• Union
membership declined again in 2004, a trend evident since
Bureau of Labor Statistics monitoring which began in 1983. The percentage of union workers for 2004 was only 12.5%,
compared with 20.1% in 1983. These figures reflect both private
sector and government employees. In the private sector alone,
union membership has declined to a mere 7.9% of the workforce,
a figure about one-half what it was in 1983. AFL-CIO reports
of affiliated unions indicate the same trend. Even though
105,000 new members were added in 2004, the losses from closings
and permanent layoffs resulted in a net decrease of 167,775,
bringing total AFL-CIO membership below 12 million.
• In related news, the Executive Council of
the AFL-CIO completed a three-day meeting in early March
devoted to reversing the decline
in union membership and improving labor’s political influence. The Executive Council voted 14-8 to support President Sweeney’s
proposals to spend more on political and grass-roots mobilization,
and give rebates to unions that devote 30% of their budgets to
organizing. The “mobilization” funds will come from
earmarking half of the 61-cent-a-month tax per member that each
union pays the AFL-CIO. Teamster President Hoffa has called for
rebating 50% of the per capita tax to unions that commit either
10% of their budget or $2 million to organizing in key industries.
The Hoffa proposal was supported by unions representing about
40% of AFL-CIO membership. Sweeney’s proposal would increase
the current organizing fund to $15 million, while the Hoffa proposal
would rebate $35 million back to member unions for organizing,
according to Sweeney’s opponents. The fight will continue
on the floor of the AFL-CIO convention this summer, where Sweeney
is seeking re-election.
• The NLRB General Counsel has issued a complaint
against the Steelworkers Union and Heartland Industrial Partners,
an investment firm,
charging that their “card check” and “neutrality” agreements
violate the secondary boycott provisions of Section 8(e) of the
National Labor Relations Act. The agreement to require any acquired
company that Heartland controlled to agree to be bound by such
neutrality and card check agreements was a form of restrictive “hot
cargo” agreement that the Act condemns. Section 8(e) prohibits
unions and employers from having agreements where “the
employer agrees to cease or refrain from handling, using, selling,
transporting or otherwise dealing in any of the products of any
other employer, or to cease doing business with any person.” Here,
the agreement restricts Heartland’s ability to invest in
other entities.
• A vote to merge the United Steelworkers of America
and PACE (Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers)
would create
the nation’s largest industrial union. The Steelworkers
have 575,000 members and PACE 275,000. The merger, which is scheduled
for vote in mid-April and is almost certain to pass, will affect
the metals, paper and forestry products, tire and rubber, mining,
glass, chemical, and energy industries. The Steelworkers and
PACE claim that “additional density” will increase
organizing opportunities, and further expand their presence in
transportation, utilities, equipment and machinery, and the service
sector.
• An American Bar Association conference recently
addressed the growing number of reversals of NLRB decisions by
Bush appointees. Democrat Member Liebman finds disturbing the reversals of Clinton-era
decisions, which have resulted in narrowing the scope of employees
covered by the Act, narrowing coverage of employee protections,
and unwillingness to apply the statute “dynamically to
changing conditions.” Labor organizations are especially
concerned over the NLRB’s plan to review cases involving
an employer’s recognition of a union based on authorization
cards, and the present rules that the union must have a “reasonable
period” to bargain in such cases before a secret ballot
election can be held. Republican Member Schaumber pointed out
that since Republican appointees became a majority on the Board,
it has so far reversed precedent in eight or nine cases – compared
with 41 reversals of precedent made during the Clinton administration.
• An NLRB ruling that an employer violated federal labor
law by failing to provide information about the company’s
use of outside contractors was recently upheld by the Fourth Circuit
Court of Appeals. Allegheny Power argued to the Court that it
had provided the local union with all the information that it
had about outside contractors; however, the Court found that
the company had an affirmative obligation to make reasonable
efforts to obtain more complete information from its contractors
needed by the union to police the collective bargaining agreement.
A dissenting judge found that the company had acted in good faith,
that the union had failed to demonstrate a need for additional
information, and that the Board had failed to address the company’s
valid defenses. It bears repeating that the failure to furnish
information in a bargaining context or in a litigation context
is very difficult to justify.
