Today I spoke to a technician who works for a major corporation. It turns out the corporation, who does not like unions, is pressuring its employees not to sign any cards that will allow them to unionize.
Unions are necessary to create and retain what’s left of the middle-class
Corporations continue to tell their employees not to signup to unionize. They say to them that unions will hurt them. Really?
The technician pointed out that the company changes its seniority policy at will. Moreover, they cheat their employees. They send them on low balled contracted jobs while not giving them credit for the jobs at the going rate where their bonuses are concerned.
I explained to the technician about the card check bill in Congress.
Card check (also called majority sign-up) is a method for employees to organize into a labor union in which a majority of employees in a bargaining unit sign authorization forms, or “cards”, stating they wish to be represented by the union. Since the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) became law in 1935, card check has been an alternative to the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) election process. Card check and election are both overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. The difference is that with card sign-up, employees sign authorization cards stating they want a union, the cards are submitted to the NLRB and if more than 50% of the employees submitted cards, the NLRB requires the employer to recognize the union. The NLRA election process is an additional step with the NLRB conducting a secret ballot election after authorization cards are submitted. In both cases the employer never sees the authorization cards or any information that would disclose how individual employees voted.
Most importantly I told the technician he must encourage his fellow technicians to sign the card. Corporations have their own unions (e.g., Chamber of Commerce, among many). Moreover, the fact that corporations are experiencing record profits and those that perform the work are not partaking of the spoils demand unions to ensure the employee pilfer ends.
I covered this in my Politics Done Right show recently.