LaborPains.org

Following the news last week that labor unions are getting closer to extinction, a friend dropped me a note suggesting names for a few new dinosaurs. (I’m not saying this was my finest photoshop moment). Enjoy.

I just received this from the North Pole.  It’s almost unbelievable, given the spirit of the season . . . and the billions of children who would be affected. [See below]

In response to the strike notice, Santa Claus has made the following announcement. [See below]

It’s a little unclear what the NLRB’s jurisdiction is in this situation, considering the transnational border issues this brings into play….delivery to every country and territory will be affected if Santa and BCERAS do not reach an agreement.  It is also unclear how this incident may affect the FedEx vs. UPS  controversy–whether the Brotherhood of Elves, Reindeer, and Abominable Snowmen are legally able to strike, or whether they are instead subject to the Railway Labor Act (RLA), which would make it more difficult for something like this to happen– given that Santa’s sled travels over interstate boundaries.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from LaborPains.org.

You know what’s so special about the holidays? Everyone can get their true feelings out in the open. Even Vice President Biden.

The Delaware Online shares this little nugget:

For the probably thousands of Delawareans who recently received Christmas cards from the vice president and his extended family (virtually everyone in the newsroom did), there’s a couple things that jump out. First is the disclaimer on the back that tells the receiver of “joy” and “peace” that the card wasn’t paid for by a Biden. It was paid for by the Democratic National Committee. And the card isn’t considered a card at all, actually, it’s a “communication” that “was not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.” Not a very holidayish slogan for your holiday card.

But the most glaring omission from the card, something no god-fearing Democrat in Delaware would let happen, is the union printing bug. New Castle County Council President Paul Clark’s Christmas card has the union bug on the front. Tacky, to be sure, but at least it’s there. The vice president has no printers’ union bug on his card. But lest you think Vice President Biden has lost his collective union mind, the card does have the logo of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. No mom and pop union print shop for the veep. Go Teamsters!

As soon as I get my hands on the part of the card with the Teamsters logo, I will pass it along.

Image courtesy of Politico.

I just love a good Photoshop stick figure piece of art work. While this image appears to be used time and again in reference to the Ken Hamidi beating from last month, there are just so many different times when this image would be appropriate like here, and here, and here, that I have been unable to track down the origin.

Bottom line: If you haven’t been smacked around enough recently by a sputtering economy and unemployment, attend an SEIU meeting.

Image courtesy of who the h*ll knows.

It’s a guilty pleasure reporting on anything that even smacks of a connection between labor and the mob, so yesterday’s newspaper raids were an irresistible event.  You can smell the stereotype wafting across the Hudson River.  I had to share:

According to the AP (not raided):

Investigators in the city raided offices for some of the nation’s largest newspapers Tuesday as part of a corruption probe into a powerful union that has long faced accusations of ties to organized crime, a law enforcement official said. Police officers working with the Manhattan district attorney’s office searched for paperwork related to the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union in circulation, production and delivery offices of The New York Times, the New York Post, the Daily News and El Diario, said the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said search warrants also were executed at a labor union, but he would not specify which. “The investigation solely concerns business activity and practice and is completely unrelated to the content of any publication,” he said. The Times, Daily News and El Diario-La Prensa confirmed their offices were searched but said their companies were not subjects of the investigation. The Post declined to comment. El Diario-La Prensa Publisher Rosana Rosado said the search warrant sought information into allegations of corruption at the union, which packages and delivers newspapers across the region. The Times said the office of an employee at its plant in the College Point area of Queens had been searched.

Image courtesy of josh.liba.

(more…)

The headline in the Chicago Tribune says it all.  In fact I couldn’t think of a better one.

“Roofers, landscapers in turf was over Chicago’s rooftop gardens: Roofers union feels pushed out of green roof pastures”

Here are the parties involved, according to the NLRB:

International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150, AFL–CIO and International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 703 and Moore Landscapes, Inc. and Laborers’ International Union of North America, Local No. 4 and United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers, Local No. 11.

Apparently the roofers were upset that the landscapers (who are paid less by the hour) were allowed to landscape roofs.  The roofers claimed special expertise.  Moore Landscapes, Inc. and their unionized employees argued that they had superior landscaping expertise–having landscaped since 1948 in the Chicago area.  The NLRB ruled in favor of the landscapers.

Maybe the landscapers could gain more roofing skills and form a United Union of American Landscapers of Roofs of Skyscrapers and Other Shorter Buildings International.  The UUALRSOSBI would be an incredibly able (combining the skills of roofing and landscaping) to create “green” roofs.  And then no need for “turf wars.” But this is unions we are talking about.  Turf wars, even when they have nothing to do with grass, come with the territory.

For all you folks who like to read the NLRB’s rulings, here is the final Determination of the Dispute from the NLRB:

The National Labor Relations Board has made the following Determination of Dispute. Employees of Moore Landscapes, Inc., represented by International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 703, and International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150, are entitled to perform all of the work in dispute at the Roosevelt Collection jobsite in Chicago, Illinois. Dated, Washington, D.C. September 30, 2009.

I will close with an African Proverb: When two elephants fight, it is the  grass that gets trampled.

Image courtesy of WildVanilla.

The National Labor Relations Board finds itself in awkward position–having been ordered multiple times by the Federal Labor Relations Authority to bargain with its own employees. According to the NLRB Union, the NLRB has yet to bargain in good faith. Employees of the National Labor Relation Board, seeing what unionization has done to for so many others, decided to organize into one bargaining unit in 2005.   Since then, the dispute has festered between the NLRB leadership and what seems to be about 1000 employees nationwide at 30 regional offices.

A shout out to LaborUnionReport.com for reporting on how the NLRB’s own union is picketing the new chairman of the NLRB, Wilma Liedman. She recently attended a luncheon recently in San Francisco, only to be yelled at greeted by her own employees. But this wasn’t the first time.

Here’s another press release reporting their picketing in September of 2007, where they picketed the last Chairman of the Board. And here is the Federal Labor Relations Authority’s judgment against the NLRB in favor of the NLRBU, ordering them to “negotiate in good faith,” from November 2007.

If you’d like to see some photos of the union bashing the NLRB, take a look on their website here.  My favorite acrostic of NLRB is “No Longer Really Bargaining.”

As we head into winter, things are heating up in Massachusetts– just as the Charles River begins to freeze up.

In the wake of the passing of longtime Senator Ted Kennedy, unions in Massachusetts are mobilizing for an “abbreviated” Democratic primary– a place where unions shine and shine and shine.

The Boston Globe reports:

“Special elections always play to our strength,” said Robert J. Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, which represents about 400,000 labor union members and has yet to endorse in the race. “We can organize our workforce, contact our membership, provide phone banks and literature on the job, knock on doors, and do mailings – and do each multiple times.”

The recipients of what the Globe calls “instant ground organizations” are Attorney General Martha Coakley, who has locked down most of the Teamsters, and US Representative Michael E. Capuano, who has locked down the United Food and Commercial Workers.  There are even major divisions between locals and between regional New England Boards and the state organizations.  While no union will deliver their membership en masse, they can deliver people and funds in a way no other group really can in such a short period of time.  It will be telling what policies Capuano and Coakley latch onto this fall, as it will no doubt be an indicator of which unions they are courting for an endorsement. The SEIU and the Massachusetts Teachers Association are expected to announce as early as next week.

Two democratic candidates have failed to attract any serious union backing, and therefore, are effectively irrelevant in this primary. Without union attention in Massachusetts, there is practically no reason to even name them.

Image courtesy of Craig Stevens.