Week 12

1. Week 12 • Union Organizing • Voluntary Recognition • Corporate Campaigns: Bread and Roses • Bargaining to Organize • Card Check • Neutrality Agreements • Labor Law Reform • Dunlop Commission • EFCA • Union Transformation • Change to Win • New Organizing Models

2. The Organizing Process • Collective Bargaining cannot take place until a bargaining representative has been certified • To gain certification, unions pursue one of two paths • Path 1: Normally, a union must win an electionto be certified as the exclusive representative of the employees

3. Face With Union Organization • Management tries to undercut support • Broad array of strategies and tactics • Bread and Roses number 6…

4. Start with 65%…but lose half of elections…

5. The Organizing Process • Collective Bargaining cannot take place until a bargaining representative has been certified • To gain certification, unions pursue one of two paths • Path 2: An employer may voluntarily recognizea union if the union can demonstrate that it represents a majority of the employees • Bread and Roses number 8?

6. Sometimes Corporate Campaigns force Voluntary Recognition… • Cost to company finances, reputation,brand outweigh recognizing the costs of recognizing the union… • Corporate campaigns force voluntary recognition- • efforts to bring public, financial, or political pressure to bear on a company • Crash weddings, picket in front of homes, boycott related companies, try to use politics to create problems for firm, hold hearings with local clergy and politicians… • Bread and Roses number 7

7. Corporate Campaigns Are Tricky Business • So Smithfield has filed a racketeering lawsuit against the union, on the theory that speaking out about labor, environmental and safety issues in order to pressure the company to unionize amounts to extortion like that used by organized crime. • Smithfield says the union, the United Food and Commercial Workers International, and its officials violated RICO by issuing press releases, contacting civil rights and environmental groups, organizing protests and calling for boycotts. • But the most striking assertion in the suit, one Smithfield devotes five pages to, is that the union was engaged in racketeering when it urged local governments in New York, Boston and other cities to pass resolutions condemning the company. After meeting with the union in 2006, a dozen members of the New York City Council sponsored a resolution calling for the city to stop buying meat from Smithfield’s Tar Heel factory “until the company ends all forms of abuse, intimidation and violence against its workers,” citing a ruling by a federal appeals court in Washington that Smithfield had engaged in “intense and widespread coercion” in battling unionization at its Tar Heel plant. • Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito was a sponsor of the resolution, and she said she had been happy to meet with representatives of labor and business groups to hear their concerns. The practice Smithfield calls racketeering is, Ms. Mark-Viverito said, what others call lobbying. The First Amendment has a name for it, too: the right to petition the government. • Smithfield’s lawsuit contains other nuggets. It complains, for instance, that the union interfered with its relationship with Paula Deen, “a celebrity chef” who has a contract to promote Smithfield products on her show on the Food Network. The union has demonstrated at Ms. Deen’s public appearances. • In a recent court filing, Smithfield added another complaint: the union “deprived Smithfield of an incomparable marketing opportunity” by persuading Oprah Winfrey not to allow Ms. Deen to promote Smithfield hams on Ms. Winfrey’s show. • The suit seeks more than $17 million, an order barring the union from publishing “reports or press releases designed to mislead the public,” another barring demonstrations “at Paula Deen events,” and a third barring the union “from participating in the drafting, encouraging, sponsorship and/or passage of public condemnations of plaintiffs by cities, townships or other organizations.”

8. Smithfield, UFCW Settle RICO Suit, Agree to Election Using 'Fair Process' • Just before a trial was scheduled to begin, Smithfield Foods Inc. and the United Food and Commercial Workers Oct. 27 agreed to settle the company's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act suit alleging that the union's “corporate campaign” in support of an organizing drive amounted to extortion (Smithfield Foods Inc. v. United Food & Commercial Workers Int'l Union, E.D. Va., No. 3, order approving settlement 10/27/08). • In a joint statement, the parties announced that they have agreed on “a fair election process” by which workers at Smithfield's pork processing plant in Tar Heel, N.C., can choose whether or not to be represented by UFCW. In return, UFCW agreed “to end its public campaign against Smithfield,” in which the union has employed a variety of tactics, including product boycotts, to pressure the company to agree to a card-check recognition process. Smithfield and UFCW also agreed to establish and jointly fund and administer a “feed the hungry program.” • http://emlawcenter.bna.com/pic2/em.nsf/id/BNAP-7KULHA?OpenDocument

9. Corporate Campaigns and RICO • SEIU targeting Private Security Firms • Private Security Firms are Hired by Building Owners • Empire State Building Becomes a Target • Video of SEIU arrests • SEIU targets Empire State Building…which does not directly employ the security guards • UFCW Corporate Campaign Against Smithfield • Examples of two tactics? • Paula Deen and the UFCW • Extortion or Free Speech?

10. Sometimes Corporate Campaigns force Voluntary Recognition… • How do you feel about these campaigns? Do they pass your “smell” test? Move to yes or no corner? • Cost to company finances, reputation,brand outweigh recognizing the costs of recognizing the union… • Corporate campaigns force voluntary recognition- • efforts to bring public, financial, or political pressure to bear on a company

11. Another way to get Voluntary Recognition is Bargaining to Organize • Bargaining to organize • negotiating language in collective bargaining agreement with employers to enhance the union’s chances in future organizing. • AFSCME publication explains: • Bargaining to organize means going beyond maintaining union jobs, and reaching agreements to build the union. There are different approaches. Employers may promise to remain “neutral” and not oppose union organizing efforts. They may agree to recognize the union based on a card check rather than insisting on an election (http://www.afscme.org/publications/9719.cfm) • Example: HERE Local 226 and Vegas casinos agreed to contract language which called for card check recognition for future organizing drives • Ok…so what’s meant by “neutral” and “card check”?

12. Neutrality Agreements • Neutrality Agreements • Situation where an employer neither supports nor opposes the unions efforts to organize a workplace • Sometimes gained via “Bargaining to Organize” • Contract specifies that firm will be neutral in future organizing • Sometimes legislated • New hotel built with city money, city council declares management must be neutral • Sometimes the result of different institutional rules • Daimler-Benz was neutral when UAW organized plants in the South…why? German law gives unions seats on corporate boards and they demanded this

13. Voluntary Recognition and Card Check • Card Check • Neutral third party verifies that union has collected union card from more than half of workers • No NLRB election, just card collectiong • 70% of card check drives are successful…compared to 50% of elections • This is how unions form in parts of Canada • Union Density in Canada is above 30% • 4.Why do unions say card check is a good thing? Why do employers say card check is a bad thing?

14. Path 2: Voluntary Recognition • Card Check • Neutral third party verifies that union has collected union card from more than half of workers • Unions • “With secret-ballot elections, unionization efforts can drag on for months, often delayed by litigation. Unions also say that many corporations break the law during election campaigns by firing, intimidating and spying on union supporters” (Greenhouse 2007: 1) • Employers • “Business lobbyists say the Employee Free Choice Act is antidemocratic and would deprive workers of their right to a secret ballot. They say union organizers will bully workers into signing pro-union cards” (Greenhouse 2007: 2) • More on pros and cons in a moment…what does research find on impact?

15. Eaton and Kriesky 2009

16. Reversing the Tide…An uphill battle… .

17. Recent Calculations & Changes A Game of Numbers: • To stay even: labor must organize approximately 128,000 a year • To grow: unions must organize more than this…and they have not been able to do this • 1995: typical national union devoted 5% of budget to organizing new members • 1996: New AFL-CIO President John Sweeney challenged them to increase this to 30% • SEIU, HERE and Carpenters did this • Most others did not

18. New AFL-CIO leadership…Winning More

19. But Not Enough… • Not enough organizing or victories to keep up with growth in the economy • Union density still fell • 14.9% in 1995 • 13.5% in 2000 • 12.5% in 2004 • 12.1% in 2006

20. So what’s a labor movement to do? • You have been promoted from university student to: • A) President of the AFL-CIO • B) President of one of the unions that is organizing (SEIU, Carpenters, UNITE-HERE, UFCW) • Most unions don’t know how to change, or won’t change. The law does not seem to work for you anymore What, if anything, do you do to reverse the decline of organized labor?

21. So what’s a labor movement to do? • At present, there are two dominant trains of thought: • Focus should be on Internal Changes: Unions need to look in the mirror, change, and spend more money & resources on organizing the unorganized • Focus should be on External Changes: Unions need to focus on political action, in particular labor law reform to try and lift win rate • This is what the labor movement is currently split over…should focus be on organizing or politics?

22. External Solution: Labor Law Reform • President Clinton appoints Presidential Commission to investigate labor laws • Commission of the Future of Worker/Management Relations (1993-95)…for short the Dunlop Commission • Commission holds hearings across America and then recommends variety of changes to the law

23. Some of the Dunlop Commission’s Recommendations (4) Prompt elections • Providing for prompt elections after the NLRB determines that sufficient employees have expressed a desire to be represented by a union. Such elections should generally be held within two weeks. To accomplish this objective we propose that challenges to bargaining units and other legal disputes be resolved after the elections are held. • Improve Union Access to Workers • Beyond the reversal of the Supreme Court's decision in Lechmere so that employees may have access to union organizers in privately-owned but publicly-used spaces such as shopping malls, access questions are best left to the NLRB. The Commission urges the Board to strive to afford employees the most equal and democratic dialogue possible.

24. Dunlop Commission Findings • (5) Prompt Response to Ilegal Employer Behavior • Requiring by statute that the NLRB obtain prompt injunctions to remedy discriminatory actions against employees that occur during an organizing campaign or negotiations for a first contract. • (6) New System to Insure First Contract…more on this later • Assisting employers and newly certified unions in achieving first contracts through an upgraded dispute resolution system which provides for mediation and empowers a tripartite advisory board to use a variety of options to resolve disputes ranging from self-help (strike or lockout) to binding arbitration for relatively few disputes.

25. Dunlop Commission • What important political event occurred in 1994? • Hint:

26. Dunlop Commission, 1994 • What important political event occurred in 1994? • Hint: Newt Gingrich • Republican’s Congressional victories change balance of power in Washington • Contract for America • Labor law reform taken off of the table

27. Current Political Push for Labor Law Reform • Many Unions Are Aggressively Working for Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act • 3.Take a look at the power point slides on the Employee Free Choice Act. In your own words, briefly explain how this bill would help strengthen the labor movement. Be sure to comment on at least TWO parts of the bill.

28. Employee Free Choice Act

29. Employee Free Choice Act

30. Many Unions Are Aggressively Working for Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act • If you were congressmen, would you vote for the bill? Why or why not? Move to yes or no.

31. Current Political Push • Brought to a vote March 1, 2007, • Won in the House of Representatives Vote • Note the Pattern in the Republican Party • Procedurally stalled in the Senate • Unions worked hard on the 2008 elections with this bill in mind • Obama supported and said it would be a priority…but didn’t pursue it • Handful of Democrats would not support it in senate…nothing has happened yet.

32. UFCW 8.3% AFT 7.6% Teamsters 9.3% UAW 5.0% IBEW 4.9% AFSCME 9.8% CWA 4.8% UNITE HERE3.4% IAM 2.8% SEIU 10.6% USWA 2.7% 26%52 smallest unions Laborers 2.7% IUOE 2.1% Some Unions Conclude Politics is not enough…Internal Change is Key

33. 4th Union Quits A.F.L.-C.I.O. in a Dispute Over Organizing September 15, 2005 • Deepening the split in organized labor, Unite Here, a union that represents apparel, hotel, casino and restaurant workers, announced yesterday that it was quitting the A.F.L.-C.I.O., becoming the fourth union to do so this summer. • Bruce Raynor, president of Unite Here, said his union's board had voted unanimously to quit because the A.F.L.-C.I.O. had not done enough to spur union organizing to reverse the decline of the labor movement. • We believe that American workers are facing a historical crisis," Mr. Raynor said in a telephone news conference from St. Paul, where his union's board was meeting. "There are 28 million Americans that went to work this morning who made less than the poverty level." • This summer, three other major unions quit the labor federation: the Service Employees International Union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the United Food and Commercial Workers. The four departing unions represented about 4.5 million workers out of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s membership of 13 million.

34. In 2005, 6 Key Unions (and one minor union) Bolted from the AFL-CIO

35. Outline • 1. New Organizing Tactics • 2. Changing the Target • Hot Shop Organizing • 3. New Organizing Strategies • Industry • Industry with Trigger • Next Week Readings • 45 minute class

36. In 2005, 6 Key Unions (and one minor union) Bolted from the AFL-CIO

37. So What Was the Beef… • Bruce Raynor, president of Unite Here, said his union's board had voted unanimously to quit because the A.F.L.-C.I.O. had not done enough to spur union organizing to reverse the decline of the labor movement. • Different Organizing Models • Servicing Model • Clawson: Worst Case Scenario Union Organizing • Organizing Model • Clawson: Union Building

38. Different Union Models • Servicing Model or what Clawson Calls “Worst Case Scenario Union Organizing” • Traditional model of union representation that focuses on contract negotiation, contract administration and the provision of services to union members (Katz & Kochan, p. 465, 2004) • Organizing as secondary function of union…if even that • Modest resources directed at organizing • Members play limited role in organizing

39. Servicing Model • Worst Case Scenario Union Organizing • Get a union as quickly and cheaply as possible • Communication with workers • Handed leaflets and occasional meetings • Paid organizers make all the decisions • Professional Staff does things for workers instead of helping to develop power of workers

40. In contrast to Servicing Model is the Organizing Model • Organizing Model or what Clawson labels “Union Building” model • A model of union representation which focuses on a substantial share of the union’s activity and resources on organizing through actively involving union members in the organizing process and in the internal life of the union. (Katch and Kochan, p.464, 2004) • Organizing as primary: Substantial share of unions resources spent on organizing

41. Clawson Union Building • Organizer as teacher not leader • Empower, Teach, Assist • “The Union is You” …meaning what?

42. Clawson Union Building • Paid Organizer Creates Organizing Committee • Identify “Worker Leaders” and recruit to campaign • “Worker Leaders” become Organizing Committee Members & become backbone of drive • Organize their department…Maya vs. Sam • Recruit and Train Rank and File workers already in existing bargaining units to be organizers • Put them on staff… • Organize on “Lost time”…temporary leave

43. Union Building Approach • When organizers are drawn from the workplace, they have roots in community & familiarity with workplace • Facilitates Trust • Allows coalition building & longer term campaigns • Think of the Clergy we saw in the Smithfield/UFCW video

44. Testing the Models… • So two organizing models…both can and do work…but which one works better? • You are a sociologist interested in studying this matter…how might you test to see which strategy works best?

45. Kate Bronfenbrenner, Cornell University • “The Role of Union Strategies in NLRB Certification Elections.” • Industrial and Labor Relations Review January 1997 • Studied 261 union elections from 1986 and 1987 • Surveyed unions involved about tactics and other matters • Tested for correlation between tactics and outcome of election

46. Bronfenbrenner • Hypothesis 1: Organizing Campaigns with rank and file intensive strategies are more successful than those without such strategies • Yes. Unions win between 12% and 26% more when they use rank & file intensive strategies • Representative Committees (62% vs. 36%) • Rank and file doing house calls (52% vs. 40%) • Maya vs. Sam • Solidarity Days of Action (53% vs. 41%)

47. Kate Bronfenbrenner, The Role of Union Strategies in NLRB Certification Elections • “Unions are more likely to win certification elections when they run campaigns using a rank and file intensive organizing strategy, including a reliance on person to person contact; an emphasis on union democracy and representative participation…and an emphasis on dignity, justice and fairness rather than solely bread and butter issues.” (p.209) • Less than 33% of the campaigns used these tactics

48. Kate Bronfenbrenner, The Role of Union Strategies in NLRB Certification Elections • “Perhaps the most important finding in this study is that union tactic variables as a group explain a greater part of the variance in election outcome than any other elements of the certification election model. That is, not only do union tactics matter, but as a group they matter more than employer tactics, bargaining unit demographics, organizer background, or organizing climate (p. 205) • Translation?

49. Kate Bronfenbrenner, The Role of Union Strategies in NLRB Certification Elections • “Perhaps the most important finding in this study is that union tactic variables as a group explain a greater part of the variance in election outcomethan any other elements of the certification election model. That is, not ony do union tactics matter, but as a group they matter more than employer tactics, bargaining unit demographics, organizer background, or organizing climate (p. 205) • Translation: How unions organize matters a great deal… • Message to Union Leaders: “Change Your Tactics!”

50. Strategy and Tactics Matter • So research shows that the kind of tactics used matter. • What about the strategy? Which workplaces should unions be trying to organize? • Hot Shop Organizing???