LaborPains.org

Last week Andy Stern challenged the Chamber of Commerce to debate him on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), saying:

“Why don’t we just have a public debate about the Employee Free Choice Act? If he [the Chamber] feels as strongly as he does, he should be willing to have a public discussion so we can do this in the sunshine.“

We couldn’t agree more. After all, we challenged the unions to debate EFCA months ago.

So is Stern really ready to put his money where his mouth is? (Heck, we’ll even foot the bill for the room. I heard the SEIU was a little strapped for cash.)

We sent him a formal invitation to debate earlier this week. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if he’s really ready to have a “public discussion.”

NUHW claims to be close to decertifying 50,000 Kaiser Permanente workers out of SEIU.

GM loses money in yet another quarter. Does this even count as news anymore?

Andy Stern says that he already has 60 votes in the Senate for EFCA.  He may be counting his chickens a little too early.

Saul Anuzis has been hired to be the national chairman of the “Save American Jobs Project” for American Solutions.

Check out this video of Andy Stern’s interview in USA Today.  They take some great questions from readers.

The San Francisco Chronicle is having serious financial problems.  It’s hard running a newspaper these days and even harder to juggle a labor union at the same time.

The Greenville News supports secret ballots and warns about the economic dangers of binding arbitration.

USA Today is interviewing Andy Stern and wants to know, “What would you ask SEIU President Andy Stern?” There are a lot good questions in the comments section.  Let’s hope USA Today uses some of them.

Solis is finally cleared as the new labor secretary.  Big Labor is overjoyed.

Politico covers EFCA’s slowdown.  How’s this for some spin:

Union lobbyists say they are not bothered by the delay, which they blame on an already packed congressional agenda being overtaken by the current economic crisis.

Aren’t labor unions supposed to bring back the middle class and build a strong economy? So why would an economic crisis delay EFCA?

The infighting continues at UNITE HERE:

“This is an example of Bruce Raynor’s take-no-prisoners tactics,” the official, Pilar Weiss, told me, referring to UNITE HERE’s president. “They are no different from the the mail from the most anti-union employers.”

Ouch. That’s harsh.

Top Ford execs take pay cuts and offer workers buyouts.

SEIU/UHW are locking horns. Unfair labor practices have been filed and elections for the moment are on hold.

SEIU is spending big bucks to get Sara Feigenholtz to take Rahm Emanuel’s empty seat.  Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley and State Rep. John Fritchey commented on the move:

“Every poll I’ve heard or seen, we’re ahead,” Quigley said. “We’ve been outspent. We’re winning, we’ll be outspent.”

“It’s obvious that [SEIU] thinks this is an election that can be decided by dollars rather than by issues,” Fritchey said. “But it’s the same strategy that they used to elect Rod Blagojevich twice.”

A textbook example of current card check use: Two hotels in San Francisco have not agreed to a card check election.  In response, UNITE HERE is organizing a boycott.   The Local 2 is also planning rallies and marches.  How about planning a vote instead?  Why is the local UNITE HERE so afraid of letting the workers have a democratic voice?

Ford and the UAW reach a tentative agreement on health care.

Michigan’s Senate passed a resolution urging its congressional delegation to vote against EFCA.

A lot has been said about how the Employee Free Choice Act effectively eliminates secret ballot elections for unionization. All the rhetoric boils down to a single phrase in the law:

If the Board finds that a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed valid authorizations designating the individual or labor organization specified in the petition as their bargaining representative and that no other individual or labor organization is currently certified or recognized as the exclusive representative of any of the employees in the unit, the Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative described in subsection (a). (emphasis added)

Basically, if a union turns in signed cards from a bare majority of employees, the NLRB is explicitly barred from conducing a secret ballot election. Thus, under EFCA the only way to obtain a secret ballot election is if a union turns in cards from more than 30% of the employees but less than 50%. As soon as they turn in cards from a majority, the NLRB “shall not direct an election.”

The problem, as I’ve written about before, is that unions almost never petition for an election without signed cards from at least 60% of the employees. That’s because the unions know that some employees sign a card to “get the union off my back,” and ultimately vote “no” inside a secret ballot booth.

When I wrote about this before, I linked to a number of unions’ internal organizing guidelines (some of the unions even removed their admission after I linked to them). But I just came across a much better source: American Rights at Work’s (ARAW) website. ARAW is the the 800lb union front group gorilla fighting for the Employee Free Choice Act. In a working paper by John-Paul Ferguson and Thomas Kochan that ARAW published on its website they wrote:

In practice nearly all unions require at least a showing of majority support before petitioning for an election.

In the face of budget cuts, the California Nurses Association and SEIU call a truce.

A new poll says that only 52 percent of likely voters in Michigan support additional loans to GM and Chrysler.  I’m surprised the support isn’t greater.  You would think that the result would be 60-70 percent.  The poll also says that only 24 percent of those living in other parts of the country support the loans.

“Can North Carolina become pro-union?” asks The News & Observer.

The Los Angeles Times reports on internal labor disputes across the country.

Op-ed rips Robert Reich on his EFCA stance.

A Maine Editorial slams EFCA.

Three nurses unions merge to form a giant 150,000 person organization.

The union owned Amalgamated Bank is one of the prizes sought in the UNITE HERE struggle. An interesting quote from the article:

That’s where Andy Stern comes in. His 2-million member SEIU is fast becoming the Roman Empire of the labor movement. Stern is forever on the prowl for new workers to absorb into his empire and he doesn’t much care how he does it.