LaborPains.org

The Detroit News ran an editorial criticizing the UAW for disputing the tax assessment of its $33 million Black Lake golf resort with the local township:

The UAW still owns and operates a $33 million posh golf resort on Black Lake near Cheboygan that ostensibly serves as an education center but provides an elegant getaway for union leadership.

And now the union is appealing to the state Tax Tribunal for $3 million in property tax relief from Waverly Township, disputing the assessment of the property. If the UAW wins, schools will be hurt.

“Once again, the next generation is getting cheated out of a quality education — a chance at a brighter future — because the UAW doesn’t want to pay its fair share of taxes,” Drain Commissioner Dennis Lennox said.

The editorial also points out that the UAW has lost $23 million over the past five years on its “education center.” It’s assuring to know that while the UAW facilitates the bailout of General Motors and Chrysler, it still finds time to dispute its property taxes.

The union battle escalated yesterday in Fresno, CA as the NUHW officially filed charges with the California Public Employee Relations Board against the SEIU for alleged interference in the voting process to organize home healthcare workers.

Both sides traded barbs and hurled accusations at each other.  The SEIU dismissed the NUHW’s efforts, essentially branding them as sore losers:

“Some of the things I’ve heard (are) just preposterous,” said Dave Regan, an executive vice president with SEIU. “When you lose, and you tell everyone you have to win, there’s wild allegations and sour grapes.”

The NUHW held a press conference with healthcare workers to provide accounts of the SEIU’s alleged illegal activities. Given the SEIU’s history, these allegations are not too surprising but still appall the conscience.

Here’s one account of outright intimidation:

“I was at the door of a fellow homecare provider, explaining why I was voting for NUHW,” said Phally Pov, a provider and NUHW volunteer. “An SEIU organizer saw us and ran around the corner. Minutes later two huge men pulled up in a car, jumped out, and started coming toward us and yelling. They yelled over me and wouldn’t let me talk with the provider. I noticed that the men smelled strongly of marijuana. I was afraid for my safety, and the provider I was visiting was visibly shaken. They threatened the member that if he voted for NUHW he would lose his benefits. When they were finished yelling at us, they handed the other provider a t-shirt and told him he’d better vote for SEIU-UHW.”

An example of vandalism:

“I saw a man in purple walking up to my door,” said Lesalie Kyle, a provider in North Clovis. “I had an NUHW sign behind my locked screen door because I didn’t want SEIU harassing me at home. He rang the bell, and when no one answered he kicked my screen door in and put a bunch of SEIU flyers in front of the sign.”

And for good measure, theft:

Silbenia Conley, a provider in Kerman, filed a police report after three family members in her home witnessed an SEIU staffer steal a sign she had put on her door to show her community that she supported NUHW.

Welcome to the world of union organizing campaigns. Now imagine what organizing campaigns would be like  if EFCA is passed, the secret ballot is effectively eliminated, and paid union organizers are given free reign.

The Arkansas News reported that Senator Mark Pryor is working on a new proposal to make it easier for workers to organize. Pryor is aiming for both labor and business support, claiming that his idea would not be a compromise on EFCA but entirely new legislation.

Pryor doesn’t actually have any legislation in writing, so it’s not clear what exactly he will propose. But the senator claims that what he has in mind would make the unionization process “less confrontational and even-handed across the board.”

Pryor said, “Surprisingly, there’s a lot that they can agree on. We just have to tune out the rhetoric on both sides.”

Well, I hope Pryor doesn’t tune out the facts either. The senator should keep in mind that removing the secret ballot via card check or imposing binding arbitration are not viable options. More importantly, Pryor should recall that unions won almost two-thirds of all secret ballot elections in 2008.

The New York Times featured an article today illustrating everything that is wrong with unions.

The focus of the piece is the so-called labor-funded group, California Unions for Reliable Energy (CURE). The organization claims on its website to “help solve the State’s energy problems by building, maintaining and operating conventional and renewable energy power plant.” If it were only so simple.

They neglect to mention that they essentially block solar power companies that they consider to be not labor-friendly from obtaining permits and contracts. The group slows the approval process for new solar power plants down to a tortoise’s pace by filing complaints, demanding environmental studies, and providing hostile testimony at public hearings if unionized workers are not employed at the project.

When a company called Ausra filed plans for a big solar power plant in California, it was deluged with demands from a union group that it study the effect on creatures like the short-nosed kangaroo rat and the ferruginous hawk.

By contrast, when a competitor, BrightSource Energy, filed plans for an even bigger solar plant that would affect the imperiled desert tortoise, the same union group, California Unions for Reliable Energy, raised no complaint. Instead, it urged regulators to approve the project as quickly as possible.

One big difference between the projects? Ausra had rejected demands that it use only union workers to build its solar farm, while BrightSource pledged to hire labor-friendly contractors.

Solar power developers say that if they commit to use union labor, environmental objections “never materialize.”

It’s hard to imagine labor bosses worrying about whether a solar power plant is going to affect the mating patterns of a specific species of bird. California energy commissoner Jeffrey Byron expressed his incredulity at labor laweyers showing up to express concern at hearings:

“This does stress the limits of credibility to some extent when an attorney representing a labor union is so focused on the potential impact of a solar power plant on birds.”

Labor’s attempts to undermine developers with threats of regulation have real costs that adversely affect consumers and the industry’s competitiveness:

But skeptics fear that union control of renewable energy projects will saddle the nascent industry with high costs and undermine its competitiveness.

“These environmental challenges are the unions’ major tactic to maintain their share of industrial construction — we call it greenmail,” said Kevin Dayton, state government affairs director for the Associated Builders and Contractors of California. “The future of solar energy is jeopardized by these unions holding up construction.”

In California, project labor agreements can raise costs on a project by about 20 percent, Mr. Dayton estimated.

Some developers are forthcoming with how effective labor unions are with their methods:

“Let’s just say that it is clear to us from experience that if we do not enter into a project labor agreement, the costs and schedule of the project is interminable,” said Douglas Wert, chief executive of Spinnaker Energy, a San Diego company hired to build two solar farms for Portuguese developer Martifer.

Labor has long relied on threats through various means to achieve their agenda. Using the plight of the short-nosed kangaroo rat or desert tortoise, however, has to be a new low. The only thing endangered in California are the jobs that will never materialize and the pockets of consumers who will pay more for power.

The National Union of Healthcare Workers (formerly part of the SEIU) is challenging the outcome of a bitterly fought election in Fresno, CA against the SEIU. The vote tally late Friday evening revealed that the SEIU had narrowly won by a 233-vote margin. The SEIU received 2,938 votes compared to the NUHW’s 2,705 votes, with 90 ballots still being contested.

According to Steve Sanchez, interim program manager for the Fresno County Public Authority, the state mediator will not certify the election results for 10 calendar days.

The NUHW is contesting the election outcome and asking for a recount vote. NUHW officials charged the SEIU of voter intimdation and harassment throughout the campaign:

“SEIU engaged in an illegal campaign fraught with violations of state and federal law,” said Kevin Hall, a Fresno volunteer organizer. “We will be filing charges against them immediately to have a re-run of this election.”

In an e-mail, NUHW said Fresno County homecare providers reported scores of incidents of voter intimidation, illegal threats and ballot manipulation by SEIU staff.

“Based on SEIU’s illegal conduct and flawed decisions by the county election officer, healthcare workers in NUHW will file a legal challenge to the election and not be party to certification of the results,” the union said.

Pro-labor activist/columnist Randy Shaw analyzes the outcome of the SEIU/NUHW battle and finds that the SEIU is significantly weakened after expending considerable resources and funds to barely win an organizing election. The SEIU spent nearly $10 million and almost 1,000 staffers to “win” by 233 votes.

Shaw thinks that the SEIU/NUHW battle dealt a blow to the SEIU’s model of operations, arguing that “Fresno appears to confirm that SEIU’s rush to get more workers under union contracts as the key strategy for gaining greater clout over national policies has come at a cost.” He goes on to predict that many of the SEIU’s healthcare workers will leave for the NUHW, which will cause further problems for the SEIU:

In September, SEIU bargaining units of around 35,000 home care workers in Sacramento and San Francisco will file for decertification elections. If SEIU could not win easily in Fresno, it is unlikely to prevail in NUHW’s strongest base.

The next year will see decertification elections throughout the state’s major hospitals, an arena where NUHW is particularly strong. As NUHW starts winning elections, SEIU is faced with throwing more money and staff into many unwinnable campaigns. This California fight could drain SEIU’s treasury and morale for years.

SEIU is finding itself in a precarious position with its battles not only in California, but nationally, against UNITE HERE. It’s already on tenuous financial footing, which explains why it’s been so desperate to pass EFCA. It should be interesting to see how much SEIU escalates its actions in California and against John Wilhelm’s faction of UNITE HERE.

The Associated Press has an informative article about casinos in Atlantic City, NJ pushing back against the unions’ misleading ad campaign.

For those not familiar with the union situation in Atlantic City, the United Auto Workers (yes, that UAW, a.k.a. the Union of Card Dealers) has been attempting to organize casino employees. The union has battered casinos with “print, billboard and radio ads” over contract negotiations.

The casinos have decided to respond with an appropriate message about the UAW:

Four casinos owned by Harrah’s Entertainment — Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City, Caesars Atlantic City, Bally’s Atlantic City and the Showboat Casino Hotel — are taking out full-page newspaper advertisements listing setbacks the UAW has had in the auto industry, including the bankruptcies of Chrysler and GM, government takeovers and thousands of lost jobs. …

The casinos’ ad says “the UAW track record is nothing but bad news: Bankrupt American auto industry … Millions of dollars in taxpayer bailout of pensions … Lost wages, thousands of lost jobs, lost opportunities … Government takeovers.” It ends with the slogan, “Everyone loses if Atlantic City can’t compete.”

The casinos intend to settle their contract negotiation with the unions but insist that any deal reached must make economic sense. Why?

Atlantic City casinos are operating in “the worst operating environment in the 31-year history of legalized gambling.” Furthermore, the casinos are in their third straight year of revenue declines, including a 16 percent drop this year alone.

This is also a good opportunity to point out that it’s important to have both sides negotiate in good faith and allow the workers to actually vote on a contract. Harrah’s regional president made a prescient point:

“First-time contracts tend to take a long time since everything that happens in the eight hours an employee is on-site has to be put down in writing,” Nita said, referring to the terms of employment and working conditions that are part of a labor agreement.

It’s important to keep this in mind as labor continues to push for EFCA, specifically binding arbitration. Under EFCA, a federal bureaucrat will get to decide the contract without allowing workers to have an opportunity to vote on their own contract.

Rick Dantzler, a former Democratic state legislator in Florida, announced his opposition to EFCA today.

Dantzler, who served in both houses of the Florida legislature, joined a growing number of Democrats who oppose EFCA.

Here’s what Dantzler had to say:

“I just can’t figure out why anyone would support eliminating a worker’s right to cast a secret ballot”, said former State Senator Rick Dantzler. “It’s not fair to the employee, and it’s not fair to the employer.” …

“Proponents believe the measure would result in more unionized workplaces, but the ends don’t justify the means”, Dantzler continued. “The process established in law for holding union elections should be neutral and should create an equal playing field. I’m sympathetic to the plight of labor, but the EFCA simply goes too far.”

When the SEIU is not busy fighting its protracted war with UNITE HERE, it finds time to duel with the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). It recently spent nearly $10 million to organize 10,000 health care workers in Fresno, CA. The SEIU also – not surprisingly -  allegedly committed acts of vandalism and intimidation against workers in its organization campaign against NUHW.

Now the NUHW is retaliating, filing an official complaint with the National Labor Relations Board alleging prohibited ties between the SEIU and Bank of America.

The NUHW charges that Bank of America offered the SEIU at least $88 million in prohibited loans. Federal law prohibits any loans, gifts, and other financial ties between a company and the unions attempting to organize that company’s employees. The $88 million in loans from Bank of America can be found here (look for Schedule 9)

The SEIU has a tangled relationship with Bank of America, which garnered criticism for its hypocrisy. The union has taken out millions in loans from the bank while protesting its compensation and lending practices and attempting to organize its workers.

The NUHW says “the law is designed to keep unions from being influenced by employers and prevent unions from shaking down companies where they are trying to organize workers.”