LaborPains.org

There have been several times when I’ve discussed the alternate means of implementing some of the key tenets of the Employee Free Choice Act, like HERE and HERE. It’s just nice to have the President blatantly confirm this agenda in his speech to the AFL-CIO.  Basic story? EFCA will be a challenge in the lame duck session, but no worries, we’ve got other ways of making it happen. From the Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Obama reiterated that the administration will put its weight behind it. “We are going to keep on fighting to pass the Employee Free Choice Act,” he told the 54 executive council members and others in the room. “We also know what and who is standing in the way of progress,” he said, adding that it will be “tough” to get the bill through the Senate and will take time to reverse the impact of “at least eight years in which there was a profound animosity toward the notion of unions.”

Mr. Obama also reminded the labor officials of the ways in which the administration has already supported unions, in part by wielding executive powers for actions that don’t require legislation.

“There’s a reason why we nominated people to the National Mediation Board that would ensure that folks in the rail and air” industries can organize, said Mr. Obama, referring to the board’s overhaul in May of a decades-old rule that had made it harder for airline and railway workers to unionize. He also cited the Democrats he nominated to the National Labor Relations Board to “restore some balance” to the group, which supervises union elections and referees disputes between private-sector employers and employees.

You gotta love it when a group of citizens “organize” volunteers to keep city parks clean and operational, because the Teamsters can’t…or won’t do the same.  Teamsters Local Union 117 has filed a complaint with the State of Washington to make sure the county never allows volunteers to keep the parks clean and open again. Because if anyone’s doing it, it should be the Teamsters. No really.

“Community members have stepped up to help through the “Adopt-a-Park” program. People living near Dawson Park, for example, have mowed the grass and picked up garbage. [...] The program has been around for 16 years and is included in county code, Kravit-Smith said. The county has other programs that use volunteers, including one in which they serve as park hosts – a task that includes some maintenance work, Kravit-Smith said. [...] Paul Zilly, a spokesman for Teamsters Local Union 117, said the union doesn’t oppose community programs, but does want to ensure that its workers aren’t pushed out of hours or jobs.”

The local News Tribune defended the volunteers against the Teamsters:

“The union charged that allowing such volunteer efforts at Dawson and Gonyea parks deprived its members of chances to work. [...]

The county cut parks funding, and parks and rec cut services. Midland residents learned there was no money to cut Dawson’s grass, collect litter or clean toilets. So they did what union members have done so often: They volunteered. At first, the bigs turned down the neighbors’ offer, citing liability and standards. So residents rode their mowers to Dawson and gave it a haircut. That very civil disobedience worked, and they set up a mowing schedule. The whole exercise has pushed neighbors together to form a productive community flexing its political muscle. In its own back-handed way, it has been good for Midland.”

Reminds me of that incident involving the Eagle Scout in PA whose project incurred the wrath of the SEIU local.

Image courtesy of Brenda Anderson.

That’s not a typo. Not only did she call it the “Employer Freed Choice Act,” which is embarrassing enough, but she told the Communications Workers of America that EFCA ought soon be the “law of the land.”  They applauded.

From the CWA: