Michigan Home Depot Workers Reject Union

[Judi Lynn]

Last updated: July 31. 2004 9:20PM

Michigan Home Depot Workers Reject Union

By JIM IRWIN
Associated Press Writer

Workers at a Home Depot in suburban Detroit rejected efforts to make the store the first in the home-improvement chain to unionize.The vote is the latest setback to the Food and Commercial Workers union's efforts to organize employees at big-box discount retailers.

About 170 employees cast secret ballots Friday and Saturday, with employees voting 115-42 against joining the UFCW, according to Home Depot spokesman Jerry Shields.

Jay Wright, who works in the Harper Woods store's plumbing department, said he joined the organizing drive because he wanted more affordable health care. Workers also sought more job security after a rash of firings, union organizer Mark Charrette said.

"This was just the first one that slipped under the wire," Wright said. "It's just one of those things that, by the time we counted the votes, a lot of people turned tail. They were afraid for their jobs."
(snip/...)

http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040731/APF/407310844&cachetime=5

[lebkuchen]

1. Is Home Depot like a lot of other US businesses, esp. fast food?

New hirees are put on probation for a year or two before being allowed medical coverage. As soon as that time has expired, the workers are laid off.

[InkAddict]

15. The other US businesses

must be the ones that gives new hires their medical/dental cards, then eliminates that position six weeks after NEW HIRE for "just arbitrary" reasons. Like what?--zip code, eye color, political party affiliation, lack of independent wealth after two year bench time. Maybe more like payola to recruiter or (fill in the blank)? I was always under the impression that it was expensive to hire, especially after MULTIPLE long-term Charles Manson interviews/tech interview/negotiations re salary/benes? What gives in AmeriKa?

[SoCalDem]

24. My son worked for Home Base for 89 days..

insurance kicked in at 90 days.. They "let go" him and 3 other guys who were all just under 90 days.. They hired new ones, and , again at 85 or so days..they were gone too..

I know this because his friend was one of the "next batch"..

These "kid jobs" are like that..they are "disposable employees"..like kleenex..use em up..toss them away.

[0007]

19. Home Depot is just a branch of Wall Mart

I hate 'em both.

[xchrom]

2. mystery to me

americans complain about the costs health care -- but won't organize to fight for it.
not unlike the number of people who vote against their economic self interest and cast ballots for repukes or don't vote at all.
in the eu it's just the opposite they'll organize and strike just to cross the street.

[MarianJack]

3. My Guess is...

...that the secret ballots weren't so secret after all and that there will soon be 42 openings in that home depot.

My late, great father in law had it right when he used to refer to home depot as "that mafia company".

I beleive that any company that tells new hires ad nauseum how well they treat their employees is really giving it to them up the ying yang and is trying to hide it. Unless, of course, people are so desperate about this "turning the corner" economy that the corporations don't have to put up a pretense anymore!

[InkAddict]

17. You're right - no pretense of lying...

The greater good would most certainly be served when this consumer family (I meant depersonalized demographically correct "unit") turns the corner. That's probably why it won't before November 2. Delivering Ohio to *selected--NOT!

get it right Amerikans, jobs and charity begin in Iraq. Colin said so! Powell's global soup kitchen meal begins w/a reading from the Qu-ran and ends with a D(depleted) U(uranium) sandwich right between the eyes. Might expensive charity (LOL) - Some of us will be paying with more important things than money and the world will learn that Auschwitz II is coming to a backyard near you.

http://costofwar.com

HOPE AND HELP ARE ON THE WAY!

[NewHampshireDem]

4. Sadly, most young people today don't understand the need for unions ...

they believe all the crap about the union dues eating up their paycheck, how the "company will take care" of them, how the union "only protects bad workers," and the other anti-union bullshit that gets thrown around. It's too bad really, because the average member of the Food and Commercial Workers' Union makes about 50% more than their non-union counterparts.

[Baltimoreboy]

5. They don't trust the company

They just don't seem to trust the unions either. So they would rather think of themselves as free agents.

[NewHampshireDem]

6. I see that a lot among the folks I work with ...

I used to be the membership chair for my NEA local and I can tell you the new teachers were always a hard sell for that reason. Their attitude was that the union only protected teachers from getting fired and they figured that if it came down to that they'd just go work someplace else.

Then they'd give me some bullshit about not being able to afford the dues ... which came to a *whopping* $450/year! :eyes:

What I tried to convince them of (and it often worked) was that the fact that they were making good money as a first year teacher was only because I, and others, had literally paid their dues and negotiated their contracts for them. I pointed out that they were making some $5000/year more than I had as a first year teacher (less than 10 years ago) because I had somehow been able to find the dues money on considerably less salary than they made.

Sorry ... didn't mean to get off topic here, but when I see workers refusing to organize--against their own best interest, no less--it really fires me up!

[TahitiNut]

7. It'd be interesting in this day of 'privatization' to provide ...

... an ROI (Return On Investment) analysis for union dues to show how much more people get in return for their union dues than they do for stock market or T-bill investments. That ROI could be two-stage: first stage only showing tangible returns and the second stage showing the monetarization of less tangible benefits like work rules. It could be in the form of a "Prospectus."

[kodi]

8. that is an outstanding idea. have you sent it to the afl-cio?

seriously, that is the type of thing that can delineate matters to potential union members.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Terrific idea. People could really benefit from this. n/t

[CANDO]

22. Dues are a deductible item for their taxes also.

I drive for a union freight company and in benefits alone we reap a $10,000 advantage over FedEx Freight drivers, who are non-union. Aside from that, our actual wages are somewhere around two to three dollars an hour above their's. Thank you Teamsters! The union freight companies HAVE to be the most efficiently run because we are not CHEAP LABOR. When management makes a mistake, they are paying more for their mistake than most non-union management.

[bleedingheart]

10. Free Agents quit Jobs to keep moving up...but not all those people

have the opportunities to do so. If you are a high school graduate with some vocational training working at Home Depot, there aren't a whole lot of jobs you are going to be able to "move up" too.

Thirty years of media/corporate propaganda has turned people against unions.

[demosincebirth]

12. Don't you think that if

the schools taught labor history, that students would be a little more inclined to join?

[Zidane]

14. Wrong

Fact of the matter is unions - through federal and state efforts by the republicans - have been relegated to useless status. Most americans are NOT in unions - and of the unions that do exist check out how many of them are actually effective. When we talk about getting the "union vote" I always think "What unions?".

Until congress repeals acts designed to weaken/kill unions joining them is pointless.

Don't blame this on young people. It's the old people in state/federal government who have worked tirelessly to kill unions for their corporate masters.

[NewHampshireDem]

21. Bass-akward logic there, Zidane

"Until congress repeals acts designed to weaken/kill unions joining them is pointless."

No, when people join unions, only then will unions have the strength to compel congress (and anti-union state legislatures) to make the changes we need.

I guess someone else needs to brush up on his "labor history."

[xchrom]

11. kick

[leesa]

13. Too bad for them. Well Home Depot will continue to stoke their egos

while repeatedly raping them.

I am encouraged by the number of Union bumperstickers and posted signs I am seeing in RW southern Cal.

[Occulus]

16. As a member

of the American Postal Workers Union, I can definitively state that the only true bargaining chip any union has is the threat of a strike. Take that away, as it was for my union, and you effectively nullify the power of the union in question.

Due to our inability to strike, postal managers can, for example, flagrantly violate federal law (FMLA and the Rehabilitation Act come to mind right off the bat), get a slap on the wrist for one individual violation- no, not even a fine; they get a stern talking to by an administrative law judge- turn right around, and violate the same law in the same way to someone else.

If we could sue for contract violation, and said violations number in the tens of thousands on the national, "step 3" level, we would (metaphorically speaking) OWN the postal service. Because we have to follow our broken grievance process, have very little access to courts to provide judgments and enforcement, and above all are forbidden to strike when nothing else works to provide adherence to grievance resolutions and court judgments, well, it really makes the very presence or absence of our union a purely academic question.

[Democat]

18. Remember, the threat of a union is very powerful on its own!

Just because the workers voted against joining a union does not mean that they don't benefit from the power of unions. Just the opposite is true, the fact that they can join a union puts pressure on the company to be more fair than they would otherwise. Unions are good for workers, even those that aren't members of one.

[fortyfeetunder]

20. It figures --Remember who the CEO of Home Depot is?

I can't remember his name offhand, but he was one of General Electric ex-CEO Jack Welch's executive proteges. He was one of the three considered to replace Welch upon retirement. Jack picked the youngest of the three (Immelt) and this guy went to Home Depot, McNerney the third, went to 3M

The point: General Electric has been a very strong anti-union company and this philosophy has spread to other companies thanks to Jack's proteges...

[stevebreeze]

23. The fact is against a determined employer it is all but impossible

to organize a union. When people are asked if they should be allowed to organize a bargaining unit to negotiate with their employer they say overwhelmingly yes (80+%). When you ask them if they would like to join a union (the word itself has been as demonized as liberal) a majority still say yes. To actually organize you face all but insurmountable obstacles. Firing threats of firings, mandatory anti-union propaganda on work time. Then if you are still successfully there are more tactics used to delay a contract. The amazing thing is with all this there are still unions in the US.

read "Confessions of a Union Buster"
Also all should read the new book "Framed" regarding how unions are universally covered in the so-called liberal media. ie. Unions demand companies offer"
:kick: