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 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:

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.

afl-cio · cabot institute · craig becker · Dana · Dana decision · employees · Labor Relations · National Labor Relations Board · nlrb · President Obama · SEIU · Service Employees International Union · stephen cabot · Steve Cabot · Unions · worker · workers

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.

afl-cio · big labor · cabot institute · craig becker · employee · employees · employers · Labor Relations · National Labor Relations Board · nlrb · SEIU · Service Employees International Union · stephen cabot · Steve Cabot · union · unionization · Unions

From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

Union ideologues, supporters of President Obama, have created a pair of public relations problems for him that not even his political enemies could have created. One involves the Hyatt hotel chain and Unite Here, the hotel and restaurant workers union. The other involves former SEIU attorney, Craig Becker, who is now a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
In fifteen cities, Unite Here members are protesting what it calls “recessionary” contracts offered by Hyatt that, it claims, limit salary and benefits for years to come.
In an apparent effort to embarrass the president, Unite Here is focusing its protests on Penny Prizker, whose family owned Hyatt prior to taking it public last year. The family still owns a controlling interest in the hotel chain. Ms. Pritzker is one of President Obama’s biggest fund raisers and was finance chair of his presidential campaign. She now serves on the president’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Of course, unions also raised considerable funds for the president’s election campaign, and Unite Here was one of the campaign’s major fund raisers. To which of these warring parties does President Obama owe his greatest allegiance? After all, he will need enormous fund raising not only for the mid-term elections this fall, but also for his own re-election campaign in 2012.
Making matters worse, Unite Here is in a battle with the Services Employees International Union about which union is the legitimate representative of workers in various locals. That issue may be settled by the NLRB, where Craig Becker could cast a deciding vote, never mind that he served as attorney for SEIU and refuses to recuse himself from ruling on SEIU cases which come before the Board.
In fact, there are more than a dozen SEIU cases before the Board for which Craig Becker’s recusal has been requested by the National Right to Work Foundation (NRWF). He has, as one might have expected, refused to recuse himself.
One can envision beads of sweat of the president’s brow as he takes two aspirins, hoping his headache vanishes before the midterm elections.

cabot institute · contracts · craig becker · Hyatt · Labor Relations · National Labor Relations Board · nlrb · Penny Pritzker · President Obama · recession · representation · SEIU · Service Employees International Union · stephen cabot · Steve Cabot · Unions · Unite Here · workers

From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

Always on the lookout for new targets of opportunity, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is planning a nation-wide attack on fast food restaurants.

According to news reports of a leaked internal memo, the SEIU is planning a major effort to organize fast food workers throughout the country. Such an effort, if successful, will not only significantly increase consumer prices, but may also result in a drastic drop of stock prices, for the majority of fast food restaurant are publicly held companies. The walkouts and strikes that could occur would be devastating to bottom line profits.

The Cabot Institute’s series of Labor Relations Seminars will be offering effective strategies for defeating union organizing efforts. For the fast food industry to remain union free, it must initiate a series of steps that have proven successful in keeping unions out. The industry cannot be reactive; it must be proactive, and it must act now!

cabot institute · fast food · Labor Relations · organizing efforts · restaurants · SEIU · Service Employees International Union · stephen cabot · unionization · Unions · workers

From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

Without having to get congressional approval, President Obama is determined to give union leaders everything they want. It is apparent that unions will soon have many new opportunities to organize formerly unaffiliated workers, and governmental agencies will provide all possible assistance.

To begin, the National Mediation Board (NMB) has made a major alteration to its 75-year old rules so that workers at railroads and airlines can easily be organized. For three-quarters of a century, workers who did not vote in organizing elections had their non-votes counted as negative votes; now, under a new ruling, if the majority of votes are pro-union, the union will have won the right to represent workers. This would not have happened if President Obama had not appointed a pro-union advocate to the NMB

Next, all companies that do business with the federal government will have to be union friendly companies. That means that they have to pay union wages, and that rule applies to all federal agencies. If a company received stimulus funds for construction projects, that company must pay standard union wages to its workers. Such a ruling will, no doubt, drive up governmental costs, thus adding to an already burgeoning deficit.

Perhaps the most dangerous element of the new government paradigm is the recent appointment of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board. Mr. Becker had been the legal counsel to the highly aggressive Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Since he claims that the NLRB can re-write rules, one can expect him to find a way to make “card checks” legal, thus obviating the requirement for secret ballot elections.

The president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, is optimistic that “card checks” will eventually become law, perhaps by attaching it to an innocuous piece of legislation, or having his ideological comrade in arms, Craig Becker, change the rules.

President Obama campaigned on “change we can believe in.” The changes he is making are ones that reality forces us to believe, but they are changes that will do significant damage to Corporate America and to the American economy.

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From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

The Service Employees International Union, one of the most powerful in the United States, has elected a new president, Mary Kay Henry, who appears to be even more aggressive and determined than was her predecessor, Andy Stern, though he, too, was a force to be reckoned with.

The SEIU has 1.8 million members and a considerable fortune at its disposal for organizing efforts and political campaigns. In particular, Ms. Kay intends to use that money to organize workers in the biotech, banking, public sector, and health care industries to a much greater degree than was undertaken in the past.

Ms. Kay also plans on utilizing $4 million for a so-called “innovation fund” to locate new organizing targets. In addition, she intends to spend an equal amount, plus an already allocated $10 million, to elect union friendly governors in such states as Ohio, Florida, New York, Connecticut, California, Arizona, Ohio, and Illinois.

Those funds, though impressive, pale when compared to the $250 million that the SEIU spends annually on organizing campaigns. Just since the beginning of April, the union has organized 22,000 workers!

It is apparent that the SEIU poses an enormous threat to Corporate America and the nation’s nascent economic recovery. With an enemy poised and so well-funded to commence an enormous attack, it is essential that Corporate America prepare itself with the necessary strategic action plans. If properly prepared, non-union companies can remain union free. Unionized companies can negotiate from positions of strength. And others can successfully decertify unions already in place. If strategic action plans are not put in place now, Corporate America can expect to experience countless deleterious effects to profitability and productivity.

andy stern · cabot institute · corporate america · Labor Relations · mary kay henry · organizing · productivity · profits · SEIU · Service Employees International Union · stephen cabot · unionization · Unions

From the desk of Stephen Cabot:
It is no secret that a Democratic majority on the National Labor Relations Board would favor unions. If one of those is a former union lawyer who believes that the Employee Free Choice Act should become law, the putative impartiality of the NLRB could be abrogated with the stroke of a pen.

Craig Becker, who was appointed to the Board by President Obama during the spring recess of Congress (an action known as a presidential recess appointment), will decidedly and perhaps aggressively tilt the Board to an unfair and dangerous pro-union position.

Mr. Becker, who was a top lawyer for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and Democrat Mark Pearce, will give the Board a three-vote Democratic majority. There had been just one Democrat and one Republican on the Board prior to the appointments of Becker and Pearce. The Board should have five members.

Many in Corporate America as well as students of labor relations and pro-management attorneys believe that the newly composed Board will act to affirm a pending petition that would require employers to bargain with unions that represent less than a majority number of any employer’s workers. In addition, it is also believed that the Board will vote to shorten the period of time from when an organizing petition is accepted by the Board and when a vote is held. While the Employee Free Choice Act may be doomed in Congress, the acts of the NLRB could now advance the mission of unions so that more and more workers become unionized and labor costs skyrocket. It is essential, therefore, that Corporate America invests in strategic action plans for union avoidance as well as plans to achieve decertification of unions already in place.

A dark cloud is hanging over Corporate America, and only if it implements a pro-active battle plan will the sun shine again on our traditional free enterprise system.

cabot institute · corporate america · craig becker · Employee Free Choice Act · employees · employers · Labor Relations · National Labor Relations Board · nlrb · President Obama · SEIU · Service Employees International Union · stephen cabot · Unions · workers