issued by DOL's Office of Labor-Management Standards Aug.
3 to implement an executive order, informs workers of their rights to
engage in certain activities including joining a union, but does not inform
workers of an equal right to not engage in such activity, according to a
comment submitted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In addition, the chamber
said, "it is our assessment that almost every substantive sentence of
the notice is an incomplete or inaccurate statement of the law that is
presented in a less than balanced manner."
In comments
filed in response to the proposed rule, the chamber urged DOL to
"abandon its approach and instead adopt already existing language
drafted by the National Labor Relations Board for the contents of the
notice."
In addition, the chamber and other commenters,
asked DOL to clarify that it is not seeking to enforce the National Labor
Relations Act, "over which it clearly has no authority." While union groups favored both the rule and most of the proposed wording
of the notice, they also suggested some modifications in that part of the
notice that enumerates the basic rights of workers under Section 7 of the
National Labor Relations Act.
Upcoming Webinars
Huffmaster
will continue it's newest webinar: "Preparing Your Site Security
Plan: Learn the Pitfalls that Will Cost You Time and Money (and How to
AVOID Them)". This informative one-hour webinar will enable you to
benefit from Huffmaster's experience in preparing numerous SSP's
for clients across the country.
Completing your SSP will be a labor
intensive process (DHS estimates 200 or more hours...our experience
suggests considerably more). The statements and commitments you communicate
to DHS via your SSP must demonstrate that your security measures
will:
Deter, Detect, and Delay an Attack on
your facility.
Prevent Theft and Diversion of
potentially dangerous chemicals.
Mitigate the risk of internal Sabotage,
and
Achieve a satisfactory level of
security to meet the 15 other published Risk Based Performance Standards
(RBPS).
Two more sessions have been scheduled on
Tuesday, November 3rd and Tuesday, November 17th from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Eastern Standard Time. Sign up today to hear from Huffmaster's CFATS
subject matter experts. Click here
to register.
Greg Johnson, CPP and President of
Huffmaster Crisis Management, is hosting 45 minute "Strike Contingency
Planning" webinars that will identify key operational, security and
logistical planning considerations. Currently there is one upcoming seesion
on November 10th from 2-3 PM EST. Click here
to register.
To register for any webinar, you can link
directly from Huffmaster's home page or by clicking here to select the
session that best fits your schedule. The number of participants is limited
and pre-registration is required. If you have any questions about the
webinars, please feel free to contact Rob Huffmaster at 800.446.1515 ext.
143 or e-mail him at Rob@huffmaster.com.
Quote of the
Month:
"In order to suceed, your desire for
success should be greater than your fear of failure." – Bill Cosby
Current law allows
unions to organize workers by having them check a box on a card, as opposed
to holding an election, if a company approves. Unions are pushing hard for
a law, the Employee Free Choice Act, that would allow card check without an
employer's sign-off, a measure that many large employers and business
lobbying groups oppose.
However,
the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has the power to significantly
increase union power and leverage without intervention by Congress. The
President has nominated three individuals to the vacant seats on the NLRB.
Assuming they win Senate confirmation, the stage will be set for sweeping
policy changes that have received scant attention compared to the debate
over EFCA.