From the desk of Steve Cabot:

I wasn’t too surprised when Organized Labor decided to throw in with the motley mobs currently laying siege to cities across the country. After all, they have a lot in common. The anti-capitalist, redistributionist rhetoric coming from the agitators is standard fare at union rallies, and the paramilitary tactics of intimidation, disruption, and forcible occupation of public and private property are right out of the SEIU handbook.

The truth is, this is a natural – if unholy – alliance:  the demonstrators want to weaken corporations and demonize profits, and the labor unions are more than happy to provide logistical and financial assistance as a means of building their own public support and political power. For them, this is simply another step toward their goal of reestablishing workplace hegemony.

This is an ongoing saga, one with significant long-term implications. If you’re interested in learning more about the state of Organized Labor today and its impact on our economy, I invite you to read a compelling special report just released by Human Events entitled, “The Big Labor Stranglehold:  Killing Jobs & Hurting America.” Written by Dr. Carl F. Horowitz, project manager for the National Legal and Policy Center, this 26-page report looks beyond the well-publicized but misleading statistics about declining union membership and documents the strategies, goals, impact, and prospects of Big Labor in America.

To receive your complimentary copy, simply click here or on the image below to go to the Human Events website. Once you register, a pdf version of the report will be sent directly to the email address you specify.

For assistance with any labor relations issues, I encourage you to call me on my cell phone (215-990-3423) or contact Georgetta McCabe, my administrative assistant, on her direct line: 800-655-2042.

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From the desk of Steve Cabot:

One of the truly unfortunate aspects of Organized Labor is how workers are regularly robbed of their rights by union leaders claiming to have their interests at heart. It happens when employees are denied secret ballot elections, sometimes with the complicity of management. It happens when union dues are funneled to causes or candidates antithetical to the preferences of individual members. And it happens when workers are punished for daring to question or object to union policies or decisions.

Relief – or at least the prospect of it – is now at hand in the form of the recently-introduced Employee Rights Act. This legislation protects the rights of workers while leaving intact the appropriate prerogatives of management and labor. It is truly a win/win proposal and has our wholehearted support.

Included among the major provisions are:

• Secret Ballot Elections – Employees are guaranteed the right to a secret ballot election when choosing whether or not to join a union.
• Union Recertification Elections – Unionized workplaces must hold a secret ballot referendum every three years to determine whether employees wish to remain represented by their current union.
• Paycheck Protection – Unions will need to get written consent from members before spending their money on matters unrelated to collective bargaining (e.g. the support of political candidates or causes).
• Standardized Election Timing – Employees must be given at least 40 days prior to a ratification election to receive and consider information from both management and union representatives.
• Decertification Coercion Prevention – The NLRA provisions protecting workers from intimidation or coercion in exercising their rights (including the right to decertify the union) are strengthened.
• Secret Ballot Strike Vote – Employees have the right to a secret ballot vote before union leaders can declare a strike.
• Criminalizes Union Threats – Unions are forbidden to use violence, or threats thereof, as a means of coercing employees.

Passage of this legislation is unlikely before the 2012 elections, but employers seeking assistance now in these or other labor relations matters should call me on my cell phone (215-990-3423) or contact Georgetta McCabe, my administrative assistant, on her direct line: 800-655-2042.

decertification · employee rights act · Labor Relations · nlrb · paycheck protection · SEIU · union coercion · union secret ballot elections

From the desk of Steve Cabot:

Maybe it’s arrogance, as Organized Labor feels increasingly emboldened by its protectors and enablers in the Administration and Congress. Or maybe it’s desperation, as union leaders sense a political sea change that threatens those cozy relationships and their delusional demands at the bargaining table.

Whatever the motivation, what is clear is that employers are being confronted increasingly by labor tactics as old as extortion and physical violence and as new as cyber attacks and a range of dirty tricks impacting companies and their customers alike.

One current high-profile illustration of over-the-line union thuggery involves a broad campaign of blackmail, extortion and other criminal acts against Sodexo USA, which has filed suit against SEIU in federal court under the RICO Act. A U.S. district judge recently denied the union’s motion for dismissal, thus green-lighting the case for immediate prosecution.

One of the documents discovered as this case has unfolded is a 70-page “how-to” intimidation manual (click here to download) which encourages, among other things, targeting board members and their families for public harassment and personal embarrassment within their community. You may remember an example of this in May when SEIU drove 14 busloads of screaming, bullhorn-equipped, placard-carrying protestors to the home of Bank of America’s deputy general counsel in suburban Washington, DC, terrifying their teenage son who was alone in the house.

It has been equally alarming to watch the union tactics in the Verizon strike. You may have seen the viral video of a picketer pushing his young daughter in front of a moving Verizon truck while shouting obscenities at the nonunion employees trying to get to work. In a related incident, police in Uniontown, PA reported an act of “criminal mischief” in which the power was cut to all land lines in the area,  including those to state police barracks and other emergency services. All indications are that it was an inside job.

This is disturbing stuff. And while Organized Labor may take comfort knowing they are being given a long leash by the pro-union NLRB and Department of Justice, 2012 is coming – and the American people will be heard.

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From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

Throughout the country, public sector unions are campaigning for higher taxes as a means to prevent government cutbacks. From Oregon to New York and states in between, unions are waging ferocious fights to prevent states from balancing budgets by cutting expenses.

Unions, such as SEIU and AFSCME, are spending extraordinary sums to promote higher taxes as a means to prevent cutbacks that they feel will result in fewer members, lower amounts from union dues, and less money to spend on political campaigns.

In Oregon, the Oregon Education Association and the SEIU spent millions of dollars to pass ballot initiatives that ultimately raised business and income taxes by approximately $727 million.

In Arizona, unions were behind an effort that increased sales taxes from 5.6% to 6.6%, thus helping to raise one billion dollars.

In New York, the United Teachers union spent $750,000 to prevent the state from capping some of the highest real estate taxes in the nation. In fact, real estate taxes in New York State are so high that many middle class families and small businesses have left the state.

And so it goes from state to state, but it doesn’t stop there. It exists nationally as well. Unions give more money than do any other entities to the national Democratic party. And the purpose of their giving is no different from their state-by-state donations: generous donations to congressional, senatorial, and presidential campaigns require a payback, And that payback is legislation that will increase wages and benefits for public sector workers by raising taxes. Public sector unions benefit; public sector workers benefit. And the American people, their states and corporations foot the bill. The American people, who are not members of public sector unions, are the victims of a vicious cycle of union-government-union actions that are increasingly injurious to the health of the American economy.

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From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

According to an article in The Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com), the Service Employees International Union, which presently has 2 million members, intends to launch a major offensive against corporate America that will “peak in the summer of 2012.”

The Union intends to recruit new members to its ranks in 10 to 15 major American cities, including Cleveland, Milwaukee, Miami, and Detroit. Its recruitment efforts will take place at political primary events, town hall meetings, and other gatherings. No doubt, its focus will be at Democratic Party events, for the SEIU is a stalwart contributor to Democratic candidates. In the last presidential election, the SEIU spent $70 million! It is reportedly prepared to spend tens of millions of dollars on its aggressive new recruitment efforts.

Many of its members are public sector workers who will receive inordinately large pensions upon their retirement, which will further contribute to the near bankruptcy of states. The Union, obviously, hopes to defeat any legislative measures that will curtail the size of those tax-payer funded pensions. Hence, its forthcoming efforts to beef up its membership rolls and deliver the maximum number of votes to its Democratic allies in 2012.

It is essential that both legislators and Corporate America prepare effective survival strategies to defeat the deleterious efforts of the SEIU. If not, public service pensions will indeed bankrupt one state after another leading to financial devastation throughout the land.

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From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

After years of often provocative and aggressive organizing efforts, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has finally had its efforts circumscribed. While the NLRB had recently informed Corporate America that it must post information about workers’ rights to join unions that same NLRB has surprisingly and uncharacteristically informed the SEIU that it cannot prevent workers, who do not support its activities, from working. At Morehouse College in Atlanta, the SEIU had been trying to organize the workers of Sodexo, which operates the college’s dining facilities.

The NLRB ordered SEIU to post notices that it not “restrain or coerce” employees “in the exercise of their rights guaranteed” under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, which includes the right not to engage in union activities.

Following an SEIU organized demonstration at the college, Sodexo had complained to the NLRB that there was an effort by the SEIU to prevent employees, who chose not to participate in the demonstration, from coming to work in the college’s dining facilities.

While this is certainly an unusual action for the pro-union NLRB, one cannot expect the Board to continue being fair and balanced and stick to the letter and spirit of the National Labor Relations Act. The Board’s majority composition remains decidedly pro-union.

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From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

While the private sector has lost 8-million jobs since 2008, the public sector has added 590,000 jobs during that same period. In addition, federal employees, on average, receive twice the salary and benefits that comparable private sector employees receive.

Public sector unions and congress are the keys that unlocked this Pandora’s box of economic irrationality. Imagine a circle comprising public sector unions, public sector employees, and Democratic members of congress. Each benefits the other. Democratic representatives vote to increase the wages and benefits of public sector employees, and their unions provide the necessary funds for re-election campaigns. Once re-elected, those representatives vote for higher wages and increased benefits for the union members who contributed to their election victories. And so it goes, on and on.

The result, of course, is ever higher deficits, spiraling into the stratosphere of economic irrationality.

And the disaster is not just confined to the federal deficit. The disease has infected state and municipal budgets across the country as well. According to recent estimates, state and city governments have inflated employee benefit liabilities in excess of $3-trillon!

Now with the NLRB firmly in the hands of pro-union ideologues, an agenda is coming into focus of an effort to increase the wages and benefits of private sector employees to match those of government employees. And the NLRB will attempt to do so by making private sector unions, such as the AFL-CIO and SEIU, as powerful as their public sector counterparts. It isn’t enough that public sector unions have egregiously contributed to the possible bankruptcy of governments, their private sector counterparts now want to inject that same virus into the body of Corporate America.

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From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

President Obama’s recess appointment of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) drew immense amounts of criticism from corporate America, for Becker had been an attorney for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and his objectivity and sense of fairness were called into question.
Now Mr. Becker is living up to corporate America’s suspicions. He wants to overturn the 2007 Dana decision. What is the Dana decision?
When the NLRB comprised less ideological members than it does now, it had decided that card check was not only inferior to secret ballot elections; it also stated that when a company recognizes union representation of its workers via card check, the workers have a subsequent right to a secret ballot election to determine if they freely chose union representation or if they were coerced into their choice.
True to form, Mr. Becker not only suggested that the NLRB can impose card checks on corporate America without the approval of congress, but he and his fellow board members, in a 3-2 decision, have agreed to revisit the Dana decision. The Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) reports that “[Mr. Becker] filed a brief for the AFL-CIO in the original Dana case, arguing that there is no essential difference between card check and secret ballots and calling Dana-style protections ‘bad labor-relations policy.’ Mr. Becker is clearly biased against Dana…and should not rule on it.”
We absolutely agree and urge the forthcoming Republican congress to make Dana the law of the land. It’s good for workers, for corporate America, and for the U. S. economy.

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From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is weighing the advantages to workers of reversing a rule that provided for a 45-day window to file election or decertification petitions, so that workers may not be influenced in their decisions by their employers. It’s obvious that the NLRB wants to increase the number of unionized workers by limiting the amount of time that employers will have to educate workers about the disadvantages of unionization.
Craig Becker, a dyed-in-the-wool union advocate, says that he has not reached a final decision. Yet, for a man who has vociferously promoted unionization, it’s difficult to believe that he will not shorten the 45-day window of opportunity. Craig Becker has labored diligently to ensure that employers’ abilities to influence union elections be minimized, if not eliminated.
In the spirit of the question, “Do you want to buy the Brooklyn Bridge?” Craig Becker had told a senate hearing that he would recuse himself from decisions that would benefit his former employers, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the AFL-CIO. And now that Republican-appointed, NLRB member Peter Schaumber’s term has expired, the Craig Becker pro-union agenda is about to shift into high gear and speed up decisions that will benefit big labor. If there is any governmental institution whose actions will further drive manufacturers to foreign countries, it is the NLRB.

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From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

According to an article in The Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) by Melanie Trottman, presidents of the AFL-CIO and SEIU (Richard Trumpka and Mary Kay Henry, respectively) have agreed to spend at least $88 million to elect pro-union representatives to the House and Senate this fall. That is an astounding amount of money which could certainly affect the outcomes in such states as Ohio, California, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. Though the money will be generously spent in closely contested races in those states, the two unions plan on spending members’ dollars in more than 20 other states as well.

Both unions are significantly increasing their budgets from previous years, for they believe that in order to effect pro-union legislation they must have pro-union majorities in both houses of congress. Most of the pro-union candidates are Democrats.

The unions’ aggressive campaign, targetting millions of union households, will employ an army of campaign workers, each of whom will call upon union members and their families. They will ring doorbells, send out e-mails, repeatedly telephone their constituencies, and send out millions of direct mail pieces. The success of their efforts will be measured and then tweaked following the revelations of weekly polling data. According to the Wall Street Journal, 23% of the electorate are union members. That’s a sufficiently large enough number to determine the outcomes of elections in the most hotly contested states.

It is essential for those who oppose the Democratic leadership’s pro-union agenda to organize their own campaigns to defeat those who will be injurious to the American economy. America is at a turning point, and it is essential that it point to a future of economic growth free of union restrictions.

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