Unions to Force Employers to Negotiate When Less Than Majority of Employees Want a Union
Posted on September 18, 2007 at 11:56 am by WTH
This one is a head spinner, for sure. Seven labor unions have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to create a mandate that business owners should be FORCED to negotiate with a union even if less than a majority of their employees want a union or already belong to one. If this change is implemented, no longer will an employer be able to stand on democratic principles and say that a union has no place in their business if only a small portion of their workforce wants union meddling.
Worse, a business might be stuck negotiating with any number of different unions if their workforce has some few members choosing different ones to belong to because the negotiations will be mandated no matter how many employees belong.
Seven Unions Petition NLRB to Mandate Minority Bargaining
A minority by definition is less than 50 percent of something. But that doesn’t mean it can’t act like a majority. Certain organized labor officials, at least, take this view. On August 14, the United Steelworkers of America, the United Auto Workers and five other, unnamed unions petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to require private-sector employers to negotiate with union members in cases where the union in question has the support of less than half of all affected employees. The move appears to be an eleventh-hour attempt by Labor to shore up its declining ranks, especially in the context of “card-check” legislation, formally known as the Employee Free Choice Act, being stalled in the Senate. Union officials argue that minority, or “members-only,” bargaining is permitted under law, citing substantial legal research. The larger issue, however, is whom a favorable NLRB ruling would benefit aside from unions.
This is simply mind blowing.
Once upon a time, unions used to claim that the majority of America’s workers wanted to be represented by a union and that if business didn’t listen to this majority, why, democracy suffered. Now the unions are throwing away all pretense to “democracy” and going for coercion and government oppression, instead.
This complaint should be put in the context of declining union membership. In 2006, reported the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 12 percent of all employees in this country belonged to a union; within the private sector the figure was a mere 7.4 percent. Fifty years ago, private-sector union membership as a share of all nonfarm employees was more than four times that. Organized labor’s campaign to force employer recognition of a union through card checks (whose signatures often are obtained through coercion) appears to have failed for the time being. Membership means more dues collections and political clout. Employer recognition of minority bargaining potentially could be a welcome counterweight to monopoly bargaining clauses in NLRA. But what the unions clearly want is forced recognition of such bargaining. It’s hard to square that goal away with more worker freedom.
Let’s hope this fails, but don’t expect this push by the unions to go away soon. they have spent a whole lot of time and money developing this convoluted idea and feel they have “the law” on their side. With lawyers doing their best to warp the flavor of law to suit their needs, these guys won’t rest and won’t take no for an answer.
