Labor Board May Rule on Union Tactic (cards out because they work)

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-labor13sep13.story
Labor Board May Rule on Union Tactic
Use of 'card check recognition' has been a boon to organizing workers. Critics say the process is open to abuse.
By Nancy Cleeland
Times Staff Writer

September 13, 2004

Organized labor's hopes of rebuilding itself as an economic force may ride on changes being contemplated by a federal board that oversees union elections.

The five-member National Labor Relations Board, dominated by Bush administration appointees, has indicated that it may rule on two cases in ways that would hamper union organizing efforts. Labor leaders hope the board will hold off until after the November presidential election, when one seat on the board will become vacant. It is unclear when the board will issue its decision.

"The right to organize totally depends on who wins this election," said Stewart Acuff, organizing director for the AFL-CIO. He said unions were "breaking our backs to make sure" that Democrat John F. Kerry "is in the White House next year."

What's at issue is "card check recognition," used in the Justice for Janitors campaign in Los Angeles and to unionize tens of thousands of communication workers, hotel workers, people who make auto parts and others around the country.

In the card check process, an employer agrees to recognize a union if a majority of employees sign pledge cards; they don't cast ballots, as in a federally supervised vote. Often, the agreement comes with a promise by the employer to remain neutral throughout the recognition campaign. Under those conditions, unions rarely lose.

Card check recognition bypasses the traditional NLRB election process, with its highly litigated system of complaints and appeals. Under that process, about half the elections are won by unions, but many campaigns are abandoned before they ever make it to a vote.

Union leaders and labor experts claim that the NLRB elections are routinely manipulated by employers. Workers are often threatened or fired for supporting a union even though such actions by employers are illegal, according to extensive reviews of NLRB cases by Cornell University labor researcher Kate Bronfenbrenner. The penalties for such behavior are slight, the review found, and can be years in coming.<snip>