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• Recent surveys separately commissioned by the AFL-CIO and
by the Employment Law Alliance, a group of
law firms that counsel management clients, find
that a majority of non-union
workers favor unions in their
workplaces and support more union organizing. The
AFL-CIO asserts that 50% presently say they would vote for a union,
compared with 42%
last year. Those who would vote against a union
dropped from 51% to 43%. The Employment Law Alliance
poll was not directed to
non-union workers but
rather to a randomly selected group of 1,000
Americans, who were asked whom they trust to
help boost the economy and repair the image of
corporate America. Fifty-nine percent of the
respondents say that they support union organizing in more
companies to assure that workers are better
protected, and 75% say the government needs
to be more aggressive in its oversight of businesses
and that new laws are
needed to prevent corporate
abuses.
• In the continuing controversy regarding union
solicitation of employees of retail stores,
the 6th Circuit has recently ruled that Albertson's did not discriminate when
it barred representatives
of the United Food and Commercial Workers ("UFCW") from entering
the interior and immediate exterior of the
stores in line with its no-solicitation policy. Evidence
that Albertson's allowed solicitation by the Salvation
Army, various youth and school groups, Veterans
of Foreign Wars, and Disabled American Veterans
did not defeat its ban on union solicitation
when the company did not allow solicitation
by any political groups, charitable groups
unfamiliar to the community, or non-charities. A three-member
panel of the NLRB had ruled that the company
discriminated against unions because it regularly
allowed non-union organizations to solicit on its
premises, but the 6th Circuit disagreed with
the Board's characterization of "discrimination."
• The 3d Circuit has approved an NLRB decision
setting standards for videotaping employees
during a union election campaign for the purpose of appearance in an anti-union
video. Allegheny Ludlum
was found to have attempted what amounted
to an illegal poll of its employees' views
regarding the Steelworkers Union. A number
of employees had requested
not to be filmed and some had left the area
when videotaping was in progress. All employees were required to watch the
completed video during work
hours in the course of the campaign. The
Court approved five broad and restrictive rules
announced by the NLRB in holding that
the Allegheny
Ludlum election would be set aside. Under
the NLRB standard, any "coercive
conduct" is prohibited. Employees must consent to participation,
and "the solicitation is to be made through a general announcement
disclosing the purpose of the filming along
with assurances that participation will not
be rewarded and nonparticipation will
not be punished."
• The NLRB finds it was not unlawful for a supervisor
for a department store chain to state during
an organizing campaign that the store was not making a profit and might have
to close if it had to
pay higher wages. Reflecting a more conservative
NLRB approach by its Republican majority, the statement was found not to be an
unfair labor
practice but rather a "lawful prediction of potential consequences
of unionization."
• Organizing efforts by AFL-CIO unions in health
care, retail, and manufacturing were reviewed
at the August meeting of the AFL-CIO Executive Council. In
health care, Andrew
Stern, President
of the Service Employees International Union,
asserted that unions could not win by organizing one hospital at a time, but
should go after a group
of hospitals in a metropolitan area or after
a national chain in a particular market. In retailing,
Doug Dority, President
of the UFCW, sought the
assistance of other unions in carrying the "union message" to
Wal-Mart stores. The UFCW is trying to organize
employees of Wal-Mart, characterized as the
largest retailer, employer and corporation
in the United States. In manufacturing,
the United Auto Workers reviewed its organizing
drive at Johnson Controls,
which grew out of a pledge of neutrality
and card check recognition following a brief
strike disrupting customer
plants that depended upon just-in-time deliveries.
AFL-CIO Organizing Director Mark Splain calls
it the "most significant organizing victory
in 2002." The drive to represent all 8,000 Johnson Controls
employees continues. Eight other
sectors targeted for organizing are (1) transportation
(including airlines and maritime trades);
(2) communications; (3) utilities; (4) finance;
(5) construction; (6) government and postal services; (7) services
and entertainment;
and (8) investment and real estate.
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